S/O renovations if planning to move

[jgenie]

I really like this strategy! I think I'm going to suggest it for our next house.

It has worked surprisingly well for us. When we bought our current house we remodeled the two main floor bathrooms but only painted the upstairs bathrooms. We had a leak in one of our upstairs bathrooms and our contractor is recommending we go ahead and remodel it rather than patch so we’ll tackle that this summer. We’re going to do both bathrooms to get ahead of any problems with the other bathroom since they’re the same age. DH is dying to redo our functional but dated kitchen. Our compromise is he can remodel when the mortgage is paid off. We put most of his bonuses toward the mortgage to get us there sooner.


Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains

[smiles33]

15 years is a LONG time, unlike 18 months. While I wouldn't go for the dream kitchen since you know you're moving out (and many choices/upgrades won't necessarily pay a return 15 years later), I do think a compromise is in order. DH and lived at our last house for more than 10 years and did minimal changes to save money. For instance, we lived with this horrible magenta paint (which was below a chair rail throughout the first floor!) that was specked with teal, yellow, and green in a "sponge paint" overlay. It truly was obnoxious and garish, but we thought, "Hey, we're about to have kids, let's not paint it until they're older and past their drawing on walls phase." Of course, our DDs never drew on the walls so we finally painted it 8 years later!

We thought it made more sense to pay down the mortgage than to invest $50K or more into the house. But once we fixed it up in the 3 months before we sold it, we were kicking ourselves as the changes made the house SO MUCH NICER. We ripped out the wall-to-wall carpeting for laminate hardwood flooring (which looked nice and wasn't as expensive as hardwoods) and replaced the chipped cream tile counter (with brown grout!) with beautiful off-white granite counters. I really wish we had done that in the first 5 years we moved in and not waited so long. We never got to enjoy them as we did the renovations after we had already moved out to our new house.

[niccig]

That’s a long time to live there! We did major renovation after being in the house 12 years knowing we would have at least 10-15 years more there. We reconfigured the layout to give us larger kitchen and a master suite. It was worth every single penny. We just redid the backyard and I wish we had done that years ago as we use the space all the time now.

We didn’t go overboard with finishes etc, kept things more moderate. We enjoy the house and yard so much more and it’s brought it up to similar homes in neighborhood, so we didn’t overdo it. Yes the finishes will be outdated when we sell and may need to freshen up, but the funky layout is fixed.


Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains

[123LuckyMom]

15 years might as well be a forever home to my mind. I would make this home comfortable and attractive so you can enjoy it. It’s such a long time that you’ll probably have to refresh things again when you go to sell. A lot can happen in 15 years, though. Make yourselves comfortable now.


Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains

[trcy]

Thanks everyone! It's not that I don't want to do anything, I just want to keep any renos low key. The bathrooms and kitchen needs updating. He's talking about moving walls. I want to widen the driveway, he wants to replace the whole thing with brick pavers and add a brick paver front porch. But he's always been the spender, where as I am the saver.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Baby Bargains mobile app

[jgenie]

Thanks everyone! It's not that I don't want to do anything, I just want to keep any renos low key. The bathrooms and kitchen needs updating. He's talking about moving walls. I want to widen the driveway, he wants to replace the whole thing with brick pavers and add a brick paver front porch. But he's always been the spender, where as I am the saver.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Baby Bargains mobile app

He sounds just like my DH!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains

[gymnbomb]

Thanks everyone! It's not that I don't want to do anything, I just want to keep any renos low key. The bathrooms and kitchen needs updating. He's talking about moving walls. I want to widen the driveway, he wants to replace the whole thing with brick pavers and add a brick paver front porch. But he's always been the spender, where as I am the saver.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Baby Bargains mobile app

It sounds like you just have some philosophical differences about how to spend money and what you want your home to look like. I think that is very common, but not necessarily related to how long you plan to be living in the house.

[niccig]

If moving walls makes the layout better, it may be worth it. Our kitchen was tiny. Updating cabinets and counters alone wouldn’t fix the tiny space. The dining room, living room and family room were choppy spaces. Taking out walls and moving others made such a huge difference. We now have open plan kitchen, dining, living room, a master suite and a good sized laundry room, all without adding on square footage.

I’d get quotes on the driveway. Replacing our broken concrete drive with concrete was more expensive than using pavers. I was surprised by that. My neighbor owns a cement business and it was cheaper for him to put in pavers rather than use his own crew and put in concrete.

I’d be open to DH’s ideas and get quotes so you’ve got an understanding of costs involved.


Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains

[NCGrandma]

15 years might as well be a forever home to my mind. I would make this home comfortable and attractive so you can enjoy it. It’s such a long time that you’ll probably have to refresh things again when you go to sell. A lot can happen in 15 years, though. Make yourselves comfortable now.


Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains

I'm somewhat surprised by a number of you who seem to stay in the same house for many years. I have no objection to the idea of a forever home, but in my experience and most of my extended family, unanticipated stuff happens and moving (either in the same area or to a new city or state) offers the best options for the family.

But maybe it’s just who has responded to this house thread. I know there are BBBers who have dealt with divorce, single parenthood, kids with special educational or medical needs, care of elderly family members, etc etc. (And now I live in a CCRC, which may be the ultimate forever home! Oh well!)


Sent from my iPad using Baby Bargains

[SnuggleBuggles]

I'm somewhat surprised by a number of you who seem to stay in the same house for many years. I have no objection to the idea of a forever home, but in my experience and most of my extended family, unanticipated stuff happens and moving (either in the same area or to a new city or state) offers the best options for the family.

But maybe it’s just who has responded to this house thread. I know there are BBBers who have dealt with divorce, single parenthood, kids with special educational or medical needs, care of elderly family members, etc etc. (And now I live in a CCRC, which may be the ultimate forever home! Oh well!)


Sent from my iPad using Baby Bargains

We decided a few years back not to upgrade houses. This house should last us through a variety of scenarios over time. Certainly no predictions but we aren’t people who ever threw around terms like “dream home” or “forever home”. Our house is fine. It’s easier to stay than sell and move.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk