I live in a HCOL and we have a big ol' 30-year mortgage, but we love our house and the yard and we love our neighborhood and area. So, my questions are:
What did the inspection say? What do you mean the owners didn't put much into the house? Are the upgrades needed really only cosmetic?
I ask because many things I thought I would want to change in our house are, in fact, not changed after 10 years, and it's fine. But yeah, the maintenance bills will always roll in. Look carefully at the main systems: heating, cooling, water, cooking/gas, electric, Internet/phone, etc. If functional upgrades are needed for those things, you'll need to budget for it. For example, when we bought our house the furnace was fairly new and the inspector told us it was a really good brand that was known to last for a long time. If your sellers haven't replaced/upgraded systems in a long time, I'd be worried that they haven't maintained the house properly. But yeah, replacing a few faucets, painting some walls, if things work fine, you'll be surprised how quickly you stop seeing them as ugly.
My ugly but unchanged because functional/not offensive:
Cracked concrete front steps
"Quirky" master bathroom vanity
Plastic window shutters
Fugly "textured paint" wall treatment in guest room
Stupidly designed set of shelves over radiator
etc.
Maintenance of systems/function:
Fixed exterior window framing due to poor installation and wood rot
Unlined crawlspace that got semi-flooded: lined, sump pumps in
New roof that had been leaking, done (contractor found the last time the roof was done it was a shoddy job)