I know! And, have you spent any time on the GW kitchens forum? There are all types of homeowners over there, and I do love to visit "kitchens" and read, and ogle the pictures... but a good portion of the folks posting over there have "before" kitchens I would have been happy with for years! Not meaning to slight them for updating... more power to them... but I just find it hard to relate to that segment of the homeowners. (Many of the others posting on kitchens are old home owners, too.) It's just funny how different our perspectives can be.

Exactly. When we renovated our kitchen three years ago, I put in a functional pitcher pump, and was very excited about it. LOL.

No dumber than when "House Hunter" people, 20-something year olds if that, go looking at $400,000 places as 'starter' homes and complain how 'oudated' really nice, perfectly good kitchen cabinets are! Maybe they should all have to go and live in Haiti for a while until they get their heads straight!

Amen larke! It's all in the perspectve isn't it!! I have a friend who won't use the toilet in my basement because it's too old! It works great, but yeah, it's 90 years old, like the rest of my house!

have a friend who won't use the toilet in my basement because it's too old!

One thing I liked about my country cottage was the outdoor privy. It kept away lots of potential weekend visitors. I only put in indoor plumbing and a septic system a couple months before I sold it.

Ah, you are all "my kind of people!" Our house was built in 1938. 2 BR, 2 BA (2nd is in the basement) Big room on the second floor but the ceiling is only 6 1/2 ft high, so it doesn't qualify as a BR. No guest room, tiny DR table.
DH's friend can't believe how small our house is.

It is JUST RIGHT for two people, but if we have overnight guests, we give them our BR and we sleep on an air mattress in the bsmt. We don't have many overnight guests. Luckily, our local friends are able to meet us at restaurants for dinner.

I admit to drooling over the fantastic houses and decor on the other THS forums, but we travel a lot and save for retirement. It's all a question of priorities. I have teased DH at least twice - "In my next life, I want a house like that."

I used to watch This Old House long ago until they started these renovations where they would put in state of the art heating and cooling systems, top of the line windows and exotic wood floors. Yeah, it would be nice to remodel an old house and put a million dollars into it like they do.

and that is why I love some of the folks on here. they have ordinary homes like I do. I have a 875 sf house. I love to watch 10 grand in your hand though. although they do put in nice things sometimes, they show you the steps to get there regardless of the materials you use. my kindda show. I gave up on TOH a long time ago. Bob buckled in to the endorsements.

I agree that some home 'updates' are pretty ridiculous now adays! Especially when funds are sometimes best spent in other facets of your life.

That being said, as a mid-twenty year old who bought his first house for > $400k, I figured I would throw a different perspective into the mix.

I bought my first place (1930's tudor style) about a year ago in Toronto, Ontario. Unfortunately, 400k is what is necessary here to get a nice home in a nice neighbourhood (and by nice I mean a 1,000 sq ft bungalow with 2 bdrms). The difference is that I bought slightly out of my price range as means to an investment. We made some really simple renos at a very low cost and had our home appraised recently at $50,000 more than we had purchased.

Realizing that markets fluctuate (and especially real-estate) my point is sometimes these young folks aren't as dumb as they may appear.