Is $420 for extra rental cupboards reasonable if we may move in nine months?
Housing"We're buying cupboards for someone else's flat," my partner said. I moved the cereal boxes off the chopping board and asked where else they could go.
Our rented kitchen has working cupboards, but very little storage. Nothing is broken. The pots fit; the food then ends up on the worktop. The landlord has approved a professional quote of $420 for an extra set of cupboards, provided we pay and leave them in place when we move. We haven't agreed to the work yet.
We expect to decide in about nine months whether to move nearer my partner's job. I want the clear worktop now, even if the landlord keeps the improvement. My partner would rather buy a $110 trolley we could take with us. The trolley fits beside our dining table, but only if we give up one chair or move it whenever we sit down together.
The $420 is money we could otherwise keep for the move. It also buys something we'd use every day instead of waiting for a future kitchen to make cooking less awkward. How do we decide what temporary comfort is worth when neither option quite gives us the room we want?