Comments on: T’s Rules for Home Improvement

By: T

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:26:08 +0000

“…and completey discounted things when I felt like it.”

Bitch.
~T

By: Astin

Astin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:23:20 +0000

My renos took 3x as long as expected, and were 3x the headache. I think the cost came in where I expected though. Go figure.

Renovating to resell rarely recoups the cost. Although fixing before a resell is good practice. Paint is the best ROI you can make on a house. What you will do is sell it quicker (as MGM stated), and avoid any headaches from ceilings falling on the new owners. If it keeps you out of small claims court, it’s worth it.

Don’t worry, once you’re in Toronto, the land of milk and honey, everything will seem worthwhile.

By: MGM

MGM — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 02:58:34 +0000

There were lots of things we did to our most recent house. Not to sell it, mind you, just to make it more enjoyable for ourselves. We didn’t plan to move again. Ever.
So my manly stud of a husband built a new deck on the back of the house, singlehandedly (except for all that nailing with the nail gun that his pregnant wife did.) The project cost twice what we had intended. The end product was nice. We got to enjoy it for 10 months before we decided to move after all.

We thought we’d recoup the expense of this and many other improvements we’d made over the years in our home. Our Realtor assured us that we wouldn’t. However, he also assured us that it would probably help it sell much faster.
It sold 16 hours after it was listed, and I couldn’t help wondering if we should have set a higher price (we still sold our house for more than any other house in our subdivision had sold for in the two years previous). So even if you don’t fully recoup the expenses, it may at least sell…which is a good thing in itself with a saturated market and a failing economy.

Oh, and don’t knock homeschooling. Some of our kids not only have two legs, but are cute, brilliant, and better behaved than practically 100% of their public schooled counterparts. Just sayin’.

By: AmyC

AmyC — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:33:00 +0000

At our house, we call this the mushroom factor; every project mushrooms in both cost and time. A project gone really bad gets the “nuclear” tag. We rennovated an old house in NY for years. In a state of constant nuclear dissaray, it was only perfect the month before we sold it. We will never make that mistake again. Now we rennovate so that we can enjoy it – not the next suckers down the line.

My biggest brag: they know me by name at Home Depot.

My only advice: Don’t hang wallpaper with the misses – it will only be used as evidence in divorce court later.

Best of Luck:)