The kitchen is often called the heart of the home for good reason. This is where the family’s food is prepared, where many of us spend the first hour of the morning around the breakfast table, and where friends and family members often gather to share good (and sometimes bad) times.
As times go by, however, your kitchen might no longer serve all your needs. There might be new kids in the house, or fewer. Interior design trends change. And your 1980s dishwasher, refrigerator, or stove might try very hard, but it simply can no longer cope with the workload. That’s when you will know a remodeling job is on the cards.
Main reasons why you should remodel your kitchen
Save electricity, water, and money
While your 1985 appliances’ retro look might appeal to some of your friends, those models use a massive amount of electricity and/or water. This is true of the refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, oven, and even the microwave dating back to that era. Any appliance that’s more than two decades old probably won’t have the EPA’s Energy Star seal, and if it breaks it’s going to cost an arm and a leg to fix because the parts are so hard to find.
Keep up with changing design trends and tastes
If you bought your home 30 years ago, chances are that you’ve been living with linoleum countertops and dark oak cabinetry for the last three decades. And all this time you’ve been dreaming of quartz counters, white cabinets, and modern lighting. The good news is that by now you deserve a remodeled kitchen, one that you can proudly show off to your friends and family members, and where you will happily spend a large part of your day for the next 30 years.
Improve your home’s market value
There’s more good news: the day you sell your home you are likely to recover as much as 90% of the cost of remodeling the kitchen. Of course where you live also plays a role. So do the types of renovations you decide on and the state of the market when you sell. Generally speaking, however, you are likely to sell your home faster and for more if it has a beautiful, modern kitchen.
Keep up with changing family needs
If you were just married with no kids when you originally moved into the home and you now have four children, you will immediately understand what this is all about. More people in the home means the need for additional storage, countertop, and seating space. Plus, your refrigerator is probably always bursting at its seams. And the oven that used to work perfectly for two people is having a hard time coping with six. This probably shouts “remodel!!” louder than anything else.
You can no longer live with the embarrassment
Let’s face it, after 25 years of constant use the average kitchen is a mess. If missing or sagging cabinet doors, countertops that have started cracking and peeling, and broken tiles have become the hallmarks of your kitchen, you have more than enough reason for an upgrade. First, nobody is going to pay much for a house with such a kitchen. Secondly, it’s downright embarrassing. And thirdly, it can become a health hazard with food getting stuck in all those cracks and hard-to-reach spots.
Special needs
Sometimes, as you grow older, one or more family members develop special needs. Or grandma and/or grandpa might move in with you. That could mean that one of your family members has physical disabilities and they may find it hard to reach high cupboards or move around the space easily. The best solution is to remodel your kitchen so it’s usable for everyone in the family again.