What do you think of people who can afford to renovate and don't?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t think…anything. Why or why you aren’t renovating wouldnt cross my mind unless you were complaining about your house.

+1
I see no reason to update just for the sake of updating.

[Anonymous]

What you’re talking about, I would think absolutely nothing.

I do judge a family member with boatloads of money who bought their home around 1980 and have renovated nearly nothing in that time. Kitchen in the early 90s, that’s it. Everything else is the same as when they bought it.

They are cheap, and honestly at this point the interior of their house is ugly. Cluttered, too.

[Anonymous]

I'm very interested in this conceptually. Do you think about your house as a home, a refuge, a place where you find safe harbor and part of that/wrapped up in that is having a certain kind of aesthetic experience (beauty to look at in a style you find pleasing, comfort, functionality, storage so clutter is gone and thus facilitates a certain kind of cleanliness or order)? Or do you not care, find your house to be a functional thing (roof overhead, moderately climate controlled, places to do basic functions, etc.), but it's really a commodity you will use and then transfer (for profit hopefully) to someone else when you move/downsize/die? That seems to be a basic divide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm very interested in this conceptually. Do you think about your house as a home, a refuge, a place where you find safe harbor and part of that/wrapped up in that is having a certain kind of aesthetic experience (beauty to look at in a style you find pleasing, comfort, functionality, storage so clutter is gone and thus facilitates a certain kind of cleanliness or order)? Or do you not care, find your house to be a functional thing (roof overhead, moderately climate controlled, places to do basic functions, etc.), but it's really a commodity you will use and then transfer (for profit hopefully) to someone else when you move/downsize/die? That seems to be a basic divide.

I don't think it is. My home is my refuse and comfortable space, but that doesn't mean I need it a certain "aesthetic experience" that requires particular kinds of renovations or updating things every so many years. Maybe the divide is between people who need an aesthetic experience consistent with ever-changing trends and those who don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know, I know, it doesn't matter what other people think, but I'm still not that highly evolved so just humor me.

We live in a suburban Nova neighborhood where SFH are worth $900-$1.1M (many of us paid less of course.) These are just normal 4br houses but you know how prices are around here. I would estimate most neighbors have a HHI of $200-$350k. Two feds, or an engineer and teacher, some SAHM's, stuff like that. Obviously there may be outliers.

Anyhoo, we've noticed a lot of our neighbors doing major renovations lately, and not just since Covid. Full kitchens and baths, some are moving walls and changing layouts, etc. Some families have literally redone the whole house. The results are stunning, don't get me wrong and the neighbors seem to enjoy their updated homes. I don't begrudge them this.

DH and I and just...don't really feel like spending our money on this or dealing with the disruption (the latter may even be the bigger of the two reasons.) Yes we have moments after we've seen a neighbor's home where we discuss it, but when it actually comes to pulling that kind of money out of savings and going through the motions, we just don't want to. I guess in that sense we are kind of lazy. We complete all the home maintenance, have fresh neutral paint throuhgout the home, updated light fixtures, we replace worn carpeting, etc. Previous owners redid the kitchen maybe 15 years ago - its not the current style but still in great shape. We have newer appliances. At some point we'll be forced to do the upstairs baths but putting that off as long as we can - no one sees them but us.

TL;DR - What do you think of us when you come to our home that is not remodeled, especially if you know or highly suspect that we could afford it? Do you think less of us or think we are cheap?

I think they are very wise with money, and have their priorities straight, OP. Since you asked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very interested in this conceptually. Do you think about your house as a home, a refuge, a place where you find safe harbor and part of that/wrapped up in that is having a certain kind of aesthetic experience (beauty to look at in a style you find pleasing, comfort, functionality, storage so clutter is gone and thus facilitates a certain kind of cleanliness or order)? Or do you not care, find your house to be a functional thing (roof overhead, moderately climate controlled, places to do basic functions, etc.), but it's really a commodity you will use and then transfer (for profit hopefully) to someone else when you move/downsize/die? That seems to be a basic divide.

I don't think it is. My home is my refuse and comfortable space, but that doesn't mean I need it a certain "aesthetic experience" that requires particular kinds of renovations or updating things every so many years. Maybe the divide is between people who need an aesthetic experience consistent with ever-changing trends and those who don't.

Interesting. But renovations don't just happen for "keeping up with trends." I note here a number of people stating their houses are functional and they don't care to spend the money to update. Frequent posts about renovations on DCUM are about how poorly-functional houses are (and often coupled with they spent a boatload on the land/house and have no money to improve it, despite it being very dated, poorly functioning for 2020s, not 1960s, living, and having tons of deferred maintenance). I also note a thread from a month or two ago where someone posed the question about the best and worst financial decisions others had made. There were a notable number of posters who said that buying the "stretch house" or doing the major renovation so that their house was beautiful to them and functional for their family was worth every penny. I would totally agree about the waste of funds to just update because House Beautiful tells you cabinet colors just changed, but not for these latter reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very interested in this conceptually. Do you think about your house as a home, a refuge, a place where you find safe harbor and part of that/wrapped up in that is having a certain kind of aesthetic experience (beauty to look at in a style you find pleasing, comfort, functionality, storage so clutter is gone and thus facilitates a certain kind of cleanliness or order)? Or do you not care, find your house to be a functional thing (roof overhead, moderately climate controlled, places to do basic functions, etc.), but it's really a commodity you will use and then transfer (for profit hopefully) to someone else when you move/downsize/die? That seems to be a basic divide.

I don't think it is. My home is my refuse and comfortable space, but that doesn't mean I need it a certain "aesthetic experience" that requires particular kinds of renovations or updating things every so many years. Maybe the divide is between people who need an aesthetic experience consistent with ever-changing trends and those who don't.

I mean, if your home is refuse, you probably should renovate. Or at least take out the trash. That's just common sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very interested in this conceptually. Do you think about your house as a home, a refuge, a place where you find safe harbor and part of that/wrapped up in that is having a certain kind of aesthetic experience (beauty to look at in a style you find pleasing, comfort, functionality, storage so clutter is gone and thus facilitates a certain kind of cleanliness or order)? Or do you not care, find your house to be a functional thing (roof overhead, moderately climate controlled, places to do basic functions, etc.), but it's really a commodity you will use and then transfer (for profit hopefully) to someone else when you move/downsize/die? That seems to be a basic divide.

I don't think it is. My home is my refuse and comfortable space, but that doesn't mean I need it a certain "aesthetic experience" that requires particular kinds of renovations or updating things every so many years. Maybe the divide is between people who need an aesthetic experience consistent with ever-changing trends and those who don't.

Interesting. But renovations don't just happen for "keeping up with trends." I note here a number of people stating their houses are functional and they don't care to spend the money to update. Frequent posts about renovations on DCUM are about how poorly-functional houses are (and often coupled with they spent a boatload on the land/house and have no money to improve it, despite it being very dated, poorly functioning for 2020s, not 1960s, living, and having tons of deferred maintenance). I also note a thread from a month or two ago where someone posed the question about the best and worst financial decisions others had made. There were a notable number of posters who said that buying the "stretch house" or doing the major renovation so that their house was beautiful to them and functional for their family was worth every penny. I would totally agree about the waste of funds to just update because House Beautiful tells you cabinet colors just changed, but not for these latter reasons.

Agreed. Sometimes it’s not very functional or just it’s unpleasant to live in. Our kitchen was too small to properly make meals for the whole family. It worked, but it stressed me out to never have enough counter space.

[Anonymous]

Op, I wouldn't judge you for not renovating your home, and anyone who would is someone you don't need as a friend.

However, I do judge you for actually typing out "anyhoo." It's sophomoric and cutesy when spoken; somehow, it's even worse in writing. Unless you're a sorority girl during rush week, don't do that.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[Anonymous]

I think less of neighbors who don’t maintain their homes, like let their lawn go overgrown. But no i don’t care if they renovate.

[Anonymous]

I think you are smart. You are keeping up with maintenance and replacing what needs to be replaced, painting and changing light fixtures, etc.

We renovated, and while it is beautiful, the quality of the materials is so inferior to what we had before. For example, we had real wood cabinets (80s oak). Now we have white and grey whatever they are made of and at less than one year of use, they already show signs of wear. And these were not cheap cabinets.

I'm sad that I feel into the trap. There were other things we could have done to change/update the house, like the OP mentioned.

[Anonymous]

We have a lot of assets, and very high HHI ($1.5m) and an amazing, interesting home that is entirely nonfunctional and starting to fall apart. Kitchen was badly done in 1999. Bathrooms range from 1960s to 1999, and range from looking old to having low functionality. DH and I both work from home and there is literally not a single private space in the house for me (DH gets an office) -and I make $800k while my kid and cat mill around in the background. The upside is our home is beautiful, with a beautiful yard in an amazing neighborhood.

I would LOVE to just spend whatever I need to to get the house re-done. We plan an addition, new floors in every single inch of our 3000 sf, new kitchen, and 3 new baths. If I could write a check for $600k tomorrow and just have it done, I would do it in a hard beat. But I work a ton, DH works a ton and the last thing we need is 9 months of chaos having to move out of the house. Add in covid where we couldn't get a contractor to call us back, and we've been sitting on this mess for 5 years. So no judgment.

[Anonymous]

Is the house really dated? People will have thoughts about that, esp. with kitchens, bathrooms, ugly wallpaper, and carpet.

Otherwise no, I don’t think people care if the house is nice and up to date.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are also non-renovators. It basically comes down to…do I hate my outdated kitchen enough to live through a major renovation and pay through the nose to do it? And the answer is no, I do not.

This. We are almost done with a kitchen renovation (see my "kitchen angst" post from earlier this morning), and it's been hellish and $$$$ and we only finally did it because of a plumbing leak that damaged our kitchen floor and cabinets and left us with no choice. And we still dragged our feet for six months.

Plus, we have been saving more for our three kids' college than most of our neighbors probably do (most state school attendees among our neighbors than private universities like the one where we have a full-pay freshman), and are we have been socking away money for retirement like crazy. I don't love my house and don't want to keep living here after the kids are all in college, so why would I spent an arm and a leg to update it?

Other people who don't renovate may be supporting extended family members, or have huge student debt, or whatever. It's their business. Frankly, I think the extensive renovations many neighbors have done are overkill for our neighborhood of 1940s, modest houses. To each his own, but I am probably judgier about those who do renovate than those who don't.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't think anything of it. However, as a potential buyer if the layout was not well planned, I would bid less because of it. Otherwise, no big deal.

I don't love my current kitchen but it's well laid out. The things that I don't like are easy fixes that can be swapped out overtime. No need for a big reno.