I haven't been making more than a few gift exchanges for several years, except immediate family, telling several that I am making gifts to charities instead: that's in my name, not theirs - I get the deductible receipt. Cut back on Christmas cards, as well - same reason ... and quite a few have email. I appreciate the messages, updating what friends and family are doing. I've said that I plan to write charitable and political cheques throughout the year ... but usually neglect to do so, so there are a bunch at the end of the year: I'm rather embarrassed to admit that a few years ago I had to make a special trip back from Toronto to write several, on Dec. 31: you'd think that would have taught me a losson (sorry - that was to be "lesson"), wouldn't you? Rather hard on my credit union, as they send photocopy of both sides of each cheque with monthly report, which means extra postage at year end (4 pages only within base postal rate - but they use both sides). Last year transferred stock certificates to community foundation, which supports many of the charities that I do, so I got one receipt and saved gas and postage. I get a deductible receipt from them, as from other charities, but there's an extra benefit: I pay no capital gain tax on stocks given to a charity, so it makes sense to gift long-held stocks, carrying substantial capital gain. It'll be a cash gift this year - stocks too low: I'm buying periodically, not selling! And getting rather low on cash! Expecting a cash infusion soon ... and am building collAteral on LOC. My pensions have a small inflation escalator, so have increased somewhat over the 12 - 14 years that I've been receiving them. I live on less that those amounts. Dividends from stocks have stayed at about the same level ... but I expect that there'll be fewer reinvested income reports from the mutual fund carriers, this year ... which amounts one can not plan ahead, as they vary widely from year to year and most don't report till near year-end: that's out of my hands. Son and friend and I have had modest Christmas dinner together for a few years, but it may be different, this year - son has found a lady friend! I don't own a home and stocks have taken a huge beating in recent months ... but, apart from a few (imaginary) tears being shed, that has little effect on daily living. Good wishes to each of you for the coming holiday season ... may it bring new, worthwhile visions and insights! Plus the will, courage, time and strength to implement them. ole joyful

Good question! I think it is so hard. First, we personally always look at the cost of the home, resale value, what we'd get out of it and what we are putting in. We will never put in more than we can get out. You have to research local real estate for that. If you've lived in a home for a while, you may be out of the loop of what things are really selling for, especially what you feel they may be worth. As a homeowner who has done some big (IMO) remodeling projects in the past, I anticipate future projects based on the past costs, and also my DH experience as he is quite handy and has done many hands on projects. Examples of hired work and some DIY: Installing central air and extending ducting into a home, moving a furnace, soffits and drywall for ducting, rebuilding a large cement and brick front porch requiring a structural engineer, redoing a kitchen (DIY via IKEA) and hiring an electrian (good friends' husband) to fix electrical. Painting. Framing and drywalling an office, redoing a small master bath with marble, laying laminate flooring. Laying decking, fencing, gazebos and landscape. Installing and boring out doors. Building decks and boardwalks. Refinishing wood floors. Etc. These past experiences give us a baseline. Before I had a baseline, I relied on a three quote system to judge what a realistic cost was for what I wanted to achieve. Most people that I know, have a budget, and then adjust design and materials accordingly. Others with very open pocketbooks may operate differently. Most people I know, if they come into a very outdated situation, come up with a plan for updating immediately. They may save for some big things, but basic cosmetic change up is usually a must. For most people I know, they either: 1) Save for a project 2) Set a budget, and then shop it out 3) Yes it usually goes over a little due to splurges. I can only speak for us, we have a set amount of money we want to spend. We prioritized where to spend it based on our past experience of cost, and what was most important. We set a budget for each area (hardwood floors, kitchen, master suite, siding, windows). At this point we play the see saw game of we go over here, so where can we cut, and what can we live with. Just my experience. It's hard. If you have been out of it a while, costs do rise.

Kitasel, I agree that all personal deductions should have been eliminated. Itemized deductions always favor some groups over other groups and that is why I find them to be discriminatory by nature. I too,am on the metro north line and we never had the devaluation of equity that most of the country had in 2008. Getting rid of property tax deductions is maybe just finally righting the over inflated property costs in the NYC, Boston and San Fran markets. It is more than supply and demand, these markets are bubbles and their burst will open up opportunities for less fortunate people to finally enjoy owning in these areas as well perhaps, or at least I can hope it does. Again I am fiscally hurt by the 10k cap aswell but compared to the other real issues with the bill this is nothing to complain about. The tax brackets going down by significant percentages in upper middle and upper classes is what I find horrendous about this bill. Not the fact that these same groups, of which I belong, now have to pay on their property wealth and property additions... Taxes for many of us are too low and if we want better futures for our kids it is time we admit it and stop looking for breaks. I dislike this bill because it lowered taxes over all not because it did away with a few luxury deductions like expensive houses and extensions.

I see two different issues here. One is people looking at an expensive room on Houzz and thinking they can make their room look like that for pennies. That is unrealistic. If you go with the cheapest labor, you will usually get what you pay for. And if you go with tile from a big box store, it will likely not look like the Ann Sacks that you saw in the picture. The other issue is whether you can/should trust a professional to do their job correctly, or whether you are foolish not to do the research every time you spend big money on a job. Roarah, I don't know why you are blaming yourself for not having researched the tile specifications. You are not a professional tiler. Your GC hired a professional tiler, and he should have known about the potential problems and explained them to you before he laid a single tile. When we renovated our kitchen and two bathrooms seven years ago I knew nothing about tiling, or really any other aspect of renovation. I relied on our GC (who also did the tile work) to help me on the layout, and to tell me what could/couldn't be done. I paid quite a bit of money for the reno (I live in NYC suburbs, so labor costs are high anyway) and I maybe (naively) expected that he know his stuff and he would do a good job for me. Luckily he was a very good GC and a very good tiler. I was quite happy with our job, although of course you always come up with things you would do differently if you were doing them again. I understand that my luck could have gone the other way with a different contractor. I recently reno'd our downstairs level and needed 600 feet of LFT laid to replace existing carpet. When I had the job quoted, I was hoping to find someone cheaper than the original contractor, and I got two other quotes in addition to his from contractors who were highly recommended by friends and neighbors. Original contractor told me about the issues involved with LFT, and warned me that his quote would be high because of all the prep/leveling work involved. Contractor #2 wanted to lay the tile right over the existing carpet (!!??). Contractor #3 told me that he could do whatever layout I wanted with whatever sized grout line and it would come out just *fine* and he could do it very quickly. Ironically, all three quotes were in the same high ballpark price-wise. Anyone with common sense would reject Contractor #2's tile-over-carpet solution, but would it have been crazy to go with Contractor #3 if you didn't know the about the issues with LFT? Once I heard the difference in approach between the original contractor and Contractor #3, I read up on LFT issues because I wanted to see who was right, and ended up rehiring the tried and true contractor. But conceivably, I could have gotten several bids from highly recommended contractors and not have been told about these issues at all. But if you are a regular homeowner who has no interest in reading design forums or tile manuals, shouldn't you be able to hire a tiler without reading up on tile specifications? Assuming you are not looking for a ridiculous bargain basement price for the labor, or not overlooking other glaringly obvious warning signs, I think you should be able to trust that your professional tile layer knows how to lay tile, and if you get screwed, blaming yourself is misplaced blame, IMO.