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If you can afford it and it will give you pleasure and enjoyment I say go for it. I've done plenty of home improvements that weren't absolute 'needs', like decks, a shed, paving the gravel driveway, redoing landscaping. They make my house a nicer place to be so it's well worth it for me.
Like my financial advisor says 'You don't want to be the richest man in the graveyard'.
We're getting bids for a $1MM+ remodel. Most of it is wants, not needs. We're not struggling too much with the costs, since we can afford it, and the acquisition price + remodel cost to get a house of this size and quality might be considered average or maybe even a "good deal" in our area.
The only rule a wise person should follow: don't fix what is not broken. Therefore, all "wants" except the small decorations projects just need to be eliminated )))
Just in case you're serious, why stop with eliminating "small" decorating projects?
Why not do no decorating projects? A small one is just as unnecessary as a large one.
Personally, I'm not so enlightened as to live a life with no wants, big or small, fulfilled.
Although great monks might suggest we cleanse ourselves of all wants except those for peace and spiritual growth. As I said, I'm not there yet.
It kinda comes down to how much you cleave to the mantra-
“Have nothing in your house (and garden?) that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful”
As long as it brings you joy and/or makes your life better in the space you are spending the most time in every day with your family, isn’t that what life is all about?
Sometimes, at least for us, it might be as simple as replacing the Adirondack chairs in the upper terrace that we enjoy happy hours in - throw some Costco solar landscaping lights around - that brings us as much joy as our neighbor’s quarter million dollar landscaping projects lol. We dropped $10k (after tax credits) on a new roof and solar panels a few years ago and already that has paid for itself -another 15 years free power. We’ve remodeled the kitchen, upstairs bathrooms, entire lower level, probably $75K total - easily a great investment both for day to day life as well as value added to the house. But we do spend for fine art and furniture as well.
A current project that is without exception purely a want is a fourth water feature we are just starting the initial stages of. We don’t need another water feature in our compact 5500 sf lot, but we freaking love the three we have, they each bring us joy every day. For this we are going to plunk down a long and narrow masonry feature, about 30”x 15’ with a narrow channel of water and large concrete papyrus filled urns astride it and some cool lighting on the bottom terrace. Totally unnecessary and it may be ridiculous but probably we’re gonna love it.
We did take out a HELOC for the major improvements back in the day, but I want to say we paid it back in like three years. Now it is all cash, heck, we are in an area that RE sites declare your house has gone up $140K in the last 30 days. Unrealized gains to be sure but makes you feel pretty confident about improving your property with cash paid for enhancements.
I like to say we live mostly frugally but are not averse to spending money to improve our life where we already love to live and certainly for experiences as a part of that.
The only rule a wise person should follow: don't fix what is not broken. Therefore, all "wants" except the small decorations projects just need to be eliminated )))
LOL. That’s pretty funny. And ridiculous of course.
We have a set amount of money in our emergency fund. Anything amount over that is spent without guilt. If we can pay cash we greenlight projects.
Like the OP, we are getting estimates for a paving project that we originally thought would be rock or shells and then decided we wanted a smooth surface instead. This is for a shed we recently had built. We expect additional costs with any project, but this year with supply issues, they are even more.
Electric was run to the shed last week and that was $$. DH dug the trench (no big deal in FL sand). He’s wiring it himself, right now it has an empty electrical box that needs breakers and wiring. He’s getting lumber to build a loft and shelving. He bought PVC pipe to run low voltage wire for internet out there and is running water out with more plumbing supplies and using a plumber for connecting to our water supply.
We’ve learned to budget for probable wants added to our projects.
We removed a window, added a sliding door, and built a composite deck off the back of our house.
With all the permits, survey for the deck, price of the door and materials and labor, it came out to just under $22K. That was with ME doing the work on installing the slider, and related interior/exterior finishing and the electrical work.
However, it was money well spent and has made the home more enjoyable.
Currently working on another want project. Redoing out 3-season porch. Picking materials out for the walls and just say it would be $1800 in wood just for the ceiling.
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