First-time house renovation

jamtart6

maggie this is awful i am so sorry for you. they are total scumbags probably looting your house for their next fix, it really annoys me what a shame on your first weekend out of the house too

suisidevw

Really sorry to hear that Maggie, horrible stuff

latecomer

I'm sorry to hear that Maggie and although its probably of little consolation at least there wasn't someone in the house. I disturbed burglars in my folks house when I was 12 - althuogh thankfully didn't come face to face with them.

Hope the insurance covers everything that it can although things like the coffee pot are what really hurt

aliasojo

Aw Maggie, I wish all manner of bad things on the burglars and loads of sympathy for you.

Hope the loss adjuster has his happy head on for Friday.

andrew-b

Aww sorry to hear about your burglary Maggie. Electronics replaceable but not nice all the same. Antiques/heirlooms more annoying. I'd try checking out the local antique dealers to see if they've tried to sell the coffee pot on. You never know it might turn up again!

Time for a review of all your security though. One thing i did notice the other day was that you mentioned you were going to be away on here - i doubt it made any difference but we never tell anyone that doesn't need to know if we are going away. We also do everything we can to make the house look lived in plus about our first job was to fit PIR-activated security lighting . CCTV is all very well as a deterrent or catching someone scratching your car on the driveway but useless if someone breaks in and then steals whatever it's recorded onto!

There was a guide to home security on home office website but the handy info has been archived for some ridiculous reason! Anyway i've just dug it out for you:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100418065544/http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/cpghs.pdf ..hope it helps.

stolt

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Went away to the caravan this weekend and came home to find we'd been burgled. Took 32" Panasonic HD TV with built in freesat and freeview, but more distressing the Victorian silver coffee pot left to elder daughter by my Dad. Gutted over that.

Glazing company who installed back door for us have already replaced the panel with the broken cat flap (way they got in - we are usually so careful, but I'd just had emergency dental trip followed by planting stuff at new garden before we left) which was OKd by our insurers.

Loss adjuster will be here on Friday morning. (oh joy :rolleyes)

Police very kind and helpful.

We're still trying to sort out list of stolen stuff as everything in my knicker drawers scattered everywhere and we had to wait till the crime scene person came for fingerprints before we could touch anything shiny. Turns out the perps wore gloves, so no fingerprints.

Got go ahead to begin clearing up about 9.30 this morning. So still haven't finished finding what's missing IYSWIM as am knackered from journey back from caravan and then finding been burgled.

Could have been worse. They left John's laptop (too old to bother with?) and the camcorder (deffo too old to bother with)...

We will be looking at CCTV in new house now.

Really sorry to hear the bad news maggie, really awful and I have no time for people like that. As others have said tv is a bummer but then that can be replaced but the stuff that you hold dear to heart then that makes it personal. CCTV is deterrent but if you hadnt had a burglar alarm installed that would be next thing on my list. We had one fitted but within a week of moving in i had more sensors installed and changed the keypad etc (only after the builders had handed the keys back!!)

Definatley worth visiting local 'pawn shops' nearly wrote '!!!!!! shops':eek::eek:...... as I can imagine that they just want quick cash etc. Also check your road and nearby gardens if you can. In a rush they everything and then sort through it as they are making they way out to lessen the load. My boss was done a few years back and he told the neighbours and they brought back picture frames and a vase that they had thrown into there front gardens on the way from his house!!!

I recently bought some nestboxes with colour cameras in them which send the signal to the tv wireless.... when the nest boxes arent used the cameras are being used under cover on the fences faced onto the hosue and garden (i was basically going to see if it was a fox that took our duck eggs) they work pretty good at night although for real clarity at night you would need to spend a few more pounds on a decent set up, not sure if a court would accept the images as proof of any wrongdoing and I believe if you have CCTV installed there has to be sign warning people about them otherwise you cant use the images (something like that, probably havent got it 1005 right!!)
Good luck with the loss adjuster.

ginvzt

Hello all, I thought you would be the right people to give us an idea.

We viewed a house yesterday, which according to estate agent 'needs some upgrading'. Ok, that was a bit of an understatement as expected. It is over 100 years old, detached house, with big garden. No one lived there for 2 years.

The first things we noticed:

• Windows need to be replaced (old single glazed, paint peeling)
• No central heating - the property is heated by two coal fires on either side of the house, with radiators off them taken to the bedrooms upstairs
• No gas supply
• Probably needs rewire
• There was a leak in one of the bedrooms, which we were assured is fixed now, but the ceiling wasn't made good. I tried looking at the roof from outside, and I am no expert, but it looked ok. The ceiling was dry now (it was raining for last couple of days, although not very heavy).
• The wallpaper is peeling off in all rooms. in one of the rooms the wall and wallpaper were feeling damp on the wall with fireplace, but I haven't seen any mould/dark patches, under this room is cellar.
• one of the downstairs rooms has sloping floor, which we were told is asphalt (?) and has been like that for 60-odd years, so probably would need to be levelled off.

It is a 3 bed house, small bathroom, two reception rooms, kitchen, utility.
We assume we would need to:

• install gas supply (I am sure houses across the road have gas and probably the ones behind, and to one side) - any ideas how can I check online where the gas mains pipe is passing nearby?... (£1000)
• install central heating, including all the pipework, radiators, boiler, etc. (£4500)
• rewire (£3000)
• replace windows - the sizes vary, but I would estimate about 10 windows (£5000)
• sort out the floor in living room - probably just add more cement (£???)
• replaster (£1500)
• new bathroom (£3000)
• new kitchen (£5000)
• flooring/painting (£3000)

Ok, we know all this would cost quite a bit, but any ideas how to estimate them?.. I out our "guestimates" in the brackets, but I guess they are way off!

Of course, there are other things like clearing the 'jungle garden' (nettles up to waist line), maybe getting new gates, but these can wait...

TomsMom

Hi Ginvzt

The first thing I would say is do you want this house enough to do all the renovations, and is the price right taking into account all that needs doing? If so then get a FULL STRUCTURAL SURVEY. Don't mess around with anything less. You will find it money well spent. We did with ours, spent £600 and because of the major fault found with a DIY loft conversion it enabled us to have £30,000 knocked off our original offer. Once you've got your survey it should identify where important works need doing then you can get quotes and start budgeting properly.

As far as finding out about the gas supply pipe is concerned, a phone call to Transco or your local Council should answer that question and put you on your way to finding out how much it would cost to have gas supplied to the property.

As far as replastering, rewire, etc. are concerned, prices will vary depending on where you live. We were quoted £200 per bedroom ceiling to take down the old bowed ones and replace then replaster. But as the house was virtually gutted and replastered everywhere we didn't pay per room, it was all in with the builder's price for the whole job. We ended up paying nearer £5,000 for a rewire but the original wiring was such a bodge DIY job the electricians couldn't trace a lot of the stuff so started from scratch, new consumer unit, wired in smoke detectors, fixed all the lights up for us, etc, we didn't have to do anything.

Not sure about central heating as we replaced the boiler with a Vailant which cost about £1,000, any old rads were replaced but these are relatively cheap in comparison.

I think you would need advice from someone experienced regarding the floor.

As far as the windows are concerned, many of us have found that local companies are better than the big named ones.

Flooring (do you mean carpets???), kitchen and bathroom can cost as much as your budget will allow, just needs some research. For carpets we looked around, found one we liked in a local shop, searched online for the best price then went back to the local shop and asked them if they could match the price, which they actually bettered. We got our underlay online, much cheaper even for branded good ones.

Hope that helps a bit.

ginvzt

Thanks, TomsMom. I know, that the kitchens/bathrooms can be as expensive as you want to make it. (I can change sink - did it before, but probably not the bath or loo)

For the flooring, yes, we would probably have carpets upstairs, but would put wooden floors downstairs (we put them ourselves in the previous house, so we wouldn't need to pay out for fitting). There are floorboards upstairs, where we could see, but they are not looking great and sanding wouldn't solve it.

If we decided to go for the house, we would definitely get a full survey done, no questions.

As for the wiring, there looked to be only few sockets around, and of course, light in every room.

It is a hard and big decision if we go for this house, because for a similar price we can have 20 or less year old 4 bed detached, but with small garden.

I love diy, so I am very keen on getting stuck in it, but I am not sure about OH. He loves the stone houses, and big garden, but I guess that the amount of work (and money) needed might overwhelm him.

littlerose12345

ginvzt wrote: »

It is a hard and big decision if we go for this house, because for a similar price we can have 20 or less year old 4 bed detached, but with small garden.

I love diy, so I am very keen on getting stuck in it, but I am not sure about OH. He loves the stone houses, and big garden, but I guess that the amount of work (and money) needed might overwhelm him.

If I'd have know how much work ours would be, even though we love it and are proud of everything we have done, I probably wouldn't have gone for it. It's turned out to be WAY much more work than we'd thought it would be. It's hard work, and seemingly never ending.