These 2 rooms are the costliest to update in any home (new or old). They are also the rooms most out of date in older homes.
I just bought a house built in 1900. These are the two rooms I am leaving for last to restore.
I know I will need to invest a minimum of 5K on the bathroom with me doing most of the work.
The kitchen/pantry will be over 20K including appliances.

In the bathroom I replaced the shower and the ceiling light and toilet. Made the shower 20% bigger. Changed the ceiling light to a light with humidity exhaust fan to outside. Got a bigger toilet because the old toilet was so small it felt like I was almost sitting on the floor. Also put in ceramic tile and repainted the walls and ceiling..

Put in an updated garage door opener that I can control with my iPhone.

Mine is not updated by today’s trends, and definitely not very upgraded, but it also is not old looking. It’s not yellowish brown granite, which to me is the dated look that I dislike the most.

My cabinets are a brown grey (I love the color) and the counter is the higher end mica, and stainless appliances (base level Whitlpool). The upper cabinets are only 36” I wish they were 42”.

The island is angular, not rectangular, which I hate. Lol. When I moved in I priced out fixing the island, taller uppers, and putting granite or quartz counters, but I didn’t do it.

My bathrooms are the same cabinets and counter. I have a walk in shower in the master, nothing at all to step over.

My house was built in 2016.

I don’t think I even know what that would mean.

But no, not really.

@Zaku “Updated” meaning new-ish, trendy kitchen and bath vs. old (80s, 90s) kitchen and bath (fixtures, countertop, cabinets, old tub with old hardware etc.).

@jca2 My “updated” is 80s/90s! It is an old house. I recently painted the kitchen cabinets blue from golden oak and put in new hardware. I imagine that, besides the disruption, a total kitchen remodel would cost me about $50,000. The vanities in all the bathrooms are about 15 years old, Shaker style and granite topped, and look good. I’ve debated about doing more modernization but what is going on in my neighborhood is buying for the land and location by rich people and then either gutting or tear downs. And if they do keep the house, they will gut and remodel the kitchen in a style that is not my own. So I decided to just suit myself and not worry about updating for resale value. I’ll do what I want for me. The house is certainly clean and attractive as is.

My flat is definitely not updated and a film company once offered to take it over for a week to do some period filming but it wasn’t practical for me at the time.

My kitchen is not as old as I am but it is older than my bathroom. It is quaint and functional and I like it that way. I think my bathroom was updated before I moved in but it still looks clean and fresh. All I would want to change is the shower over the bath which I would like to replace with a walk-in shower at some point.

I always though there was no point in doing a property up just to sell it when the new owner would have their own ideas as to décor etc but realtors are in the business and I’m sure they know best.

Yes. I was blessed to have a brother that was a contractor and I only had to pay for parts. He has since retired and is serious about retirement. He won’t work on anything for anyone now. I can’t blame him. His shoulders are shot after a lifetime of using power tools.

We live in an arts and crafts bungalow. The kitchen and bathroom were updated when we bought it over twenty years ago.

Though updated wasn’t necessarily making it more modern. The bathroom was updated with new fixtures, but more in the style of the house. Like a pedestal sink. The original porcelain on the tub was refinished. Subway tiles. We did put in a new Toto toilet.

@raum A pedestal sink in the master?

Our former house was an arts and crafts bungalow with one bathroom and a pedestal sink.

Was there a place to rest a hair dryer and curling iron? I love the look of the pedestal, but in a master (or if it is the only bathroom) I find it extremely impractical. Especially for women, unless there is some other sort of shelf or vanity I can put all of my stuff on where I don’t feel I’ll get electrocuted or get water on something because it might slip into the sink.

The bathroom in our master bedroom is smaller than the second bathroom downstairs.

No shelf or vanity.

@raum I guess I would use the top of the toilet. I did that sometimes growing up. We had a cabinet sink, but very small, probably 24”, or 30” at most.

@JLeslie I agree. My mom had her bathroom redone about 15 years ago, and they put in a pedestal sink. It matched the toilet and was all very elegant, but when I would stay there and use a hairdryer, very annoying to deal with. Even brushing teeth, putting contacts in, nowhere to put anything. Even a bottle of handsoap would be in the way.

@janbb I love painted cabinets. The possibilities are endless. I follow a page on FB where this lady does updates to her house with antiques and found items, and she has her cabinets painted black, and it’s very cool looking, very dramatic. She uses tin ceiling tiles as a backsplash. Really creative and rustic.

@gondwanalon I had my bathroom updated about 5 years ago and the new toilet that I chose is about 2 inches higher than the old toilet. It’s surprising how that makes a difference with how easy it is to get up off the toilet.

@JLeslie I stayed in a Wyndham time share in Virginia a few years ago and it was a beautiful large 3 bedroom unit with the kitchen island in a “c” shape. I really liked that type of island, compared to a regular rectangular island.

@jca2 It matters where the sink is. My sink is in the island, so the shape makes the sink far from the stove. If the sink is over as part of the continuous counter to the stove then the island shape doesn’t matter as much for cooking. If the island doesn’t make the living room smaller because of its shape then ok in that case too. When I moved here I complained to a lot of the salespeople about the impracticality of the island and two years later they were building 90% of new houses with kitchens similar to mine with a rectangular island.

I don’t know if the links will work. Here’s the old shaped island. https://www.thevillages.com/homefinder/S198.78?new&preowned&homesites&status&lng=-81.98019326735313&lat=28.86591360951103&lvl=2

Here’s the same model with the rectangle island. https://www.thevillages.com/homefinder/L60V.137?new&preowned&homesites&status&lng=-81.98019326735313&lat=28.86591360951103&lvl=2

Of course the photos are distorted to make room look bigger so it’s hard to really perceive the difference, but the half hexagon shaped island forces you to push the sofa closer to the TV wall to walk between it and the island.

I changed the links in an edit so they should be ok if you look after 8:02am EST. The second one has the floorplan that you can look at. You’ll see the living room is listed 17’5”. With the island the other way it’s 15’9”.

I gutted this house and did a complete reno seven years ago.

The landlord replaced the toilet after the old one developed a crack in it.

No they are not, we are slowly doing them ourselves (cash) to avoid interest.

I am renting a 1970s apartment. The kitchen has avocado green countertops. Sadly the appliances are plain white stuff from the 90s, it would be awesome to have period-correct ones. There’s also some very 70s baluster dividers between the kitchen & living room like this.

It’s very tempting to decorate with macrame plant hangers and a papasan chair.

Nope, and it doesn’t matter to me. There are a few things I might do from a minor convenience standpoint, but if fixtures and appliances work, that’s all I need.

My house was built in 1962 as a ranch.

I gutted and remodeled 90% of it in 1996.

We added a second floor and remodeled 50% of the first floor (again) in 2002.

The kitchen is in need of an overhaul again now.