Buying and decorating first house, tips / bargains / deals / advice needed please!

bootcutboy

Hi all

My girlfriend and I are moving into a house which we have bought at the beginning of June, we have a couple of weeks to do some decorating before we move in but basically the house has not been changed a lot since the 60s and although structurally sound it needs decorating throughout. We are going to get electrics, boilers, gas checked out professionally before we move in but what we are looking for is advice on saving money and doing our house up on a budget.

We need pretty much everything so will check on this site daily for deals such as rollers, paint, door handles, washing machine, fridge... Etc but wondered if anyone can recommend any websites with advice on DIY, any places we could look for cheap deals, anything for sale in pound shops such as paint brushes that are half decent??? And also if there are any deals or discount codes that could help us out then let us know.

It's all new to us as we've only rented before so never fully been allowed to decorate. It has been ages since we were last round the house as the surveys and mortgage malarky took about 6 weeks to complete so its difficult to remember exactly what is on the walls. Most of it was wallpapered, probably 10-20 years ago mind, but for the main most of the walls were nice and smooth so hopefully not too much plastering needing to be done. The front room has a gorgeous parque flooring border but we really want carpet for energy costs purposes so I am hoping to flog the parque to fund front room carpets, Ebay or Gumtree me thinks. The kitchen has new cupboards but needs floor, cooker, fridge, washing machine, walls need decorating. All the hallway, stairs, upstairs needs re-doing and it desperately needs a whole new bathroom, tiles, suite with spacesaving bath/shower, flooring etc...

It is all so exciting but also very overwhelming!

The real downside is that we are pretty damn skint after paying for all the surveys etc... So we want to find as many bargains as we can early and would be very grateful for any help or advice anyone has to offer.

Thanks a lot in advance!

sgoode

Don't be tempted to buy really cheap rollers and brushes. You will spend more time picking bristles from the brush out of your paint than painting and it is difficult to get a good finish with a cheap roller.

I used B&Q's fine finish rollers and brushes. You can reuse the brushes many times over if you look after them.

Look out in Wilkinson as they sometimes sell off brushes and stuff really cheap. I stockpiled loads of decent brushes when they were selling them for about £1. I also bought about 10 years worth of rollers and trays in Tesco when they had them for about 50p in clearance.

Baby wipes are excellent for removing paint drips, spills etc.

Good luck!

We've spent the last 2.5 years stripping multiple layers of paper off every room in our house and have lining papered every room, bar a couple that needed skimming.

londonlydia

OMG, I actually came onto the forum to start the EXACT same thread! My boyfriend and I are buying our first house, and I wanted to ask the same! So it is clearly a popular question!

I specifically would like advice on getting a wood floor put down, that is kind of opposite to what you want, but I'm on the side of the dog owners who prefer a floor you can sweep up hair easier from. I would also like to know what are the most scratch resistant woods- even though I know it's inevitable!

Luckily I've always helped my parents with the decorating, so I can do some jobs, but I do want to get plasterers in to remove some artex (any advice welcomed).

Painting I will do myself, I'm ultra neat with it. Little tip for you that I bet you've never heard...in my opinion the BEST finish you can get on paint is achieved with...wait for it....BRA PADS! No kidding! Seriously, I'm going to Primark to stock up on the cheapest padded bras I can! You then take the sponge filled pads out, ans use these to smooth over any paint. Instant buffing, and it takes out all the dappling from rollers or streaks from brushes. Have no idea if they make a product for the same job, but you can get bras from £2 and a couple of them are sufficient for a whole room!

curiousftb

I agree with SGoode, cheap brushes and rollers are a false economy. Buy some good ones at Wickes and just clean them really well. I would suggest that you pick up some interiors mags and put together a scrapbook. Cut out everythng you like, no matter how different it is and when you look through the book, themes in your taste will appear. Also, start reading design blogs (Design Sponge, Living etc and apartment therapy are good places to start). Worked for me, I just did up our current flat after running through this process and added 32k to the value in six months. Check out gumtree for free machines being given away by people in a rush and/or leaving the country. You may need to check it daily for a few weeks but generally it turns stuff up. I've had quite a lot of success with that. Also, eBay and second hand shops are great for quality furniture (none of the MDF stuff that falls apart now). Sand it down, paint and varnish it and voila, impressive looking furniture.

Londonlydia: We had ghastly artex in our current flat - horrible stuff, really thick and ALL over all of teh walls and ceilings in every room. Quote to remove it professionally was terrifying so we removed a small bit, sent it to a lab to be tested for artex (google people to do this, costs about £75). It came back negative so we got a plasterer to come in, sand it down and skim it. £1750 instead of £7000. RE wooden floors, I've tried laminate and found it lacking in appeal. We're putting real wood into the place we're buying, it's actually not that expensive (circa £80 for supply and installation seems to be the norm), looks much nicer and feels warm. The only thing I'd note is that we're planning to spend a decent chunk on soundproofing. I have lived downstairs from someone that didn't bother and it was horrible. But if you have a house, you're unlikely to have that problem!

bootcutboy

Thanks for the advice on brushes SGoode, we will spend a little bit more and get some good quality ones that should hopefully last us.

Londonlydia we have a basset hound and they are notorious moulters. We have only ever had wooden floors with our dog but it is awful and we have to sweep our wooden floor twice a day normally, all year round too!!! We were wanting to carpet all our front room of new house for insulation and heating cost purposes but would you advise against this? Have you had a bad time with dogs and carpets? And cracking hint on the Bra Pads, will get my girlfriend to get some as she is always in the bloomin' place.

Curiousftb, brilliant replay thanks, will get on Gumtree whenever possible and we are already scouring Ebay for cheap bits and bobs locally. My other half loves reading blogs so will get her looking into those DIY ones asap.

All very exciting now, only a few weeks to go!

We really appreciate all the help, it is VERY much appreciated chaps.

spadoosh

When we moved in we catalogued every room in the house, noting what we wanted doing, what we needed to get, cost (as accurate as possible) and priorities of what we wanted doing. We then did a budget for each room.

You definately need to prioritise with it, if your both working full time, have little diy experience and budget, its not reasonable to expect a complete overhaul in 6 months.

Im one of the most keen diyers i know i moved in june and still no way near what i want. We concentrated on properly decorating the rooms we use the most (bedroom + living room) so there both finished and we can at least relax without seeing stripped walls etc. I want to do the kitchen but units (though not fitted great or look too good) are only a few years old so seems daft to go in causing havoc changing the kitchen when its just not needed. So we re-papered, painted and made small alteration and its already 100 times better than what it was.

Same witht he bathroom (have seperate w.c) i want to knock through and make a big bathroom. This would cost a few £000 so currently left it as it is, really good tidy up, again new paper and paint also put some new flooring (had vinyl and cant stand the stuff, i know some people like it but not for me im afraid!) Again looks loads better.

We have the benefit of working for one of the diy sheds so lots and lots of discount and buying stuff at the right times. I would suggest getting down to your DIY stores regularly and seeing what they have on clearnce etc, they always have stuff and it isnt always the dodgy old stuff. Also getting to know the staff will help, if they recognise you (and know your out for a bargain) they will give you a heads up on any bargains ( we do at our store anyway)


As for the more expensive things (furniture + white goods) Gumtree, ebay and freecycle are your friends. Not to mention friends and family, the maount of stuff weve had given by f+f is unbelievable. Weve already had 2 3pc suites (foc, got to choose the best one!) Dining table, dryer, dishwasher and microwave a more!
Lastly b&m (if theres one near you) are good for soft furnishings and decorative items, its cheap and they normally have a biggish range. Particulalry good for pictures (loads cheaper than dunelm etc)


@londonlydia - if your going for solid wood floors something like an oak would be more hardwearing but definately does get scratched. We got high gloss bamboo flooring, definately avoid this if you dont want scratches actually avoid anything with a high gloss finish, looks awesome for about 3 hrs, then scratches galore!!

The least scartching 'wood' flooring is going to be a laminated floor, most should offer very high scratch resistance (at least much better than real wood) if your going down this route look for a high 'AC' rating, goes from 1 to 5 ( i think) dont bother with anything less than 3.

spadoosh

To add, i dont get why people get so worked up about artex?! People always say its a pain to remove?! I think its great to remove, massive hammer and batter the ceiling till everything falls down, then simply re-board and skim (not good at plastering, let my old man do this!) Cost us about £70 (materials + beers for free labour!) to do 3.5 x 2.5 ish hallway and took 1 evening to demolish and 1 day to reboard and skim. P-o-p

londonlydia

Bootcut boy-In response to the question about dog hair and carpet, I think it's a lot easier sweeping/vacuuming a wood/laminate floor etc than carpet, as hairs will always sort of stick in carpet a bit which takes a lot more elbow grease getting them up (not as bad as getting them out of car seat material which seems to have some sort of dog hair glue I'm convinced!). Plus, any other dirt/ grime associated with dogs will be harder to get out of carpets than wood (I have a boxer, and I'm mainly thinking of the slobber when she sees food). But carpet is doable, but I would go for a short pile/ hard wearing one that will put up with being cleaned if needed.

Thanks for the head's up about wood @spadoosh- I have seen an oak floor I like so that may be the one to go for? It's kind of grained in texture anyway, so I'm hoping that will help a bit. We had laminate in the past, I found it warped when wet a lot easier than the engineered wood floor my parents have now, so I'm leaning more towards the wood (I'm quite clumsy as well so I spill a lot of drinks, in the style of Hyacinth's neighbour in Keeping up appearances )

In terms of artex, I'm not as bothered as my partner is- but if it's highly patterned it can clash with other patterns in the room...and I can hear my nan's voice ringing in my ear about not clashing patterns.

@curiousftb...do you mean you had it tested if it had asbestos on? I've heard about that before that it can be in artex. Luckily I'm a scientist, and whilst not a chemist, we do have chemists on site who would be happy to test what's in it for me if I bake them a cake.

MonkeysMum

Can anyone tell me if it's ok to buy some white paint and then add a tester pot of red to it to get pink to paint my daughters bedroom? White is cheap, coloured paints aren't! Thanks.

shegirl

MonkeysMum wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if it's ok to buy some white paint and then add a tester pot of red to it to get pink to paint my daughters bedroom? White is cheap, coloured paints aren't! Thanks.

You can but you may not get the colour you want.When I've mixed colours they've tended to be from different normal sized pots lol although I've done it with tester pots a couple of times (buy more than one and add a bit at a time)

Make sure you go for the right shade of colour to make the shade you want.Different reds will produce different pinky shades.

Make sure you use paints of the same finish though -matt with matt or silk with silk.

Make sure you mix well and there are no white bits left!

As said,you may not get the strength of colour you want and remember it will dry a different colour on the walls.

Also,remember,if you use a cheap white paint it will be more watery and probably need more coats (2-3,maybe more) so it generally false economy.


Just to add,I made a pale blue once mixing white with a very vivid turquoisey type blue and it took a lot more blue than I expected!