Nelson from FinancialUproar.com calls it HGTV Syndrome. We all know what it is, even if we’ve never applied a name.
You start watching HGTV. A lovely couple moves into an “okay” house. They spend a couple dollars, hire a few contractors, and before you know it, that okay house is an amazing one!
Best of all, their 6 months of work, stress, and frustrations are distilled down into 21 minutes of easy to digest footage. We love what we see from the comfort of our couch, and as the credits roll, we instinctively look around our own home.
Suddenly, our modest dwelling isn’t looking so modest anymore.
Maybe we should consider upgrading the bathroom? Do you think we need new appliances? Can you imagine if we took that wall down?
The High Cost of HGTV Syndrome
The HGTV Syndrome is a dangerous game. And it’s getting worse.
In today’s world of streaming TV, facebook updates, and pinterest boards, a home owner can barely escape the siren calls for the new and improved.
One study calculated the average home owner spent $6,649 on home renovations in the last year.
Us millennials, with our fancy pants smart phones and constant connections, are even more susceptible to the disease. That same study found millennials completed 18% more renovation projects than Gen X-ers and 42% more than the boomers.
And the more you’re exposed to renovations, the more you spend. Look no further than an identical study conducted by Houzz.com, the online community devoted solely to showing off renovation projects. The website encourages plenty of spending, since each showcase even features links directly to where you can buy the same great look.
Houzz.com regulars, who visit the site daily to live vicariously through other member’s renovations, spend ten times as much on their renovation projects – an average of $60,000 per year!
Getting back to the studs
In the middle of my own $14,634 kitchen remodel, I found myself driving home from a surprisingly good week at work. I was in a great mood, excited for the weekend.
Lady Money Wizard and I had a Friday night date scheduled – a cool new restaurant we’d been wanting to try for a while. The food was great, and we met up with some friends at a brewery afterwards. Everyone had a great time.
The next morning, I started up my usual Saturday morning routine – writing for this blog, mixed with a little bit of internet surfing, some reading, a walk around the block with The Money Pup, and a trip or two to the fridge for some lunch snacks.
It wasn’t until my third or fourth trip to the kitchen that I caught myself turning sideways to avoid the giant beam in my path.
I stopped in my tracks, and suddenly I was aware of the absurdity of it all.
I had become so comfortable with the gutted interior or our work-in-progress kitchen, that I didn’t even mind the 8-inch walkway, the block in the middle of the floor, or the exposed wiring which no doubt posed safety hazard on top of safety hazard.
An outsider wouldn’t be able to take their eyes off the warzone-like interior. And here I was, having a fantastic weekend, completely unphased by the splintered plywood flooring and the lack of running water in the kitchen.
I had to ask myself… What was I doing paying thousands of dollars to have quartz countertops and new appliances installed, when my life seemed perfectly fine even when my kitchen looked like ground zero of the latest nuclear bomb detonation?
And how spoiled was I? That I gutted a working kitchen just to make things prettier?
In a fitting punctuation to that thought, the next week I traveled to Costa Rica. There, I drove past slum after slum, where entire families were obviously living on dirt floors with tin roofs.
And here I was ripping out hardwood flooring because the color wasn’t just right…
Why are you renovating?
Ask your grandparents about home renovations. Back in the day, a remodel was something you did when appliances stopped working, termites ate the walls, or some other necessary disaster.
But a remodel for aesthetics sake? That was something only the wealthiest of the wealthy would even consider.
HGTV, to the rescue! Just like how every other aspect of our lives has grown out of control, the easy accessibility of comparison has completely warped what’s considered normal.
The HGTV Syndrome has spread, and the average homeowner is now stuck with “home maintenance” budgets full of wants, not needs.
And worse, when the remodel is finished, most are silently struck with buyer’s remorse. They realize that a different shade of countertop, a different finish of appliance, or new trim of cabinetry doesn’t actually impact their life in any meaningful way.
In the end, I liked my new kitchen. But not for the reasons I expected.
I sit here typing up this article from the barstool of my new island. The laptop is resting on the quartz countertop, and my forearms are brushing against its beautifully polished surface.
And as I look back on my three months of new kitchen ownership, I’m hit with the confirmation of a long suspected thought.
I do actually love my new kitchen. But what’s most interesting is why I love the kitchen.
- The new cabinets are nice, but it’s actually the doubled storage capacity that I appreciate so much.
- The new countertops are beautiful, but I enjoy their heat resistant practicality more than anything else. (There’s also enough of it that setting down one bowl and one cutting board is no longer a logistical nightmare, so that’s a nice bonus, too.)
- All the new appliances look impressive, but it’s the time saved from adding a dishwasher that I really appreciate.
- And the new layout looks great, but it’s the improved floor plan, which allows for more interaction with friends and family, that’s actually worth the price.
There’s a trend to all these qualities, and it’s not aesthetics. It’s function.
How to Remodel and Actually be Happy
More than looking pretty, your remodel should fix functional issues.
If you’re just ripping out perfectly functioning stuff, you’re just wasting your own time and money.
Had I remodeled for solely for aesthetics’s sake, I have no doubt I’d be cursing my greedy self for blowing so much money.
So, what have I learned?
- If you’re considering a remodel of any kind, double check that you actually want to remodel, and you’re not just falling victim to HGTV syndrome.
- If you can’t find any functional complaints, then don’t even bother. Good news, what you have is already great!
- And if you just want something pretty to look at? Don’t remodel. And buy a painting with your thousands of dollars in savings.
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First, you’ve reassured me with the functionality perspective that I’m not insane for wanting to fix our bathroom. Secondly, I think I can speak for other readers of your blog when I say: Where are the pics!?
Haha, check this post for pictures!
https://mymoneywizard.com/8-frugal-tricks-save-on-kitchen-remodel/
Definite functional improvement for you guys. Thanks for taking the time to share the link to the post!
Both my husband and I have struggled with this since our condo is from the 1980’s and looks it. We really wanted to remodel it but then we had the functionality “ah” moment. We finally realized that with some new paint, changing out the old (and apparently recalled wall heaters), added some new fixtures, hanging some pictures, etc.t that it looks 100% better and didn’t cost an arm and a leg.
That being said, both bathrooms needed redone as the shower/tubs were failing, tile cracking, ect.
Agree with points 1 through 3 (assuming that a painting will scratch the aesthetic itch that is…).
You write that “In today’s world of streaming TV, facebook updates, and pinterest boards, a home owner can barely escape the siren calls for the new and improved.” For me this is the core of the post. In the modern world comparison is not only to easy but actively encouraged. The problem is that what we’re comparing against is an airbrushed, filtered, highlights reel that bears little resemblance to real life. The challenge is trying to live a complete and fulfilled life which avoids this comparison trap – which is likely lead to disappointment and discontent.
HH
Where’s the completed picture?
In this post!
https://mymoneywizard.com/8-frugal-tricks-save-on-kitchen-remodel/
We’ll be doing this in the near future… once my husband finishes researching stovetops! We’ve lived with what we’ve had for a long time because it’s functional, but it would be nice to have countertops that don’t turn yellow when cleaned and a stovetop that isn’t electric and to get rid of the ice maker that’s just taking up space (it is a huge electricity hog so we never use it).
(People with opinions on induction vs. gas stovetops should totally let us know– seems like with every comment we get I change my mind…)
I have had gas and wasn’t impressed. I have a co-worker who has had gas and converted to induction and can’t stop enthusing over how much better it is – not to mention safer and doesn’t heat up your kitchen with energy loss the way gas and electric do!
No way! Gas all day.
Induction is a nightmare to clean. You’re limited to only buying “special” pans. And it gives you far less instantaneous temperature control than gas.
When’s the last time you saw a chef using induction? There’s a reason professional kitchens always use gas. (And it’s not sponsorships or marketing)
BUT – just to play devil’s advocate here – what if you wanted to convert your home to solar or add solar energy? Induction > gas for sustainability, no?
I was about to ask for pictures, but then I saw you linked to it already.
It looks great, and you are absolutely accurate in the function over aesthetics. I explain that to people on a daily basis.
Great post MoneyWiz! I call it the “quest for perfection”. It applies to all kinds of areas in life, where people will spend endless amounts of money to find “perfection”.
But as you yourself noticed, we can actually get used to a lot of imperfection. Those same poor families living in Costa Rica might actually be happier than us, because they’re not obsessed with chasing impossible perfection in their lives.
I disagree with your opinion about induction cooktops. I believe your opinion would change if you had one. The only negative thing about induction cooktops is you do have to have high quality pans. Induction cooktops are the easiest type of cooktop to clean. Electric flat cooktops heat the glass so when water or food overflows it burns. Induction cooktops heat the pan so you don’t have that kind of problem when you have accidental food or liquid flow over. Gas stoves have all those crevices to have to clean. My induction cooktop has way better control than my old electric flat top, but is probably a small notch below gas but not much. However, induction cooktops will boil water quick. I mean quick. Way quicker than gas or anything else. I used to always put hot water in pan to help speed up the process of boiling. I don’t worry about that anymore. I hit the speed boost button on my induction cooktop and it is boiling in no time. As far as the argument that there is a reason chef’s use gas, I believe there are a couple of flaws to that argument. First, induction cooktops are relatively new and even today are not widespread. Professionals don’t like to change. Second, and more importantly, a gas metal grill is way more durable for a commercial kitchen than a glass top. Chefs are cooking fast. Chef’s have flunkies helping them that may not pay attentions. They are banging things around trying to get stuff out quickly. A metal grill will hold up to this abuse. Would you want to risk someone banging a pot down a little too hard and now you cannot use your stove. In the home, I’m not banging pots and pans around so this is not an issue for home use. I absolutely LOVE my induction cooktop. It was worth every extra penny I had to pay for it.