Then get rid of the ugly tub. I’m not talking about a bathtub or updating because a house is ancient. I’m not saying people should live with things they don’t like. I’m talking about pretentious people on the HGTV shows who want to gut bathrooms, kitchens, whole houses because they aren’t gasp! the very latest trend. OMG, there isn’t a pot filler??? I love HGTV, but it only perpetuates that mindset and makes it seem that people are inferior for not having the very latest trend.
Speaking of renovation shows; am I the only one that would watch them more than every if they would not make them reality shows? I don’t give a shit about the drama of picking a house, doing a free makeover, or any of that stuff. Just pick a house that needs some renovation work done; and show the renovation while trying to explain what you did. Something like ask this old house. I could watch Tom Silva all day.
The worst show is Love It or List It, for the (scripted) bickering between the hosts, and the arguing between the family members. I far prefer the straight renovation shows.
My realtor freind says one of the WORST things he hates hearing a new person getting ready to sell their home is “we just put in all new carpeting”.
Here in the Kansas City area it’s all about hardwood floors. Nobody wants carpet. For me, I have reluctantly agreed to this but only because of pets and kids.
Granite countertops: Again, everyone wants them. We had ours installed a couple of years ago by a discount outfit using a common pattern that wasnt very expensive.
Kitchens: Ever watch new homebuyers walk into a house? What is the first place the woman checks out? Yep, the kitchen. And it better be fully updated and new or she walks out. Old but functional appliances. No way.
Now as a repairman myself the first thing I check out is the hvac systems, plumbing, electrical panel, basement (for flooding), sump pump, and roof.
Ikea anyone?
Does anyone else have Ikea in their area?
I’m seeing alot of people in our area do complete kitchen and bath makeovers using Ikea cabinets and appliances. I wonder how well they will hold up after say 10 years but hey, by then the new homeowner will want all new anyway.
Frankly, I avoided going upstairs there as much as possible because of those stairs. They were practically vertical :eek:
My father was in real estate when I was growing up. He always the said the rule of thumb for renovations – especially if you’re planning to sell – is to pay attention to the “bones” and never mind the cosmetic because whoever buys the property will want to put their own stamp on it. Better to pour one’s money into plumbing, roofing, HVAC…you know, the stuff that isn’t glamorous and therefore not HGTV-worthy 
I would say that was probably true when you were growing up, but I’m not sure it is anymore. First, you have the aforementioned HGTV factor regarding hardwood, granite, white cabinets, etc. Second, fewer and fewer people know anything about plumbing, roofing, HVAC and other structural and mechanical components.
This doesn’t relate much to renovations, but a factor that is pretty much impossible to “correct” is ceiling height. Most homes have been built with 9’ ceilings for the past 15 years or so, and 10’ ceilings are not uncommon in homes built within the past couple of years. Frankly, I just don’t see the need for the extra drywall, lumber and paint, nor the extra cost to heat and cool 13 to 25 percent more cubic volume than the long-running standard 8’ ceiling.
It must have been real fun having to carry heavy stuff up and down those stairs.
Wait a minute - you’re the OP, bitching about people putting in granite countertops just to be trendy, and YOU DO THE SAME THING, but when YOU do it, it’s fine because it was a common pattern of granite? Your manufactured-outrage threads are really getting old.
My MIL told me that they had to hire a block and tackle to bring furniture in through the windows in the addition. Then my FIL had those windows replaced a few years later. T
When my MIL sold the house nobody wanted any of the bedroom sets so the junker she hired chopped everything up. The replacement windows are too narrow for a block and tackle. I suspect the first thing the buyers did was build the wider staircase.
I have granite-look laminate countertops. good enough for me.
Is “too” really necessary to modify “obsessed”?
Is there a difference between “obsessed” and “too obsessed” ?
Having just gone through a kitchen renovation, I know too well why and how people decide to do such things. For us, it was born out of a real need: the fridge in our kitchen was tiny, and I cook a lot. It was the original fridge that came with the house, making it 20+ years old, as was everything else in the kitchen except a dishwasher & microwave/oven hood combo we’d replaced about 7 years ago.
So we wanted a new, bigger fridge. Guess what? The space in the cabinets was juuuuust big enough for THAT fridge. Modern fridges had gotten bigger in general, and even if I just wanted a NEW fridge, I was relegated to small office or apartment-sized fridges as those were the only ones I found that would fit in the space. Even if I’d been good with that, they didn’t look right in the kitchen, nor were they appropriate for a house this size. So then it’s like… ok, the cabinets are 20+ years old, maybe we ante up for new cabinets. And while we’re at it, new countertops. Oh, and if we’re going to get new cabinets, let’s redo the layout and expand the kitchen, since I do like to cook and spend a lot of time in there. That means new floors.
The stove, too, was 20+ years old and also falling apart. And we wanted a real hood - one that vented outside, so I could do high-temp fries without stinking the entire house up. So ok, let’s do that while we’re at it.
Suddenly, a “new fridge” had turned into an entire kitchen remodel. We decided to think about it a while, and so we did - for several more years. Meantime, the fridge and the stove both kept falling apart, the Formica countertops started splitting, and in general, the whole kitchen started to show its age.
So then comes the picking-out-of-everything. Personally, I like Formica. That said, I also wanted high-end appliances, as (like I said) I cook a lot. So you get into a quandary; if you get that semi-professional stove, you’re stepping into high-end kitchen, and to keep the “look” and also (hopefully) keep the value of the house up, you at least need to consider going high-end with all the things.
So the tl:dr of this is that, at least for us, to do the simple bits of a renovation that we needed turned out to be a much larger job. Between replacing things that needed replacing because they were old & worn and getting the couple of upgrades we wanted, it was nigh-on impossible to do without tearing the whole kitchen apart. And if you’re going to tear it apart… you might as well upgrade all the things. In for a penny, in for a pound.
It took 2 months (and it’s still not 100% complete) and a huge amount of money. Now that we have it… we love it. But boy oh boy, even if you are NOT obsessed with renovations (we weren’t) and want to do just the basics, it’s often not possible.
I blame HGTV.