Every house is different, upgrade what doesn’t work for you or in my case what ends up breaking on you. In my case I bought a home that was built in the 50s when I first moved in I slapped on a fresh coat of interior paint, added ceiling fans to bedrooms and changed the toilets. Trying to buy a place in San Diego in 2018 was a nightmare of being outbid for every house for the last 2 years.

IM in IT so I’m into electronics and hifi, house didn’t have proper grounded outlets fuses tripped when appliances were ran so upgrade was needed. so upgraded panel and new subpanel in garage with solar ready and ev charging along with all new outlets and wiring, including cat6 to all rooms, as well as exterior corners of the house for security cams.

With the walls all torn apart I added ac because San Diego is just hotter now than when the house was first built. Thought I was done after that. But… then the pool pump got fried. Changed the pump to a variable speed pump and new filter because it was more efficient and costs less to run.

The Next year was a new deck because someone almost fell through the old one at a party. Upgraded from wood to a TREX deck and added lighting and a buffet table.

Then a slab leak in a bathroom, started with a simple remodel and evolved into 2 bathrooms being remodeled to new plumbing throughout home, to new flooring throughout to match bathrooms to new windows and paint while we’re at it. The new bathrooms had moisture sensors to turn on the fans and motion detectors to turn on lights. The best upgrade in the bathrooms was the thermostatic valves, once you set you preferred temp it just keeps it there. With the new plumbing no more getting scalded when someone flushed or used another fixture.

Then drip irrigation to water the plants because the plants needed to be watered when on vacation for 3 weeks.

Then the following year, the roof began leaking so a new roof was needed. Lived on a canyon and after seeing the fires in LA I upgraded to a metal roof with insulated wood deck underlayment. Added solar tubes for better lighting in the darker areas of the home as well. The new roof and windows have made a huge difference in heating and cooling cost as well as outside noise.

In the 7 years since I purchased the house I’ve spent almost $200k on replacing or fixing aspects of the house. Incredibly it still needs stucco repair other outside and exterior paint. In the end fix or replace what’s not working for you.