I'm officially done with carpet

julieanne912

vlagrl29 said:

short+sassy said:

vlagrl29 said:

brij2006 said:

Just a tip, too.  You can probably get a better rate on a regular mortgage rather than taking out a HELOC, since your home is paid for. 

Good to know - I will ask about that as well.  As far as the line of credit - last time I check at our credit union it was to be around 2.5%

Always good to look at different options.  Also look at the fees in addition to the interest.  I'm assuming you will need to pay for an appraisal for either type of line.  At least that is what is usually required, but it might be different when you own your house outright.  GL!

Last time I applied at my old bank they didn't require appraisal

We actually just looked into a HELOC with our credit union, to prepare for a big landscaping project next spring.  They pulled our address up in their system and told us we had no equity.  Turns out because it's a new build their system wasn't updated, but she said if we were remotely close to the value we were after in their system, they wouldn't require an appraisal.  

But for us, we have to pay for an appraisal.  The credit union's system said our house was worth $260,000 LOL  Our mortgage balance is around $390,000 and BASE price from the builder for our model is $400,000 (we have 70k in upgrades and have added a $18k driveway)   (And yes I'm jealous of all of you that live in lower cost of living places).  

als1982

There is no way that I would finance a purely cosmetic home improvement.

vlagrl29

als1982 said:

There is no way that I would finance a purely cosmetic home improvement.

I know your write but it can't hurt to get quotes so I know what we can expect to spend. Sure we will eventually need to get a new ac unit and fix the crack in our driveway. It would just be nice to actually have something not maintenance related ya know? Eventually the carpet will get disgusting with a 2nd kid. Mils got so bad it was pulling away from the walls. DH was putting the idea of buying a new home with wood floors instead but I'm really not ready for that yet.

abrewer5

vlagrl29 said:

abrewer5 said:

We have a laminate hardwood look in our kitchen and foyer/half bath on the main floor of our house (you can see it a little in my picture of my dog). You can see dust and dog hair, but we vacuum every week and I Swiffer a good a bit. Usually I just vacuum it, wet Swiffer for dirt and then dry Swiffer to get rid of the streaks. I like it A LOT better than carpet.

We actually want to replace our living room carpet with the same laminate to cover the whole first floor but my poor dog would hate it.

If this were our "forever home" I would get real hardwood versus laminate.

I don't see it as being our forever home BUT while we are here I want to enjoy it and at one point I thought I could live with the carpet until we moved but that won't be happening for awhile.

Oh I totally agree with wanting to enjoy it and spending the money to do so! We've done a lot of updates on our home so that we enjoy it while we're here even though we're hoping to be there 5 more years or less. I was just saying for me personally the cheaper laminate option worked because we don't want to in this house much longer.

I personally don't think a low interest loan that would improve the equity in your home is a bad idea. Hardwood floors are appealing to buyers and you (most importantly), and if you're planning to sell at any point I'd say go for as long as the fees and interest make sense. Plus, if you don't have a mortgage on it (which I think someone else mentioned, but I could be wrong) then that's even better.

formerlyGDaisy09

vlagrl29 said:

brij2006 said:

Just a tip, too.  You can probably get a better rate on a regular mortgage rather than taking out a HELOC, since your home is paid for. 

Good to know - I will ask about that as well.  As far as the line of credit - last time I check at our credit union it was to be around 2.5%

Yes! our work we've been doing was paid for through a refinance of our mortgage with a construction rider. Our interest rate dropped from 3.85% to 3.125%.

julieanne912

Adding improvements to your home is not really a "cosmetic upgrade" in my opinion (side note: I've been in real estate for almost 15 years).  Cosmetic upgrades, to me, is doing something like changing the tile in your bathroom because you don't like the color of what's there, even if it's still a decent neutral color (not talking the pink/blue 1950s bathrooms) and in good shape.  Something like that, I agree, you do not finance.

There's also a completely non-direct value add with hardwood floors.  Sure, the floors might increase your actual appraised home value by a little, but not as much as it costs to put them in.  But the non-direct value add is that if a buyer is comparing two similar homes with similar stats in similar price points, 9 times out of 10 they will choose the home with hardwood floors.  If you have carpet, they might try and talk you down more on price since whole-house carpet is pretty undesirable for the most part and buyers think they'll rip them out and put in hardwood (which a lot of them never do, but that's their mindset when buying the house).  

Also, I know not everyone agrees with this viewpoint, but not all debt is bad.  If you can afford to pay it off quickly and the interest rate is very good, there's nothing wrong with financing a smaller amount to improve your property, especially if you have no mortgage at all.

jtmh2012

julieanne912 said:

There's also a completely non-direct value add with hardwood floors.  Sure, the floors might increase your actual appraised home value by a little, but not as much as it costs to put them in.  But the non-direct value add is that if a buyer is comparing two similar homes with similar stats in similar price points, 9 times out of 10 they will choose the home with hardwood floors.  If you have carpet, they might try and talk you down more on price since whole-house carpet is pretty undesirable for the most part and buyers think they'll rip them out and put in hardwood (which a lot of them never do, but that's their mindset when buying the house).

I guess I'm the oddball.  I hate whole house hardwood.  I like hard surfaces like tile/wood in areas like bathrooms, kitchens, eating areas, but I prefer carpet elsewhere.  We like sitting on our floors and it feels warmer during the winter seasons.  And I'd much rather run a vacuum than sweeping and a dustpan.....

julieanne912

jtmh2012 said:

julieanne912 said:

There's also a completely non-direct value add with hardwood floors.  Sure, the floors might increase your actual appraised home value by a little, but not as much as it costs to put them in.  But the non-direct value add is that if a buyer is comparing two similar homes with similar stats in similar price points, 9 times out of 10 they will choose the home with hardwood floors.  If you have carpet, they might try and talk you down more on price since whole-house carpet is pretty undesirable for the most part and buyers think they'll rip them out and put in hardwood (which a lot of them never do, but that's their mindset when buying the house).

I guess I'm the oddball.  I hate whole house hardwood.  I like hard surfaces like tile/wood in areas like bathrooms, kitchens, eating areas, but I prefer carpet elsewhere.  We like sitting on our floors and it feels warmer during the winter seasons.  And I'd much rather run a vacuum than sweeping and a dustpan.....

Yeah that's why I mentioned 9 out of 10  My own house is carpet in the bedrooms and in the living room "area" of our great room since doing hardwoods was too expensive to do it throughout.  Our kitchen and hallways and dining area are all wood so our carpeted area looks like a large area rug.  I don't sweep at all though, I always just use the vacuum, but we have a Dyson that switches from hardwood to carpet easily.  

brij2006

jtmh2012 said:

julieanne912 said:

There's also a completely non-direct value add with hardwood floors.  Sure, the floors might increase your actual appraised home value by a little, but not as much as it costs to put them in.  But the non-direct value add is that if a buyer is comparing two similar homes with similar stats in similar price points, 9 times out of 10 they will choose the home with hardwood floors.  If you have carpet, they might try and talk you down more on price since whole-house carpet is pretty undesirable for the most part and buyers think they'll rip them out and put in hardwood (which a lot of them never do, but that's their mindset when buying the house).

I guess I'm the oddball.  I hate whole house hardwood.  I like hard surfaces like tile/wood in areas like bathrooms, kitchens, eating areas, but I prefer carpet elsewhere.  We like sitting on our floors and it feels warmer during the winter seasons.  And I'd much rather run a vacuum than sweeping and a dustpan.....

This is us too.  We own a late 1800's Victorian.  The entire first floor is all hardwood (and some laminate), the 2nd floor was all old painted wood plank floors.  They had huge gaps and you would get slivers from walking on them.  But they couldn't be refinished, only painted.  I just happily wrote out a check to put carpet through the entire 2nd floor except the bathroom and laundry room.  It's so much warmer and cozy.  DD and I sat on her bedroom floor and read 3 books last night.  That has never happened.

brij2006

als1982 said:

There is no way that I would finance a purely cosmetic home improvement.

I'm also going to agree with this, but vlagrl knows my view on debt.

Hunny, your house is 100% paid for!!!!!! Don't go finance something that can be planned and saved for.

If you know you would take out a HELOC and have it paid down in 3 years, then why not take that same amount of money and put it aside over the next 3 years to put in hardwood?  I bet your carpet can last that long, even though a slight stain would annoy the crap out of me as well (fellow OCD). 

BlueBirdMB

brij2006 said:

als1982 said:

There is no way that I would finance a purely cosmetic home improvement.

I'm also going to agree with this, but vlagrl knows my view on debt.

Hunny, your house is 100% paid for!!!!!! Don't go finance something that can be planned and saved for.

If you know you would take out a HELOC and have it paid down in 3 years, then why not take that same amount of money and put it aside over the next 3 years to put in hardwood?  I bet your carpet can last that long, even though a slight stain would annoy the crap out of me as well (fellow OCD). 

Probably less time because you won't be paying interest!  I'm with you guys on this.  I also couldn't take a loan to pay for "wants", not "needs".  I get that some upgrades increase the value of the home, but this is only really important if you plan to sell in the near future.  If this is something you are doing for you, then just take that time to save for the hardwood.

vlagrl29

brij2006 said:

als1982 said:

There is no way that I would finance a purely cosmetic home improvement.

I'm also going to agree with this, but vlagrl knows my view on debt.

Hunny, your house is 100% paid for!!!!!! Don't go finance something that can be planned and saved for.

If you know you would take out a HELOC and have it paid down in 3 years, then why not take that same amount of money and put it aside over the next 3 years to put in hardwood?  I bet your carpet can last that long, even though a slight stain would annoy the crap out of me as well (fellow OCD). 

Gah! I know your right. Originally dh and I agreed to save half at least before we got them. This is why I need quotes so I know how much it will set us back.

Xstatic3333

vlagrl29 said:

als1982 said:

There is no way that I would finance a purely cosmetic home improvement.

I'm also going to agree with this, but vlagrl knows my view on debt.

Hunny, your house is 100% paid for!!!!!! Don't go finance something that can be planned and saved for.

If you know you would take out a HELOC and have it paid down in 3 years, then why not take that same amount of money and put it aside over the next 3 years to put in hardwood?  I bet your carpet can last that long, even though a slight stain would annoy the crap out of me as well (fellow OCD). 

Gah! I know your right. Originally dh and I agreed to save half at least before we got them. This is why I need quotes so I know how much it will set us back.

I'd definitely go ahead and get the quotes.  You may be closer than you think, or may be able to break it up into discrete portions that make sense given your house.  I'm in the camp that I don't think it's wrong to finance reasonable home upgrades that help with equity too, but we haven't decided whether it's something we feel comfortable with for us yet.  The one time we had a chance to, when we did our boiler, we ended up using cash on hand instead of 0% financing and I can't say we regret just having it done and paid for.  

vlagrl29

Xstatic3333 said:

vlagrl29 said:

als1982 said:

There is no way that I would finance a purely cosmetic home improvement.

I'm also going to agree with this, but vlagrl knows my view on debt.

Hunny, your house is 100% paid for!!!!!! Don't go finance something that can be planned and saved for.

If you know you would take out a HELOC and have it paid down in 3 years, then why not take that same amount of money and put it aside over the next 3 years to put in hardwood?  I bet your carpet can last that long, even though a slight stain would annoy the crap out of me as well (fellow OCD). 

Gah! I know your right. Originally dh and I agreed to save half at least before we got them. This is why I need quotes so I know how much it will set us back.

I'd definitely go ahead and get the quotes.  You may be closer than you think, or may be able to break it up into discrete portions that make sense given your house.  I'm in the camp that I don't think it's wrong to finance reasonable home upgrades that help with equity too, but we haven't decided whether it's something we feel comfortable with for us yet.  The one time we had a chance to, when we did our boiler, we ended up using cash on hand instead of 0% financing and I can't say we regret just having it done and paid for.  

Yeah I did some calculations and I think saving for 3 years is doable if I find a plan for allocating money for it.  I can put $100 per month away in our home improvement savings after the first of the year.  Not much but its a start for sure.  We already have 1k in that savings account.

formerlyGDaisy09

like others have said, if you can find stopping points that make sense you can always do one room at a time as you have the cash to do it. 

this was our back-up plan with our windows if our refinance didn't work out in our favor; replace one or two windows at a time as we had the cash to do it, starting with the worst ones. even with our big project we did not replace the windows in the garage and one in the basement, now that I see the new ones we'll plan to save the cash to replace those three (we updated from a really ugly brown vinyl on the exterior to white, so those 3 windows stick out a little).