boltonblue

Well Lainey, there are two reasons we are doing our counters.
the first is we will be selling in the next few years and downsizing. so we need something marketable.
it's also the reason we are doing quartz and not corian.
The second and more important reason is all of the counters in the house we're formica laminate before and all are de-laminating.
So it is time.

And Tachus I agree on the 15 year window as pretty accurate.

Tachus

But do you agree on the $10,000 a year for up keep of a house. I have friends here who think it is more like $8,000.

Lainey

I'm hoping it's less than 10K. I'm not planning on 10K/year. Our house is pretty small compared to some of the homes belonging to others here. Size matters.

dlq04

I have never budgeted for home improvements but I do keep records. Looking at the past dozen we averaged about $7k. Some years we were in the mid-$20k's and we had 3 years where we didn't spend anything on what I would call an improvement such as landscaping, remodeling, new roof, new driveways, etc. I didn't include things like mowers, snowblowers, TVs, washer/dryers, etc. Gee if I had budgeted $10k I would have enough left over for an S2000. Everyone's situation is different and it also depends a lot on how much you do yourself vs. paying someone to do it.

buckeyesue

There are so many variables that I think that it would be very hard to give an amount that would be the same across the board.

In 2017, we started the remodeling of 2 bathrooms, and spent a lot more than $10,000.

In 2018, we started the remodeling of our kitchen. Well, basically the whole entire first floor of our house. Hopefully, the kitchen, etc, will all be finished within the next month or so.

We have spent way way way more than $10,000 on the kitchen, etc, remodel.

I wouldn't really worry about how much your friends are budgeting versus what you are budgeting.

Lainey

I bet your records are better than mine! I have kept receipts from major projects and other purchases, that's the extent of my record keeping. I can't say I really have a "budget" as to how much we'll need for home improvement/maintenance however I entered a figure on a spread sheet when attempting to calculate how much money we will need beyond our SS. It's going to be variable. As Dave mentioned, sometimes you won't spend the figure you have in your head (or on a spreadsheet) other years you will spend more. Our kitchen appliances are all from 2003, you know what that means....I would not mind a new living room rug, we could use a chair, it's almost time to paint, I could easily spend the figure in my head but I'm not in a home maintenance/house decorating mood right now.

boltonblue

not necessarily, that's where size comes into play.
$10k might be a good starting point.
Our existing house has 52 square of shingles.
Reroofing that vs a small cape at 8 or 10 square is a huge cost delta.
same with painting. We have 58 windows.
We have 4 separate AC systems. Replacing any one of them could cost upwards of 7 or 8 grand ( I closing my eyes as I don't really want to know )
The air handler fan is about $800 to place, so we have four.

That is maintenance only right? not heating and cooling costs.
In a bad year I can blow that the budget on just that.
I'll also assume your not counting property taxes in that budget.

Tachus

You have a lot of windows and AC units! I'm guessing that if you stay in the house you will find yourself easily spending $10,000 on average a year. I was not including property taxes, that's another horror story if you ask me. I wasn't so concerned about ourselves at this age but I do have to say that it was not a number we ever gave consideration to when we were younger. With two sons now owning homes the thought came to mind. I suppose, if they get a huge repair bill they will just roll it into the mortgage.

dlq04

Jerry, why did you buy such an over-sized house? Where you speculating on value?

Scooterboy

He must be one of those one percenters everyone talks about!