My wife and I and our three kids live in an older house in Dartmouth, N.S. Like most families, most of our money is tied up in our home. We love this place—the only house our children have ever known—but it has its challenges. The wiring is a bit iffy and there’s seaweed insulation in the walls and the cast iron radiators run off the same heating coil as the domestic hot water. When we first moved in, it took months of fiddling with the faucets before we figured out how to coax a good shower out of the pipes. This kind of tap dancing was impossible to teach to visitors—“Remember: You can never run it full blast, but if you keep turning this one here back and forth every thirty seconds, you’ll get a consistent lukewarm trickle and everything will be fine.”

A lot of people left our bathroom shivering and cursing, but what could we do? Plumbing is expensive.

You see where I’m headed? Old pipes and old wires and old insulation: Nobody likes these things, especially when they don’t work. And nobody feels a giddy surge of excitement as they ‘save up’ for a replacement breaker panel. Not when the world seems overstuffed with tempting flat-screen TVs and granite countertops. But picture this for a second: a new furnace and some new insulation and new wiring. Then throw in a high-efficiency water tank and a guaranteed hot shower. Making our house work the way it’s supposed to ranks right at the top of my proudest financial achievements.

I know there’s no shrewd market sense or cagey investing on display here, but trust me: great dividends of a different kind flow from a sense of peace and limitless hot water.

Now, under normal conditions, there isn’t usually a lot of extra money lying around this house and our bank balances tend towards the negative integers. This past year, however, I published a book of short stories and, by some miracle, that book made the short list for the Giller prize and sold pretty well before Christmas. The success of the book took us completely by surprise. I definitely wasn’t banking on making any money from the seven stories I’d been working on for more than 10 years, but it really did happen. I have an invitation to the Giller ball as proof, and a pile of newspaper clippings for my scrapbook.

The collection didn’t win the prize, but I got $5,000 for being named as a finalist and the book probably earned around the same amount in royalties for the first few months. This was magic money in our lives, like one of those forgotten twenties you find in last year’s winter coat, but on an exponential scale, and my wife and I had to make a plan for what do with it. We needed to pay down some lingering student debt and we wanted to buy a nice painting, but in the end, we agreed: “It’s got to be the furnace and that other stuff. When will we ever have a chance like this again?”

We made our calls and lined up the estimates and got it done. It cost a bundle and the house still looks exactly the same. Nobody from the outside would even notice the change, but we feel the difference and it’s almost crazy to think that a book of short stories is actually making the house warmer. The place was pretty drafty and cold while I was writing them so this feels like substantial progress.

We didn’t throw a party when our new furnace kicked in for the first time, but perhaps we should have.

It is always hard to love the basic things that we need most. Difficult to properly value or fully appreciate those wires and pipes and the currents they carry, the invisible networks of infrastructure that flow all round us and make the ease of this life possible. I can sense them right now, though, and I think maybe the feeling will last for two or three more days before everything is absorbed back into routine. I twist the tap. I click the thermostat. I hit the lights. And I think: thank you, thank you, thank you.

Author and teacher Alexander MacLeod lives in Dartmouth, N.S. His short story collection, Light Lifting, was shortlisted for the 2010 Scotiabank Giller prize.

• The upstairs kitchen reno;
• Completely painted all the interior walls and doors;
• Installed new light fixtures and updated plug receptacles (the old one were circa: 1980s!); and
• Finished our new main-floor bathroom complete with slate tile shower and a floating vanity.

That’s quite a lot considering he’s been (essentially) a one-man show.

But our more-extensive-than-we-planned renos were a shocking reminder: updates don’t have to be expensive.

While my previous blog post focused on some simple and effective ways to update your kitchen, I’d like to turn our attention to the bathroom.

FANCIER FAUCETS IN THE BATHROOM: It’s an obvious way to update a bathroom, but sink and shower faucets can add a bit of sparkle to a tired room. Look for water efficient models — some of which can cut water usage by as much as 30%, such as Delta’s WaterSense bathroom faucet, available at most big box hardware stores. Expect to pay $600 or more for a set of matching shower, tub and sink faucets.

REPLACE NOISY VENTILATION FANS: Believe it or not a noisy bathroom screams 1970s (and can thoroughly detract from your enjoyment of that room). Replacing a fan with an updated model will cost between $130 to $230, but will dramatically reduce the fans rattling noise. Look for fans with a “sone” rating of 1 or less. These fans are about as loud as a fan on a quite refrigerator. Also remember to select a fan that will provide adequate air flow for your bathroom (room size and air flow should be listed on the box). You can also find Energy Star-rated models at big box hardware stores that can help you save on your electricity bills, as well.

UPDATE THAT BATHROOM VANITY CABINET: When looking to update a very outdated bathroom you’ll need to focus on the bigger elements, such as the tiles and vanity. With the vanity it pays to shop around. Big box stores will offer off-the-shelf as well as semi-custom options at prices ranging from $100 to $1,000. IKEA is also another great option if you want a more contemporary look at around the $300 to $600 price point (although there are cheaper and more expensive options). Another option is to check out local kitchen-and-bath retailers for damaged and undelivered orders (you’ll need to ask the store clerk specifically about these options). For those really trying to update a bathroom on a budget check out Craigslist.org, where you can find vanities for cheap or try your local ReStore, the national chain of stores run by Habitat for Humanity.

INSTALL NEW SHOWER DOORS: Frosted and patterned glass doors as well as doors with large, brassy looking frames are no longer in style and can date your bathroom quickly. If you’re looking to just replace shower bathtub doors, you can pick up a new set at a big box hardware store for about $350. If you’re looking for a frameless shower expect to pay $1,500 to $2,300 for a 4×4 enclosure.

TILES, TILES, COSTLY TILES: Chances are you have at least one bathroom where the tiles are a strange, outdated colour, or chipped, stained or even dull and hard to clean. The ideal solution would be to replace the tile, but even in a relatively small bathroom (say 200 sq. ft) this remodel can cost well over $1,000. Instead, consider refinishing your tub and tiles. The cost to refinish both the tub and the surrounding tile is between $700 and $900 with the best prices on the white, off-white and beige finishes. Still, for a more unique look you can certainly find a refinisher that offers other colours and even stone-like finishes.

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