WWYD in this situation - renovation related

[donthasslethehoff]

We've been living in our current house for 5 years. Every Spring we typically do some sort of renovation ranging between $10k-$15K (we usually pay for this w/ my bonus).

For the past year or so we've been saying we're going to gut our upstairs bathroom. This bathroom is currently peach in color (peach sink, bathtub, toilet). It's in great condition, just ugly.

We've been toying with the idea of looking for a new house. We're in absolutely no rush whatsoever, so we'd never put our house on the market until we found something. Because of this, I am sort of second guessing if doing a bathroom reno is worth it and think keeping the money for a larger down payment would be a smarter move.

I realize the bathroom would help sell our house, but I don't really know 'how' much it would help.

Would you do the reno or no? Keep in mind, we are in no rush to move, and it could take us up to a couple years...

[donthasslethehoff]

Totally didn't mean to post this here (thought I was on regular MM), but I guess I'll leave it in case anyone wants to respond

[GotWine]

I probably wouldn't do a complete gut and reno on the bathroom. If you can swap out the vanity, toilet and lighting for cheap just to update it a bit. It would make it more appealing for potential home buyers. As a home buyer I would rather update the bathroom for my taste specifications anyway.

[ECB]

As you're in no rush and it could be a couple more years... I don't know, I think I'd do it so that *I* could enjoy the new bathroom!

[AmyRI]

I'd replace the sink and toilet, since that is fairly inexpensive, and get a quote to refinish the tub. This assumes your wall tile isn't pink, though. I would not completely gut it if you're interested in moving.

[drloretta]

I would. I think any color other than peach would do nothing but help sell your house at some point. And as ECB said, I'd want to do it just to enjoy it for whatever amount of time I was still in the house.

[Deleted]

If there's not peach tile I would also just swap out the sink, tub and toilet.

[motzie]

I would do it. People will see that peach and immediately start knocking off thousands from your asking price. I would probably do a more generic reno, not as fancy as I would do if we were staying.

[mannah]

I would do it now and stick to widely appealing finishes, nothing too taste specific. If you're not moving anytime soon you have more time to save for a down payment and this investment could really help your sale value. I would also take into account the other bathrooms--if they're all in need of updating I might try to spread it over all iof then versus having one be super nice and the rest not.

[Deleted]

I would do it so I could love it too. I think I'd go for basic but nice and not too personal.
If you don't have a timeline it could be tomorrow it could be 10 years if you're like us...ha.

I think most people always get the price back out of a bathroom remodel for the most part so I wouldn't let that worry you.

[donthasslethehoff]

Sorry, I posted and ran to a meeting. We redid (DIY)our half bath downstairs a couple years ago. It looks nice and didn't cost us a ton. The upstairs kind of needs everything. It would look pretty strange if we didn't do the whole thing over. There's no tile on the walls, but the floor tiles are white, with a very, very faint touch of pink. (you wouldn't realize unless you looked closely).

Also, I am pretty sure that if we took the vanity out, we'd realize that the floor tile doesn't go completely under, so we'd either need to find something the exact same size, or redo our floor completely.

I am definitely not looking for anything fancy or anything too tailored to our tastes. A decent vanity, a white toilet, and a soaker tub with probably tiling up the walls around it. The walls are also kinda shitty, so we'd probably like to do the walls over too.

This is one of those things, that I want to either do completely or not do at all.

[donthasslethehoff]

Jan 15, 2015 11:09:00 GMT -5 mr+ms said:

I think it all depends on your housing market. If house prices are kind of flat/static I'd only do the reno if it was for my own enjoyment. If the market is more competitive then maybe it's worth it.

Last summer we spent 7K on new carpet for MIL's condo (the old carpet was powder blue and in terrible shape). It turned the place into move-in condition yet the offers we got after were just as crappy.

It's winter, so it's tough to tell because there's not much inventory, but i know houses near me sell quickly for very close to asking.

[donthasslethehoff]

Jan 15, 2015 10:17:33 GMT -5 @justdairy said:

I would do it so I could love it too. I think I'd go for basic but nice and not too personal.
If you don't have a timeline it could be tomorrow it could be 10 years if you're like us...ha.

I think most people always get the price back out of a bathroom remodel for the most part so I wouldn't let that worry you.

That's the 1 thing that keeps me thinking I might still want to do this. We won't move unless we find our dream house for about the same price as our mortgage is now, or if we find something cheaper that we like a lot that we can see ourselves in for 5-7 years. We're being picky, so it could realistically take that long. Haha.

[leonard131]

I would do it. Maybe more generic rather then something large and specific to your tastes. I have always heard that bathrooms and kitchens sell houses.

[magpie]

it would depend on the market for me.

Can you do a small refresh rather than a reno and get the tile/fixtures refinished into an inoffensive white and maybe change out the lighting? Colored tile/toilets/sinks are common in older houses in the area where I live and this is often done as a cheap way to make it inoffensive for a sale.

[CloudBee]

I bet if you sank $1-2k into it, the bathroom would feel new enough. I would consider that, first. All new fixtures, hardware, paint, possibly sink or flooring, lights, etc.