It's hard to believe, but we've been living in our house now for almost six years. In another year, we will have lived here together as long as the other five places combined. With that time, the place has started to look a bit lived in. I don't exactly mean that in a good way.
The most visible problem is that the carpet is shit. It was always shit, because that's what Pulte used. They didn't have an upgrade option the way that KB did in our last house. That carpet looked pretty solid after three years. This stuff started to develop wrinkles near doors in two years, and by three, it looked as if a half-dozen people had been living here for a decade. It's just terrible. It's embarrassing how crappy it is.
The other big problem is our primary bathroom. It seemed awesome at the time, but it's builder brown and does not inspire joy in the first hour of the day. Worse, the shower is a mold magnet that can't be beat, because of the honeycomb floor and all of that grout. We've also had to replace the caulk twice, despite it being "mold resistant." The bathtub occupies this gigantic space in the middle that's obnoxious. We'd like to gut it all, and start over. Same layout, but use big 2x1 tiles on the floor and shower walls, and a one-piece shower floor. A smaller but taller tub. Shades of gray with a strong color on one wall. Those mirrors that have the lights embedded in them.
There are other signs, too. The walls are attracting dirt in places that Simon can't seem to keep his hands off of them. Most walls are still "agreeable gray." We have certain base boards that have always been "sticky" and attract dust (I wonder if it's the right kind of paint). Our furniture is mostly not great, and it doesn't help that the ragdolls and their extra-furry feet use claws that are unkind to leather. You should see the state of our recliner. The engineered hardwood floors are showing some wear, but that feels more like "character" to me, so I'm less worried about that.
It's hard to prioritize fixing any of this because we tend to use whatever we have over normal expenses (and very aggressive retirement savings) on travel and doing stuff. No regrets there, especially this year. Europe was amazing. So now I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping for a solid bonus and/or a better stock price the next time I vest some equity, neither of which are particularly in my control. I think we have about 2,000 square feet of carpet that needs to be replaced, so I fully expect that to cost $10k. A bathroom re-do I estimate would cost $20k. Yikes. Those two things together are a car. Or they're some really great trips, domestic and foreign.
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