First-time house renovation

stolt

hi all, im here!!! made me smile when i see the thread notification pop up in my inbox. im still in the progress of doing our house, now 5 years on... i think my wife is getting more expensive taste as we go on.
Hope everyone is ok and seems you have all completed your houses. We are just in the middle of fitting out the family bathroom, then just have our bedroom,ensuite and walkin wardrobe and can officially say we are finished.

I still think we have two/three years of doing it and finding funds, my three daughters have grown up (obviously) and their tastes are getting more expensive aswell.. eldest is 12 today.

i;ll try to put up some pics but ill have to look through the thread to see when i last posted, i still keep my blog updated, i got promoted at work and time is something i really wish i had more of.
been here just over 5 years now, just had to re do the mortgage, was veyr tempting to take a large slice of cash and do the house up quicker lol


good to here from everyone and there doing well...



edit. just had a flick through the thread and 2012 when i posted, i must post one of the front of the house, the bushes we planted have really taken and got about 6ft now and formed a solid headge, and the ones under the front bays have reached the windows, think we changed the lounge once and or maybe twice, and the dining room.

rosie383

Hi. I've been reading through the thread with interest. I thought I would ask your opinion on a house that we are thinking of buying and see what you guys think who have already been through the process.
We have been looking for a house for a few months and have a buyer for ours. The one we were going to buy fell through but we are still going ahead with the sale of ours and realise that we will end up having to rent for 6 months. A house in an area that we want has just come on the market. It's a 3 bed 1930s semi in need of complete renovation. It has ivy on the walls, needs new windows, central heating, kitchen and bathroom. It is on the market for at least £60k under similar properties which don't need much work doing. We would be buying mortgage-free and have £60k to spend on renting for 6 months plus all the renovation work. My dh and I will be happy to do as much hard work as we can, and get trades people in to do stuff that we can't do. Obviously we would need to have a good survey done first, but does it sound reasonable?

littlerose12345

Yes definitely doable. I would have loved to have had 60k. We did ours for about 25k and that included

New kitchen
Bathroom
Full rewire
New heating and boiler system
Pretty much most rooms replastered or skimmed
Carpets
Damp proofing
Fitted wardrobes and paint or wall paper for rooms

littlerose12345

Sorry didn't read about using the 60k for rent too. Still achievable though if you budget well.

Meant to say ours was also a 1926 semi 3 bed :-)

rosie383

Thanks littlerose. That sounds good. We figure about 5k for rent and associated costs so it sounds like it should be easily doable. We just didn't find a ready done house within our budget that was just right for our family.

rosie383

Went to view the house as soon as the estate agent had the keys, along with literally about 50 others! The street was full of builders, investors and couples like us, shaking their heads at the asking price and bouncing ideas off each other. If yoy ever saw the film 'The Money Pit' I think that may come close. It needed everything from a new roof to new floors and ceilings, riddled with woodworm, kitchen looked like it had been on fire, massive cracks in the frontfof the house, but strangely no damp!!! I think that a builder could make a go of it, but not us. Oh, and according to even the estate agent it was overpriced by at least £50k and she described it as a catastrophe and a dump!

Hejo

Just rememberd this! Hello everyone! We finally finished ours mid 2013! House looks lovely but I never ever, ever want to do it again, and I still occasionally fantasise about battering the conman builder with a roll of wallpaper!

suisidevw

Likewise! Hello all.

Our house renovations came to an end, but this year we splashed out on a fancy new kitchen with quartz and the like! It is lovely! Oh and I got two children! We have a 2 1/2yr old boy, Wilf and a little girl Anwen

And on 5th January a firm start our loft conversion so our 3 bed 1 bath 30's semi will be 4 bed 3 bathroom! Then I can officially say we are done too!

Great to see this up and live again

ukmaggie45

Yay! Happy to see you Hejo and suisidevw, and wow, 2 children! Hope you'll share some photos of your ongoing extensiony thing - guess it's a bit more than a mere renovation! :cool:

We put old home on the market a couple of months ago, though we haven't got all the carp out of it yet. We've had quite a few viewings (mostly done by EA) but despite interest no offers yet. At least 3 viewers expressed interest but still have to sell.

Our current project is getting rid of the moth infestation in our bedroom here. :eek: Not a lot of fun. My sweaters now live in the freezer, and more will be going in when the first lot have finished freezing. All made more complicated by me being chemically sensitive, so can't use insecticide. We have traps, but suspect they are for clothes moths, and we think what we have is case making moths (think might be the same as carpet moths?). Anyway, since we're on the subject of moths I thought you might enjoy this short video.

spirit

Eeek, those moths sound horrible Maggie - good luck with getting rid of them.

my update to above post of mine is................................................................

Yes, I am moving again! Son lives and works in Leeds, DD has just moved to Warrington, so,,,,,, I am joining them!

This house sold in a week, I happened to nip up to Leeds that weekend just to look around and luckily, found something I like.

It is a 2000 built house so not a lot needs doing. I will update the bathroom and en suite. I fancy a whirlpool bath and will probably change the tiling. It's got dark blue tiles in the main bathroom and sort of sandy coloured ones in the en suite. I fancy either travertine or marble. Dunno yet, any advice or experience to share on that welcomed!