Home energy upgrade decisions, such as adopting energy efficient equipment/appliances and renewable energy, are embedded within broader decisions and actions for upgrading the home. In this paper, 121 households in four states were interviewed to investigate the cognitive process of decision-making for home upgrades at the intersection of individual self-identites, normative goals of households and their sociotechnical environment. We found that home upgrades occur typically as interconnected sets of projects. They are constituted of decision dilemmas between domestic space-making aspirations and technological choices, moderated by sentiments, opinions of peers, information, limiting factors and self-identities. Indoor upgrades are largely influenced by the functional and emotional goals of the household, whereas exterior and structurally complex upgrades are usually determined by parameters of the sociotechnical environment, including costs and available expertise. Behaviorally, functional needs and social situation of individuals are more influential to upgrade decisions than environmental values or ideological positions on decarbonization.