If you live in a house that you generally love, you plan to stay there for at least five more years, and it’s located in a desirable neighborhood, remodeling makes perfect financial sense.

Remodeling can give your kitchen a fresh, updated look. It can give your family the space it needs, or it can make an ordinary bath luxurious.

Well-planned and utilized square-footage, efficient and up-to-date kitchens, and design-smart bathrooms generally increase the value of your home.Some home improvements, such as the installation of well-made replacement windows, can both boost the value of your home and help you control ever-increasing heating and cooling costs.

Here are eight popular reasons to remodel:

1. You enjoy remodeling
Remodeling, in a word, is fun–a lot of fun. Remodeling can be very rewarding and enjoyable, especially a year after the work is done. It may not be a lot of fun while it is in progress, but a remodel can be a very satisfying experience. What makes all the pain, suffering and expense fun? The self-expression and control that you get when you undertake a remodeling project. To enjoy your remodeling project even more, you need to organize your goals, the project and the flood of paperwork that will be generated as the project progresses.

2. You’ll get exactly the home you want
An advantage of remodeling is you most likely will end up with a home that more closely fits your needs than if you move. If you move, you will have to envision yourself living in one of five to 10 homes that best meet your requirements at the time you are house-hunting and it is unlikely that any one house is ideal. Each one will require you to make a variety of compromises such as the neighborhood, the yard, the floor plan; the list goes on and on.

3. You like the neighborhood and neighbors
Not all neighborhoods are created equal. Some have  mature landscaping, sidewalks, large front yards, and stately homes with well-kept yards. Other neighborhoods have few trees, cars parked in the front yards, and a highway behind the back fence. If you like the neighborhood you are in, then that is a powerful reason to stay and remodel and improve your home.

4. You can avoid buyer’s remorse
Remodeling a home is a lengthy process that requires months to complete. Almost everyone who remodels his or her home is happy with the results. They may not have enjoyed the process or the cost or may not have been satisfied with the contractor, but the result is most often what they wanted. This is because someone who is remodeling a home is only changing one thing–the house. They are not changing the neighborhood, the yard or the schools,  just the house.

Contrast this with buying a new home and moving. Usually, a decision on which house to buy is made quickly, within hours or days. When the decision to buy a house is made, you have to make many compromises, including the location, size, yard, floor plan, and price. No home will meet all of your requirements perfectly. Making these important decisions quickly and under pressure frequently leads to buyer’s remorse.

5. Remodeling can be a good investment
If your home is medium to small for your neighborhood and is in need of improvements and your additions are appropriate in style and quality for the house, then remodeling could be a good investment. If you manage the costs well, it is very reasonable to expect that the value these improvements add to your home will be greater than the cost of the remodel. You can save on the cost to remodel and maximize your profit by finding the best contractor.

6. You like your yard
Many older homes are blessed with mature trees, a large lot and years of landscaping efforts. If you are fortunate enough to live in a home with a yard that you love, then it may be difficult to find a home with a yard that you like as much. As you look at homes that you may be interested in buying, don’t underestimate the cost and time required to take a yard that is no more than dirt and weeds and turn it into your dream garden.  If a yard is important to you, but your current home has a nicer yard than any of the houses you are considering buying, then a remodel may be the best solution.

7. You like your location

You may now live in an older part of town that is close to your work, around the corner from downtown and has a view of the mountains in the distance. While you like the location, you have dreams of living in a new larger house with high ceilings, an expansive entry and a gourmet kitchen. A choice is to move to a new home that offers all of the styling and features you are looking for. But the new homes in your city are 10 miles away, next to an alfalfa field that was turned into a subdivision a few weeks earlier. With no schools, shopping or the other things you like nearby, the decision is difficult. You like the new house but not the location. In this case you can have the house of your dreams and the location you love by remodeling.

8. You like your home’s floor plan
How the rooms are positioned in a home–the floor plan–has a big impact on how you can use the rooms and how you feel about your home. If your current home has a floor plan that you like — a large kitchen with morning sun; an out-of-the-way spot where you can read a book without being interrupted; a perfect-sized bedrooms (small ones for the children or a den and a big one for you); a great place for a Christmas tree or a grand piano, it may be hard to replace these features when you move to a new house.