Plan to move in 5 years. kitchen, front door, driveway or garden update????

katejo

I agree that you should do it for yourself. Avoid anything idiosyncratic but that does NOT mean that you need to paint everything in magnolia/very neutral colours with cream carpets. that turns me off completely and i would never buy a newly decorated property like that. I couldn't justify an immediate change as that would be wasteful but I wouldn't like it. Include a feature wall or two.
I am about to have a new kitchen installed while i am still here and can enjoy it.

jenniemiller177

Defiantly choose the kitchen. For me the kitchen is the first room I would look at when viewing a new house

sancho

katejo wrote: »

I agree that you should do it for yourself. Avoid anything idiosyncratic but that does NOT mean that you need to paint everything in magnolia/very neutral colours with cream carpets. that turns me off completely and i would never buy a newly decorated property like that. I couldn't justify an immediate change as that would be wasteful but I wouldn't like it. Include a feature wall or two.
I am about to have a new kitchen installed while i am still here and can enjoy it.

So you wouldn't buy a property that had magnolia everywhere (meaning you would need to paint 3 or 4 walls to get your choice of 'feature' walls) but you might buy a place that has feature walls which aren't to your taste?

Not that it matters to op as it's kind of irrelevant for them. If the money is insurance money to replace a kitchen then I'm guessing you should spend it on a kitchen...

jennifernil

Kitchens and bathrooms reflect personal taste, if I was selling soon, I would leave an "OK" kitchen or bathroom alone.

If I was buying, I might not like what you had chosen, but if it was fairly new, I would find it hard to justify ripping it out.

So for me, an older kitchen or bathroom that was useable but really needed replacing would be fine.

But 5 years is a long time to put up with a dire kitchen, and it does sound like yours needs some urgent attention. So I would first do the kitchen, keep it fairly neutral, white or light wood is good, and bring colour in with accessories that you would be taking with you.

Front door is important too, needs to be secure, keep in the heat, and look good. If yours doesn't, then change it.

Next, the driveway. Does it need work? If so, then I would spend money on that.

Garden.....again very personal, but an area to sit out on, a good shed for storage, tidy fencing, and colourful borders would not go wrong.