Is a house ever done, or finished sufficiently so that it needs no further decorating or remodeling? It depends on whom you ask, in the same way that diners disagree on when a piece of fish or meat and even pasta is properly cooked. Some like the fish almost swimming, the meat still red and the pasta al dente, or slightly firm.
In this writer/amateur designer’s case, I continually find rooms and nooks and crannies that need minor and major rejiggering. My husband is less put off by dated appliances and fixtures and unfashionable hues. Proof? He thought our house finished before I pointed out that we could never survive with its inefficient kitchen and uninspired master bathroom.
With persuasive cajoling, including the promise that our home would deliver a higher return on its investment potential if these widely appealing changes were made, I won my case. The new kitchen is a dream; the bathroom is on the drawing board to be done before you can utter “enough already.”
In our case, our different mindsets have a lot to do with how we view our home. I have a strong nesting instinct. So do Chicago homeowners Terry Abrahamson, a playwright and music writer, and his wife, Vicki, a civil rights attorney. They think they’ll always work on whatever home they’re living in since it needs to reflect their ever-changing psyches. The family’s current project is to remodel the kitchen of their 106-year-old Queen Anne home.
Kansas City author Victoria Moran defines our breed of homeowner as “housepeople.” We derive great satisfaction from caring for our houses and gardens, thereby nourishing our souls.
“It helps them feel warmer and more wonderful, if the house is more than a roof over their head and not just a financial investment. It gives them a psychological payback and proves everything can’t be looked at practically,” says Moran whose books include “Shelter for the Spirit” (Harper Collins) and “Creating a Charmed Life” (Harper, San Francisco).
But, “Just because our culture says a house is better than an apartment and big is better than small, people shouldn’t buy into such reasoning if it doesn’t make sense to them,” she continues.
Another writer, Chicagoan Leslie Levine concurs and adds that a house can never be done because, though it appears inanimate, it’s a living, breathing object, which requires its occupants to make changes to improve the quality of their lives, which change constantly. “You want to be able to walk in each time and say ‘Ah, it feels right,’ or ‘It feels so good to be home,”‘ says Levine, whose books include “Will this Place Ever Feel Like Home?” (Dearborn Trade) and “Ice Cream for Breakfast: Treating Yourself to What Really Matters.” (Contemporary Books.)
If you’ve never remodeled or decorated, or never thought about your nurturing needs, it can be hard to determine whether your house is done or even close to done. But there are objective guidelines experts say can help you better answer that query:
Your focus. If you’ve tackled every room and even have had time to accessorize tabletops and buy all new linens, it may be time to stop and find another outlet for your creativity and dollars, says Chicago designer John Himmel.
Think about redirecting that energy to your spouse, children, travel, charities, says Pepper Schwartz, a keen observer of relationships, whose latest book is “201 Questions Parents Should Ask Children/201 Questions Kids Should Ask Parents” (Avon/Harper Collins).
Chicago designer Leslie Stern tries to get clients to view rooms as done when they function and please sufficiently. “Even if not done, you sometimes need to take a break. In a year or two, make more changes. If you’re always redoing, you’re not deriving adequate satisfaction from what you have,” she says.
Your stage of life. This goes back to Abrahamson’s contention that houses are alive and constantly evolve to reflect needs. So, even if your home is done at one particular juncture, it may not be at another. It may work when your children live at home, but when they go off to college or move away permanently, bedrooms may need to be remade for a more practical purpose such as an office to maximize idle square footage, says Chicago architect Allan J. Grant.
Your home’s comparable worth. Even if you hate comparing yourself to the Joneses, at times it make sense at least to compare houses. Your home should be deemed done if its value is comparable to others in the neighborhood or in the same building.
Otherwise, you risk pricing it out of its market if you keeping overdoing and overimproving it, for example, putting a $100,000 addition onto a $350,000 house in a neighborhood of $350,000 homes. Put another way, you don’t want to own the most expensive house on your street or in your building.
“Buyers have a hard time paying a premium regardless of the health of the real estate market,” says Chicago Realtor, Jennifer Ames of Coldwell Banker.
At the same time, you need to consider how important to your happiness any changes will be, says Levine. “Even if the master bathroom doesn’t make sense financially, if sinking into a new tub nightly empowers you, go for it, but know the risks,” she says.
Your personal time frame. How long you stay in a particular house should be weighed. You can easily spend too much if you’re not going to stay for long. If you think you’re going to be in your house indefinitely, it makes more sense to go ahead since you’ll have time to enjoy results.
Mike Klein, president of Airoom Architects & Builders in Lincolnwood, held off redoing the kitchen of his first home since he knew he wouldn’t be there long enough to justify costs. For his current home, where he plans to stay at least 10 years, he has developed a master plan to proceed smartly.
Another smart move is to balance what you know you’ll enjoy having and what is likely to bring the highest return on your remodeling or decorating dollars because of its universal appeal, says architect Grant.
For example, a remodeled master bathroom has greater appeal than a sixth bedroom, but even in that bathroom choice, you have decisions to make. More homeowners care about having a second lavatory than a whirlpool tub, if price and space are issues. If you really don’t care about that second sink, at least leave enough space within the counter so a future owner can make that change.
Homeowners also care greatly these days about having professionally organized closets, says Ames. Other ways to make changes wisely are to opt for neutrality and function over highly personalized decor of bright colors, busy patterns and unusual materials.
Your investment portfolio. Your home probably represents your biggest asset but it should be far from your only one since it’s never considered part of your portfolio, says financial advisor Nancy Coutu of Money Managers Advisory in Oak Brook.
“You’ll never get a bank loan on your equity if you’re out of a job or disabled since you won’t be able to pay the mortgage. Equity in a home is worthless in an emergency since it’s not liquid.”
Coutu recommends carrying as large a mortgage as you can afford and taking out an equity line of credit in advance of needing it. “Apply for one almost as soon as you buy your house. It doesn’t mean you have to use it, but at least you’ll be able to tap into it.” Coutu also advises periodically refinancing your house.
Your home’s maintenance record. Here’s some sobering news for those who think that bringing a house up to snuff is a one-time endeavor. It isn’t. If you buy into the analogy that houses are living, breathing entities, something always wears out or breaks down. “You have to take care of what you have,” says Levine.
Chicago Realtor Charlene Williamson of Sudler and Co. is more emphatic. “You must keep your home in mint condition and not defer maintenance. Kitchens and bathrooms become dated, carpet wears out and anybody who walks in and sees maintenance deferred will automatically deduct $20,000 from the asking price.”
But the good news is that if you realize that most houses last longer than the human species who occupy them do, you do a good deed for your fellow man and woman by keeping your house healthy. “What you do is in part for posterity,” says Moran. “As someone once said to me, ‘You may not be there when the first apples arrive on the fruit trees you planted, but someone else will be.”‘
