Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"Well, we probably won't. Studies show that you may recover 50 percent, maybe as much as 75 percent of most remodels. Now, should that stop us from going ahead? I don't think so. The reason is that a house really provides you with two different aspects in terms of economics. It provides you with an investment aspect. That is, people buy homes. They appreciate, or you do a remodel, perhaps you get some gain from that, and you look at that as an investment. Sometimes what people forget is a home also provides you with a consumption aspect. You simply enjoy living there, and you're able to do things you couldn't do, for example, in a rental unit. And so when we're embarking on our remodel, and what we discussed is, yes, we do hope that we get back as much of the cost that we put into it. But at the same time, if we don't, we know that we're going to enjoy our updated bathrooms and closets much more. And interestingly, over the last couple of years, the investment aspect of homes became more important because we had such high rates of appreciation. Now, with the slide in the housing market, people are looking more at homes as consumption."