And now? We love this home - sure, we've been tempted by bigger houses with more rooms, but nothing heart-stopping enough to take us away from the place where we became a family. And from our awesome street with weekly happy hours in the alley. This area of town finally feels like home to me. And if our house had one more bedroom, a bigger kitchen, and more of a yard, I'm not sure you'd get me to leave unless it was on a stretcher decades and decades down the road. But, the reality is that our original timeline of 7 years is probably right on the money.
With that in mind, I keep an ongoing list of projects we could do to the house. And then I remind myself that we probably shouldn't do many of them from a cost recovery standpoint, because even in this economy - we bought during the downturn but right before the market really tanked in 2007 - we could probably walk away from our house with all closing costs and fees considered and make a small profit, and we'd like to keep it that way. A couple items on my list are things we're already planning on doing- like finally finishing the sideyard - and a couple are just for the fun of dreaming - like new countertops and a white kitchen. And while our goal to leave this house a few years from now with a profit is a good one, we also want to continue loving this home while we're here. So, what's worth the investment from a "loving where we live for the next few years" standpoint? That's the question we're constantly grappling with.
So I added a "Free-ish" column to my list. I think I'll be focusing my energy there for awhile. What are on your to-do and dream to-do lists?
Our current efforts our focused on our mess of a backyard. We need to kill the weeds and grow some grass! I am dreaming of redoing our kitchen someday! :)
ReplyDeleteWhen we bought our house (probably around the same time you did - the very beginning of 08), we were thinking we'd live here for 5 to 10 years. Now, I think that's looking more like 10 years, depending on what the market is like in a few years. Honestly, we could make this house work forever, but it's not my ideal. I'd like a more open plan, larger kitchen, etc. Our big thing to make the house long-term (and more than one kid-term) for us is to renovate our upstairs into a Master Suite. Hopefully, we'll be ready to start soon!! Other than that, our backyard needs lots of work, but that's not a total necessity for us staying here happily long-term.
ReplyDeleteIt's so wonderful that you love your home and neighborhood. I'll certainly miss our house and neighbors when we move!
ReplyDeleteYou've seen our house list. But our situation is a bit different, since it's not really liveable til we finish the list.
Great idea to make a free-ish column. It's a great way to adjust things in your home to make you love it even more, without spending a fortune.
We bought into our house in 2008, when prices were low, but not rock bottom. Prices here haven't really started to recover yet, so we're always talking about the same thing--how MUCH do we put into this house?
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking about trying that $80 Rust-o-leum kit on our cabinets to paint them white. It's supposed to hold up a little better than paint alone.
I'd also like to landscape the backyard, but the weed issue is driving me NUTS. They feel impossible to control and take over everything.
We've been in our house for 6 years and because of the ecomomy will probably be there for the next few years. We have a good size home, but I dream of a bigger one with a playroom, laudry room and one more bedroom. I'm constantly thinking of ways to improve our home inexpensively so that we can make a larger profit one day. I'd love new appliances, new carpet in the bedrooms, and new countertops.
ReplyDeleteI think focusing on free projects is a great idea. At the same time, I see a few projects on your $$ list that I think would continue to add value to your home - maybe not in $$ necessarily, but in a quicker sale. Such as: flower boxes, blinds (as long as they are not super pricey)and landscaping. And you can get a radon test at a hardware store for about $10 I think. :-)
ReplyDeleteWhen you are ready for the kitchen, I know a place to get wholesale stone.
ReplyDeleteI'm sort of doing the same thing, only we're planning on staying awhile so I like to think we have plenty of time to get to the big projects (although I'd rather they were all done like yesterday). My list isn't for free stuff but fairly inexpensive anyway comared to the deck I want added to our backyard...window boxes, shutters, new shrubs.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see that banquette!
I like the "free-ish" term. I need to start doing projects for which I have the materials on hand. Like do I need to buy more paint when I have 20 gallons in the basement?
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