I'm tired of teaching in the basement and should we move?

[leighb]

My family has been thinking about selling our current house. We are torn between moving and remodeling. Right now it works, but doesn't work all that well. For example, we were teaching today in an unheated, unfinished basement (thanks 2020!) I'm cold, this sucks.

Current Home: 960 sq feet, over 100 years old with great bones. Mostly functional, not perfect and paid off. Over the century a lot of love has gone into this house and every owner has really improved the place. It really needs us to invest for it to be our forever home. That investment looks like a gut job and might not make sense given our current market here in Portland. I would guess that it would take $100,000 to do everything. However, the value of the property would not go up by that amount. No matter what we do, this house is most likely a tear-down in our neighborhood.

If we did nothing, we could sell the house and move closer to work. We would use that $100,000 to instead buy a house that functions. We would be slightly further away from retirement. We wouldn't be teaching an unheated basement.

I suppose there's the third option which is to do what we've been doing....  Continue to slowly improve this house. It will never be done. Some day we'll be teaching in a heated space again.

[bbqbonelesswing]

Why not something in between- just finishing off the basement?

[maizefolk]

How much more would a house that provided you with enough space for teaching cost?

[Metalcat]

Yeah, I'm not understanding why finishing the basement isn't the ideal option, even if you end up selling, wouldn't that Reno add a ton of value?

How far are you from FIRE?

I personally don't believe in "forever homes", but absolutely understand buying a long term home for your remaining working years. After that though, who knows what you will need and want from a home.

So if retirement is years away, you've got quite stable careers, and as long as you work, you will have the same predictable needs from a house that this one can't provide, then moving might make a lot of sense.

If you're just a few years from retirement, and the teaching in the cold basement thing is your biggest issue, then I would lean towards just solving that issue and waiting until retirement to sell.

Out of curiosity, what's wrong with the rest of the house that it needs a full gut job? You said that all of the previous owners have invested in the house.

[slappy]

I think we need more info. For the immediate term, can you at least do a space heater in the basement while you are teaching?

[slappy]

Also, you said the house was functional, but then you said if you moved, you would use the cash to buy a functional house. What "functional" issues do you have currently, other than an unfinished basement?

Renovations rarely get you a dollar for dollar match in the value of the home. That's not really the point of renovations.

I'm assuming that you are teaching in the basement because of Covid. Wouldn't moving be a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Granted, it sounds like there may be other benefits to moving, but I'd be cautious about making such big decisions right now.

[Queen Frugal]

I wouldn't invest money into fixing up a 100 year old basement. It's still a 100 year old basement and it's never going to be comfortable.

Your current circumstances are rather temporary though, aren't they? I mean, by the next school year, you may not be working from home, right? 

I worry you'd be making a very long term decision to fix a short term problem.

Perhaps consider finding a co-working space so you can get out of the basement?

[leighb]

The basement was just the issue of the morning and it will pass. We have space heaters down there. I'm fine with it being unfinished. Given that you access it from outside, I don't know if it makes sense to finish it. Here's a portion of the list:

• Enlarge/move main bedroom, currently 10X11. With the windows and doors where they are I can't walk on all sides of the bed. Currently, it is right off the sidewalk. It would be great if it were in a different spot.
• Plumbing replaced, some stuff was not done to code (bathroom toilet) and it's old and brittle. Its leaking in a few places. This we might have to do either way. It's next on the list.
• The cheap countertop starting to peal and should be replaced. Not all the cabinet drawers open
• Same for the floor in the kitchen and bathroom, it's starting to peal up. And the rubber molding is also pealing away in the bathroom
• Bathtub is cheap and starting to crack
• Fix electrical so we have grounded outlets in the kitchen, not  all lights are connected (lights are there but no switch to be found)
• All the walls are different, not a big deal but it is weird. In one room there's painted paneling and drywall
  

[Sibley]

Sounds like you have a franken-house. It happens when multiple people add to/change over a long period of time without an eye to whole package. Those houses are typically a huge pita to fix, and whether it makes sense is very much local market based.

[leighb]

I'm getting around to answering all the questions now. Just responding to you all and writing out my thoughts has been really helpful.

@Sibley  I like that term. "frankenhouse" It's fitting. I've always thought of it as a well loved quilt that needs constant repair. Everyone's added a patch here or there.

@Queen Frugal Yes, the basement issue is temporary. It was just the thing getting to me. I really hate being cold. It takes me forever to get warm again.

@slappy Our timing would be to make the decision in the next month or two. Then we would line up things over the spring and move or start the next round of projects in the summer. Big projects of the past owners:  Kitchen, garage, bathrooms and basement all added. Our projects over the years: mental roof, skylights, furnace, fence, decommissioning oil tank, new windows, doors, wood floors.

@Malcat We're about 5-10 years from an early retirement. If we move, we could probably retire today. But for a lot of reasons retiring now is not what we want to do. I also don't believe in forever homes.

@maizefolk A house nearer to our jobs and checking most of the boxes costs 500k-600k, maybe more. Our house would most likely sell for 400-450K and they would split the lot into two and build another house in the backyard. 

[maizefolk]

@maizefolk A house nearer to our jobs and checking most of the boxes costs 500k-600k, maybe more. Our house would most likely sell for 400-450K and they would split the lot into two and build another house in the backyard.

Given the relatively modest (in terms of what you're already paying for housing) cost of upgrading to a house that wouldn't require either a lot of investments (to improve what will still be seen as a teardown), I would actually say it makes sense to trade up to a house that would be closer to where you work.

Alternatively, would you save money by building the house you want in your own backyard and then selling your existing house after dividing the lot vs buying a different house closer to work?