First-time house renovation

ema_o

Hello, can I join you all?
We bought our first house at the end of September and there is loads of work needs doing to it. We are living there so that kind of limits our options.
We had no gas, heating is currently coming from 2 and a half storage heaters (one only half works!). Electrics haven't been touched since at least the 50s. The kitchen is tiny and the cupboards that were in there were I think from when the house was originally built. We have no insulation, all the rooms are woodchip (but painted cream so not too bad to put up with). Oh, and we have no experience lol!

So far we have:
Had bad roof tiles replaced (by a mate, only cost a few crates of beer!)
Had our chimney swept, bought grate and coped with a few back boiler problems, but have finally got our lovely open fire working!
Removed old kitchen cupboards and put in a kitchen worktop that makes the kitchen just about usable!
Knocked down a wall between bathroom and toilet and made them into one room.
Had the gas connected to the outside of the house ready for the heating engineers!

Our top priority is heating, insulation and electrics - we are having our heating done just before Christmas so that will make the place a lot nicer!!

KT1985

I thought I would just say hi- I have been lurking for a bit.
Hubby and I bought a house at auction yesterday and I have plans for a renovation. It is all very exciting!

andrew-b

Welcome to you both!

Sounds like you have your work cut out ema_o ..i hope you get the heating in soon as it's a bit chilly at the moment! Congrats on your auction win KT! I'm an avid viewer of Homes Under the Hammer and more recently Buy it, Sell it, Bank it on BBC1. I hope you gathered your tips from Martin, Lucy and Kristian and did your homework before bidding!

Good luck to you both and feel free to join us 1st time renovators!

Incidentally what are we going to do when we've all finished...sell up, buy another house.. so we can start the "2nd-time house renovation" thread?!

Andy

WaveyDave_2

andrew-b wrote: »

Welcome to you both!

Sounds like you have your work cut out ema_o ..i hope you get the heating in soon as it's a bit chilly at the moment! Congrats on your auction win KT! I'm an avid viewer of Homes Under the Hammer and more recently Buy it, Sell it, Bank it on BBC1. I hope you gathered your tips from Martin, Lucy and Kristian and did your homework before bidding!

Good luck to you both and feel free to join us 1st time renovators!

Incidentally what are we going to do when we've all finished...sell up, buy another house.. so we can start the "2nd-time house renovation" thread?!

Andy

Don't know how long you've got left with your renovation, but I'm still well in the "I'm never doing that again" zone!

helping_hubby

@latecomer: happy birthday!

@andrew: Christmas is less than 2 weeks away, so you'll be ripping that shower out before you know it Our bathroom was finished today. Well - not quite finished. We still have a few diy jobs to do:
Get new lights, probably move them (they are 2 from when it was 2 rooms - so will probably merge into one and get a light in the centre of the ceiling), move the light switch nearer the wall.
Build a bath panel
Put shower curtain up (ok so not a big job)
Get a plastic bit for the window where the wall used to be.
Oh and artex and paint the ceiling. Would have been nice to have it plastered, but funds aren't there. Artex seems to be more DIYable.
Think that's it.

@ema-o: you can only join if you create a blog Me and TomsMom in particular seem to like being nosey. I love seeing before and after photos.
Sounds like you've done a fair bit already. We knocked down our bathroom and toilet into one room too! I'm so glad we did too.


I'm not so sure about a 2nd renovation either. I'm only 5 months in and it's been an easy one I think compared to a lot of yours. I reckon I've got another 6 months or so to finish most of the diy and garden. If I'm ever fortunate to move I'd hope I'd have more money and could afford one that wasn't a dump or falling to pieces

KT1985: welcome to the forum! Look forward to hearing more about your renovation.

andrew-b

WaveyDave wrote: »

Don't know how long you've got left with your renovation, but I'm still well in the "I'm never doing that again" zone!

I think i'm already in that zone lol

Shimmyhill

Blimey, we are moving in on Sunday - not sure how yet or where

We had good luck with the drains, just needed them to be pressure cleaned and all was well in about 5 mins (had a sleepless night about that one, the pipes where getting on for 8/10' down ) Boiler man came and checked out the boiler and all clear - got an amazing 89% efficiency (not a condensing boiler) and finally the house is warm !!

We have also made the kitchen units, cut out the bits for pipes etc and given the walls a few coats of white (bargain huge tubs of Crown white matt for £10 @ b&q at the moment) Followers of the blog will be sad to hear the magical fireplace is gone and has been plastered over now !!

I have got most of the important stuff done, Sky is in, Virgin media is in but no BB at mo - have to take a phone with me to call them to find out why !! and assuming we get the kitchen in tomorrow we will just about be able to manage the move on sunday - reminds me i need to hire a van !

Welcome to all the new people here, quick go buy a nice modern house with no work needed to be done Seriously, do it - i mean good luck and have fun !!

ema_o

[quote=@ema-o: you can only join if you create a blog Me and TomsMom in particular seem to like being nosey. I love seeing before and after photos.
Sounds like you've done a fair bit already. We knocked down our bathroom and toilet into one room too! I'm so glad we did too.
[/quote]

Ooh, I was thinking about a blog, I have some pics already so will see what I can do, no promises mind you! I keep feeling like we haven't done much but actually this list shows we have :cool:

Definitely not thinking about 2nd time, we didn't plan on this much work for first house, it just kind of happened like that. I think when we get it all done it will be time to start the first room over again :rotfl:

vansboy

I've been lurking this thread for sometime, now, but just to show what you could do with a year of your life....(if you've not seen it before)
http://www.theupsidedownhouse.9f.com
Sorry about the pop ups, or the fact Mrs V hasn't got it all up to date, but it gives you an insight!!

& we are finished inside, now (except few niggles & a couple bits furniture)

Planning a go through with new pics, totally, to do it like a showhouse, in a couple weeks, to keep us reminded of what we've done, in the future!!

VB

KT1985

We don't even have the keys yet- planning a 2nd is a bit extreme at this point. TBH, the reason we are renovating is because we want to live in it for a really long time.

We chose renovation over a modern house because of space. We found when looking that the newer the house, generally the smaller it was, both inside and out. A garden was a must have, and it needed to be big enough to fit a veggie patch.

I will be doing the bulk of the renovation- it is mainly 'cosmetic' ie bathrooms, kitchens, redoing decor in a style more modern than in 1981... oh, and moving a wall

For us, this was the only way to go, cos I love this kind of stuff.

Just need to get the keys, and then let the fun begin!:rotfl: :T :eek: