To move or renovate is the question many homeowners face when they get a little dissatisfied with their old abode.
Perhaps the kitchen cabinets start looking outdated. Or perhaps it's the bathroom that doesn't look as spiffy as you'd like. Maybe the children have moved back in and their old playroom just doesn't cut it anymore, or maybe you're at the other end of the spectrum and you need to make room for a crib.
Whatever the reason, would-be house changers need to evaluate the home they have and the neighbourhood they live in before they decide which step to take.
John and Christina MacKinnon took a good look at some new homes two years ago before deciding to stay in their Sturgeon Heights home.
"We had to decide whether to move or to stay. We looked at new houses but we have lived here 16 years. We have a big, private yard. We also have a dog and three kids and we need that large yard," John MacKinnon said.
The MacKinnons' renovations have been staged over two years. First they changed the basement and this fall started in on kitchen renovations.
MacKinnon did some of the work on the kitchen himself. He pulled out all the old fixtures and cabinets but Beautiful Basements did the bulk of the new construction.
"We ended up taking out a non-weight bearing wall and a small bedroom so we could have a dining room. We used to have the table in the kitchen but it was tight," MacKinnon said, adding that by removing the bedroom, they were able to use the added space for a new pantry.
"We don't have more cabinets but the pantry makes up the difference," he said.
The upheaval to their family life was considerable. The biggest challenge was living without a stove and kitchen cabinets for three months and without a kitchen sink over Christmas.
"Fortunately it was warm this fall so we were able to do fairly minimalist cooking on the barbecue and microwave. All I left in was one counter and the sink. For the past three weeks, we've had no sink, so we needed to get water in the bathroom," MacKinnon said.
MacKinnon said the kitchen renovation cost approximately $30,000, but purchasing a new home would have cost considerably more.
"To get a new house would cost $200,000 more and this is a house we plan to stay in," he said.
Weighing costs
"There are two types of renovations," explained Re/Max broker/owner Ken Jacknisky.
"People renovate to stay because they enjoy the life-quality in their home but they want to improve it. Or people are renovating to sell," he said.
Jacknisky recently renovated his own home by changing one of the bedrooms into a walk-in closet. The change made the house more liveable, but the realtor stressed that homeowners should always consider resale value before renovations.
"We've eliminated one bedroom out of the house and it's changed the whole effect of the home, but it could narrow the number of perspective buyers because it now has only three bedrooms instead of four," he said.
Homeowners in older areas should do some research to find the average selling price of houses in their neighbourhood. If you sink a lot of money into renovations, it may make your home more valuable than comparable properties, and that too could limit its resale value, Jacknisky said.
"Suppose the average price of homes, for example in Grandin, is $350,000 and you spend $150,000 on renovations. Well to you, your house is now worth $500,000 but people wanting to pay $500,000 may be looking in a different neighbourhood," he said.
Mature beauty
Older, mature neighbourhoods have value of their own that can be more important to many people than simple economics, said renovator Brian Cyr of Beautiful Basements.
Cyr and his wife sold their home in a new neighbourhood to move back to their old, well-treed area.
"We had a two-year-old and nothing but dust and dirt in the new neighbourhood for him to play in. It takes a 10-year adjustment for the trees and things to be established in a new area," he said.
Cyr has faced the renovate-or-move dilemma with many of his clients and says there is no easy answer.
"The reality is both can snowball. If you build a brand new house, you need to finish the basement, landscape, get draperies and so on. A renovation can snowball too because one change leads to another. But with a renovation you can define exactly how much money you need or want to spend," he said.
Folks who have lived in their home for years may be comfortable there. Before they go to the expense of renovating, they need to decide how long they want to stay in the house.
"You know the quirks of your house and your neighbourhod. You have memory equity. You have to ask yourself whether or not when you sell it, in five or 10 years, you will capture a return on your investment and then decide whether the lifestyle return is worth it," Cyr said, adding that renovations are not for every home or every family.
"There is the discomfort factor. You have to be financially prepared, but you also have to be mentally prepared to live in dust and without conveniences," he said
The biggest problem with renovating is the time it takes. Large renovations typically take months.
"If you plan to do the work, then every weekend you're ripping things apart and every night after supper, instead of playing with the kids or watching television, you have to work. That can add a lot of stress to a relationship," Cyr said.
The stage that a family is at is also key. If the family is at the empty-nester stage, they may want a more energy efficient home with updated kitchen and bathroom. For that family, taking the equity out of the house and staying put may make the most sense, Cyr said.
"But if the physical footprint of the house is too small because your family is expanding, then it doesn't make sense to renovate. You need to buy a bigger house," Cyr said.
MacKinnon said he considered the old adage about not over building for his neighbourhood and that's why he didn't build an addition to the home, even though his yard is large.
"That's why we didn't add on. But at the same time, there's a lot of renewed interest in the older neighbourhoods. That's why we made a conscious choice to stay here," he said.
