One of the biggest annoyances for me when watching any sort of home buying show is when the people focus on paint, wallpaper, curtains or the like. I just want to scream how little that has to do with the house. Sure it is more work but if the color on the wall is why you don't/can't buy a house you've lead a very spoiled life.

Get rid of the wallpaper, brass hardware and fixtures and that pink bathroom could be a gem...

...that Living Room just needs some Foo-Dogs, a big walnut credenza and a B&W geometric wallpaper it could have been designed by Jonathan Adler...

...and that basement rumpus room - well, It's not so different from what folks are buying at Anthropologie nowadays.

Obviously it is all about the price.

I guess it depends on how much work and money you're willing to invest. This place isn't so bad at all. Things like wallpaper, paint, carpet, and fixtures can be changed easily, though I think the pink toilet and tub are hideous and might be a little harder/more expensive.

I'd rather get a superficially ugly house that might turn off other buyers who aren't willing to do a little work to bring it up to speed. I'm willing to bet most people are the same way.

That being said, any majorly expensive remodel like unbelievably ugly tiles no longer counts as "superficial" to me. Even doing all the work yourself, that can get frightfully expensive.

Enamorada-

That annoys me too but I think the people are told to bitch about something otherwise it would be very boring TV

The rooms look well-proportioned to me. I would keep the pink toilet and tub, if they're in good shape. I hate the idea of tossing perfectly serviceable items because the color has gone out of vogue.

Everyone says they focus on the house, not the decor / time warp-iness. If that were true, my home would have been snatched up in half a second when it went on the market. But alas, no-one saw it's potential in the entire year it was on the market. Thank goodness for me!

I too like that pink and white stripe action in the bathroom. I'd maybe put the b/w geometric wallpaper in there!

Those other rooms don't look bad at all. a large living room with nice windows and a fireplace and a finished basement with full height ceilings and that great round bench thing to integrate the column in the middle of the room.

god if only you could keep the living room exactly like that. it would be amazing!

serioulsy though i agree with enamorada. if a house is the size you want, the location you like, in your price range, and structurally sound with no big issues--no problem. as you live in it you will be able to envision how to change it.

I agree with Kaete.

People who can't look past carpet, wallpaper, and even paint frustrate me whenever I happen to catch a home buying show. I assume these are the kind of people who leave their walls white and buy room sets from Rooms-to-Go, etc.

But a bathroom like the one above would probably be a deal breaker for me. Remodeling that is a big investment, in addition to the big investment of buying a house. It really would depend on my financial situation.

Also, I think the green room is awesome. Whoever has a room like that must be an interesting person.

Cosmetic changes are always the best-I say the uglier (or less to your liking) the better-then you won't have a problem making the place your own and tearing out what you don't like. It's the people who buy a place and live with something they don't like, like a wall color, or an ugly front door, that make me insane. Give it to goodwill/put it on craigslist and maybe someone who loves brass fixtures or a pink toilet will give it a new home.

I think its pretty obvious that everyone who likes this site is a "see the potential" person!

I could totally work with the pink toilet AND the green carpet. Bring it on!

People will overlook decorating issues if there's room in the budget for a re-do. But you'd be stupid to pay top dollar for a home that needed extensive remodeling. Even cosmetic changes cost money--and that bathroom? Big money. New flooring isn't cheap either. If the house needs changes, that needs to be considered in the price. Houses sell when they are priced right.

I always assume those who won't overlook cosmetic issues are folks who don't want the hassle of taking on home improvement projects right before, during, or after a move. Move-in ready appeals for a reason.

Regarding the pink tub and tile - it's called enamel people!
Spray enamel prolong the life of the tub. Take the toilet out with the benefit of a low flow toilet - and the remodel just got affordable.

All you pick-bath haters need to get on over to retro renovation and educate yourself! I love this house.

@Teeze, I think this is a group of people kind of pre-selected to be willing/able to redo the decor. I bet if you did this survey in the general population, you'd get a different distribution.

I would be able to look past the bad decor but what I might not be able to do is afford to do anything about it for a while. Living with that pink bathroom would be a horror for me. If I could find another house that I liked or at least didn't hate the decor in, I might go that route as it's the easier of the two.

It really depends on the price for me. Carpet and paint are easy to change, but can be pricey and time-consuming, especially if you have to deal with a lot of square footage. We're getting ready to install hardwood floors ourselves after living with bare concrete floors for nearly a year after we bought our house.

I personally think a gut renovation of a bathroom is one of the least expensive, easiest and most impactful renovations you can do, but not everyone is capable. And painting over ceramic tile is, at best, a temporary solution for a year or two until you save up enough money to do it right.

I walk into a house and look at the overall structure, lighting, view, and quality of the house's "bones." Everything else is up for demolition (assuming the prices leaves a budget for renovating). But I'd much rather demo something that's hideous, worn out and 30 years old than relatively new construction with a bad 90s renovation or new but hideous fixtures and finishings.

While houses with outdated decor can appear to be a bargain, it can be quite expensive in the end to remove all of the wallpaper and carpet, refinish floors, paint walls, replace fixtures, etc.

You might think you'll do it all yourself, but then become overwhelmed by the scope of it.

I think the best approach is to bring in a trusted contractor and estimate the cost to make the changes you want. If the price of the home the estimated cost to update it is still less than or on par with the neighborhood, then go for it. But don't underestimate the time and/or cost involved.

Yes, if you watch a TV show you can see past horrible decor to the bones of a house. But if you're buying a house in real life it's a whole lot different. It's an emotional as well as a practical decision, and bad decor can negatively impact on your first gut impression, so even when your brain kicks in to point out all the good structural stuff your gut has already got in their first, and it can often have the final say.

Our house was renovated and decorated in the 80's, so although it was "nice", it was outdated. But it was no matter for us as long as the walls were clean. We repainted and were able to remove the wallpaper neatly to update the house.

I could totally work with the pink toilet AND the green carpet. Bring it on! ---------same here!

"All you pink-bath haters need to get on over to retro renovation and educate yourself!"

I agree - I'd love to have a pink bathroom!

I have a crush on that rumpus room! I like the striped bathroom tile too. The cosmetic features are easily changed as long as the structure is sound.

I'm just not visual enough - finance geek, extremely auditory. I understand the point, but I literally can't "picture" potential. I close my eyes and....nothing.

I like hidden potential especially because it means a bargain price. But the paneling or similar decor are (most of the time) put in to hide something like walls in bad condition or something. So one has to really look closely at the bones and if its worth it. But given the money and time, I think most of us here would be up for it.

Man, I would buy it, leave it as is, and ask for them to throw in the furniture too!!

WOW i have to admit i love those rooms LOL! so much fun, the pink and red reminds me of the barbie dream house master bedroom and if i lived in the green room i would dress up as endora from b'witched , AWESOME!

It all depends on whether the buyer wants a project, or just wants somewhere they can easily move in with little effort. And obviously how much money they have to spend on changing it.

I *did* get an ugly apartment with beautiful bones! Fake rocks, zebra chairs and couch, horrible unpainted particle board closets, cheap floating parquet in the bedroom and cheap tile in the living room, all along with badly-done textured wall paint. 480 sq.ft with a 200 sq.ft terrace in Nice's northern city center (France), and otherwise in great condition (electrical up to date, and new water heater). Usually places like this here go for 200 grand (euros). I got it for... drum roll... 115! Because no one could look past the previous owners' bad taste!

Even better, when I removed the parquet, I discovered the place's original terracotta hex tiles (called "tomettes" here):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fraise/3131652780/in/set-72157615663610413/
I went straight to the living room and found out it was tiled with tomettes as well. They're extremely rare nowadays! (And correspondingly worth a good amount of money.)

Granted, I did also have the not-so-nice surprise of a hidden defect with the built-in shower, but it's only going to cost a 1,600 to fix, whereas once it's repaired and with the tomette floors I'm restoring, I'll easily be able to sell my place at a nice profit. (I'm also going to DIY the nasty closet and fake plaster rocks, which are easy to knock off, but will probably hire someone to sand off the textured paint.)

Price and potential are all that matter when house hunting. Anything else can be changed.

I could definitely look past an outdated house IF I had the money to remodel it.

I love goofy-colored bathrooms. The green carpet, I'd replace; that room is kind of spiffy but not me. The basement? I mean come on, it's a -basement-. You're allowed to be tacky in basements. In fact, from what I can tell, you're -supposed- to have a funky basement.

I live in a city where houses are still quite expensive (especially considering that I live far from any urban centre), so in order to buy a house my husband and I have resigned ourselves to the reality of having to buy a hideous outdated house if we want to own anything at all. I don't mind, really, because with something ugly, we can remodel it as our own over time. If you buy something "modern" in this town it's almost undoubtedly a cookie cutter stainless steel appliance and beige walls monstrosity AND cost about five times what it's worth. :shrug:

Toss the rest of the house, but god, I'd keep that bathroom in a heartbeat. Maybe with alternate wallpapering, but SO CUTE.

Fabulous house - I'd buy it, furniture and all!

http://savethepinkbathrooms.com

I agree with the people who love this house! It has character, soooo much of it!

I bought a house that was on the market for 11 months. I'd driven by it myself before I was actually in the market, and thought how ugly it was. Baby-$hit yellow trim & fake shutters, bad landscaping, etc. Went inside, was horrified, then turned into the hallway full of closets and cabinets. (Sold!) And so got a bargain in the process. Is it completely the way I want it yet?--no, but in 11.5 years it has appreciated very handily. And pulling out awful landscaping is very therapeutic.

I'm fine with the pink tile. But part of the door on the shower stall appears to have been replaced by brown wrapping paper. (Seriously, what is that? An artifact of the lighting?)

Anyway, that is one ugly shower enclosure. Get rid of it, paint the walls and you'd have a nice bathroom.

Pragmatically, most people end up buying in the top level of their house-hunting budget and then don't have extra money for rehabbing. That is one of several reasons for staging to sell (which works, by the way -- my house sold to the first people who viewed it BEFORE it was technically listed.) You should either like what's there already, or buy a "fixer-upper" WITH enough resources to do the fix-up. If you have to live with something that you hate in it's current condition, and you can't afford to correct that, you will be miserable.

So, I guess I am agreeing with the people who say that the issue is price. It would have to be VERY affordable (cheap) to justify any significant amount of work. And no structural issues, only cosmetic ones.

wow. umm....
I would actually love a pink bathroom, but that one hurts me. gah.

Haha, I used to have a bathroom with a pink shower and toilet and a grey and pink marble vanity with a shell sink. And silver foil wallpaper with small pink flowers, white cabinetry, fantastic faux-french swag lamps. It was kind of horrible and kind of awesome in equal measure.

I love the green living room, but I don't think I'd want to live with it.

That pink bathroom would be great with removing the wall paper. Painting it a cold gray. Hitting it with white or black. Lightening that accentuates it's drama. Pink treated well can be seductive. Very few people can work with it because they are not able to get above Barbie, Bazooka gum, the Pepto-Bismol look. Yet, it has a powerful zing to it against the appropriate colors. I've seen it treated successfully.

I would much rather buy a place that looked bad because then I could have as much fun as I want customizing it to my tastes. I'd rather the owner not waste their time and money trying to spiffy it up (aesthetically, not structurally) to get a higher asking price. Leave it as is and let me do the work!

The rooms above actually aren't bad. Those particular styles have just expired. They're pretty good design. The green room is the best. I think it's be funny to see if in 40-50 years, those styles come back. AT readers will be all over that, I bet.

We bought a 1954 house two years ago that has an all pink fixtures bathroom and an all blue fixtures bathroom....we love the fixtures and found out they're worth something, too. I'll send in photos when we finally strip the wallpaper and make it our own. We're concentrating on adding on a sauna/outdoor shower area first and only have so much time/money to spend.

I think what needs to be done in the above bathroom to pull it together is this:

1) Remove the wallpaper. Maybe go for matching pink paint to the tile.

2) The bronze/gold trim and fixtures contrasts with the silver metal mirror. I'd choose one and go with it (I prefer silver).

3) When you have more money, replace the sink and cabinet with something really cool, maybe clear glass. And replace the shower door with clear glass, too. That way the shower and the sink "match" and tie the look together. You can get shower glass that doesn't have that trim all around it. For inexpensive version, just remove that door completed and go with a great shower curtain!

4) Pick a mirror that works with the new feeling.

5) Towels: you could find some pink and white ones... or, bring in something totally fun like black & white (polka dots or damask patterned might be fun if you can find them). Pink and black and white has been popular in the past in haute couture fashion.

Katy
http://fengshuibyfishgirl.com

The new place we're looking at has mint-green 1970s tile in the master bath. But that is not worth walking away from the gorgeous view and great location. The only reason it is till on the market is that the out-of-town owner has not invested any money or energy in "staging."

Home buying can be an emotional experience. Most people fall in love with the "feel" and decor, more than the house. But, that's good news for people like us. We can take advantage of bargains others overlook. Besides, I like putting my persnoal touch on the place. IF they had redone that bath, thy might not have used the same limestone that we're planning to use. And we aren't paying for decor that we'd want to rip out anyway.

I love ugly houses...

I'd beg them to leave the furniture!