DIY, just how much is too much?

WHITEyy118

Hi guys so we are nearing completion on a house that needs a fair bit of work. Kitchen and bathroom have had it (green bathroom suite!) and then you could say new flooring throughout a lick of paint and it's done. Oh and it's a 2 bed semi.

However the house will be empty and being FTB we don't have a lot. There's some bedroom furniture, a tv, Hoover ,microwave and a lot of kitchen stuff (in readiness) but none of the big stuff (fridges, freezers, sofas etc.).

Anyway my question is how much do we do.? I've set out to make sure we have 3 months mortgage backed up, we should have around 200 disposable income a month (after 400 into our savings) and we have around 10k left after our deposit (not including the mortage back up). Do we go ahead and spend all the 10k (albeit carefully) or still hang on to some of it?

Cheers.

WHITEyy118

Oh and unless we come into major problems it will all be DIY.

Doozergirl

What are the electrics and plumbing like?

The thing is with these houses that if the kitchen and bathroom are neglected, then it's usual for the really important elements to be neglected as well. A house is made almost entirely of things that you don't see that cost a great deal of money.

arbrighton

Just because the bathroom suite is green doesn't mean that you can't live with it for a while.
As Doozergirl says, get gas/ electrics checked and sorted and then work through gradually.
Sofas are not a necessity immediately, nor is a washing machine (my sister lived with walking to the launderette around 6 months before having her kitchen done)
As for flooring- we meant to have our carpets done, but we've been here 18 months ago and haven't got round to it yet.

warmhands.coldheart

Just my thoughts

DIY
Donkey work
(i.e stripping, ripping, cleaning, clearing, removals. etc. etc. etc. You'd be amazed how much time this can take so can save you a lot of money. )

Painting & Decorating

Laying Laminate

Fitting Skirting Boards

Tiling small/medium sized wall area's



NOT DIY

Gas.

Electrics

Plastering
(I have Much respect for plasterers.... it's definitely something you perfect with time and experience)

Kitchen Fitting
(Just too much hassle and time consuming and worktops in my opinion are a nightmare to get perfect unless you're well experienced. use the time on other easier more productive things)

Laying carpet.
(By all means shop around for the carpet and buy underlay online as much cheaper but get a fitter to fit it (Not through the carpet shop as they rip the a55 out of it). Really not that expensive for a fitter and they are a lot quicker than DIYing it....)

Tiling large areas especially large floor areas.

Niv

My first house was in a similar sounding condition (exceptmy bathroom was peach!). What I did was buy a discount kitchen (lovely realwood casks) and tarted up the bathroom, by painting it in a light colour, changingthe tiles etc. (as opposed to the suite itself. It did work out well, so doconsider this option before replacing the bathroom (if the only reason is thesuite colour).

Of course this all depends on why you are doing these works,if you are going to live in the house for 10+years then do the house as youlike it as you will be there for a while, however if you intend to move after acouple of years and are simply trying to gain as much value as possible with aslittle outlay then your tactic should reflect this.

SailorSam

Owning a house is a bit like painting the Forth Bridge, it's never ending. No matter how much you do there always seems to be something else that's needed.

ruben93watson

I think you guys should hang on some of it.

trailingspouse

Every house has a ceiling price, beyond which it will not go when it's time to sell. And it won't sell for above this price even if you have a gold-lined kitchen and a platinum bathroom. So don't over do it!!

(If you REALLY want a gold-lined kitchen, and you're planning on staying in the house a while, you can of course do it - you're just unlikely to get your money back.)

determined_new_ms

We bought our house in October 2012. It has needed a lot of work! Very dated decor and was neglected for a while (bought it after old lady passed away and her husband who clearly did the works died about 10 years previously - very 1970s!) Total decommision, redesign & refit of the bathroom & kitchen - kitchen we knocked down the wall between the dining room & gallery kitchen. Each room has to be plastered, some remedial works and redecorated. We also had the house rewired & a new board put in.

You can do it for a reasonable price if you look around. Our kitchen is big and looks lovely. I bought all of the Ikea carcasses 2nd hand off an old lady for £150 (card seen on a supermarket notice board) and bought new doors/drawers, cooker was second hand as was dishwasher. Was lucky my brother did most of the work for us - he is able to do plastering, plumbing, some carpentry. Cost has been £1800 for the kitchen. Friends of mine who do houses up swear by buying 2nd hand kitchens on ebay

The rest of the work has been diy which we can do but not very quick or confident!

Bathroom the same - this time have bought things online to keep costs down, have been able to use a trade card for some things. Cost has been approx £2000

Including the wiring, buying materials - plaster mix, paint etc we have spent around £6000. We have been putting aside aprox £250-350 pm to decorating fund depending on outgoings that month. I should imagine if you needed workman do some of the work you would probably add an additional £4000 on to those figures?

Procrastinator333

We totally gutted and renovated our first property. And we did a lot of DIY on it too. I would advise the following based on what I learned.

First thing, you need to get all the utilities and first fix type work done. So. You need to decide on your Electrics and plumbing first off. Electrics - if it is a bit old, I would get an electrician in. Replce that consumer unit so it is RCD protected. £400 for the consumer unit to be replaced. Knowing nobody can be killed by electrocution in your house is worth it in my opinion. But at the same time, thing about lights, extra plug sockets etc. If any of this needs doing, get it done early as they will make a mess.

Same goes for plumbing. Have a look at the boiler, age, radiators, ar eyou happy with all of this? If you want to move radiators, or if the boiler is 20 years old. Now is the time to get it sorted.

I would leave the plumbing and electrics on the kitchen and bathroom as seperate items until you are ready to tackle them.

All the while this is going on, you can be stripping wall paper and tiles etc. This could take you weeks. Some older wallpaper will literally take hours to scrape off. And as you do it, you may find the plaster goes.

Also, if any windows and doors need doing. Now is also the time. Again, get someone in for this.

You should be gettign certificates for electrical, boiler install and window work. You will need these if you ever sell the house.

After that, it is up to you and your level of skill. We tried a lot. And the first things I learned is that every job, when I looked at it, thoght about what was involved and would say, hhhmmm, that should take me a day or 2, what I should actually do was double or tripple that estimate. I did our kitchen. We had been quoted £2.5k for install. It took me 11 full 10 hour days to do it. I did a reasonable job. Not as good as a fitter would have done, but we were very happy with it. But I basically took 2 weeks of work and burnt all my time on that and other jobs. That is just one example. If you DIY stuff, it will take a long time, be prepared for how long it will take you. And you can't rush or it will be a mess.

Also, to DIY stuff, it will cost a fair bit of money, especially if you are just starting at the DIY. To do jobs properly, you have to have the tools. They are not cheap. You do have them for future jobs, but those first DIY jobs you do, if you have nothing in the tool cupboard, you could easily spend severla hundred pounds just on tools for the job.

And I would say get the right tools! IT might cost money, but trying to skimp on tools is a sure way to end up with a bodge job!

Good luck and have fun!