Would you spend $1m on a house remodel

[Anonymous]

I vote no for two reasons:

- if you’re doing “everything”, you’ll almost certainly want to move out for a year. Such a pain in the butt and a year of your life you won’t get back.

- you said your spouse literally just lost their fed job. So you’re talking about a dramatic, retirement impacting expense within months of a dramatic retirement impacting change of employment. I would wait a year or two to see: how your finances change in the long term from your spouses early retirement (are you saving as much as you thought, are they spending more than they were while working because they’re “retired”), does your spouse want to go back to work and does that require a relocation, does your spouses early retirement make you both realize life is short and you should both retire earlier by cutting back on expenses and downsizing, and finally as kids get closer to college do your convos change about what you want to do and where you want to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe. What exactly does it entail?

Full house remodel: Flooring, kitchen, bathroom, windows, plus some reconfigurations to make it work better for us.

Hi OP.

I've found that approaching things in remodeling chunks over a number of years works well for me. It is less cash outlay each year and it gives you a lot of time to think through what you want.

Are the windows leaking? Leaking water? Leaking air? If not I'd do them way down the road. Reconfigurations will get pricey.
I'd live in the house for 4-5 years to make sure you want reconfigurations.

Are these simply cosmetic changes or do you have cracked drywall in each room and floors caving in? If these are just style/cosmetic changes I'd live with things for several years.

Is your husband handy? Can he do some of the work? Can he research products? Pick colors etc? Can he paint the interior rooms?

The chunk method worked well for me. It was less money each year. It reduces stress. It was more manageable.

On my house I remodeled one bathroom year 1. I remodeled the master bathroom year 2. I remodeled the kitchen, the entire flooring in the house and painted all walls in house in year 4. We moved out of the house into a 6 month apartment rental for the kitchen/flooring/painting of the house. It took about 4-1/2 months for the kitchen remodel, retiling the entire house (was wall to wall) and painting of the interior with the exceptions of the two bathrooms.

Also you don't mention any exterior work? How old is your roof?

[Anonymous]

11:24 poster again

A million dollars could fund some nice trips with the kids over the upcoming years.

You could triage repairs. Replace faucets if they leak. Replace kitchen appliances when they break. If windows are leaking water or air replace them. If you have cracked drywall repair the drywall and repaint those rooms.

Millions of Americans live in 30, 40 or 50 year old homes with formica kitchen counters and still have happy lives.

Remodeling due to surfaces being out of date is a relatively new concept in America mostly driven by HGTV.

[Anonymous]

11:24 poster again

50's seems very young not to ever work again. My boyfriend is 68 and working and I'm going to start a job at 65. We financially don't need to work but the boredom will kill you.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I would.

I would rather have bought a move in ready $5m or a $4m house that didn’t need $1m of remodeling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:11:24 poster again

50's seems very young not to ever work again. My boyfriend is 68 and working and I'm going to start a job at 65. We financially don't need to work but the boredom will kill you.

I’m in my late forties. I know many people in their fifties who are semi retired.

[Anonymous]

I am working on a 13 million remodel in Chappaqua and it's only slightly cleaner looking than before. Clean as in, it doesn't look like a bunch of random volumes mashed together because over the years the owner kept adding on and their architects would just go along with whatever they wanted.
As my project manager likes to say, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you bought the wrong house.

+1. Why would you move into a house that "needs a lot of work" and then not want to do the work? This happened to me (at a MUCH lower price point) and I'm still bitter about it. We bought a nice but older home well under budget. Young naive me thought it was OBVIOUS the house would need updates over time (livable but just very 90's/early 2000's dated.) Spouse apparently thought he found a great sale and could just pocket the change. Talk about a breakdown of marital communication!! I am still in this house 12 years later and we have only updated paint, light fixtures and faucets. Bathrooms and kitchen are still the same as when we moved in. We can EASILY afford the remodel in cash but spouse just wants nothing to do with it. When youngest graduates in 3 years I plan to start shopping for a house that is basically already "done." I'd prefer to just remodel where we are, but that's not who I am married to. Sigh.

What does your spouse think/expect OP? What was discussed when purchasing the home?

Well that is a you and your marriage issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe. What exactly does it entail?

Full house remodel: Flooring, kitchen, bathroom, windows, plus some reconfigurations to make it work better for us.

That will cost you more than $1m if you're going high-end. I wouldn't take it on. I'd move first.

How is it possible that this would cost more than a million??? It doesn’t sound like that much work. A million is for all of that plus adding a two story addition or something along those lines, or adding a freestanding pool house or office in the yard!

Have you done/priced renovations in a HCOLA? I just renovated a 3.5K sq ft, 3.5 bathroom 24 yo home.
New Roof: $50K
New Boiler system and Hot water heater: $26K
New Propane Tank (buried underground, so had to dig up old one): $14K
New Deck with Pergola added: $85K
Redid the rest of inside the home with higher end except cabinets--those were the lower end of "higher end" because there were so many cabinets. Only 2 new windows (so far). All new window treatments

The rest cost me $700K
Add in new furniture (ours was 15+ years old, so it was time to replace most of it, I'd been holding out to get new stuff once we moved) and you are near $1M.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:11:24 poster again

A million dollars could fund some nice trips with the kids over the upcoming years.

You could triage repairs. Replace faucets if they leak. Replace kitchen appliances when they break. If windows are leaking water or air replace them. If you have cracked drywall repair the drywall and repaint those rooms.

Millions of Americans live in 30, 40 or 50 year old homes with formica kitchen counters and still have happy lives.

Remodeling due to surfaces being out of date is a relatively new concept in America mostly driven by HGTV.

If you can afford to buy a $4M home, you are not "most Americans" and really don't want to live in a home with formica kitchen counters.

Personally I'd evaluate what you can actually afford, consider renting a small 1 bedroom to live in during the majority of the renovations and just doing it all. I cannot tell you how nice it is to have a home done the way you want. I have 2 of them, and now when we travel (and stay in luxury places) we still think our home is better....it's nice to come home to what you love. If you can afford it, why not? Life isn't about just getting by, you can't take your money with you so why not use it to enjoy life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:11:24 poster again

50's seems very young not to ever work again. My boyfriend is 68 and working and I'm going to start a job at 65. We financially don't need to work but the boredom will kill you.

I’m in my late forties. I know many people in their fifties who are semi retired.

+1

We are mid 50s and "retired". Sure you need something to fill your time, but it doesn't have to be "work". It can be travel, self care, just relaxing and some volunteering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:11:24 poster again

A million dollars could fund some nice trips with the kids over the upcoming years.

You could triage repairs. Replace faucets if they leak. Replace kitchen appliances when they break. If windows are leaking water or air replace them. If you have cracked drywall repair the drywall and repaint those rooms.

Millions of Americans live in 30, 40 or 50 year old homes with formica kitchen counters and still have happy lives.

Remodeling due to surfaces being out of date is a relatively new concept in America mostly driven by HGTV.

If you can afford to buy a $4M home, you are not "most Americans" and really don't want to live in a home with formica kitchen counters.

Personally I'd evaluate what you can actually afford, consider renting a small 1 bedroom to live in during the majority of the renovations and just doing it all. I cannot tell you how nice it is to have a home done the way you want. I have 2 of them, and now when we travel (and stay in luxury places) we still think our home is better....it's nice to come home to what you love. If you can afford it, why not? Life isn't about just getting by, you can't take your money with you so why not use it to enjoy life

Maybe you are okay with it if your house is worth half of that?

Our house is worth $2 million and has the original 1955 kitchen with a few upgrades like a wood floor. But we still have the original counters, which are steel-rimmed formica that is close to indestructible.

[Anonymous]

I barely survived living in the home during our kitchen remodel. I can’t imagine a full house remodel. So much stress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I barely survived living in the home during our kitchen remodel. I can’t imagine a full house remodel. So much stress.

+1

Can be a frustrating experience--especially with respect to kitchen & bathroom remodels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:11:24 poster again

A million dollars could fund some nice trips with the kids over the upcoming years.

You could triage repairs. Replace faucets if they leak. Replace kitchen appliances when they break. If windows are leaking water or air replace them. If you have cracked drywall repair the drywall and repaint those rooms.

Millions of Americans live in 30, 40 or 50 year old homes with formica kitchen counters and still have happy lives.

Remodeling due to surfaces being out of date is a relatively new concept in America mostly driven by HGTV.

If you can afford to buy a $4M home, you are not "most Americans" and really don't want to live in a home with formica kitchen counters.

Personally I'd evaluate what you can actually afford, consider renting a small 1 bedroom to live in during the majority of the renovations and just doing it all. I cannot tell you how nice it is to have a home done the way you want. I have 2 of them, and now when we travel (and stay in luxury places) we still think our home is better....it's nice to come home to what you love. If you can afford it, why not? Life isn't about just getting by, you can't take your money with you so why not use it to enjoy life

Maybe you are okay with it if your house is worth half of that?

Our house is worth $2 million and has the original 1955 kitchen with a few upgrades like a wood floor. But we still have the original counters, which are steel-rimmed formica that is close to indestructible.

If you are fine with that, go for it. But many prefer to have "nicer things" and if we can afford it, why not? College is paid for, kids are launched/nearly launched and we have more than enough for retirement. So why not spend on things we enjoy. I mean we now travel business class 99% of the time. Sure we could sit in economy plus, but what are we saving the $$ for?

Btw, we love our new kitchen and home renovations. Makes it such a nice place to live.