>>Not that everything becomes an actual investment but these purchases in
>>particular seem to hold resale as a major concern equal to or exceeding
>>its actual use value.
>
>I'm not so sure you can easily sep. the two anyway. You say they're doing
>things to their homes to make them valuable on selling. Well, they're
>enjoying it now too. If the logic is that it's valuable to _someone else_,
>why is it not valuable to them. Adding a garage, bath, kitchen, another
>bedroom -- these are all things we're told make a home more valuable. You
>supposedly get out of the home what you put into it, acc to real estate
>agents. If you spend 10k a garage, you should get 10k more for it when you
>sell. How is that garage something they don't also enjoy right now? I'm
>living in a rental and, whenever I was asked what I wanted for christmas,
>I said, "A new frickin' kitchen!" as I hunted down pots, pans, and baking
>supplies that have to be stashed in oddball places b/c there's no room in
>the frickin' kitchen.
>
>Now, were I in the position to do so, a kitchen remodel would be a JOY!
>_and_ it would make the home more valuable. I don't know about the people
>in your neighborhood, but sometimes people feel more comfortable talking
>about doing something for something more than pure enjoyment. They also
>feel the need to say they're also doing it because it's 'practical.' They
>may say, publicly, I'm not just remodeling the kitchen because I"m a snob
>who can't bear the harvest gold appliances anymore, even though it's all
>serviceable. I'm a person who is practical and thinks in terms of the
>future, planning and strategizing accordingly .... " A kind of Calvinist
>ethos.....
>
>I think that, if you were to do a more ethnographic study of how they
>actually _talk_ about their homes/houses, you'll probably find something
>much more complicated -- the tension of which I spoke, between thinking of
>something as a home and something as a house.
>
>Kelley
We have a neighborhood get together for many people here for a St. Pats party. I'll try to get more people talking about their home remodeling and see if I can steer their conversations towards less than practical home renovations. I never realized the level of hostility towards the few rentals in the neighborhood until I attended on of these parties. What an irrational hatred this topic stirs up.
There is plenty of conspicuous consumption here where I live. Several ex-public officials, state senators, congresspersons and the like who have lavish homes with guest houses and pools and tennis courts. One of them just built a new three car garage with machine shop at an angle to his already existing three car garage. 6 fucking garage bays. They don't mind bragging about their new Porsche or the fact that their kids go to private school or that they took 30 people on a vacation to Italy for a month but it just seems to me they think about their homes in an odd way. They own it but they don't feel free to do whatever they want with it.
Maybe I have overly unusual tastes because I can separate the idea of remodeling with the idea of increasing or decreasing my homes value. I am in the process of adding "cat walks" to my house. I'm sure they will not help the resale value if I should lose my home. Quite the opposite I should imagine since I an cutting holes in the plaster and lathe work walls to accommodate the cat walks. Not being employed right now I have the time to spare building this and the cost is practically zero. http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0836221834.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg This will give you an idea. It seems to me love people love ideas like this but would never do them to their home for fear of "ruining" the resale value. If the bank winds up with my house good luck finding a buyer for a house modified for 13 cats but only two people. Perhaps I'm partly motivated by spite and the fear of losing my home? Who knows?
John Thornton
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