I'm not a homeowner, but I won't lie and say I don't often daydream about what my future home will look like. So, when u/Kac03032012 asked the homeowners of Reddit to share the worst thing to splurge on when it comes to owning a house, I was all ears. From lawn work to hot tubs, here are the things homeowners don't think are worth spending extra money on:
1. "I sound crotchety and old, but NONE of my appliances need to connect to the internet, of all things. What the hell does a fridge need Wi-Fi for?"
2. "Fancy rugs. Nobody cares. Get them on clearance and call it a day!"
3. "Pools. Everyone always wants a pool, but they are extremely expensive to put in (especially where I live). The cost doesn't add half the value to the overall value of the property, and depending on where you live, pools can be up to several hundred dollars a month in electricity for the pump, chlorine, and other general maintenance stuff. Oh, and that doesn't even include the fact that the pump and filter need to be replaced about every six years or so."
4. "Don't get nice new furniture if you have pets and/or small kids. They destroy everything. Once the kids are a little older, we might try to get a nice new couch, but until then? An old and busted couch is perfectly sufficient for toddler parkour."
5. "Bathroom remodeling. You just go in there a few times a day to use the toilet and shower — why did we as a society decide that it should look like the most luxurious room in the house?"
6. "You don't need to call a handyman or pro for every little thing. YouTube and a couple trips to the hardware store (okay, maybe more than a couple) will save you a ridiculous amount of money. Not just that, but you'll learn some new skills, too."
7. "A pool table. Unless you're a big billiards player and you're going to be using it all the time, it'll most likely just end up in storage."
8. "I think the worst splurge is on anything that you have to be super careful about keeping nice. Like, if you got a butcher block counter but are continuously worrying about it getting marked up from normal kitchen activities, then maybe it wasn't a good choice."
9. "Don't splurge on those gross three-season rooms. No one ever uses them and they always end up smelling like mildew. Do a screened porch instead."
10. "We regret splurging on the patterned cement tiles on our bathroom floors. They're beautiful and look gorgeous, but they are a huge pain in the ass. The tiles crack, chip, scratch, and stain easily, and we have to use a special cleaner on them. I wish I'd done a bit more research before buying them. They do look great, though."
11. "I will get flamed for this, but I think splurging on high-end tools is definitely not needed. 99% of homeowners will do just fine with some Harbor Freight or garage sale tools. Like, if I'm building my once-in-a-lifetime project, saving 90 seconds by using a shiny new $400 saw doesn't matter to me."
12. "The worst things you can splurge on are marble countertops. They are an absolute nightmare to maintain, and even WATER will stain them."
13. "I think the worst thing you could splurge on is painting your cabinets. The way trends change, you'll be regretting it in a few years. Luckily, I never got past the 'thinking about it' phase, which is good because my house has real wooden cabinets."
14. "Electric radiant floors. In my bathroom, it's really nice during the wintertime. But in my office? Three out of the five sections died after a year, and now I can't keep that room warm enough without a space heater. They're very expensive and not serviceable without ripping up the floors for renovation, so I wouldn't recommend."
15. "Hiring a professional for painting, landscaping, or power-washing. I painted my whole house, did all my landscaping, and will be borrowing a power washer to wash my house once it gets a little cooler out. All of these things cost me a couple hundred bucks to do myself versus thousands of dollars if I'd hired others to do it."
16. "Gutter guards. You still have to clean your gutters, but now you have to disassemble them first."
17. "Saunas and hot tubs. Don't get me wrong, they're really cool, brag-worthy, and exciting...for the first couple of months. After that, you don't really use it all that much because it's either 'too much trouble' or 'it costs too much to heat.'"
18. "Replacing a lawn with pavers, especially if you have a south-facing yard. The reflected heat and radiated heat makes everything twice as hot for twice as long."
19. "I might get some flack for this, but lawn work. My mower, weed-eater, and other attachments will pay for themselves in about two months because I'm not paying someone else to do the lawn work for me."
20. "I think the worst splurge is remodeling things that are in perfectly good shape just to chase the latest trend. You want to remodel a bathroom from the '70s? Good plan. You want to remodel a bathroom that was just redone in 2014? Now that's a huge waste of money."
21. "If you have kids, pets, or live with people with mobility aids, hardwood flooring is kind of a waste. I paid a shit ton for hardwood floors in our main living room, and now three years later, it looks like shit. But our laminate flooring? That was a fraction of the cost and it still looks new."
22. "The worst splurge is when you're too impatient. Don't do anything major within the first couple of years of living in your home. If you don't want to wait a couple of years, then wait at least a year or two. See what it's like to live and move in the space, and then determine what's most important to spend money on."
23. Lastly: "This might sound somewhat sarcastic, but it's for real: Do NOT get a koi pond to improve your landscaping. Those fish will suck you dry because of the maintenance — special food, filtration systems, the whole lot. The first pond you put in will be too small, and you'll want to redo it and get a much larger, more elaborate one every few years. You'll join the local koi pond club and will eventually want to import fancy fish from Japan. You'll visit other club members' homes and get jealous of their ponds and begin dumping even more money to improve your own pond. Trust me — just don't do it."
I can attest that my parents did wait until my siblings and I were older until they got a really nice-looking couch. Now it all makes sense. If you're a homeowner, what are some things you think aren't worth spending a ton of money on? What are some things that are absolutely worth splurging on? Let me know in the comments, or you can submit anonymously using this Google form!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.