Of course they built the wall on top of the carpet. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get the carpet under there later?
Back when I worked with a general contractor I actually saw that, too.
I think the issue is that its hard to justify the expense if its purely personal. I would love a new kitchen, but I can’t afford one. I could refinance and pull 40k or whatever out of equity to do that, if I think of it was “increasing the home value”. You can think of it as practically more fiscally responsible. I havent done it, because I am cheap, but i can see the logic.
I think this sounds cool!
I see your point. On the other hand, if you’re planning to live the rest of your life in a particular house you might, in fact, do it just for yourself.
Then there are people like me - I tend to not replace things unless they actually break and can’t be repaired. Hence my 20 year old car, 23 year old truck, my 80 year old desk, my 120 year old sewing machine… If I had a kitchen where a counter was damaged I’d get it fixed/replaced but as long as it was still functional I’d probably just leave it. Likewise any appliance (although upgrading a refrigerator might make some sense depending on age/energy use).
I’m probably not typical, though. In fact, when I’ve shopped for real estate I’m often frustrated because I can’t find the small, compact, no-frills residence I would like. @DorkVader has a home I’d probably be quite happy with (1000 sq. ft would make me quite happy) except for, as noted, the cracked foundation, leaking water main, and problem doors. Those are structural flaws I would NOT be happy with at all. But the size is right. Were it not for those flaws I wouldn’t give a damn about his prior decorating (or lack of it). I’d slap paint on the walls to suit myself.
Unlike many I don’t want a big house because I’d have to clean the damn thing and mow the lawn and all that other tedious stuff. I do want sufficient room for all my stuff, but right now that would be 1000-1200 sq. ft (and I’m not opposed to renting an off-site storage unit for seasonal stuff - I have one now and I love being able to park things there for 3-6 months at a time so seasonal stuff isn’t cluttering my living area except when I actually want it present). If I didn’t have so many damn hobbies I could probably live happily in 800 sq ft. But good luck buying a place that small that isn’t a shoebox in a crappy high rise ('cause I can’t afford a luxury high rise).
Indeed, I said in OP this is what you should do if you have the money. Sometimes you can even square the circle and create a house that’s exactly what you want and will outperform the market in terms of appeal when you go to sell it.
That is… an atrocity.
My negativity is about this kind of tradeoff, which is hard to avoid with the way that houses have evolved over the past 50 years.
I think another way to look at it is this: in general, in the market, we’ve seen an explosion in variety and a huge increase in quality in smaller-ticket items, while larger-ticket items have become more boring and generic.
Compare what’s in a supermarket, 1980 vs. today. It’s night and day. You can really “customize your lifestyle” with what’s in a Whole Foods; plus there are a large number of ethnic markets now even in smaller cities.
But big-ticket items like cars and houses have evolved very little in terms of style since the 1990s. Car makers and home builders are incentivized to make what will appeal to a lot of people with minimal fuss. And that trend in homes has been a thing arguably since the 1920s, when neighborhoods of cookie-cutter homes started going up. Eventually that trend won out, and now we have the standard “nice home” of 1990 to the present. If this kind of house doesn’t appeal to you–and it doesn’t to me–you are left with a choice between the maintenance issues of the older, more creative housing stock or the boring “nice home” of today, as you indicated in your post.
That’s true in the general case – that is, it’s a mistake to assume that every dollar you put into improvements will be recouped, much less necessarily make a profit. But it can be very worthwhile if you know what you’re doing.
A couple I know owned one of those McMansion things, and, purely for their own purposes, knocked down the wall that separated the kitchen from the family room, turning it into an open kitchen-family space. The effect was remarkable. It looked natural and inviting and absolutely like the house had been designed that way, making one wonder what the original designers had been thinking. I’m sure that helped sell the house later.
Furthermore, when the house was about to go up for sale, the wife – with a woman’s intuition about these things – put a fair amount of money into modernizing the kitchen and the bathrooms, certain that it would be a profitable investment. I thought it was doubtful. Whether she was right or not is anyone’s guess, but the fact is that the house sold quickly for a surprisingly high price, fully meeting her expectations.
I like my house. It’s warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It has windows that look out onto attractive scenes. It has enough bedrooms, excessive bathrooms, a comfortable eat-in kitchen with enough counter space to cook, and enough shelves to store stuff. It has a dining room where I can cram in 14 at a large table for a big family meal, or serve 6-12 comfortably. The same table is great craft space the rest of the time. It has a comfortable living room. It has storage in the basement and the attic. It has a nice yard where I can play with plants, or lie on a hammock.
When I bought the house I was worried about aging here, because the place is a mass of staircases. two steps between the living room and the kitchen, three between the front door and most of the bedrooms, a narrow flight of stairs up to the master suite, and another narrow flight of stairs to the basement. And the basement (which attaches to the garage) isn’t all on one level. The laundry is lower than the rec room which is lower that the basement bathroom.
And I have bad knees.
But. you know what, during the pandemic I have been grateful for this house. There were days when most of the exercise I got was climbing up and down stairs. Up a flight to use the master bathroom, down a flight to get someone out of the pandemic freezer I bought, up to change my shirt, down to fetch some veggies…
Yeah, I expect we’ll have to move at some point. But I’ve lived here more than 20 years now, and enjoyed it. It’s a fine house. Not a perfect house, not a house for everyone. But I have no regrets.
Yes, there is a kind of “sweet spot” for making improvements that will make you back money.
It’s also why house flippers have a certain price point and do the same things in all the houses. I was looking at houses at a certain city in Indiana recently, and it looked as though the same people had flipped half the houses I saw, with the same gray paint on all the walls.
While this is true to a large extent, one of the mitigating factors is that modern tastes have improved over the decades and builders are catering to better aesthetics. For instance, as I mentioned, hardwood and tile floors instead of cheap carpet and linoleum. The house also has casement windows which I like, a walk-in closet and ensuite bathroom, and electrical outlets absolutely everywhere, with something like 8 of the special 20-amp type along the kitchen countertops.
I appreciate all this stuff, along with a perfectly clean and dry basement. Indeed, much of the character of the older place was due to a combination of creative renovations that both I and the previous owner had done, and the character of the neighbourhood itself. If I was inclined to spend the money, I could do similar things to this place, but alas, there’s nothing I can do about the newness of the neighbourhood, like the lack of mature trees. On my old street, the treetops would sometimes almost meet at the center of the street, creating a sort of canopy, and it was especially lovely in the spring and fall.
Before we found our house, we were considering buying bare land and using a local semi-custom design/build company which specializes in eco-friendly homes. This one. There are others. If they’re any good, they will have price points in keeping with the general market.
That was before we realized that in New England, all the nicest places to build a house were snapped up in the 18th century.
The advantages are large – new home, sustainable building practices and materials, the size you actually need, not a generic design from big developer.
You are right. It’s also a lot better in apartments too, with hardwood floors in main living areas, in-unit laundry, etc.
But… I find in the case of houses both exterior design and layout to be lacking in terms of both taste and creativity. I.e., finish has gotten a lot better, but design has settled into unappealing generic-tude.
I mean, they are still building houses in my mom’s neighborhood, and we are seeing one go up across the creek behind hers, and it’s a simply atrocious McMansion that is costing some taste-free soul millions of dollars…
I guess I’m lucky the previous homeowner was lazy. Our cheap ugly-ass carpets are barely secured to the floor, so they’ll be easy to rip up. In fact, most of the molding around the floor is not even secured. Like they didn’t want to commit to the floor molding in case they wanted to change it later.
And if what you want is what other people want
The issue is telling people “upgrade based on what you want, not in hopes of making back your money”. But borrowing a ton of money just to improve your QoL a little is very different than investing it.
Yeah. My house is, realistically, a tear down. That’s what has happened to almost every other house in the neighborhood that’s changed hands. And some of them were very nice houses.
Any money i put into upgrades is spending for my enjoyment, and that of my family and guests.
We recently tore up the slab under our kitchen to re-route some plumbing. Under about 4 inches of concrete was a linoleum floor on another slab. They just poured a new one last time they re-did the kitchen (about 1978 we figure).
I have no idea why people choose to cover up a beautiful natural linoleum floor with ugly wall to wall concrete.
Did the people come with the freezer or were you running a temporary storage facility? 