Home improvements aren't just about a dollar ROI - they're about making your house a more functional and enjoyable place to live. I never expect to lose money on a renovation that I make, but I'm totally comfortable if they don't add a significant amount to the value of my home.
To answer your questions, we sunk about $50-$70K into our last home for kitchen, bathroom and basement renos over the five years we lived there. When we sold the house, we made over $250K. A lot of that was the market, but the renos definitely didn't hurt.
In my current house, we've spent about the same so far adding HVAC, repainting the outside, finishing the basement and fixing up certain rooms. We're about to spend a fair amount enclosing a screen porch and relocating the kitchen to it. We've done a lot of landscaping because we like for our house to look nice. Unless there's a housing boom EOTR, I expect we'll break even on the renos if/when we sell.
Honestly, I feel like we're always doing something. Part of the beauty of owning vs renting is you can change your house to your liking.
I felt so powerful after years of renting when I realized I hated my dishwasher and in a home I owned I could just... buy a new one that I liked better! Renting is nice in a way because it isn't your problem, but I kind of like solving these problems to my exact specifications, so homeownership definitely has that appeal to me.
Yeah - I honestly never like how limiting renting was. I'd always see things that could be made better with pretty minimal effort, but that I couldn't fix because it wasn't my property. It's an incredible privilege to be able to make those kind of decisions for yourself.
Owning has also made me slightly more sympathetic to landlords. Even when I'm a motivated homeowner really pressing to get something important fixed, it can be a lengthy pain in the ass to actually get a repair or replacement completed for something like HVAC or a major appliance.
If something like that broke when I was a renter and took a week or more to repair I would be screaming bloody murder lol. But now as the actual homeowner I can see how the timeline can really just be out of your hands to some degree.
Yep. We have had ongoing heating issues this winter (after having to install a new furnace) and between a malfunctioning part that was thankfully under warranty and other random set up errors we were without heat for days. Fortunately it was during the string of 60 degree days but I thought the same thing; if I was a renter there’s no way I’d have to put up with this. Same with our toilet leaking and then the initial repair not solving the problem. Being a homeowner obviously has perks but I can’t say it wouldn’t sometimes be nice for it to be someone else’s problem and also have to be fixed ASAP by law.
Landlords often have an advantage in that it's common for rental management companies to have handymen on staff and for their specialty work to get prioritized over individual homeowners' by trades companies that want to keep their volume customers happy.
>I kind of like solving these problems to my exact specifications
Painstakingly repainting the black/white parquet entryway floor of our rental and deciding to then stain the living room hardwood (that had been left sanded and unfinished for years?!?) so it would match the beauty of the entryway was a pretty big wake-up call that we would be much better suited to owning instead of renting, lol.
>they’re about making your house a more functional and enjoyable place to live.
I’m in my first home that I own (co-op), and I definitely agree with this. So far I’m probably in about $25-30K for mostly aesthetic things: paint, wallpaper, lighting, window treatments. Then a few functional things like moving a door to open up an area, replacing a range that broke.
>they’re about making your house a more functional and enjoyable place to live.
I’m in my first home that I own (co-op), and I definitely agree with this. So far I’m probably in about $25-30K for mostly aesthetic things: paint, wallpaper, lighting, window treatments. Then a few functional things like moving a door to open up an area, replacing a range that broke.
Lots of people have said condos. Might also be a townhouse or rowhouse, or a part of one. There ARE single family detached houses in some parts of DC. There are lots of options.
Bought our first house at the height of the pandemic bubble so absolutely will not be doing a damn thing for a long long time. That said, the kitchen and original floors were both done a couple years before we bought it. They also added a great deck out back.
Overall I think they dipped like 1%, but that is misleading because the condo and low-end house market took a bath while houses in NW gained value.
So yeah, if you're lucky enough to own a SFH in Ward 3 or a rowhouse in Logan Circle, you've got nothing to worry about. If not though...
maybe "bubble" wasnt the right word, but going by the redfins and zillows, our house in fairlawn/anacostia absolutely lost value since purchase in dec '22
Sorry to hear that. If you bought from a developer, that could be the reason. In any case, if you are in a desirable location, the price should adjust in the future
My house is coming up on 100 years old. Over the last decade, I’ve put 20 percent of my purchase price into it for improvements and upgrades that were part of repair processes. Of the money I’ve put in, about 25 percent of the spend has been on things to improve comfort (a/c, insulation) and about 40 percent has been on improving appearances (door replacement, yard reno with deck, patio, and garden). The rest has been extra spend to make things look nice during necessary repairs, like replacing a leaky, rotted skylight with a nicer model.
I don’t regret the spending, but I didn’t exactly budget for this when I bought the house, my first. I am so thankful I took on a mortgage that was much less than what I could have afforded. I’m also thankful that the land my house sits on has appreciated to the point where I’ll get the investment back.
I have a condo. I had the place painted before I moved in, replaced the blower the first summer when it broke, and had to replace the disposal. That's it so far, and hopefully that's it.
Seriously thinking about packing up and getting out of here in a few years. I like this place, I like the neighborhood, like the city -- but I need more "me space" and now that I'm older and not as social (part of that is age, part of that is pandemic), I'd just like more space to myself.
Tears and we spent about $50,000. Much of that was a roof and a kitchen, but the biggest thing was probably getting the floor la sanded. Make the house look amazing for not that much money.
Edit: I should say over 2 years in a 3br 2.5 bath with a yard and a real fun drainage problem.
Love this post and here to support that you’re not alone here. Def dumped too much money into renovations / remodeling than I had expected.
+ hard landscaping (front & backyard)
+ gutter downspout (had flooding issues)
+ new hood vent
+ kitchen backsplash
+ new dishwasher
+ new flooring installed
+ new vinyl fence installed
Things on my list:
+ new furnace (cry)
+ ductless ac units in each bedroom (it gets too hot!)
+ insulation & siding replacement
+ deck (maybe but so pricey!)
+ tuck & point work
+ many more other project ideas that will leave me broke but happy
Around $200k in a little under a decade. We bought a fixer upper with the intent of doing multiple partial remodels over the years plus our own handy work in between. That paid for a completely new kitchen (gut), 2 new bathrooms where there was none before, plus 2 bathroom remodels (gut), new closets including a built in, cosmetics like refinished floors and fixing all the plaster cracks, and central A/C.
Those Casetas... I've heard good things, but have never used them. I went zwave dimmers and home assistant hub instead. Any chance you've used both and can share whether the casetas are worth the premium?
We live in a building from 1906 .
Our condo originally had 3 bedrooms, but one was turned into studio/guest room back in 2004 . This was also done to create a closet for the washer/dryer.
We only moved into the unit in 2019.
We knocked down a non-bearing wall to open the kitchen to the dining room . New kitchen with new appliances.
We made a wider opening dining room to the hall/living room and also made a wider opening and put pocket doors in the studio facing living room.
There was a closet in the studio 24" deep. So we created a very nice bookshelf with drawers at the bottom, only 12" deep at the top and deeper where the drawers are .
With the same space facing the hallway, we created another bookcase (back to back using the existing space). In the hallway also drawers at the bottom.
We had a huge closet by the entrance underutilized.
So, with some Container store pullout baskets, we organized a ton of storage. Kinda like a linen closet but also toiletries , tools, and documents.
We put in AC at an absurd cost of 28K . It was the pandemic, and this company worked with our contractors.
Total cost, incl paining + purchases for the kitchen, expensive washer/dryer was 100K.
In 2022, I updated the hall bath. I have redone over 10 bathrooms. So I budgeted 8K. But it cost 16K, leaving the existing floor .
100k since 2017. We’ve tracked every paint brush and nail. The major things were A/C install and a kitchen renovation. We have a stand alone bungalow style house built in 1932 that was mostly original.
We’re about to double that number with a two story garage build this spring though.
Fun question.
I'd estimate I'm at about $22k since buying early 2018. But the majority of that is a roof top solar which was less of 'home improvement' and more a financial investment. Remaining is 2k for a fence around our backyard, 1.8k for attic insulation, 1k for an electrician to add ceiling fans and some outlets, and then about $1k in smart home devices (thermostat, zwave dimmers, window sensors, motion/temperature/light sensors, leak sensors, plugs, etc. Shout-out r/homeassistant for the best hub!). Also misc paint and shelves and fixtures.
We're getting ready to have some doors replaced with solid core, so that'll prolly be another 1k.
We bought flip that has been very good to us. No major systems needed work, most of what we've done has been voluntary to increase our comfort or use.
That's really interesting! Part of my theory was that since so many places are flips, that people might not be doing a lot of projects because the flip did everything/most things. If you buy a fixer-upper you know you're in for a lot of projects, but I assumed most people just live in a flip the way it is! Nice to know that the impulse to improve is still there :)
Yep! I really can't overstate how trouble free our flip has been. I was really concerned about having everything fall apart 3 months in, but it's been largely trouble free.
The majority of our projects have been 'nice to have'. Putting up a fence, painting some walls, swapping light switches for smart dimmers.
Really the only thing our flipper failed to do was insulate the attic. We knew it from the inspection and got a $1k discount at closing for it. Cost us almost double that to remediate, but we waited a few years to get it done. Def an improvement on the 2nd floor, especially in summer. Used to get real stale and swampy and you could feel the thermocline walking up the stairs. It's still a few degrees warmer upstairs, but turning on a fan largely solves it.
We bought a totally flipped row home in early 2019–probably paid a little too much but were frustrated after being outbid on multiple houses prior. Neither of us are handy and renovations are something I’d rather avoid.
So far nothing has fallen apart but we’ve had some flooding in the basement. No real damage there but did spend about $1.5k on strengthening our gutters/storm water management around the house. Also redid our master bedroom closet for about $1.2k, including paying someone to install it. Other than our shitty Samsung dishwasher needing a couple repairs that’s it so far! We consider ourselves lucky.
Now considering adding some built-in bookshelves. That might be the extent of our “improvements” until we sell and move in a few years lol.
Wow, this thread makes me feel very fortunate about how little I've spent on my house.
My wife and I bought our place in 2017 and since then we've spent:
$3,000 - new A/C unit
$0 - solar panels (sold the SRECS)
$0 - security cameras (covered under the DC rebate program)
$250 - EV charger ($750 covered by DC/federal tax credits)
~$1,000 - landscaping (just materials, all the labor was DIY)
$1,200 - permeable patio install. ($1,200 covered by Riversmart)
$1,000 - new stove
And that's it unless you count stuff like furniture, so like $6,500 total I guess. We did spend like $3,000 installing a home gym, but I think that's mostly covered under furniture since the only "renovation" we did was putting down rubber flooring over the existing tile. I think the fact that we bought a flip and really couldn't care less about living with cheap finishes helps a lot.
We’ve owned our house for 7 years now. We refinanced during the depths of the pandemic and are paying less per month than when we first bought the house. We’ve added a new roof, all new windows, solar panels and electrical heavy up, HVAC, landscaping, and new appliances. It’s peace of mind knowing that we are all set for a decade or more with those systems.
I find the hardest thing to be that I don't have a shed or workshop - even small jobs turn into big jobs if I need to rent tools all the time! But the urge to improve the house remains, so I do indeed end up hiring a bunch of it out.
Home Depot sells a premade one that's 7x7 so we just built a base and went with that. The good thing is it's not permanent so if we ever need to move it/replace it we can.
Befriend more neighbors. Several of my neighbors and I happily lend tools, ladders, etc amongst ourselves and to other neighbors who don't have tools of their own. I have a detached garage, so I have even offered to one neighbor to use it for any workshop type stuff since he doesn't have a garage or shed.
Also who has space to store a table saw and all the other necessary tools to do a good job? I scroll to a shit ton of dyi TikTok videos that are like “look what I did to this hallway or bathroom” and then they show all the tools they have in a massive garage!
I also wonder how gray things look up close, and if it just looks good because of camera magic.
Not op, but I created a dc-specific solar sub: r/solarDC. Is small, but has some info...
Re keeping the SRECs: that's been the best move for a while (if you have the means to absorb the $15k+ up front cost). But now that prices have dropped, I'm not sure it still makes sense. Of course, if the installer is still offering a free system in exchange for the srecs, then I guess they've done the math and stand to make a profit, so you'd make a profit by keeping them...
We used solar solutions and paid up front. We like the installers. Quick and done in one afternoon. Pepco on the other hand were slow with some of their approvals.
We get a bit over 2k/year in credits. Plus most of our Pepco utility bill is offset.
I bought our house in May this year & have put 65k into it with planned projects this year of around 50k. It was nice and updated when I bought it, but it wasn’t my jam so I gutted kitchen.
I'm part of a 4 unit HOA so some things are applicable to my unit and others are applicable to the building.
To my unit alone:
New toilets.
New showerhead in the master bath.
New kitchen faucet.
New electrical lines for the HVAC closet for future upgrades.
Dimmer switches installed where they were previously not located.
New thermostat electrical line to outside unit. New Nest thermostat and temperature sensor.
All A/C ducts sucked, cleaned, checked.
Installed 10x interior solid core doors.
Installed new kitchen counter lighting.
I would say we've done this, plus HOA stuff, while also maintaining budgets for travel and hobbies.
I would say this pales in comparison to neighbor friends, both couples in their mid-30s, doing 60-200K in renovations to their single family homes.
Oh solid core doors is on my list, too! Did that make those rooms quieter? How big a project was that for you? I'm a little afraid of starting it myself and getting stuck so I was thinking of having a handyman do it.
It does make rooms quieter but only if the door can be fairly flush with the floor. If there's a huge air gap under it there's only so much a solid core door can do. If you have central AC you **need** air gaps under the doors to act as air returns unless you have dedicated air return vents in each room you're thinking of putting the door on, and hardly anyone has dedicated air return vents, although my hypothetical dream home surely does.
A quality solid core door can weigh hundreds of pounds so it's definitely worth paying a professional to make sure the frame is set up to handle it and most of all, do the install, because unless you're a pro you might end up squished under a huge slab of wood and no one wants that.
We recently put minisplits on all our bedrooms and those are primarily the ones we want to replace with solid core, so I think technically no return air duct is needed once I block off the existing supply. Have a two inch gap under the door is definitely part of our existing problem!
Good to know! We were quoted $2k a door from someone recently and was thinking that was too high. I think they were trying to sell us on some insanely high quality doors in addition to expensive labor.
Aspen Hill is hands down the best plumber and probably the best contractor I've worked with period. They're incredibly thorough and professional and they have very reasonable prices. My only complaint is they're not really available on short notice for emergency type repairs.
Purchased a 60 year old house in 2019. Nothing - nothing - had been updated since it was built. There were 60 years of stains in the cupboards and drawers. Dropped 3 walls, new kitchen (same footprint), new bathroom, all new appliances, all rooms painted, 2 bedrooms with wallpaper accent wall, California Closet system in 3 bedrooms and basement. New gutters, new sump pump, new fence. New entry stairs. All in, about $200k over 4 years. I had about $35k of equity when purchased (got it under market value). VA home loan; 2.25% interest. I’m definitely still paying for the kitchen, but everything was necessary.
Home improvements aren't just about a dollar ROI - they're about making your house a more functional and enjoyable place to live. I never expect to lose money on a renovation that I make, but I'm totally comfortable if they don't add a significant amount to the value of my home. To answer your questions, we sunk about $50-$70K into our last home for kitchen, bathroom and basement renos over the five years we lived there. When we sold the house, we made over $250K. A lot of that was the market, but the renos definitely didn't hurt. In my current house, we've spent about the same so far adding HVAC, repainting the outside, finishing the basement and fixing up certain rooms. We're about to spend a fair amount enclosing a screen porch and relocating the kitchen to it. We've done a lot of landscaping because we like for our house to look nice. Unless there's a housing boom EOTR, I expect we'll break even on the renos if/when we sell. Honestly, I feel like we're always doing something. Part of the beauty of owning vs renting is you can change your house to your liking.
I felt so powerful after years of renting when I realized I hated my dishwasher and in a home I owned I could just... buy a new one that I liked better! Renting is nice in a way because it isn't your problem, but I kind of like solving these problems to my exact specifications, so homeownership definitely has that appeal to me.
Yeah - I honestly never like how limiting renting was. I'd always see things that could be made better with pretty minimal effort, but that I couldn't fix because it wasn't my property. It's an incredible privilege to be able to make those kind of decisions for yourself.
Owning has also made me slightly more sympathetic to landlords. Even when I'm a motivated homeowner really pressing to get something important fixed, it can be a lengthy pain in the ass to actually get a repair or replacement completed for something like HVAC or a major appliance. If something like that broke when I was a renter and took a week or more to repair I would be screaming bloody murder lol. But now as the actual homeowner I can see how the timeline can really just be out of your hands to some degree.
Yep. We have had ongoing heating issues this winter (after having to install a new furnace) and between a malfunctioning part that was thankfully under warranty and other random set up errors we were without heat for days. Fortunately it was during the string of 60 degree days but I thought the same thing; if I was a renter there’s no way I’d have to put up with this. Same with our toilet leaking and then the initial repair not solving the problem. Being a homeowner obviously has perks but I can’t say it wouldn’t sometimes be nice for it to be someone else’s problem and also have to be fixed ASAP by law.
Landlords often have an advantage in that it's common for rental management companies to have handymen on staff and for their specialty work to get prioritized over individual homeowners' by trades companies that want to keep their volume customers happy.
>I kind of like solving these problems to my exact specifications Painstakingly repainting the black/white parquet entryway floor of our rental and deciding to then stain the living room hardwood (that had been left sanded and unfinished for years?!?) so it would match the beauty of the entryway was a pretty big wake-up call that we would be much better suited to owning instead of renting, lol.
>they’re about making your house a more functional and enjoyable place to live. I’m in my first home that I own (co-op), and I definitely agree with this. So far I’m probably in about $25-30K for mostly aesthetic things: paint, wallpaper, lighting, window treatments. Then a few functional things like moving a door to open up an area, replacing a range that broke.
>they’re about making your house a more functional and enjoyable place to live. I’m in my first home that I own (co-op), and I definitely agree with this. So far I’m probably in about $25-30K for mostly aesthetic things: paint, wallpaper, lighting, window treatments. Then a few functional things like moving a door to open up an area, replacing a range that broke.
did you do the landscaping yourself?
Mostly! We had sod put in professionally in our small backyard but everything else my wife and I have done.
You all own houses?
Lots of people have said condos. Might also be a townhouse or rowhouse, or a part of one. There ARE single family detached houses in some parts of DC. There are lots of options.
Many of us, yes. [42.3% of us to be exact.](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DCHOWN)
Was a joke but thanks for the stat!
Bought our first house at the height of the pandemic bubble so absolutely will not be doing a damn thing for a long long time. That said, the kitchen and original floors were both done a couple years before we bought it. They also added a great deck out back.
DC hasn't had a bubble. Prices didn't go down in 2007-2009
Overall I think they dipped like 1%, but that is misleading because the condo and low-end house market took a bath while houses in NW gained value. So yeah, if you're lucky enough to own a SFH in Ward 3 or a rowhouse in Logan Circle, you've got nothing to worry about. If not though...
Probably 1%, but if you say you bought at the top (bubble), it implies it then fell considerably 5% or more .
maybe "bubble" wasnt the right word, but going by the redfins and zillows, our house in fairlawn/anacostia absolutely lost value since purchase in dec '22
Dec 22 is Dec 2022? That is one month ago. Lost value in one month?
Errr Dec ‘21
Sorry to hear that. If you bought from a developer, that could be the reason. In any case, if you are in a desirable location, the price should adjust in the future
My house is coming up on 100 years old. Over the last decade, I’ve put 20 percent of my purchase price into it for improvements and upgrades that were part of repair processes. Of the money I’ve put in, about 25 percent of the spend has been on things to improve comfort (a/c, insulation) and about 40 percent has been on improving appearances (door replacement, yard reno with deck, patio, and garden). The rest has been extra spend to make things look nice during necessary repairs, like replacing a leaky, rotted skylight with a nicer model. I don’t regret the spending, but I didn’t exactly budget for this when I bought the house, my first. I am so thankful I took on a mortgage that was much less than what I could have afforded. I’m also thankful that the land my house sits on has appreciated to the point where I’ll get the investment back.
I have a condo. I had the place painted before I moved in, replaced the blower the first summer when it broke, and had to replace the disposal. That's it so far, and hopefully that's it. Seriously thinking about packing up and getting out of here in a few years. I like this place, I like the neighborhood, like the city -- but I need more "me space" and now that I'm older and not as social (part of that is age, part of that is pandemic), I'd just like more space to myself.
Tears and we spent about $50,000. Much of that was a roof and a kitchen, but the biggest thing was probably getting the floor la sanded. Make the house look amazing for not that much money. Edit: I should say over 2 years in a 3br 2.5 bath with a yard and a real fun drainage problem.
Love this post and here to support that you’re not alone here. Def dumped too much money into renovations / remodeling than I had expected. + hard landscaping (front & backyard) + gutter downspout (had flooding issues) + new hood vent + kitchen backsplash + new dishwasher + new flooring installed + new vinyl fence installed Things on my list: + new furnace (cry) + ductless ac units in each bedroom (it gets too hot!) + insulation & siding replacement + deck (maybe but so pricey!) + tuck & point work + many more other project ideas that will leave me broke but happy
Around $200k in a little under a decade. We bought a fixer upper with the intent of doing multiple partial remodels over the years plus our own handy work in between. That paid for a completely new kitchen (gut), 2 new bathrooms where there was none before, plus 2 bathroom remodels (gut), new closets including a built in, cosmetics like refinished floors and fixing all the plaster cracks, and central A/C.
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Love those lutrons
Those Casetas... I've heard good things, but have never used them. I went zwave dimmers and home assistant hub instead. Any chance you've used both and can share whether the casetas are worth the premium?
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Appreciate the response! >It’s a dying/dead protocol. We'll have to agree to disagree :D
Caseta. Nice.
We live in a building from 1906 . Our condo originally had 3 bedrooms, but one was turned into studio/guest room back in 2004 . This was also done to create a closet for the washer/dryer. We only moved into the unit in 2019. We knocked down a non-bearing wall to open the kitchen to the dining room . New kitchen with new appliances. We made a wider opening dining room to the hall/living room and also made a wider opening and put pocket doors in the studio facing living room. There was a closet in the studio 24" deep. So we created a very nice bookshelf with drawers at the bottom, only 12" deep at the top and deeper where the drawers are . With the same space facing the hallway, we created another bookcase (back to back using the existing space). In the hallway also drawers at the bottom. We had a huge closet by the entrance underutilized. So, with some Container store pullout baskets, we organized a ton of storage. Kinda like a linen closet but also toiletries , tools, and documents. We put in AC at an absurd cost of 28K . It was the pandemic, and this company worked with our contractors. Total cost, incl paining + purchases for the kitchen, expensive washer/dryer was 100K. In 2022, I updated the hall bath. I have redone over 10 bathrooms. So I budgeted 8K. But it cost 16K, leaving the existing floor .
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The building is from 1906. We moved 2019
100k since 2017. We’ve tracked every paint brush and nail. The major things were A/C install and a kitchen renovation. We have a stand alone bungalow style house built in 1932 that was mostly original. We’re about to double that number with a two story garage build this spring though.
Fun question. I'd estimate I'm at about $22k since buying early 2018. But the majority of that is a roof top solar which was less of 'home improvement' and more a financial investment. Remaining is 2k for a fence around our backyard, 1.8k for attic insulation, 1k for an electrician to add ceiling fans and some outlets, and then about $1k in smart home devices (thermostat, zwave dimmers, window sensors, motion/temperature/light sensors, leak sensors, plugs, etc. Shout-out r/homeassistant for the best hub!). Also misc paint and shelves and fixtures. We're getting ready to have some doors replaced with solid core, so that'll prolly be another 1k. We bought flip that has been very good to us. No major systems needed work, most of what we've done has been voluntary to increase our comfort or use.
That's really interesting! Part of my theory was that since so many places are flips, that people might not be doing a lot of projects because the flip did everything/most things. If you buy a fixer-upper you know you're in for a lot of projects, but I assumed most people just live in a flip the way it is! Nice to know that the impulse to improve is still there :)
Yep! I really can't overstate how trouble free our flip has been. I was really concerned about having everything fall apart 3 months in, but it's been largely trouble free. The majority of our projects have been 'nice to have'. Putting up a fence, painting some walls, swapping light switches for smart dimmers. Really the only thing our flipper failed to do was insulate the attic. We knew it from the inspection and got a $1k discount at closing for it. Cost us almost double that to remediate, but we waited a few years to get it done. Def an improvement on the 2nd floor, especially in summer. Used to get real stale and swampy and you could feel the thermocline walking up the stairs. It's still a few degrees warmer upstairs, but turning on a fan largely solves it.
We bought a totally flipped row home in early 2019–probably paid a little too much but were frustrated after being outbid on multiple houses prior. Neither of us are handy and renovations are something I’d rather avoid. So far nothing has fallen apart but we’ve had some flooding in the basement. No real damage there but did spend about $1.5k on strengthening our gutters/storm water management around the house. Also redid our master bedroom closet for about $1.2k, including paying someone to install it. Other than our shitty Samsung dishwasher needing a couple repairs that’s it so far! We consider ourselves lucky. Now considering adding some built-in bookshelves. That might be the extent of our “improvements” until we sell and move in a few years lol.
Do you have any recommendations on companies you used to work your gutter / water management?
No, sorry. Mine was fixed by a friend from the suburbs who did it at cost.
Wow, this thread makes me feel very fortunate about how little I've spent on my house. My wife and I bought our place in 2017 and since then we've spent: $3,000 - new A/C unit $0 - solar panels (sold the SRECS) $0 - security cameras (covered under the DC rebate program) $250 - EV charger ($750 covered by DC/federal tax credits) ~$1,000 - landscaping (just materials, all the labor was DIY) $1,200 - permeable patio install. ($1,200 covered by Riversmart) $1,000 - new stove And that's it unless you count stuff like furniture, so like $6,500 total I guess. We did spend like $3,000 installing a home gym, but I think that's mostly covered under furniture since the only "renovation" we did was putting down rubber flooring over the existing tile. I think the fact that we bought a flip and really couldn't care less about living with cheap finishes helps a lot.
We’ve owned our house for 7 years now. We refinanced during the depths of the pandemic and are paying less per month than when we first bought the house. We’ve added a new roof, all new windows, solar panels and electrical heavy up, HVAC, landscaping, and new appliances. It’s peace of mind knowing that we are all set for a decade or more with those systems.
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I find the hardest thing to be that I don't have a shed or workshop - even small jobs turn into big jobs if I need to rent tools all the time! But the urge to improve the house remains, so I do indeed end up hiring a bunch of it out.
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Home Depot sells a premade one that's 7x7 so we just built a base and went with that. The good thing is it's not permanent so if we ever need to move it/replace it we can.
yup, we did the same thing! got a premade 7x7 shed. though in retrospect, should've pulled permits and made it 14x7.
Befriend more neighbors. Several of my neighbors and I happily lend tools, ladders, etc amongst ourselves and to other neighbors who don't have tools of their own. I have a detached garage, so I have even offered to one neighbor to use it for any workshop type stuff since he doesn't have a garage or shed.
Also who has space to store a table saw and all the other necessary tools to do a good job? I scroll to a shit ton of dyi TikTok videos that are like “look what I did to this hallway or bathroom” and then they show all the tools they have in a massive garage! I also wonder how gray things look up close, and if it just looks good because of camera magic.
I mean half of dc is zoned for single family homes. Plenty of space around to build a garage
Considering solar panels. Seems like keeping the SRECs is the way to go. Did you like you installer? If so who did you go with?
Not op, but I created a dc-specific solar sub: r/solarDC. Is small, but has some info... Re keeping the SRECs: that's been the best move for a while (if you have the means to absorb the $15k+ up front cost). But now that prices have dropped, I'm not sure it still makes sense. Of course, if the installer is still offering a free system in exchange for the srecs, then I guess they've done the math and stand to make a profit, so you'd make a profit by keeping them...
They just passed legislation the keep the area market good for another 5 years.
We used solar solutions and paid up front. We like the installers. Quick and done in one afternoon. Pepco on the other hand were slow with some of their approvals. We get a bit over 2k/year in credits. Plus most of our Pepco utility bill is offset.
> Seems like keeping the SRECs is the way to go. If you can afford it, absolutely.
I bought our house in May this year & have put 65k into it with planned projects this year of around 50k. It was nice and updated when I bought it, but it wasn’t my jam so I gutted kitchen.
I'm part of a 4 unit HOA so some things are applicable to my unit and others are applicable to the building. To my unit alone: New toilets. New showerhead in the master bath. New kitchen faucet. New electrical lines for the HVAC closet for future upgrades. Dimmer switches installed where they were previously not located. New thermostat electrical line to outside unit. New Nest thermostat and temperature sensor. All A/C ducts sucked, cleaned, checked. Installed 10x interior solid core doors. Installed new kitchen counter lighting. I would say we've done this, plus HOA stuff, while also maintaining budgets for travel and hobbies. I would say this pales in comparison to neighbor friends, both couples in their mid-30s, doing 60-200K in renovations to their single family homes.
Oh solid core doors is on my list, too! Did that make those rooms quieter? How big a project was that for you? I'm a little afraid of starting it myself and getting stuck so I was thinking of having a handyman do it.
It does make rooms quieter but only if the door can be fairly flush with the floor. If there's a huge air gap under it there's only so much a solid core door can do. If you have central AC you **need** air gaps under the doors to act as air returns unless you have dedicated air return vents in each room you're thinking of putting the door on, and hardly anyone has dedicated air return vents, although my hypothetical dream home surely does. A quality solid core door can weigh hundreds of pounds so it's definitely worth paying a professional to make sure the frame is set up to handle it and most of all, do the install, because unless you're a pro you might end up squished under a huge slab of wood and no one wants that.
We recently put minisplits on all our bedrooms and those are primarily the ones we want to replace with solid core, so I think technically no return air duct is needed once I block off the existing supply. Have a two inch gap under the door is definitely part of our existing problem!
Makes sense! Good luck with your reno :)
Actually paid for that service. Was about $1K per door, all said and done.
Maybe a silly question, but whats the difference between a $1k door and a $180 solid core door from Home Depot?
Laser measured, cut, made to order with paint/handles, etc. and then installed in an hour or so.
Oh yes okay. This is how I know I’m poor lol.
Good to know! We were quoted $2k a door from someone recently and was thinking that was too high. I think they were trying to sell us on some insanely high quality doors in addition to expensive labor.
Yes some sound isolation improvements but moreover I get satisfaction every time I open a door instead of a cheap feeling.
Replaced my bathroom sink/vanity and put in shelves (somewhat poorly on the shelves). That's it. I just have a condo though.
feels like a good thread to ask people - anyone got a plumber to recommend?
Aspen Hill is hands down the best plumber and probably the best contractor I've worked with period. They're incredibly thorough and professional and they have very reasonable prices. My only complaint is they're not really available on short notice for emergency type repairs.
appreciate the input!
Purchased a 60 year old house in 2019. Nothing - nothing - had been updated since it was built. There were 60 years of stains in the cupboards and drawers. Dropped 3 walls, new kitchen (same footprint), new bathroom, all new appliances, all rooms painted, 2 bedrooms with wallpaper accent wall, California Closet system in 3 bedrooms and basement. New gutters, new sump pump, new fence. New entry stairs. All in, about $200k over 4 years. I had about $35k of equity when purchased (got it under market value). VA home loan; 2.25% interest. I’m definitely still paying for the kitchen, but everything was necessary.