As has been said more eloquently already, everything is relative. Not everyone here at the Table is in the same income bracket; and not everyone that is in the same income bracket has the same recurring expenses -- for example, hubs and I don't have any kids, grandkids, or pets, so we have more disposable income than folks with the same income level with kids/grandkids/pets. If someone with less disposable income is frugal and sets aside money to buy something "expensive" why shouldn't he/she treat themselves to it? I'm going to be buying a new car within the next couple of months. Hubs has me deciding between a Mercedes C300, Lexus ES350, and a BMW 325i. I said that perhaps I didn't really need one of those three, and that I'd price out a Toyota Avalon (because I have always loved my Camry). Well, imagine my surprise when the Avalon priced out more than $2,000 higher than the Lexus. So, why should I not buy a Lexus just because some folks see it as an "overpiced Toyota with a superiority complex" when it's less expensive than a Toyota? As far as watches are concerned, yeah, I wear what some would consider an expensive watch (msrp is about $3,000). Not as expensive as a Rolex, though. It's a Tag Heuer, from the Link line: It's (in my opinion, anyway) not "flashy" or "attention getting." Hardly anyone realizes that it's a Tag Heuer - most folks think it's a Seiko! But this is the watch that I wanted because I like the quality of workmanship that goes into a Tag, and, most importantly, I like the looks of it. I also wear, right next to the watch, a diamond tennis bracelet that's over 5.5 carats. Retail price now would be somewhere between $20K to $25K. But it was a gift to me from my brother, and he paid significantly less than that to have it custom made for me 15 years ago (I have a brother-in-law who is a Certified Master Bench Jeweler). Yeah, there have been a couple of times that I've been nervous wearing it, but only a couple. Most people don't think it's real. :-)

A sink is a sink is a sink. Avoid the very cheapest and the rest are pretty much the same. I would never even consider spending more than 2 or 3 hundred for a sink, and in fact I got mine from Costco for considerably less. As for depth, I am sick and tired of the stupidly shallow sinks I most often encounter. A 7" deep sink is totally unacceptable for anyone who intends to use the thing as an actual sink. I like utility sinks the best but you never see them in homes anymore. I'll be installing one in the house we just bought right away. For the "regular" kitchen sink, the one I bought is 9" or 10" deep and I decided to go with the corian countertop rather than Formica-equivalents simply because it gave me an extra inch or so of depth by allowing an under-the-counter mount. It'll be wonderful to finally be able to put my deeper sauce pans in the sink without having them bump into the faucet.

Depends on where you are, demand, current structural issues, insurance and maybe local codes. 500 is enough space for a room+bath+kitchenette. Is it appropriately built and insulated? Working and legal egress windows? Is there demand in your area? Are you in a location where someone would pay to live there? Will you need to provide them with parking space or will they walk/bike everywhere? Legally you cannot do detached ADU's in our city. About 10% of people do anyway and some are smaller than what you have. All have appropriate insurance. If they don't have appropriate off-street parking then they advertise as 'walk/bike only' which is fine as we have good protected bikeways everywhere so renters can easily walk/bike to local stores and to transit (we're a suburb so the 11 mile trip to the city is more than most want to do and it does not have good protected bikeways the entire way). Owners largely do a good job of being good neighbors so we've had no problems with noise or such. If there is a problem then someone talks to the owner who takes care of it. One new homeowner did report their neighbor's ADU (for being an ADU, not for any actual problems) to the city and from what I heard the gal at the city kept telling him that she couldn't understand what he was saying. While many cities enforce ADU regulations, ours is more of a just in case - if there's a problem then they have legal grounds to deal with it but so long as there are no actual problems then it's not a problem. Worth it? Financially it depends on how much you can charge less costs for maintenance and insurance. OTOH, many people have become quite good friends with their renters.

We added a shed dormer off the back of our house- it gave us enough space for a bathroom (turning a ‘loft’ into a real bedroom). It was part of a major gut remodel but was probably at least 50 to 100k of the cost depending on what you count- the load of the bathroom and dormer had to be transferred down through the house to the foundation, roof replaced, rewiring, etc. Well worth it but not cheap.