First-time house renovation

latecomer

Welcome ginvzt

I would agree TM about the survey - evne if doesn't show anything up, at least you know where you stand. Estate agents will not necessarily know or tell you everything.

I dont think your estimates look that bad - of course things like bathrooms and kitchens vary dramatically depending on the cost of the whats being installed. Off the shelf in B&Q is going to be considerably cheaper than top end designer stuff.

The one item I have absolutely no clue about is getting a new mains gas connection. And I suspect that it could cost considerably more than £1000 but will probably be dependent on how far the house is off the road and where the gas needs to be connected to, whether they charge for installing meters etc.

best way to get costs is to get some local tradesmen in. Get personal recommendations if you can.

Are you going to be doing any of the work yourself?

jamtart6

Ginvzt - I think your estimates look fine depending on the size of the house. Agree with latecomer - personal reccommendations and at least 3 quotes (had 7 for the heating as I wasn't happy!!). if you do any extensions ring the council and ask the building control who they would reccommend to draw your plans as we had a lot of trouble with our architect and council not getting on (finally got signed off last week though yay!).

One thing I think you have underestimated is plastering. We have a small 3 bed semi (box room is 2m x 2m) and our plasterer charged £200 at mates rates per room (regardless of size). A friend was charged £600 for a small-medium living room so I would say this would be more realistic. I think judging bywhat you have said from the size of your windows, the plastering will be the upper end of £2000's or £3000 sorry to break the bad news!

edit: just read the bit about it being a 3 bed semi!! we have 7 rooms+ stairwell + a brand new room which needed plasterboarding and skimming so ours cost £2000ish but I know we got that cheap!!! I really wouldnt compromise on quality for cheaper price with plastering either. The person who did ours probably charges 3 times as much to everyone else but he was family I'd pay the price for a good plasterer - poor quality plasterer basically you might as well have not bothered

ukmaggie45

Thanks for all your commiserations, and helpful suggestions. :T

Have found various bits of jewellery missing, mostly not expensive, other than the gold Longines (sp?) watch in its box my Gran Alice left me. Mainly Deco paste stuff, but a bit sad the simulated pearls Gran Mills gave me for my 16th have gone - I wore them on our Wedding Day.

Initially I thought quite a lot of jewellery (mainly cheapish eBay buys) had gone, but I found a jewellery case I'd forgotten that I'd got hidden under a bag of knitting! So there was the necklace and brooch I thought had gone along with some other stuff I'd completely forgotten about!

From what the detective told us on Monday morning it looks as if they came in about 1.15pm on Saturday. Neighbour saw back gate open and heard men's voices (she was just getting ready for work so is sure of the time) but assumed it was OH and a friend. Her OH went out into their yard about that time to clean out their dustbin with Jeyes Fluid, it may be that he scared them off before they had time to search for more stuff.

Nice thing happened yesterday - OH took Monday off to see the police and also because I was feeling all shooken up, his manager told him that he's to take it as compassionate leave, so I thought that was really kind of her.

The glazing company who installed our back door came round Monday evening and put a new panel in the double glazed back door to replace the one with the broken cat flap in it, so it's secure again now. (OH got the OK from the insurance co to do that)

I felt pretty wobbly on Monday, but am feeling much more normal today. It's hard work trying to find out everything that's gone - so many drawers and boxes to check!

Found the silver sugar tongs I thought had been taken on the floor in front of the display cabinet they'd been in, along with an ornate silver parasol handle. So that's 2 less things than we thought! They'd taken out 2 boxes with silver teaspoons and cake forks (any of you remember cake forks?) from the drawer in the cabinet, but just left them on a pile of fabric by it, all spoons and forks present and correct.

We think we might try and install a small safe in the new house - anyone got any experience of that? It would prob need to be a bit bigger than those ones that look like electric sockets, but prob no more than about 1 foot cubed in volume.

andrew-b

ginvzt...definitely get a full structural survey on a house of that age no question. Damp on the fireplace wall could be an issue - or it may simply be that it's not been lived in for a while and not enough ventilation in there. On the sloping floor ..could be minor ...but could be more major if the structure is moving/subsiding. Take into account that your heating bills will be higher as there won't be cavity walls..plus the ceiling will probably be higher so bigger space to heat. If you do decide to go ahead then don't be afraid to back out if the structural survey comes back with more than you think you can handle...sure it will have cost you but it might well save you much more in the long term!

I would say you've probably underestimated on plastering costs if it's the whole lot needs doing (i'd allow at least £500 per room) and gas install costs (depending on length of pipe run). Also a bit low on the bathroom (though my bathroom has cost about that i've done it myself so saved on labour costs). Find out if it's old lead piping...it may well be and if so then it's going to need replacing totally. Anyway i'd whack on at least £5k on to your budget (possibly 10) as things invariably cost more than you imagine or you unearth hidden nasties - which is what you want the structural survey to attempt to find.

ginvzt

latecomer wrote: »

I don't think your estimates look that bad - of course things like bathrooms and kitchens vary dramatically depending on the cost of the whats being installed. Off the shelf in B&Q is going to be considerably cheaper than top end designer stuff.

The one item I have absolutely no clue about is getting a new mains gas connection. And I suspect that it could cost considerably more than £1000 but will probably be dependent on how far the house is off the road and where the gas needs to be connected to, whether they charge for installing meters etc.

No designer stuff for us. Ikea is our best bet for kitchen! And sink - we loved one we had in our previous house.

I looked on National Grid website, and it says that if the property is within 23m from the mains, hen standard installation charges apply and that would be £675+VAT.

jamtart6 wrote: »

Ginvzt - if you do any extensions ring the council and ask the building control.

One thing I think you have underestimated is plastering.

edit: just read the bit about it being a 3 bed semi!!

No, we don't plan any extensions, at least not for a while! I will up my number for plastering, it is a 3 bed detached, high ceiling, so yes, it could (and probably would) cost more (double?).

andrew-b wrote: »

Damp on the fireplace wall could be an issue - or it may simply be that it's not been lived in for a while and not enough ventilation in there. On the sloping floor ..could be minor ...but could be more major if the structure is moving/subsiding. Take into account that your heating bills will be higher as there won't be cavity walls..plus the ceiling will probably be higher so bigger space to heat. If you do decide to go ahead then don't be afraid to back out if the structural survey comes back with more than you think you can handle...sure it will have cost you but it might well save you much more in the long term!

The house hasn't been lived in for 2 years. The floor was like that for 60 years, and I didn't see any cracks on the outside, so I guess it is just the way it was done.

The full survey would be done no question, and we talked about it last night, that if something came up more, we could always back out, as it would be less than the price of the house!

The heating wise - I guess it wouldn't be that much more (if any) than we were paying for this house. It is 20 year old house, with jsut as old boiler, and we had 14 degrees in the kitchen this winter, so I had to leave the heating on 24/7 just to keep the temperature in the house at about 18 degrees. The external doors have the big hole (the keyhole), and we had ice on the inside of the patio door (metal framed sliding doors, which now are getting condensation inside the glass) beginning of January, that didn't melt away all day.

Thanks all for the encouraging words. We could keep renting this place for an extra month or two whilst having heating/windows sorted, maybe plastering. I know we probably imagine now that all these things can be done in a month, but I am sure it will take a long time!

John_Pierpoint

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

We think we might try and install a small safe in the new house - anyone got any experience of that? It would prob need to be a bit bigger than those ones that look like electric sockets, but prob no more than about 1 foot cubed in volume.

| put in a floor safe when building an extension 25 years ago. Only been burgled once - they never even found it.

Most of the stuff in it is the irreplaceable documents and spare plastic cards etc.

Definitely worth the money - most of the protection is the reinforced concrete in which you embed it.

When be were burgled - the intruder(s) spent serious time looking for our contents insurance policy; hoping it would list the valuable items we had.
Actually we have got no contents insurance :rotfl:

suisidevw

Gin, agree iwth everyones comments regarding pricing, you've done pretty well there with your guestimates! I'd personally if costing after work is similar to the newer house always go for the older house, make it 'your own', sure it'll have a lot more character than the new one and the larger garden

Maggie, definitely get a safe that can be bolted down. Maybe stick it under your stairs in cupboard etc

andrew-b

Only thing with safes is that your putting everything of value to you in it so you need to be doubly sure it's well secured.

Well here i'm a bit cheesed off as the weatherman keeps forecasting rain and it keeps on not raining and so i've got zero shed painted and wasting time. At the moment the weekend and early next week looks favourable...though i've now got another problem that our local Wickes are out of stock of the colour of wood preserver i need as i took the last can this afternoon! They have every other colour except the one i want! I've only got one and a half 5 Litre cans and probably going to need about 5 of them. So now i'm going to have to order it online to ensure i don't run out when i need it. I'm not convinced i'll manage to get the whole shed done in the next good weather period as each panel need 2 coats inside and out. So i might just paint the outside and any edges that will overlap first then if i don't have time paint the inside after construction.

stolt

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Thanks for all your commiserations, and helpful suggestions. :T

Have found various bits of jewellery missing, mostly not expensive, other than the gold Longines (sp?) watch in its box my Gran Alice left me. Mainly Deco paste stuff, but a bit sad the simulated pearls Gran Mills gave me for my 16th have gone - I wore them on our Wedding Day.

Initially I thought quite a lot of jewellery (mainly cheapish eBay buys) had gone, but I found a jewellery case I'd forgotten that I'd got hidden under a bag of knitting! So there was the necklace and brooch I thought had gone along with some other stuff I'd completely forgotten about!

From what the detective told us on Monday morning it looks as if they came in about 1.15pm on Saturday. Neighbour saw back gate open and heard men's voices (she was just getting ready for work so is sure of the time) but assumed it was OH and a friend. Her OH went out into their yard about that time to clean out their dustbin with Jeyes Fluid, it may be that he scared them off before they had time to search for more stuff.

Nice thing happened yesterday - OH took Monday off to see the police and also because I was feeling all shooken up, his manager told him that he's to take it as compassionate leave, so I thought that was really kind of her.

The glazing company who installed our back door came round Monday evening and put a new panel in the double glazed back door to replace the one with the broken cat flap in it, so it's secure again now. (OH got the OK from the insurance co to do that)

I felt pretty wobbly on Monday, but am feeling much more normal today. It's hard work trying to find out everything that's gone - so many drawers and boxes to check!

Found the silver sugar tongs I thought had been taken on the floor in front of the display cabinet they'd been in, along with an ornate silver parasol handle. So that's 2 less things than we thought! They'd taken out 2 boxes with silver teaspoons and cake forks (any of you remember cake forks?) from the drawer in the cabinet, but just left them on a pile of fabric by it, all spoons and forks present and correct.

We think we might try and install a small safe in the new house - anyone got any experience of that? It would prob need to be a bit bigger than those ones that look like electric sockets, but prob no more than about 1 foot cubed in volume.

hi maggie, good news about some of the items you thought had gone. years ago wehn i was about 13 i was in the hous eon my own and i heard the cat flap open in the kitchen door, i went out there and my dad had a floodlight on a sensor and when i walked in the dark kitchen three men were standing at the door with one of them pushing his hand through trying to grab the keys from the lock in the door. I called the police and tsaid run up stairs and lock yourself in the bathroom, and they were sending the dogs into the garden, they picked a scent up but didnt catch them... shock me up at the time and wasnt the last time i came face to face with some burglars at my parents house, apparently they picked on my parents house as it was sent back from the street alittle so they could work away without being seen.

Safes are good, but I always worry about having everything in one place, I've heard that many people have two safes, one with some decorative jewellery in it that looks bling etc with some paperwork to make it look real. The other hidden away has the real stuff. The reason, that if someone breaks in they could potentially grab somone in your house and threaten them to show them the safe etc. heaven forbid but if a husband etc sees his wife being threatend hes going to show them the safe etc.

interesting that i still follow this bit of advice from a man i use to work with years ago, we always have a few £20.00 notes laying around on the dressing table and one of the draws or shelves in the kitchen, the theory is the burglars just want quick cash and they will be goen and perhaps wont spend extra time smashing the house up looking for small items they can sell or cash.

Do you havea burglar alarm as that would be the best bet, i dont think i could sleep in a house now without have the downstairs protected by an alarm. heavy sleeper and i worry the first thing i would know about it is someone standing over me in bed or worse still one the girls bedrooms......

latecomer

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

We think we might try and install a small safe in the new house - anyone got any experience of that? It would prob need to be a bit bigger than those ones that look like electric sockets, but prob no more than about 1 foot cubed in volume.

My folks have one and have fitted ones for other family members. Just remember it needs to be hard to find and just about impossible to remove. Of and still accessible otherwise you wont use it!