You need to upgrade for your area. I am on my second house with ubatuba after a house with a lighter color, and it is a pretty low maintainence granite. I love granite, and despite HGTV's predicted obsolencence (by people who's livelihood requires you to change out your design frequently btw), I do not agree that other emerging materials provide better performance and beauty for the price. Laminates are not heat resistant; tile has grout staining; concrete is was too trendy, and must be done right; and quartz/silestone look a lot like corian (dated). Granite tiles look cheap, and I wold not pay one cent more when offering. I believe granite slab will at least return it's cost every time as long as the designer isn't color blind ... You also need to at least certile the floors, and maybe do some cabinet coat and/or some wall texture - all very inexpensive and possibly DIY with a little bit of artistic ability...

I know from personal experience that this type of place appeals to horse owners on a budget. Usually they don't care so much about the interior of the house so long as it is sound, they are much more concerned whether there is water and electric to the outbuilding, if the place can be fenced or if it is fenced, if the fence is sturdy, grazing areas, a place to ride... It might be worth you while to advertise it as a horse place if horses are allowed and the questions here can be answered. This would be in addition to other advertising you may do to the more generic "back to the land" type folks. There is a growing market in many places for homes with land such as yours. That close to town can also be a selling point," live in the country, even if you work in the city". best wishes

mtnrdredux your house is absolutely absolutely amazing! It makes me want to sell my new-built one and go and buy yours! That window seat with the arched stained glass window is a work of art! And your fireplaces and floors!! I also love your style and ALL of your furniture. You aren't too far from us, so if you have a moving sale, please really let me know and I'll come and buy some of your furniture. That's so cool you got married at the house too and what a beautiful setting to do it. My fiance and I are planning on getting married at our new house as well. I'm sure your new home must be magical for you to leave such a lovely home! Thanks for the book ideas- there are a bunch of really cool ones! I definitely have more books than shelves. We've got a quasi-two story library with a library ladder and books to the ceiling :) We've been buying those readers digest books at estate sales, the leather bound condensed books. And old law books. I kept a few of my old law books from law school but they are nowhere near as nice as your husband's collection! beckysharp it is the sun blinding effect that I'm afraid of with the windows that is making me think I'll want to do at least shutters on some of the windows. macybaby, the swag of the chandelier is definitely a good idea. Then I could do the ceiling medallion I want to do as well. fori, I agree 48" seems a bit big for a table. That's why I'm hoping I'll be OK w/ space. That was the size I saw on the first three tables I looked at to get an idea of dimensions when I was talking to my cabinet maker, so I'm not sure why they were all so large!

I agree that your realtor's and the market's opinions make the most sense and should drive your decision. However, you did ask for our personal opinions, so here goes. For example you consider to purchase my place and you like it. Say, you like it a lot. It has many redeeming qualities. And then you see the kitchen needs some love. You can tell exactly it's 25 years old kitchen. Functional, comfortable, but outdated, and visibly worn out in some spots. As a buyer-how much would you expect me to go down in listing price? In numbers. As a buyer, I'd expect the cost of your home to be the cost of a similar, yet fully-updated home, less the cost of remodeling, and then maybe also less another $20,000-$30,000 or so to make it worth my while to undertake the bother of remodeling. For our one-bedroom condo, we paid $350,000 for a complete fixer upper. Hadn't been touched or changed since 1974 when it was built to the height of 1974 fashion. Comparable condos that had similar specs/locations and were already updated were selling in the realm of $450,000 at that time. Our remodel cost us about $70,000 with the various fun surprises we had during the remodel. Or would you think-"I have to redo it anyway, it doesn't matter"? To me, your kitchen would be a gut job. It's rare to replace worn cabinets without replacing everything else (and the brown phase of the '90s is my least favorite trend of the last 50 years). Therefore, your efforts to pretty it up slightly would be totally wasted on me and I would definitely think, as you say, "I have to redo it anyway, so it doesn't matter." I'm not going to pay more for cabinets I'm ripping out just because they have paint added to them before I rip them out. What would make a difference to me (short of complete remodel) is the difference between an unusable gut job and a gut job that is still functional. The latter means I can live in and use the house immediately and update over time. The former means remodeling before the house is at all useful or functional to me. Therefore, if you were trying to appeal to me, you have already said it's functional, but I'd polish it up as much as possible in that respect. Fix anything that's cumbersome or not working. Make sure the doors/drawers move smoothly and close properly. Tighten up hardware. Replace any appliances that aren't working or are a total pain to use with something newer and functional from craigslist. Take down things that are blocking natural light if it's free/easy to do so. If the faucet and/or sink are annoying to use and cheaply (sub-$300) replaced, then replace those. Basically anything that fights you or makes you want to rip your hair out and the house apart on a daily basis. Try to reduce all problems to things that are solely aesthetic or things you definitely cannot change with an expensive remodel. If you have a good layout, that'd also appeal to me, so be sure to point that out in your listing. Remodeling without needing to move anything is WAY cheaper than rejigging the whole kitchen/whole house. It does seem as if your target buyer is someone who is planning a remodel, so I'd advertise it in a way that caters to the remodelers and never mind what people looking for turn-key beauty would find slightly more appealing.