OT - Looking for Opinions Home Renovations

[donnamp]

Hi Everyone,

Would love to hear some opinions on this topic!

Background - I live in a smaller older home (built in 1971), since we moved in 17 or so years ago we have done a number of upgrades and updates - including putting in A/C and a new heat pump, adding on a 3 season room, remodeling 3 bathrooms, putting on a deck, replacing a window with a slider to the deck, re-piping the whole house (to get rid of the copper pipes and pin-hole leaks), new roof, new driveway, paint jobs, changing out the inside doors, new hot water heater, new pipe out to the septic, new gutters, re-finishing hardwood floors, etc. Some of this stuff was cosmetic but some was necessary maintenance.

Since it is an older home it is on a larger lot than most new construction - almost 1 acre, which is what we wanted when we moved here - space - after living in townhomes and apartments. Being it is an older home it is not "open concept" - the kitchen is closed off from the dining room which is closed off from the living room. It doesn't really bother me to have this layout but I am thinking about re-sale.

My husband and I are approaching retirement - he is ready to go at any time - but I'm planning on working another 4-5 years - our daughter is covered by my insurance and she can stay on my plan until she turns 26. We don't necessarily want to stay in our home in retirement or even in the area. For one, Maryland is not a retirement tax friendly state and even if we were to stay in MD - the large lot and the long driveway are a bit of a drag. We do pay someone to cut our lawn and take care of our leaves - we figure that is our "HOA" - but shoveling the driveway yesterday was a chore i could do without. I can handle a normal driveway but ours is long and on a hill and just not fun.


Our kitchen is in need of something. When we moved in we did a cosmetic upgrade - in terms of a cabinet re-facing and new flooring (the new flooring choice we made was a mistake and has not aged well). The re-facing lasted 16-17 years but is now showing its age as well w/ the cabinets starting to look worn. We have a laminate counter top which is not in bad shape but could use replacement and we could use a new sink, since our sink has some scratches and dings. Our stove is new, since our old one broke a few years ago. Our fridge works. The dishwasher we have is old but works. My DH had a little accident with the microwave which resulted in the front of it melting (don't ask!) but it still works. It is an over the range type microwave and we would actually like to swap it out for a traditional exhaust fan/hood and build a microwave shelf somewhere in the kitchen. Our kitchen is not large is i maybe 10X10 which is fine for us - we had a small family and it worked.

So this brings me to my question -

If we do plan to stay for at least 4-5 years for me to finish working (or maybe longer if our daughter boomerangs after college and needs a place to live as she enters the workforce or continues her education) is it worth it to do a complete kitchen remodel or should I just do another re-face and do a cosmetic upgrade. The cosmetic upgrade/re-face would be more than what we did last time as I would also want to re-do the floor, replace the sink and counter top, get rid of the over-the-range microwave and replace w/ exhaust fan, build a microwave shelf. I would also likely need to repair walls and do a new back splash and would like to do something with the lighting in the room by installing recessed lighting. So basically, the only thing I would save here would be the cabinet structures but pretty much everything else would be replaced.

OR

Should I go for a complete gut and re-model - given the extensive work I want on things other than cabinetry?

OR

Should I consider open concept - gut the kitchen - and open it into our dining room?

The open concept isn't a necessity for me, in some ways, I don't want to look at my dirty dishes in the sink while I'm eating dinner - but I know it is a big selling point for home buyers, so that is my reason for considering it.

Is it worth the extra cost to open the rooms up? This would require at a minimum knocking out a wall and then doing something with the flooring in the 2 rooms to merge them.

I also worry about putting too much $$ into a home in a neighborhood that will only support so much in terms of selling price. The homes in my neighborhood are like mine, older, smaller, built in the 1970's, larger lots. It *is* a convenient location for commuters, and given the relatively larger lots you do have more of a sense of privacy than you do in the newer neighborhoods. When we sit outside in the summer it is hard to believe that a major highway is so close to us! But our little neighborhood's home prices will only go so high given the size and age of the homes and the fact that there is a ton of new construction going up - most of the time for higher prices - but those homes are going to have what buyers want - unless they want a big lot!

And, in addition to the kitchen there are other projects I would like to do - our garden shed has seen better days and need to be replaced, and there are always maintenance things that come up....plus there are still some minor cosmetic projects I would like to do in the house so I am not sure if I want to put all my eggs in one basket.

Anyway - opinions??? thoughts?

I have a contractor I like who I am going to get prices from and maybe that will help my decision. I'm also going to reach out to the place that did our re-face 17 years ago to see what they can do for me.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Donna

[annette]

In my humble opinion the kitchen and bathrooms are what sell a house most of the time. With that being said, I'm a tightwad so what we did in our kitchen 3 years ago was new counter tops, sink/faucet and had the cabinets painted, replaced the appliances and also had the microwave installed above the stove.

We replaced our linoleum floor 12 years ago with porcelain tile and it has not held up well at all. There are small cracks everywhere.

Since you're not planning on staying "forever" I wouldn't go to the expense of knocking out walls but then I'm not all that much in love with open concept. Maybe you could do a cut out in the existing wall that would then have a shelf. That would open things up a bit without taking out the entire wall.

The paint job on our cabinets is not holding up well either; mostly the lower ones. I'm not sure about re-facing but definitely wouldn't just paint them.

Sorry for rambling on about what we did... I like your cosmetic upgrade plan. Even though you're concerned about costs vs re-sale if you love it while you're still there it's worth it. Good luck!

[FitBoop]

Hi Donna. I have experience with construction and renovation. One thing I learned is that it is possible to do a renovation and stay within a budget, but it takes some legwork and creativity. I recommend that you consult with a couple of architects to get their ideas about what is possible and what the costs will be.

[donnamp]

Thanks Annette and FitBoop!

Annette - I like the idea of the cut out in the existing wall - it would open it up/let more light in to the room. I am concerned about balancing the costs of the renovation with the return on investment and that makes me hesitate on creating an "open concept". I believe you do make a decent return on the investments in kitchens and bathrooms. And i do think it would help re-sale if the kitchen was looking more perky and not something that a potential buyer would feel they would have to do something about right away. In a past home we painted cabinets and I didn't like the way it turned out - maybe we didn't do a good job but it wasn't durable. The re-face we did last awhile, but the lower cabinets in particular are showing wear and tear, plus the insides of the cabinets are a bit dingy - since they are original to 1971.


FitBoop - the Contractor I used for my bathrooms is very reliable and I really like him - so I'm going to reach out to him and some others for estimates and ideas. I think my guy is probably on the pricier side, but he does really good work, very much a perfectionist, and best of all, he meets deadlines. I have heard horror stories of people whose kitchen remodel took close to a year to complete. The guy I work with is priceless in that he gives you a schedule and sticks to it, if there is deviation he texts me the day before and tells me so it is easy to plan your life around the renovation.

Thanks for sharing!

Donna

[Leonana]

Donna, my brother and sil remodeled their house and took out a wall. There was one long wall separating the living room from the dining room and kitchen. They took out half the wall, so the dining room was open to the living room, but the kitchen was closed to the living room with the other half of the wall. It opened things up a bit, but you can’t see the dirty dishes from the living room. I don’t know if your house is configured that way, but it worked well for their house.

[Pam61]

We have had major renovations to each of our three homes. Without going into too much detail, only with our first home did we get a profit when we sold. That was when the housing market was very good. In the other instances, we would never be able to get back what we invested.

Usually a bathroom/kitchen remodel is a great idea and would make a home attractive to buyers. And, if you're not happy with the way things look currently, it's probably a good idea to make some changes. Especially if it sounds like you'll be there for another six or more years.

It's great that you've had good experience with the person you worked with before and that's working in your favor.

Maybe you can get some ideas about your remodel by looking online at realtor.com. Then when you meet with the guy who did your bathrooms, and let him know what you have in mind. He can then work out an estimate of what he thinks different projects will cost.

[donnamp]

Thanks, Pam and Sherry!

It is true that we are staying here for at least 4 or 6 years, so it may be worth it to do the kitchen just so we can enjoy it while we are here. And since, personally, I can take or leave an open concept and that will add to the cost to open my kitchen into my dining room (opening into the living room would definitely add to the expense even more and would probably result in the loss of workspace in the kitchen, with the way our house is configured) I can just remodel the kitchen and get that looking and functioning better (the new cabinetry has more bells and whistles than the 1971 cabinets in terms of drawers, shelves, etc. that make things easier to store and find things. Given the size and shape of my existing kitchen there isn't much I can do with the layout. I suppose a positive to a smaller space it the cost of materials will be less since we won't need as much cabinetry and countertop material, etc.

And, in the back of my mind I think - what if we do end up staying here - it makes more sense to do the renovation now when at least one of us is still working. My DH threatens retirement daily - but he hasn't pulled the trigger yet. So there is that.

Not doing the open concept will also save some money as we really do need to replace our collapsing shed in the backyard. And DH would like to make it better and possibly include electricity out to it to make it a more functional space (TBH, I think he wants a man cave and he would like to use his shed for that purpose)- which would be another expense.

Anyway - sorry to ramble!

Thanks for listening.

Donna

[Pam61]

In two instances (with our first & current home) we had walls removed that were load-bearing. With the first we were told the wall wasn't load bearing, so we purchased the home, later to find out that it was and would further add to the expense. With our current home we had a wall taken down to increase the size of our Master Bedroom. We have pictures of a crane carrying an I-beam thru our 2nd story MBR window, which was quite a sight to see. Supports (columns) were also added to the room below our bedroom. Again, all of this adds to the expense, in the renovation and everything adds up very quickly.

[donnamp]

Pam - I agree there are often unpleasant surprises with renovations. One of the bathrooms we remodeled was supposed to be the "easy" one or rather the less expensive one b/c we selected different materials - but it ended up being more complicated once they started the work b/c it turned out the last homeowner put that bathroom in and they did nothing right. Our tub int that bathroom (it is a basement full bath) was sitting on dirt, they just dug through the foundation and settled the tub on literal dirt. It certainly explained why I always had spiders in the tub down there.

So I imagine tearing up a 1971 kitchen is going to reveal some stuff we are not expecting.

Donna