Advice needed for inexpensive house makeover!!

somersetapple

Some of the following may not be suitable for those of a nervous disposition ( mention of advocado coloured bathroom suites etc!!) but much help is needed!!

My Other Half and I want to get our house ready to sell ( a 1930's detached) which is in sound order - nothing crumbling except us!! - but in desperate need of pulling into this decade rather remain languishing in the decade style forgot - the 1970's ( apologies to 70's fans!).
We accept the urgent need to de-clutter ( OH has a passion for large vintage radios and electrical 'bits' and I just collect everything!!) and realise our reluctance to spend time decorating over the last umpty-dump years has resulted in seriously untrendy decor. We will need every penny our house can make for the move and also want to make it a 'buyer-magnet' for the least expense possible! Now short of a magic fairy or a T.V makeover programme seeing us as the ultimate challenge we will be doing it all ourselves( I need a lie-down just thinking about it!)
Any advice on the following please
1. We have a small bathroom with an advocado coloured bathroom suite ( apologies if you're eating!) and OH is 100% adamant that he's not changing it. It has one plain cream tiled wall and another wallpapered wall with a large mirror to make it look bigger ( the one and only flash of interior design inspiration in 30 years!). Apart from shooting OH for the 'lump-sum' and thereby removing the opposition to a new bathroom suite what can we do?

2. Hideous brown and orange swirly carpet in through-room downstairs. Unfortunatly it is of excellent quality and shows absolutely no sign of wear and tear and will probably last for another 30 years! It's a largish area so it will be expensive re-carpet. Any suugestions gratefully accepted.

3. Ditto above for the hall, landing and staircase - similar colours, different horrible design!

We can probably cope with the bedrooms - lick of paint, get cat off the bed etc

The outside is in excellent decorative order and quite tasteful - sometimes wish we could just live out there and look at it! We also have a great garden so it does have things going for it.
If anyone has any ideas for maximum effect for least expense I would be very grateful and so would OH who could live without having to check his brakes every time he gets in the car!!

Many thanks in advance!

Somersetapple

Jay-Jay_4

Paint everything magnolia, get rid of all your clutter and get rid of your swirly carpets. Paint all woodwork white gloss and put up fresh curtains.

Poeple say that it shows a loack of imagination but a buyer wants to see a mixture of a blank canvas and a liveable home. Magnolia is liveable for anyone, flowery, patterned wallpaper could put some people right off.

Same with carpet. Brown swirly carpet is not everyone's cup of tea and re-carpeting is a big job for a buyer. Invest a cheap neutral carpet.

Take down heavy, dark curtains and put up light curtains. Either use tie backs or open the curtains wide to increase the 'size' of the windows.

With a neutral carpet and cream walls your house will look larger, fresher and will appeal to a lot more people. Remove all personal touches from bedrooms, a bed, lamp and wardrobe is enough to show that a bedroom is a bedroom. Matching curtains and bedding is nice and switch a lamp on to give it a homely glow.

You don't need to spend a fortune, Glynn Webb and Supermarkets do cheap curtains, paint and bedding sets.



I've done this with a few houses and with the last one our valuation increased by £20,000 after the redecoration (we spent about £700 doing the jobs).

beccatt

We moved into an avocado bathroom suite house last year and haven't had a chance to replace it yet so I've got a few tips.
I'd first show your OH this: http://money.guardian.co.uk/houseprices/story/0,1456,1266300,00.html?=rss

For the sake of £300 for a new suite do you really want to potentially miss out on £8k?

If he really is stuck on redecorating, I would advise keeping the cream wall and make other things in the room turquoise to highlight the modern side of the green spectrum. I put in a greeny-blue shower curtain, bath mat and they detract away from the sludge-coloured suite!

Is the wallpaper patterned or bumpy? I would suggest painting over it or maybe even stripping it if you think the wall is ok underneath.

I put up lots of photos with blue skies, blue oceans and green hills on the main wall to keep in with the theme and again distract people from the bath suite! I used lots of little frames of different sizes and styles and hung them close together at different levels which looks nice, although maybe you don't want to put too many holes in the walls.

It might also be worth modernising the bathroom accessories like the loo roll holder, towel rail, shower head, shelves and even the taps.

Lastly, I don't know what the flooring is like but you could replace it with some lino or laminate and make the room look fresher and more modern.

Good luck!

[Deleted User]

You poor thing. We recently sold a house that we had lived in for 20 years and it too looked dated. I decided not to spend money on doing up the kitchen and bathroom as I didn`t think that would be reflected in the price obtained.

We cleared and de-cluttered until we ached. The first lot is easy, the second lot harder as it goes closer to the bone. We made umpteen trips to the tip and to oxfam and we also hired a big skip and gave really good furniture away to people who I know would use it.

Now the house looked better but still dated so I bought loads of pale cream paint and I painted and painted but only after good preparation so that it wasn`tjust a cover-up job. I put onions around the place to get rid of the smell and soon after that it went on the market. Still dated but fresh and sparkling clean

The garden was great, like yours and it sold, to the second viewer.
Many buyers want to put their own stamp on a place so don`t do it for them. It isn`t necessary

Little_John

I have spent the last week or so redecorating and looking for carpet, we found some really cheap prices on roll ends and they were huge peices at quite a few of the shops, all beige aswell the colour to buy 4x5 metre carpets for about £80. paint the rooms magnolia which is also pretty cheap to do.

The bathroom, you could try find inexpensive bathroom suites in the sales, a white one sholdnt cost too much B and Q have a sale on from £299 for bath basin and toilet none in stock but others for about £450 it doesnt have to be good quality peopel are looking for the look who cares if they put their foot throught the bath 2 months after they move in (as long as it isnt me)

The kitchen a lick of paint and at the worst replace the doors and handles if the bases are in good order.

just make sure everything is clean and tidy, cut the grass remove any weeds turn the soil in the flower beds if you can. things that just take a bit of hard work.

Interest-Ed

We moved into a house that sounds similar but we took up the gauntlet! Our avocado bathroom had plastic wall tiles, polystyrene ceiling tile and a terrible condensation problem which had rotted the window frame.

If you don't want to change the swirly carpet keep the walls and curtains plain to calm it down and hang mirrors to bring in more light.

If you don't want to change the avocado bathroom then again look for sympathetic colours (now what goes with avocado!!??) White and light wood perhaps - some wooden panelling at the side of the bath? Make sure the taps etc are as shiny as they can be. Same goes for grouting.

For me the exterior and gardens would sell it (and original features?) and the obvious one - location!

Also spend as little as possible as the next people will probably want a totally different decor anyway.

You could try inviting a few people of different age groups in to give a "buyer's opinion". As long as you wouldn't be offended by their answers (and that you knew them!!!).

Good luck

calmgirl

Colured batroom suites were made in the 70's I know time goes buy but that was 30 yes 30 years ago a cheap white suite can cost £199.00 up to £400 plus fitting. People will look at the bathroom and think that the house has not been touched since then the mind will go to electrics and plumbing etc. Panit all your walls one colur magnola or even white (helps whith the gloss work and celings dont need to be to carefull cutting in) and put cheap wood flooring down this can be moped an hour before hand and it will gleam. ( i have just painted a 5 bedroom house for a customer all in white it took me 6 days and cost £450 ) Use throws. Pictures and furniture for colour. Yes declutter but keep some of the old stuff on show it actually adds intrest and refrences for later date only use the cleanest and most intact items oh and dont forget outside the front of the house to if you have wood window frames give a quick coat of gloss and put a few potted plants here to if poss

suki1964

The carpet has to go. It doesnt matter theres still 10 years or more left in it - you are not planning on living there

Same with the Bathroom, if you possibly can put a white suite in. As everyone has said, you dont have to go high price as at the end of the day you wont be living with it.

The one thing you have to remember is you wont be living there and you need to appeal to a big a market as possible and go for top price. If people are walking through the door and are straight away calculating how much it will cost to replace carpets and bathroom, you can bet thats going to come of any offer they may have had in mind - and their calculations are going to be much higher then it will actually cost you to do it now.

As for the rest, you are doing everything right - de-clutter as much as possible and if you still think you have too much furniture then begging the use of a garage or even storage is a good idea

amazon_spice

Thanks for everyone's advice. We are in a similar selling situation and all the info here is invaluable.

busymumof3

We moved into our mid-1980s house last January. At the time of viewing it was empty with one avocado bathroom, a yellow-green downstairs loo and a chocolate brown en-suite. A delight. Also the kitchen was the original and very dated. In it's favour, all walls were in good condition and painted (no layers of paper to remove) and all carpets were relatively new and plain mainly neutral colours. Also location was perfect with best school in the area. We got it for the starting price which those of you who live in Scotland will know, is VERY unusual. A year on we have replaced all bathrooms and kitchens, getting through the painting to our pretty neutral taste (de-pinking the hall was a relief) and replacing the flush doors next week.

Looking at sales of same/very similar nearby properties our < £20k upgrading investment has so far increased the value by a minimum of £80k in one year!! I find it astounding. How much of this is market forces I don't know.

I agree with the advice to do the minimum. Ask your estate agents advice. Anything you do do I would do properly. ie. remove woodchip paper or the like rather than painting over. After removing a houseful of woodchip and anaglypta in our previous house the mere sight of it brings me out in a cold sweat. Agree that the carpet should be a priority. Don't know about the bathroom. Unless you do it properly I would leave it and just make sure it is sparkling clean. You don't mention the kitchen but this is probably one of the most important rooms. Again I wouldn't bodge it. I think replacing doors etc always looks shoddy and as for painting tiles....

Take heart, if your property is in the right location it will sell no problem anyway. Main thing is to get rid of junk, declutter everything so at least buyers can appreciate the space. Good luck!

bigbear_3

Just incase you partner changes his mind Wickes do a white bathroom suite (toilet, bath, bath panel, sink, plinth and taps) for just £180 inc tax. The toilet has even got a button flush. Definatly worth considering.