When are you comfortable spending money on home improvements?

[Anonymous]

Rationally, I think we can finally move forward with home projects but, emotionally, I can't wrap my head around spending the money. For context, I grew up poor. I recently sold my inherited childhood home and nothing was ever improved. Repaired, yes, but i don't think the house was ever even really painted. I've owned homes previously but typically moved within 5 years.

We're in our "forever" home and there are some projects we want to do (think me hardwood floors, bathroom remodeling, hardscaping) but the expected costs have paralyzed me.

I could use the proceeds from the home sale but paying in cash seems like so much of a hit to savings. A cashout finance seems like a huge undertaking (and I don't want to reset my mortgage). I think a HELOC is the right move but then I think about the extra monthly payment that I'm not crazy about.

We're fine monetarily and my financial advisor even says it's okay to spend a little, but damn it's hard envisioning this output of money.

Anyone else struggle with this? How do I move forward?

[Anonymous]

Diy

[Anonymous]

Yeah, we are struggling too. We are about to start 150-200k reno work and knowing we will never be able to recoup that money, I am questioning myself but i know it must be done.

[Anonymous]

We're serial renovators. I consider it money well spent, but I'm a homebody that loves having nice surroundings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Diy

Not for this type of stuff.

[Anonymous]

We did a cash out/refi when rates dropped. Money was procured specifically for renovations, so it was easier to spend it.

In your case, I have to believe the rate you are getting on savings is going to be less than a heloc. You have the cash, pay cash (unless you are behind on retirement/college/etc)

[Anonymous]

I got conformable when I started using YNAB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Diy

Not for this type of stuff.

Yes, we did it.

[Anonymous]

If you pay from savings, how many months of an emergency fund will you have? I would save until I had enough for a comfortable emergency fund and enough to pay cash for the renovation. You can do one project at a time if it's hardwood floors, bathroom renovations, and hardscaping.

[Anonymous]

One thing at a time.
Spending on hard wood floors will be worth it for most homes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing at a time.
Spending on hard wood floors will be worth it for most homes.

I used pre-stained Bruce hardwood floors. It was easy to have HD/Lowes remove (and haul away) the existing carpet and install the selected hardwood. Cost was reasonable and installation was 1 day. Install time varies depending on how many sq ft of floor.

Probably start by installing hardwood in the entry, LR, and DR.

This modest change more than paid for itself at resale -- and we were much happier in the mean time.

[Anonymous]

We have done very few upgrades for cosmetics only. Things like painting a room, replacing faucets, repairing drywall, replacing light fixtures I do DIY. I do not borrow money ever.
With a tight budget we could not do any real remodeling but painting walls and refinishing cabinets was enough of a transformation for us.

No, most people cannot reasonably DIY new floors unless it’s maybe tiling one room. We got hardwood floors put in recently to replace nasty old carpet and the installation was reasonable and done in 1 day. We paid for it from savings. I cannot imagine trying to DIY that.

After saving for retirement and college and kid stuff there really isn’t a big budget and usually I’m only spending on absolute necessities like a new water heater when the old one went out.

[Anonymous]

I totally understand you, OP.

While I didn't grow up poor, my parents made us think we were. I admittedly have lots of baggage around spending money.

I put our home improvement money in an account with a separate bank than our investments and regular checking/savings accounts. Seeing those separate accounts made it easier to sign the first contract.

[Anonymous]

We could do it but I am too darn old to do the interior work so furniture can be moved. So we will live our last years is squalor as multimillionaires.

[Anonymous]

I like to get the house up to my standards before I move in. So we air bnb until it is ready. I hate living in a construction zone. For touchups or say week or two long repairs/maintaince, I book a trip.