3 ms·

I dunno. We recently bought a house where the kitchen had been recently renovated. I don't know if our appliances are super high end but they are definitely on

I dunno. We recently bought a house where the kitchen had been recently renovated. I don't know if our appliances are super high end but they are definitely on that side, and it makes the kitchen feel great. We probably wouldn't spend as much time in it otherwise. So let's say that kitchen cost 40k (I have no idea)...but lasts us 20 years. That's 2k a year for a very enjoyable part of our house, probably the most used space by far. On the contrary, if we had spent an additional 40k on our car, how much of a game changer would that have been and how long would it have lasted?

steveBK123 4y ago
Again you are talking a $40k renovation, I am talking $500k renovation. $40k for a kitchen is on the order of magnitude of getting all your appliances reasonably up to date, plumbing/fixtures, electrical and cabinetry/countertop refreshed, without anything being exotic or luxury. The bare bones one could probably refresh everything in the kitchen has to be easily $20k, so the incremental "above bare minimum spend" here is only $20k and therefore very reasonable. That is a reasonable level of taking something outdated which is hard to market and making it up to date move-in ready and therefore quicker to sell. To contrast for example in my experience, a Miele dishwasher for $800 washes dishes vastly better than a $400 GE. To the point it is significantly labor reducing. On the other hand, does a $10k subzero freezer/fridge keep my vegetables better than a $2k Samsung? Most people underestimated how much of their homes value appreciating over the 5-20 years of ownership is purely the land value increases over the long term due to real estate inflation and the relative performance of their local markets. Ie - if all the condos in NYC went up 2x from 2004-2007, mine going up similarly isn't because I put fancy tiles in my toilet.

steveBK123 4y ago

Again you are talking a $40k renovation, I am talking $500k renovation. $40k for a kitchen is on the order of magnitude of getting all your appliances reasonably up to date, plumbing/fixtures, electrical and cabinetry/countertop refreshed, without anything being exotic or luxury. The bare bones one could probably refresh everything in the kitchen has to be easily $20k, so the incremental "above bare minimum spend" here is only $20k and therefore very reasonable. That is a reasonable level of taking something outdated which is hard to market and making it up to date move-in ready and therefore quicker to sell. To contrast for example in my experience, a Miele dishwasher for $800 washes dishes vastly better than a $400 GE. To the point it is significantly labor reducing. On the other hand, does a $10k subzero freezer/fridge keep my vegetables better than a $2k Samsung? Most people underestimated how much of their homes value appreciating over the 5-20 years of ownership is purely the land value increases over the long term due to real estate inflation and the relative performance of their local markets. Ie - if all the condos in NYC went up 2x from 2004-2007, mine going up similarly isn't because I put fancy tiles in my toilet.