Holy planned obsolence, Batman - looks like my going on 19 year old kitchen appliances are all starting to pack it in at the same time. Replacement parts are hard to find or not available, so repairing the appliances is not looking like an option.

I had planned to renovate the kitchen, turn it into my dream, which would have been the time to replace all the appliances. But life happened, so the kitchen renovation didn't.

The complication: I may be selling this house soon-ish, so I have to consider resale in all decisions from now on. Installing my dream kitchen makes little sense if we sell. I'd not recoup the considerable expense. Worse, my idea of a dream kitchen might not be shared by potential buyers.

I've looked at many houses where an obviously new, obviously expensive kitchen was actually a negative to me beause it wasn't to my taste, but I could not justify (or get OH to agree to) ripping out something so new and expensive. I'd guess many buyers might feel the same.

On the other hand, I have to do something - there has to be a functioning kitchen in order to sell the house.

So I'd appreciate your thoughts on my options:

1. Just replace the appliances into the current cabinetry.

Pro: Easy, less expensive - and if I put in middle of the road appliances a potential buyer likely won't be shy about doing their own dream renovation.

Con: The kitchen is dark, think 2000s cherry, grey granite. I had planned a lighter more open look when renovating, as lighter is more in line with today's style - and should help sell the house.

Con: The current layout is not ideal for the way we cook now, I had planned to do something more in line with a two cook kitchen. Not sure if a buyer would care, though.

Con: If by some miracle we find we will be allowed to stay in Switzerland after OH retires then I am stuck with a kitchen that is not what I really want/need.


2. Inexpensive cabinet renovation, new middle of the road appliances. Something more 'Swiss' neutral.

Pro: I could probably do something for a reasonable amount, a fair part of that could be recouped in the sale.

Pro: A buyer who did not like the style of the inexpensive kitchen would likely not be put off by the idea of ripping it out.

Con: A lot of work and disruption, supply chain problems still a thing, timing is problematic - for something that would be more or less 'meh'. If, by some miracle, we find we would be able to stay in Switzerland after OH retires then I am stuck with yet another kitchen that is not what I really want/need.



So what would you do, thinking either as a buyer or a seller?

And, if I go with the second option, any recommendatons for less expensive cabinetry that doesnt look too bad?

Many thanks.

Never ever renovate before a sale, that's just wasted money. You will never get the value (as in higher price) that you invested in the kitchen.

Not really, no. A prospective buyer might be happy that they can just rip it out and renovate.

If you are keeping the same layout and the caracasses are in good shape you could maybe look at just changing the facades for a lighter more neutral colour and maybe the worktops too. Install middle of the road appliances and you have a fully functional more attractive kitchen at less expense.

It would be considerably less expensive and less messy than replacing the whole lot and then if you do get to stay here you could consider a full renovation later on and wouldn’t feel so as about it.

That. Replacing the doors on the cabinets alone can make a world of difference.

No better answer or insight, I feel your pain

We have a kitchen that needed renovating 11 years ago when we bought the house, life happens, as you say

A good renovation would require an entire rethink of the layout, and possibly the space itself (were we to knock out a wall, move a WC etc….cost, cost) Kitchen is tiny, meant for the farmer’s wife, only, and not when holding a knife
Sometimes we are only 1 or 2 adults, more frequently 3 adults, the occasional 4th adult child, and almost always the cat and dog.
Not sure why we heat the other rooms…

The fridge died, and more recently the dishwasher - wanting a quick solution at minimal cost given now is not the time for the bigger renovation (BTDT at Sweden country refuge 3 years ago, still recovering) I sourced a dishwasher on Ricardo and bought a new fridge (is a built-in model with minimal choice size-wise, ceiling is low so any new carpentry would need to conform anyway)

Good luck!

At least you are not attached to your kitchen.

I know someone who refused to sell to a potential buyer as the buyer said that if they bought the house, the first thing they would do is rip out the kitchen!

I'd leave it all as it is and just replace any broken appliances with cheapish ones from somewhere like Netto so your kitchen is still usable by you.

when can you get confirmation of whether you can stay or not? it would be good to sort that out instead of living life in limbo. even if not staying. getting, say, 5 years out of a new kitchen is also worth it (IMO). damn the expense: you only live once!

+1

My husband is currently in process of selling his mother's home, and every realtor that he met with had told him to not renovate the kitchen or bathrooms because buyers would prefer to design and install their own.

I agree with what Tom said above, and especially if you're quite certain that you'll have to sell at some point in the not-too-distant future. Besides, I think many appliances in the middle price-range are just as good as the higher priced ones. They just might not have all the "bells and whistles." (My friend recently built a home and their new expensive dishwasher actually displays the time onto the floor below it, via projection. I have no idea why that's necessary ).

With the cabinets... If you don't mind them, I'd just leave as is and just replace the appliances. Or if you really want to make them lighter, maybe you could paint them? I know that's " the thing" now in the US -- painting your kitchen cabinets when you can't easily afford new ones.

That projection is nothing fancy, parents renovated kitchen back in... 2013 I think and even cheap dishwasher they went with had it. If you don't have front panel (aka dishwasher is completely hidden and looks just like the cabinet) this is great.

I unfortunately showed my weakness when buying kitchen for our apartment some 7 years ago in Ikea and took their (Electrolux) dishwasher after IKEA designer in store insisted its best fit and I held Electrolux among better producers (not anymore for many, many reasons). It doesn't have any front panel nor any projection, so you have no clue if it finished, unless you sit nearby for cca 3 hours. But that's detail compared to how bad it washes compared to any other dishwasher I ever worked with, even with frequent salt replenishment. Very bad decision... never ever take appliances that Ikea offers.

As for OP's question, we recently bought biggish apartment and kitchen was some 15 years old. Not great, not terrible, especially when moving from basic rental ones. Of course if there would be brand new kitchen which is using (a bit weird but not cramped) space effectively and does look decent, we would be glad. But if we would be charged ie 30k for something cold, weird set of appliances (ie we want a basic 90cm fridge, tired of constantly battling for space in both fridge and freezer) then this would be a problem (maybe not showstopper, buying is a 1000 pros and cons process).

The problem may be that some non/trivial amount of folks here (way more often women) seem to be set for perfection. Or to put it different way - emotions dictate decisions more than reasons. Thus they search and search and waste half their useful lifetime on this, instead of grokking that real estate really shouldn't be the source of one's life satisfaction, rather just a place to rest between actual important moments.

you can definitively sell without a 'working' kitchen. I ve looked at apartments where there was no kitchen installed at all, just the 'room' for it with all the available pipes etc. Realtor had an approximate offer from a kitchen installer but of course the buyer would have the choice.
Other apartments I looked at I usually said the kitchen and bathrooms need to be changed first...so a buyer will not necessarily mind an old or not fully functioning kitchen.

and as other have said, dont invest a ton of money into sth you are going to sell in the near future. better keep those funds for your new place

Why buy "middle of the road" appliances, but good ones, if you sell you can use this as a selling point, buyers are receptive to this, keep the appliances and re-fit them in a new kitchen.


If you finally decide to stay you have good appliances and they can be re-used when you do the total renovation.


Paint the doors or change them to lighter colour, this will help big time.

We are here for at least a year until OH retires, after that... depends on the Permit Gods and whether we can safely get Robin back to the US. So limbo it is - but I'm going on 25 years of limbo, that seems to be our natural state of being.

You make a good point, we spend too much time in the kitchen to live off a hot plate and toaster oven even for a year. So I need to do something reasonable, if only just for us.

I priced what it would cost to replace our current Gaggenau... and then reached for the defibrillator machine.

I went a bit OTT for this type of house when we put the kitchen in, just because OH and I love to cook. But being realistic, this house is nothing special, further investment at that level likely won't make the sale more attractive.

If we move it will be back to the land of wimpy voltage, so the appliances can't come with us.

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Which brings up another queston - when we renovated 20 years ago we deducted some of the renovation costs from our taxes. Are we allowed to do so again, for a subsequent renovation? Any time limits?

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Lots to think about...

Many thanks for all your suggestions and advice, folks.

Where's your information that shows that kitchens are now lighter?

I just looked at a leading German manufacturer and almost all the kitchens are dark doors and dark granite.

Tom, try reading the original post first, i'll quote a small piece :


"Con: The kitchen is dark, think 2000s cherry, grey granite. I had planned a lighter more open look when renovating, as lighter is more in line with today's style - and should help sell the house"


If you paint the doors a light colour or white, it will enhance the feeling of space, this i believe is quite a well known concept.


I didn't say kitchens were lighter, i said to make it less foreboding and dark use a lighter colour !

Kitchen chic is indeed lighter...look at the blogs worldwide to see what buyers want. Just don't do magnolia cabinets!

Whatever you replace at the moment, whether it is just appliances, or you decide to redo the entire kitchen, you can deduct the costs off your taxes.

We replaced the kitchen in our previous home 3 years before we sold the house. It wasn't the way we plannned things, but just how things worked out. I am glad we bought a display kitchen for an amazing price. It was well worth the time it took to search for it.

The buyers of our home really liked the kitchen but I suppose it could have gone the other way too.

In our current home we have had to replace most of the appliances. I do think the design of the kitchen could have been so much better given the space available. It is not ideal but it works.

There is no telling what a potential buyer for your house might think if you redid the kitchen. If you can live with just replacing the appliances for now, maybe just do that until your plans for the future are clearer. With our previous house we had replaced appliances and some we were able to use in the new kitchen.

Good luck!

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That sounds awfully depressing. It would put me right off if the kitchen was dark like that.

Yeah. I doubt they're actually much better these days than the BSH-stuff they probably share 90% of the parts with...

These days, I'd buy Gaggenau appliances if I bought a e.g. Bulthaupt designer-kitchen for 100k+ (which I never will, unless I win the lottery).

What the buyer does with the kitchen entirely depends on the buyer.

From the six parties here that bought one of the fifteen year old apartments, I think only one did a full-on, everything-must-go-out renovation.

For the rest (including myself), the kitchen was still good enough. I thought about replacing the stove and the oven - but it's 55cm and the selection is bad (getting worse every year) and maybe it works a couple of more years and then I might replace the whole kitchen with a custom made one....

I quoted what you wrote. A few have said words to the affect that making it lighter because that is what is in vogue.

Waste of time to paint cabinets etc because when Meloncollie comes to sell in five years time, or whatever, something else may be in vogue.