Home improvements or drastic measures?

We have lived in our house for about ten years and during that time so much has changed in our lives. When we moved here we had two quite young children and my work meant that I was spending half my time in LA and half in the UK. The priority when buying the house was lots of space for toys, a bedroom for a nanny and a spare bedroom for my mum plus work space for Gordon. Nowadays we don't need any of that. Ollie is at university in London. Emily has moved back to Liverpool to work. Gordon rarely works from home and although we love our cats, they don't need a nanny. So how many of us, when we get to that empty-nest stage, sell up and downsize to something more suited to our needs? Of course, today's children are called the boomerang kids because they move out for a while then the attraction of rent-free living entices them back home again. I love everyone being at home so I wouldn't risk getting rid of their bedrooms. But my tastes – in fact I think all of our tastes as a nation – have changed so much over the past ten years. I’m sure I have talked before about my love for the programme Homes under the Hammer. If that programme is to be believed, we should all be knocking our dining rooms and kitchens and any other rooms available into one huge family space. This seems to increase the value of the property and most certainly it increases its saleability. Well that's certainly the well-practised argument I'm putting forward to Gordon when trying to convince him we need to do a little home improvement. Our kitchen is looking tired. It's modern enough, but it hasn't got that wow factor that every kitchen on those shows have. 16 But herein lies the problem. Do you just paint the walls and maybe the units or do you replace the units? If you do that, do you also need to replace the floor tiles which would spoil the look of the new units? Of course, putting your old oven with its grill which is often on the blink, back into the newly renovated kitchen maybe isn't a good idea, so are you looking at a new oven too? Then, of course, how about an island? Having a central island is a real focal point now and would provide more cupboard space. But where now do you put the table? Maybe you knock through to the dining room and make it one big room. Of course that means new flooring in the dining room to match. Where do you stop? I've been asking myself this question for the last couple of years so I always end up deciding I had better not start. Our friend has just built a new house. He came over to visit and said: “Oh why don't you knock down that wall between your kitchen and dining room?” “That sounds like a good idea,” said Gordon – yes, the same Gordon I've been trying to convince for two years! I was silently fist pumping! “But wait a minute,” he said. “If we do that we need to change the flooring and then we would need an island!” I have a feeling I will be drawing my old age pension and thinking, I wish I had done up my kitchen! Hold on though. Judging by how long I've been intending to do this, are fashions going to change again soon? Am I no sooner going to have my kitchen/family room and someone is going to say I'm building a wall between my rooms – open plan is so last year! Have a good week. The Press and Journal | Saturday, June 17, 2017