I think millennials are starting to realize that we can have a good quality of life without a bunch of "stuff" to collect, clean, move around and store. We are looking for meaning and depth in a world full of consumerism. Even in our varied decor styles we're leaning to less is not just more but, preferable.

@adkhiker, you sound like us (minus the asbestos)! We are millennials who bought our 1350sqft 1940s cape cod-style house before we were 30. We don't plan on having kids, so there isn't a strong reason to move to a bigger house for space. We could live in this house on only one salary, and that's important to us. I do want to be mindful of not redesigning our house so that it would be priced beyond the neighborhood. We did some basic painting when we arrived but have since replaced our roof, added insulation on the 2nd floor, had some electrical work done, had stone steps and pavers put in, added central air, removed a tree, updated the 70-year old clay external sewer pipes that no one fixed. Still on the list is a new boiler, fully updated electrical, some new windows, updating the kitchen a bit, adding solar, etc. (Our bathroom still has the original tile.)

It's important to have a house that's livable. I'd love to be able to do true a design project, but functionality comes first. We are buying houses that aren't new and have a choice to move out or fix the problems. I see friends doing both.

When hiring a professional, I'm looking for someone with good recommendations who seems to price the job reasonably. I avoid extreme over-or-under chargers and people I intrinsically don't trust or get along with (the latter hasn't come up).

Also, why are so many non-millennials responding to this question when it is aimed directly at millennials only (rhetorical question)?

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main."

(rhetorical answer)

We purchased an 1880 10,000 square foot home. It 40-50 rooms depending on how we divide or connect them. Right now I have been focusing on the electrical, drywall, and heat. It a huge task and my family is teaching me so much! Check it out at Fb.me/MestaMansion

I'm a millennial, I guess (31) and am on my second home. My first home I bought at 25 and did a lot of cosmetic updates myself (including installing nice laminate where 1970s carpet used to be). I've just started planning a full kitchen remodel and have taken my mom's advice. I picked out my appliances to see if a remodel was in my budget. I thought a lot about the layout I wanted and am waiting for a kitchen designer to draw up the plans. I've used the Houzz website as an idea board to pick out what I like and don't like. So, I'm in the early stages but I'm hiring pros this time around!

I am technically an older millennial (born in the first half of the 80s). My husband and I are on our third home. Our first was a town home in Southern California purchased at the height of the real estate market (2006) that we bought because our apartment rent was exhorbitant for what we got and for less than $500 more a month we could get a modest town home. We DIYed a lot of things there like painting interior and exterior, learning to lay floating bamboo floors, and hired pros to put in granite and tile after we saved up for it. Our next house in a different state required lots of plumbing and electrical work, plus we did the usual painting the golden oak trim and replacing wall to wall carpet with solid floor and we considered doing an addition there when we were expecting our 3rd child, but the city wouldn't let us because we were on a lake so we moved to a different home in the same town on a different suburban lake. Many of my millennial friends who have "settled down" either want swank condos in downtown or new builds in the suburbs. Since we want to live on a lake we have to choose from older homes, but in some ways I think that is more fun than having something turnkey where everything is done for you.

I have googled stuff on GardenWeb for at least a decade now although I never actively posted on there. I found it was a great way to get good "real life" ideas beyond HGTV (which I don't watch anymore) and design magazines. I started using photos on Houzz about 4 years ago to get ideas and then discovered Design Dilemma was an awesome resource to see houses and problems within them that looked like places I have lived. When we were seriously considering an addition to our last house before the city became unreasonable, Houzz idea books were a helpful way for me to make sure we understood what the design build companies we were consulting with were talking about.

Millennial here! Although we don't have a million dollars to spend on a house like in the above photo with the original question :-P
My husband and I bought an 8 bedroom foreclosure when I was 27. Part of our motivation was the investment concept BUT we also wanted to learn how to do major DIY which most of our age group is too stuck on computers and theory to learn how to do. My husband is also a Civil Engineer so that helps but he's not a designer. Houzz helps with good design and the big picture instead of just seeing what Lowes has on sale. Our most recent update was our dangerous sloped walkway, most of which I got from Houzz pictures. I would never have thought of a hog wire fence without Houzz. Before and After below. We've also used Benjamin Vogt's articles to turn most of our 6 acres back to native species and prairie which I'd love to see more millennials doing.

My Husband and I purchased a house built in 1979 in order to snag a large lot within the city. He needed a shop for his business and we found the perfect place .. a 1200sq ft shop AND a 1200 sq ft bungalow on a bay. The catch was that the interior of the house needed a complete overhaul. We did 75% of the work ourselves and finished with the perfect property that completely meets our needs. Instead of a two-storey on a tiny lot with a double garage we each have a garage and a modern house to live in. Purchased the property for $420000, spent $90000 and counting. We love it! (I have been using houzz ideas for years and this is my first post!)

Just a few! There is also the kitchen, ensuite, entrance and hallway and bedrooms. My millennial husband and I love it :)

Millennial Here! Having grown up seeing my mother and friends families struggle through the recession I focused on finding a manageable home that we could own, so that my future family doesn't have to move every year.

With that said I bought my first house with my now husband when I was 20. We spent a year looking for something in our budget (our agent quit because we wouldn't increase budget). We finally found a home that a couple built in 1960 who was more interested in the home raising another family then how much they could make off of it, we got so lucky.

We have since replaced all doors/windows with better efficient options. We built a back deck and installed a cedar fence. I have also spent endless hours reviving the yard, I think i have another year of slave labor to fix this.

In February we are remodeling the kitchen, removing our only "dining" space. The dining space is 10x7 with a sliding patio door, so having a large island is a much better use of the space. For me it is all about quality and function, I never want to put another dime into that space. We are installing Cherry Cabinets, Granite counter tops, subway tile backsplash and porcelain slate flooring. Being in the industry I luckily have connections for all of this, and my bosses son who is a contractor is doing all the labor. Without the connections i could never afford this.

We plan to save up for another year and install the same quality in the first floor bathroom. In order to get a functional space we have to invest in moving all plumbing fixture locations.

As a designer, i have plans drawn up for a future addition that would turn the 1.5 story house into a 2 story. At this point I would get a real formal dining room.

Long story summed up... I moved 1-2 times a year growing up. I insist on staying in this home for life, therefore investing in quality materials that will last is my number 1 priory.

My husband and I (29 & 27) are newly married and we just bought our first home. We live in Southern California so owning a home at our age at at this stage of life is nearly unheard of. Most of our peers, both married and unmarried are all renters.

Our house is a real fixer-upper though. We gutted the whole kitchen as the cabinets were falling apart and most of the appliances no longer worked. We also got rid of the acoustic ceiling and old carpet.

We are doing most of the work ourselves. Hiring a contractor to do everything was way outside our budget. For us, the most important things were the kitchen, new flooring, and a fresh coat of paint. We are still in the process of getting all the walls ready to be painted. We still have a ways to go! It is truly a labor of love, but we are enjoying the process and look forward to having our home move-in ready!

Below are a few before and after photos. If anyone is interested in following our progress, they can check us out on Instagram at @fixingupwiththejoneses

@julieasc,

Hello!

I am not a millennial, but I was intrigued by the very first post on this thread, in answer to your question.

We are interested in your response, and want to keep this thread in a forward direction.

You may be buying our properties in the near future, threads like this give us a heads up ;)

Millenial here. We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is absurdly expensive, so we saved up to buy a house in a less desirable part and split it with our best friend. He's lived with us for years, so it's pretty harmonious. It's unconventional, but it works for us, and our mortgage payments are much cheaper than rent. We're paying for repairs as we do them, and doing most of the work ourselves.

older millenial here--We tend to be very distrustful and DIY everything, as we have been led astray dozens of times financially by this point in our lives. We have basically reacted the same way that our depression-era grandparents or great-grandparents did: make as much as you can, don't go into consumer debt, and hoard as much as you can. Due to the economic cards we were dealt, we tend to deal with this in 1 of 3 ways, most of which make the subcontractor question irrelevant:

1) become long-term renters to keep our payments consistent, negate the need for house maintenance savings, and keep our lives flexible. In this case, we want to "nest" but are limited by the apartment policies. for this reason it's nice to have ideas on how to spruce up your space without knocking down walls or doing anything more permanent. alternate storage ideas, diys, would be helpful.

2) buy homes well below our buying potential with the intention to keep the fixed payments low, put up a full 20% down payment, and fix them up as we are able. Large renovations (>$3-5,000) won't be in our price point for probably at least a decade, but we still want to have pretty, welcoming spaces, so we come on these sites for ideas of what we can spruce up with an extra couple hundred dollars. Therefore, hiring contractors is not in our immediate vision.

3) become full-on house flippers. This is the only group that might be worried about hiring subcontractors that would be worth noting (except for the few millenials I know who are building new). HGTV has increased the appetite and vision of people with an eye for design, and the current housing market has caused it to be more reasonable to make money in that business, given the right locale. But in actuality, most want to become trained and able to do it themselves in most cases except maybe the more specialized and dangerous fields (electrical, etc). but the best flipping "squads" tend to have even one of those in house. Many in our generation (not all, but more than popular belief would consider) are tired of the "bigger and newer is better" philosophy, and have an appreciation for history. Old houses are a breathing piece of history and quality renovations are attractive to many first time millenial home buyers. For this reason, I enjoy articles that focus on retaining a bit of the history of the home.

All of this is with the exception of true, non-design hazards in our homes needing updating. Personallys ince buying my 1200sqft 1964 ranch in May, we have replaced every inch of wiring, re-sealed the driveway and re-painted. In the near future we will need to replace the garage doors completely (they have to be raised and lowered manually--not the end of the world but definitely a short-term priority when financially feasible), replace the roof, switch our out bathroom vanity, move some cabinets around, and if we ever have a chance within the next 2-3 years, we want to move a few walls around for better utilization of the space. We have friends in the business who can help us with most of that and will probably not need to hire additional subcontractors. If we did, we would only trust those referred by our friends.

I'm at the upper end of the "millennial" age bracket, but here's my story:

Being a millennial, when I bought my house, I had horrible student loans. The majority of the renovations and upgrades that I did, I did myself. My house is an 8 year labor of love. I did luck out that I have family who can mentor me, and I used a lot of skills I learned growing up and/or talking with them over holidays to improve the house. I'm also a huge fan of hopping on YouTube and watching videos that explain how to do things.

My contractor experience has been a mixed bag. Some have been horrible. Some have been incredible. My roof leaked, and my roofing contractor was amazing. He told me what it would cost and was true to his word. He answered all my questions. He found a solution that fit the problem - instead of trying to sell me to a new roof, he told me to replace the bad shingles. He even let me come up on the roof and explained what had happened and how it needed to be fixed. The electrical, plumbing, and HVAC contractors who have fixed things in the house have also been really great. Had a bad experience with a patio contractor and a meh experience with a flooring contractor. What I'm looking for is someone who will be nice to me, answer my questions (nicely!), do a decent job, and be honest about costs/pricing.

My husband and I (29) bought our home two years ago and have waffled on whether our choice was worth it. We bought at 1912 heritage home in need of updates. Esthetically it's beautiful and in our city we got in just before an already overpriced market got absolutely ridiculous, but many things have yet to be upgraded. As it has gone so far, we update in a style of crisis management. For example, last year we had an unusually cold winter which caused many of our pipes to freeze and the bathroom leaked. While not the first choice in our reno list it suddenly became the number one priority, and I think it will continue that way unless we throw in the towel and decide to sell. Because of the surge in the market, it's hard to find contractors who will take on small jobs, especially on such an old home, when they could work on new builds. Also, for us our mortgage is more than enough to keep us strapped, never mind adding trying to make your home a dream home. I would like to think this also the case for many millennials in cities with high housing markets as well.

I'm expecting a certain number of "Millennials" to respond. However, I'm not sure if it will deeply resinate with the large swath of younger folks that don't even perceive things in the same frame as their elders. Perhaps practicing general curiosity about whether they themselves even consider themselves Millennials (my step-daughter and her group tend to prefer being called "Mosaics") and what their vision is for their abode. For many in that generation, the interest is not in "things" but in experiences. Perhaps the journey through remodeling might offer some fodder for future articles. A more target rich environment might be more along the lines of what experiences do you want your abode to give to those who pass through it. I'm not saying fixing T-day dinner is the target of this. These are folks who are having to rediscover how to cook in some cases, much like the young ones of the 1920's and such that launched Home Ec classes.

That's an interesting point. I'm all about experiences rather than things. I don't think remodeling contradicts that. I'm frugal about spending in a lot of ways like cars, clothes, eating out...but I really like being in my home and feeling wonderful there. So remodeling/design supports that experience, not fancy stuff.

This has been an enlightening thread for me. I hope you mils continue to chime in because I'm learning a lot. I'm especially impressed with millennial attitudes toward money and the environment (mostly as seen through eschewing the accumulation of stuff in favor of experiences).

I'm very interested to see the response - are there many Millennials
that hang here? Of the Millennials I know (my sons and their friends
are that generation) many are struggling to even get a foothold in the
housing market and see themselves as long term renters or are finding
alternatives to traditional housing - e..g. DS1 and my DIL just built
and are living in a tiny house.

My daughter and son-in-law are 23 years old, making them Ms. They're out of college, no debt, just purchased a first house ... but they're just happy to have a builder-basic house of their own; they're not making changes, not really renovating or decorating ... unless you count buying an Ikea sofa.

Doesn't anyone paint a wall any other color than gray?

My above-mentioned daughter is all about gray, a color I find cold and uninviting.

She argues that most her age would rather have a computer make driving choices rather than tired, fatigued, texting humans.

She predicts that within a generation or 2, most people will not have
cars, garages, driveways, and that will hugely impact the design and
sales of homes.

I can see that as a want ... but is technology able to provide it? And, even so, isn't public transportation more practical than highly-technical individual cars?

As for the predictions, This could be true, but I don't think it'll happen in my lifetime ... and, even if we no longer have cars, garage space can always be turned in to living space, a rental room, whatever. Driveways can be torn up for lawns.

She said that as many her age prefer to Airbnb as opposed to hotels,
that having some type of separate living quarters on one's property is a
huge asset.

Yeah, my mom has an apartment on the side of her house, and it is tremendously useful. It can be closed off when no one's using it, it could be rented. Having a separate unit and separate utilities is useful.

However, I'm not sure if it will deeply resinate with the large swath of
younger folks that don't even perceive things in the same frame as
their elders.

I don't know if this is a generation gap ... or a phase of life. When I was younger and in my first house, I was in "make do" phase. We had hand-me-down furniture from family and Good Will, and LOTS of things about our house were less-than-ideal. At that point in our lives, our mindset was "live cheaply so we can save" -- a good choice, by the way -- and "this is just our first house; it doesn't have to be perfect". As today's Ms grow older and accumulate more money, I suspect they'll be more like my generation than dislike.

My husband and I are defiantly into experiences rather then things. We were so grateful to have the chance to live in Europe for 3 years and even though I am very frugal hence the 20% down on the house and cash flowing all updates to it we traveled. We went to 8 European countries and man am I grateful it was amazing even with a baby and a toddler lol. I would like to add I've been a stay at home mom for over 3 years and my husband is enlisted in the military we make it fine. We make it because we don't have student loan debt, credit card debt, or car loans. Our only debt is our house....my perspective on the fancy things in life has changed. I use to think if someone drove a luxury car they had money now I think they are probably broke. It's fascinating what people choose to spend their money on it really is...

@amanda setree wow you really have a project. I grew up in Pennsylvania and was overwhelmed when I saw your home. now that's a PROJECT.

I can relate to many of my fellow millennials commenting!

My husband and I bought our run-down 1900 shotgun house at age 26, completely gutted it, and did nearly all of the work ourselves. It needed new everything: electrical, plumbing, HVAC, you name it. We learned how to do all of this via library books, YouTube videos, and trusted family and friends. (Not to mention my husband has been building things his whole life and is currently in school for engineering.) Four years later we are pretty much finished and loving our sweet little house.

To answer the questions the most important thing for us was affordability. We chose to do the work ourselves to keep costs low (and honestly it was the only way we could afford to buy a house). We saw it as an investment that in a few years we plan to sell and will most certainly make a decent profit in our up-and-coming neighborhood. As far as design goes the most important thing was a good use of space. Our home is 1200 sq. ft. and we have no wasted space. It's highly functional and I absolutely love the floor plan we came up with. For the jobs we did hire someone to do (roof, drywall, foam insulation) we went with companies that were professional and affordable. The ones we did not go were people who gave us a bad first impression, were not friendly, professional, etc.

We've all seen in the news that millennials are still living with their parents, they're too burdened with student loan debt, and they will never be able to buy a home. There is some definite grains of truth to these headlines, but in my experience all of my friends in the late 20s/early 30s are buying homes. I live in the midwest/sort of south, and this is the norm. I think there is a big difference in my generation between people who live in urban areas and west coast, to people who live in the rest of our huge country. A trend I see for myself and my friends is buying smaller and buying in an area with things to do. I think we care more about our quality of life than the size of our home and the stuff we fill it with.

By the way, my home is very bright and white, filled with plants and eclectic furniture, art, and photos. My style is a bit of IKEA with vintage hand-me-downs and things from traveling. I got so many ideas from Houzz for the inside and out. And I have to say, the only wall color besides white is my bedroom painted SW Popular Gray. It's a very warm gray though! :-)

I've adored Houzz since 2010 or so, but it's just this past May that my husband and I became homeowners at age 34 and 29, respectively. It's half a duplex (yes, we bought, not renting), built in 1989 in a historic neighborhood close to downtown Indianapolis. Overall, we chose this location since several friends live close by (actually, LITERALLY on this street!) and also we love the walkability to things we need - grocery store, CVS, restaurants, hair salon... We were happy to pay a bit of a premium for this urban lifestyle.

The house is 2,180 square feet (2 floors + basement), which feels pretty spacious to us. We're pretty into minimalism, so we don't even use all the rooms/closets/cabinets yet! We are dying though to expand the tight kitchen. I love cooking, and we love having friends over, and people always gather around the kitchen. Rather than a bump-out, we'd move the nearby stacked laundry upstairs (stealing 18 sq. ft. from our future kid's room!), take out two pantries/closets just off the kitchen (where the washer/dryed used to be will be the new pantry), take out a pointless wall in the kitchen to open it up more, and turn the counters into a true island rather than dead-end. And we plan on getting ourselves some granite countertops, which is very exciting! We got a renovation quote from a contractor we found on Nextdoor and really liked - really honest, down-to-earth guy - as well as a quote to help us with a bunch of odd jobs related to addressing some minor things that came up in our inspection report. It's not that we're not handy (okay, we aren't), but we just know contractors can get things done better, faster. Unfortunately, our chosen contractor struggled with some health problems and can no longer work with us, so now I plan to try some other recommendations.

We hope to get the laundry move + kitchen reno done this winter, and then down the road, a sliding "barn" door and walk-in shower + tub for our master bathroom, kind of like this.

My husband and I are older Millennials from the early 80s. We bought our house a couple years ago. It was a custom home built in the late 90s and we've been working on a lot of DIYs ever since, from ripping out the "Tuscan" backsplash, painting the yellowed-out honey oak staircase and fireplace, ripping out the garbage carpet, and painting the doors (not to mention repainting the interior completely). Plane for the next year include new flooring top to bottom and new kitchen appliances. What's most important to us is improving the value of the home without overshooting the neighborhood. We planned to live here for 7-10 years when we originally purchased it, but it's looking more and more like we'll be moving to a different state shortly. We're in a seller's market right now and we want to keep our house on the same level as the new builds as much as we can without putting in too much money.

We've had one contractor come out to give an estimate on some wiring work. We haven't hired the job out yet, but we know who we're going with- the one who called us back and showed up for the estimate. We also plan on having someone else put in the floors, and that will depend on the value of the work and quality of product we go with, I'm guessing. We haven't made it that far in planning yet.

amb your bathroom looks so much more functional! and all that storage too!

Cool thread and some neat homes.

Here is a breakdown of the generations.

http://socialmarketing.org/archives/generations-xy-z-and-the-others/

Gen Z. I am raising two of those and the technology/social media influence is almost inescapable. It concerns me.

And there are some of us who straddle all the Gens.

I can imagine gen Z stuck to technology I have a kid born in 2012 and at the end of generation Z according to that article. I try to limit technology. Deffinetly zero tv and tablets in the car that's just a pet peeve of mine. Do kids really need technology in their face that much that we stick it in their face everytime the car turns on. They do watch tv at home probably too much of it.

My husband and I are both 25. We closed on our first home May 31st, 2017 and in the last 5 months, we have completely remodeled the entire interior. Most of this work, I do have to brag (only because we can't even believe we were this crazy), was done by ourselves (including family and very good friends). Many new skills were learned along the way, having never done this before. We did hire a contractor to assist with installing new floors throughout the home, new baseboards, new subfloor in the living room, and a door replacement (due to rot). The house is a ranch, just under 1,700 square ft. on the main floor (approx. 2,100 with the finished bonus rooms in the basement) with 3 beds, and 2 baths.

The house was a disaster when we bought it... Looking back, I cannot believe I was able to talk my husband into it, but it had good bones! We scored the house for $15,000 less than asking price and put approximately that much back into it fixing it up. Structurally, aside from the rotted exterior door, it was in sound condition. However, needed just about all of the bleach available at the local store, and 33 gallons of paint to make it livable. The house was covered in filth - ceilings had to be painted in every room, along with all of the walls. We also installed new counter tops, bathroom vanities, toilets, sinks, crown molding, finished some sheet-rocking, and added a kitchen island. Mind you - much of this was done with a LOT of research because we were total newbies. I wish I could say that we had a nice chunk of change set aside for this too, but truthfully, every spare hour and cent we had we put toward the house, scraping by most of the summer, and we utilized yard sales and coupons anywhere we could.

Houzz.com provided a LOT of insight and was great for getting some inspirational ideas for the home. Happy to have found it! While the process does require a whole lot of patience, it also requires drive to get it done fast. I would say it is worth it, as our home has significantly increased its value since completing the work. We now have a place we otherwise would not have been able to afford.

Here are some Before pictures I have handy:

Kitchen Before & After:

Bathroom Before, During, & After:

Bathroom Before & After:

Bedroom example Before & After (blue):

Another Completed Bedroom:

Living Room Before (wall to ceiling lilac purple... purple carpet, and purple walls leading up a cathedral ceiling...) & After (taupe):

Another After Kitchen Shot:

@Erika - Your home looks adorable! Congrats! I'm with you on the anti-millennial stereotype. Not all of us are glued to our phones making memes 24/7 - in fact, most of us older milllennials are handling a lot and trying to do it all well. My husband and I are attorneys and we have two horses. We do full board right now, but it's still a lot of work, and we're planning on relocating to the Midwest in a couple years to own a farm, so even more work, plus we are likely going to be managing a firm at the same time. Like most people on Houzz, I'm here for inspiration and resources in making our home the best it can be with our budget and time restraints.

Also an older "millennial". 1st home was a fully remodeled modern condo in city. 2nd home purchase is a 1953 ranch with nice yard in city neighborhood. When we first moved in we retextured all the orange peel walls and painted everything from shades of baby poo brown to its current gray walls, white trim. We redid all light fixtures, switches and sockets, knocked down a wall dividing the kitchen and dining room, and remodeled a bathroom, adding a shower. We did all this ourselves, with some help from an electrician and plumber. Then after a year of living there and a year of planning (I did the plans and design and selected all finishes and fixtures- thank you Houzz- then hired a GC to execute), we did an addition which included a full kitchen gut and reconfiguration and a full remodel and expansion of the other bathroom plus laundry room add. The new addition includes floor to ceiling windows and siding doors along the back and a modern kitchen with massive U-shaped island. Kitchen has large appliance garage (behind horizontal bamboo doors), induction cooktop, double oven, massive granite composite sink, quartz tops, and bar and counter seating for 6-8. We kept original oak flooring in front of house and tore up tile in back (had to mitigate for asbestos mastic) to extend oak floors throughout the back of the house and kitchen. Back part of house is now open floor plan dining/kitchen/family room. House is less than 2k sq feet but we wanted city neighborhood over burbs. Pix below:

I like that name "Oregon Trail Millennial" — my age is of that in between era of firmly Millennial or Gen-X. I think my experience with homes and remodeling has straddled the generations equally. I used to watch home improvement shows on PBS, before there were cable channels dedicated to the topic, and I was a regular on the original GardenWeb site, before Houzz was even around. I've seen so many building and design trends and ideas come and go, but I've certainly embraced the trends that would likely be considered new school by older generations. Ideas such as green building/sustainability, quality over quantity, a love of throwback/time-proven designs (Mid-century, Craftsman, Scandinavian, etc.), reuse/recycling, DIY — all seem to be pretty important to Millennials. It's all new spins on old-school traditions and, at their core, ideas that can be practiced both frugally and safely (e.g. You may tire of a chair, but it's been in style for 100 years so it's unlikely to become dated).

My experience diverges though in that I'm on my third home, and the second one that I will have remodeled. I learned my lessons from the first remodel, after using all that easy money the banks were throwing at us to make improvements. Sure it was a nice house when it was done, and I severely miss my kitchen — but I couldn't pay for it on my own, even with a roommate, so it had to be sold at an overall loss when my ex and I divorced.

My current project, where barring any major life changes I intend to own until I'm old and gray, is a 1929 Craftsman that had most of the upgrades I was shopping for (new electric cause I didn't want to deal with that again!) but still needs a lot of TLC. In perhaps true Millennial style, I purchased this property for well, well under what the banks said I was approved to spend. I made a choice to forgo all the bells and whistles and spend no more than what could be covered by slinging coffee at a Starbucks. And, unless I add on square footage (or build an apartment for my mother that lives with me) I plan to continue paying cash for my upgrades. The DIY progress is slower, but damn if it isn't financially prudent. And yeah, not being house rich and cash poor means I get to do things like travel or pursue other hobbies that make me as equally happy as having a really nice house.

To get to the actual question, projects in the mix include finishing up adding insulation to the walls, cause you know they couldn't be bothered to add that in 1929, hand oiling the wood floors, rehabbing windows and planning for bigger jobs — like the exterior painting and roofing that I'll not foolishly DIY. Hiring pros to do work, as someone with enough knowledge to be dangerous, means bringing in vendors that have a client-centric process, good communication skills, and because it's happened, aren't sexist/ageist/generally crummy people. At the end of the day, I have to like the people that are working on my house, because we're going to likely be seeing a lot of each other if it's a bigger project.

My husband and are are 1981 "Oregon trail" 36-year-old 'millennials'. We bought our first house at 23, a 1981 tri-level. We gutted and remodeled the kitchen (with a GC), as well as both bathrooms (DIY). We sold that house last year and are just about to close on on a house we just finished building, a 3 br, 2.5 bath, 2000 sq. ft. ranch. Open concept kitchen to living room and grey walls - and I love it all! It has been, by far, our biggest undertaking to date. It's a semi-custom home that we designed to be Prairie-inspired with lots of down lighting and clean lines. We also both work full-time and have two young kids.

Here's a picture of my living room in our tiny little downtown apartment. Not too shabby for 3 buddies in their mid 20s. It's hard when limited to a very small space, but design is all about working with what you've got, right?

We have owned our home since October 2016. We're still working on improvements, because as is the case with many millennials (we're both '89 babies), we have to space things out because of lack of huge savings. We've already repainted everything a much lighter and more soothing color; done a lot of re-landscaping; built several pieces of our own furniture (my husband is handy!) such as our TV cabinet, dining table, built-in bookshelf, and a wall bed/desk combo; and re-finished a couple of hand-me-down freebie pieces of furniture. We're setting our sights on new exterior doors, new flooring, and remodeling our kitchen in the next couple of years. While we do a LOT ourselves, we did hire a professional painter (we don't have a whole lot of patience) and will likely hire a professional to do our exterior doors, flooring, and kitchen.

I'm looking for some inspirational ideas to remodel my house. However, I still don't know what do I want

Well, it's a very interesting information because I don't know many millennials who are obsessed with home remodeling. I think that nowadays it's too expensive to do anything with your house because the prices on materials are pretty high. For example, here in Miami it would be pretty difficult if you don't have enough money. I know this because I experienced home remodeling several years ago. It was pretty hard for me but I managed to finish it on time without any serious problems. Lucky for me, I found a good company that provided various remodeling services. If you are interested, you can view website in order to get detailed information about their home remodeling services.