We moved to the US from the UK and have now bought, but the house is a renovation project and we are looking to renovate as neutrally as possible so as not to offend when we sell. The house we bought has not been updated much since it was built in the 80s and is basically brown - brown tiled floor in the hall and kitchen, brown bath suite, etc - with touches of gold everywhere. Lovely.
We live in quite a 'naice' area and there is definitely an expectation here that at a certain price point there will be granite counters, a nice kitchen, proper wooden floors, etc.
We have redone the bathroom and it's now got rectangular travertine tiles with black cabinetry, a limestone counter and sandy coloured walls. white sanitary ware. I can't see that it will date anywhere near as much as the monstrosity it replaced.
The kitchen cabinetry is too expensive to replace out here, but swopping out the enormous 'gold' handles with satin nickel ones has made a massive difference. I don't see how granite is a fashionable thing, though. I find it so practical. Mine is super easy to clean and it's really durable. It's brilliant to roll pastry out on!
For us, the major updating is changing the woodwork from stained brown to painted white. That makes such a huge difference in how the house looks. We've finished the upstairs and it looks like a completely different house.