14.
“‘Unique’ homes = unique expenses. We bought a custom home from the couple who built it. Largest kitchen you’ve ever seen. The couple had put cork in the kitchen. They also installed an instant hot water heater for the sink. Well, one day, a small hose came loose from that instant hot water heater. A pressurized hose. Two inches of water in an hour on a giant sponge of a floor.”
“We have good insurance, and it cost them six figures to fix that kitchen. The cabinets were solid mahogany, and the bottoms had been installed on top of the cork. Then, when those were replaced, it was obvious that the stain of the uppers no longer matched. The crew cracked a slab of quartz when removing it. This was not Home Depot quartz. We had to pay extra to buy tile for this monster of a kitchen because, no, we were not putting cork back in.
When we moved in, every bathroom was still 1989. Because this was a custom home, we couldn’t update them with standard-grade materials. And on and on.
We sold the home in 2018 for a good profit with all our updates. We bought a tract home with vinyl floors (I LOVE LVP) and builder-grade materials and I’ll never go custom again. I want a home where I can get my new vanities off Wayfair or from Lowe’s if I need to upgrade.”