Renovating my 1890's House

1trainer1

Well as a few people know we bought a house last month and it is in need of makor renovation.

got it at a good price and thought we would be able to stamp our own authority on it by making it into our own.

Long story short we are planning on fully refurbishing it by modernising most of the house, we are keeping all the old fireplaces and some features in the hallways etc....

but we are needing to do the following in no particular order.

New Electrics
Double Glazing
Central Heating
New Kitchen
New Bathroom
New drains
Remove trees and fix up the garden
Wallpaper and paint
New Carpets
Plastering
New soil pipes

im sure there are a lot more but that is what comes to mind at the moment.

We are currently living in the property so that is a challenge in itself.

First thing we did was the drains as we needed a working toilet and didnt want to flood the garden.

Next step is to remove the trees so we can get some light in the house and also to stop them damaging the structure

Then after that not sure what is next as of yet.

cattie

Best to get the rewiring done first off as the whole house will need to be redecorated afterwards, followed by the ch. They will be the messiest, most invasive jobs and the rest can follow in whichever order you prefer.

I don't envy you. My house needed practically a full refurb and I couldn't live here for 3 months once work began & the cost of all the work really hit my bank account hard.

1trainer1

We were going to do it that way but thought we would rather do the building work first as we want to know through a wall to make an extended kitchen diner.

If we did electrics first then we would have to do the electrics again to fit the sockets and switches in the new room

first we are going to knock down a few walls and then do electrics everywhere then we will sort out heating and then maybe windows.

theGrinch

cost will vary on location, number of rooms and size

mikey72

When I did mine, I did all the building work, pulled up all the floorboards I needed to, ran ch pipes, and did the re-wiring at the same time. Put in a new dp course and loft insulation. Fitted the double glazing, then did all the plastering, kitchen, bathroom, and decorating as made sense, then the carpets went down last. The outside work I did in summer, and as I had the money.

1trainer1

Thank you for your advice. Will take it on board. Had a chat with the misses about the house in terms of the floor plan. We have a kitchen, pantry and coal store that are at the back of the house in the respective order. Our plan is to knock through the kitchen, pantry and coal store resulting in a room of about 6.5m by 2.8m. We plan to divide this to have a downstairs wc and shower, a utility (utility is the misses's idea) and kitchen dinner. Are there any real benefits to having a utility room and what are the average sizes?

ChrisEvanson

This is fascinating as we bought an 1860's ish house last year needing similar amounts of work. We rewired and replumbed most of it, leaving phase 2 as same for kitchen after taking out old bathroom and moving it upstairs, and phase 3 is wire and plumb extension which is nearly complete and extends lounge and adds a bedroom upstairs to replace lost bedroom to new bathroom. Also having a utility (single storey) built as part of the extension.

ChrisEvanson

To add... we have gone way over budget, mainly replastering we didn't plan on and just things that cost more. We used to laugh at Grand Designs when they went over budget and wondered why, but its true what they say - take the figure you thought of and (wouldn't say double it but) halve it and add that on!

rustyboy21

Been there, done it and got the Tshirt ! and lived in it whilst all going on ( apart from 2 weeks when kitchen and plastering hall landing and stairs done) jetted off to Tenerife for that !

It is a big job, but manageable. Our house has cellar and attic, so easier for CH and rewire, as everything runs through there.

Utility room is great. Old kitchen was 1.5m x 3 m with bathroom off there. kept bathroom, moved rear door into old kitchen and plumbed in washer and dryer next to it. Can shut door over so wash at night and no noise. Old kitchen and Broom was like old extension to house. Made BR into shower room.
Moved kitchen into rear reception room next to extension 4m x 6 m, so runs nicely.
Upstairs 4 bedrooms, made smallest room into bathroom with bath, stairs to attic come off here.

Is a lot of work and you will be cleaning up for months after, my hall/stairs plastered 2 years ago, still not got round to painting it yet ! ( lazy I know ). If you can get them to put new water pipes in when they do CH, it does make a difference.

I got really good deal from mate in trade, left him to do everything and manage it. Pulled in favours off suppliers for bathrooms and CH. All in all spent 30k, but only paid 30k for house, now valued at £110k so win, win

Rewire and CH most important to get done first, I needed rewire for the jacuzzi bath to be fitted. You could still get it done and get them to run the cables for the extension into the room it will be going against, but leave cables coiled up and dead. When the extension is done, it will be a quicker and cheaper job to just run them in, as all the hard work has already been done and at least the rest of the house is safe

rustyboy21

Just to add, we had the following done.

CH
Rewire
new water pipes
new alarm
showeroom
hall landing and stairs knocked out and new staircase ( was 2 flats before )
bathroom
Rear chimney stack taken down
new kitchen
new suspended ceiling in kitchen
tiling 2 baths and all the kitchen floor to ceiling
enough sockets for 2 houses !
reslate part of roof
move back door and brick in old area with perfect match bricks
new kitchen window

fluffpot

I think you;ll find you end up doing some of it concurrently - eg knocking through for new room will normally require some moving of electrics anyway....