Our house turns 30 this year. We’ve been here 19 years. The kitchen is original. About a year ago I started thinking about remodeling the kitchen once we were done with the college payments (yea!). H has been saying maybe we’ll buy a new build or a near-new home so we shouldn’t spend money on this kitchen. But H doesn’t REALLY want to move, so the new house is unlikely IMHO.
That leaves me to reconcile living with the existing kitchen until such time as we move to a condo or exit the house feet first ;). It’s not terrible, really, but the microwave oven hasn’t worked in years. It’s a single unit with the oven, so we would have to replace both ($$). The stovetop now has only 3 working burners. H tried replacing the bad element, but no luck. Maybe I can get someone to look at it, but they couldn’t do anything with the microwave because the parts are no longer available on 30-year-old units.
Just feeling kind of depressed about this and wondering how I can come to terms with the fact that it’s not important to H so it’s just not likely to happen.
I’m in a bit of the same situation. Though I haven’t “moved” on the changes yet, I’ve told myself that I need to start making small moves to slowly get to where I want to be - and perhaps for H to realize “some change WOULD be good”.
Make a list of your top 5 or so things to change. Of those 5 things pick one you can “easily” change. A new sink? The oven/microwave you talk about? New lighting?
Having functional appliances IMO is the very reasonable to ask for!
(Luckily, all our appliances needed replacing in the past few years - so those are all good. But the cupboards need painting, the counters/sink need replacing, the floor should be changed, new lighting/new paint would make all the difference!!!)
Since the microwave doesn’t work anyway, maybe you could replace the stove and wait on the microwave. I like to get appliances from the Sears Outlet store. One at a time as budget and deals arise. They have additional % off sales and make deliveries. When I was DIY updating our old kitchen, I picked a paint that worked better with the old whitewashed maple cabinet, then later applied General Finishes “Java” stain to the cabinets. I toured new houses to see what was fresh and copied what I could. The darker stain made my light gray laminate counters look much better.
Most likely a realtor would tell you to replace the broken appliances before putting the house on the market so tell your H you might as well do it now and get to have working appliances until you move (if you ever do.)
I wouid maybe tell him if you don’t start looking for a new home in the next year you are going to have kitchen remodeled. Get some estimates from contractors and present him with the choices.
Replacing a couple appliances is much cheaper than a full kitchen remodel. You’d probably have to replace them anyway to sell the house – buyers won’t settle for broken appliances unless it’s a very hot real estate market. So, it’s a worthwhile investment either for your own cooking pleasure or if H decides to sell after all.
^The problem with trying to replace the stove and the ovens is that H always says “if we redo the kitchen we would want some other arrangement”, which is why we have not replaced the microwave/oven. If I remodeled, I would want a free-standing stove/oven and a separate microwave and it would need a totally different cabinetry. H has the tiger by the tail - don’t spend $3K on appliances in a kitchen you don’t want to keep. Conveniently dislike every possible alternative for as long as possible. Take a cut in price if/when you do want to sell.
Agree with @emilybee. ROI on kitchen improvements is usually high. There is nothing more painful than updating the house as you are selling it and then having to leave. Ugh! Been there.
If you are resigned to not doing a full update of the kitchen then go out and buy a new microwave and oven. Not doing a complete remodel is one thing but if you can afford the new appliances there is no reason to have a dysfunctional kitchen.
While I understand the thought, the thing is even if you sell the place in the short term you will need to replace the appliances, even if a buyer plans on redoing the kitchen, if they are faced with non working appliances it will make them less likely to buy, pure and simple, they either will insist you drop the price and/or rebate back the cost of the appliances, so might as well do it now. There is nothing more depressing than having non working appliances, my oven at the moment doesn’t work (it needs a new gas valve I am pretty sure, debating whether I want to do it or have it done…). For whatever time you have there, having working appliances will make it better, and if you don’t move, then you can always do other things in the kitchen as money allows.
I would go insane without a functioning microwave. If I were in your shoes, I would be running out to the car right now to buy one at Target that would sit on the counter.
Three burners instead of four? That I could live with.
I think you need to consider what realistically is your timeframe for leaving this house. If it’s two years or less, then just replace the stove/micro and be done with it. If it’s more than two years, then do the whole kitchen to please yourselves.
How do you know your timeframe? Do you want to downsize? Are you both near retirement? Do you plan on leaving the area when you do retire? And so on and so forth.
Check Home Depot or local appliance stores for floor models. Markdown can be significant and it is not as though anyone has actually operated the appliances in the store.
Honestly I’d replace the stove with the same type of stove. (Slide in, whatever.) I love my professional stove, but I could not live with three burners. Ditto for the microwave/oven unit, though that may be more of an issue since most buildt-in ovens now are wider than they were 30 years ago. I’m assuming that your avatar is the current kitchen. Another thing you might be able to do is replace the cabinet doors. It would make a huge difference in the look of the kitchen. All that said, if you hate the layout, I’d consider just biting the bullet and going all out. It really does depend on how long you will be there and all the rest.
Three years ago when our youngest we did a major kitchen remodel which included double the size by extending into the backyard. I had hated my kitchen for 15 years and the layout did not work for us at all. We finally had gotten to the point where I knew exactly what would work. I am sure that when the time comes to sell the house, it will make it much easier to sell, because even if some of my quirkiness isn’t what the new buyers would do, it’s still a good layout with good appliances. (If you click on my avatar you can get a slightly better look at one half of it. BTW we still haven’t replaced the fridge because even though I don’t like it, there’s nothing wrong with it.) I have not regretted it for a single second and we like our neighborhood and would like to stay here for a while.
But if it’s important to YOU, OP, why let it go? Okay, you can’t do a full remodel – most of us can’t. But you can replace the stove, replace a microwave, get look books for countertops, a free consult with a kitchen refitter (you know, they replace your doors/hardware but not the cabinets). His vote is not the only vote! Go do the research, generate the interest. There’s no way you can sell a house with a 30 yr old kitchen, anyway.
I would not let a person stand between me and a proper kitchen! We have been working on our 25 yr old house on a schedule, so we wouldn’t back out of a plan to fix its many charming quirks. It’s taking forever, but we can afford it in bits and pieces. My stove is also dying, but I’m gonna nurse it theough canning season and then it’s off to Habitat!
If you’re not moving any time soon, why not enjoy your house? It doesn’t make sense to cook “crippled” and then replace everything for a new buyer when you are ready to sell. I’d replace the stove-microwave unit with a stove-oven unit, and a really good vent. You can tile the space between the stove and the hood to hide where the all-in-one unit used to be. That much tile won’t be expensive, and if you do the labor yourself, you can save some money. Then buy a counter top microwave.
If I were in your shoes, I’d go online, research stoves and microwaves, then order what I wanted. Buy now, ask forgiveness later. Once your husband sees how much better and how much more convenient it is to have working appliances, he’ll forget his concerns.
I’d probably try to pin down my husband. “If we will be committed to moving in two year or less than I will live with it. Otherwise, at least the minor stuff needs done.”