Redoing the home - big project, need your advice

bui

I ama long time member of mse but registered again as this account is really on behalf of my parents.

Their home is the main place of meeting for all of us and extended family. Over the years the condition has gone downhill. It isn't the warm childhood home I remember.

It was a 2 bed but a extention was added making it a 3 bed and moving the kitchen from a tiny side room to the end of the building. Years later a wall was added to divide the kitchen from the sitting room. What it did was block out natural light.

A quote to redo the walls, floors and other alterations in the city came to £30,000. The guy is well recommended, he did other peoples houses too and we had to really plead to even get it down to this figure.

On top of that, my parents have described to me what they will get done, and the layout of the house will go from bad... to bad. There are no improvements in this area. This for me makes the project not worth the great price but they really can't afford more than that.

My moneysaving self and my watching home renovation programmes self tells me that we can try and save by sourcing materials ourselves (maybe not as the builder will know the tricks of the trade right) but also that they can achieve the house layout they want. So I have come here for advice, or would anyone recommend a forum dedicated to this that's not on mse?

I would love to upload pictures of the house as it is (damp issues and bad layout) but I dont want it to be so public. I've been meaning to try and help them by getting advice here but I am really busy although I have now made this my aim.

Will you tell me to tell them to pay a architect some money to make a good design? Who knows. But the builder said if we remove one of the walls (which would have given us better options for layout) it will cost a lot as it is the old outside wall and would need a steel beam which I know are pricey.

Sorry of this all sounds muffled. I really want to help them. We scrimp and save and downgrade brands when shopping for groceries, we use tcb and quido for everything else, but not sure how we will do that with this which is why I have come here for advice as this is alien to me. And this is without getting a new kitchen (doesnt have to be pricey but my mum-and dad- have worked hard all their lives raising us and working and I really feel they deserve it even if we have to downgrade on some things).

Doozergirl

If you're spending £30k then £1500 on knocking a wall out to get the right layout would be more important than the same money spent elsewhere.

I don't personally see the problem in sharing an anonymous floorplan. It won't be the only house in the world with that layout.

The only problem is your small number of posts meaning you can't post pictures yet!

What is the £30k being spent on at the moment if it includes no structural alteration or kitchen? Are mum and dad moving out for this?

trailingspouse

The advantage of using an architect is that they will have a good idea of what can and can't be achieved within your budget, and may have ideas that you haven't thought of.

Before thinking about what to actually do, you and your parents need to think about what you are trying to achieve - do you want to have more space? More light? More energy efficient? Making it easier for your parents as they get older? Only when you've answered those questions can you start to think about which walls to leave, which to demolish, and whatever else you need to do.

I reckon you should spend more time on the planning phase than you spend on the building phase.

bui

I was going to post pics of the rooms, not the layout although I could draw one for you.

I agree with the planning. Seems every time the builders come a new idea is formed either by the builder or someone else. I don't blame anyone for this though as the work adds up.

It is the back two thirds of the house which is the main issue.

The kitchen would be to your right. A sitting room to the left of it (the front room is behind us). Many years ago a extention was added so infront of the sitting room, a kitchen was added and it became open plan with a island attached to the wall to divide the space. To the right of the new kitchen a bathroom was added.

Where the old kitchen was, it became a small room for ironing and storage, which has now become part of the sitting room. And the island was removed and a wall added. So basically there's no natural light in the sitting room really apart from a s=tiny bit which comes from the glass door or the window on the side which overlooks the alleyway. Basically nothing. The bathroom is at the end of the house next to the kitchen blocking light.

The idea was to move the bathroom backwards but this apparently costs a lot. We dont want a open plan room as the food we cook is not just pasta and rice. We love asian food so basically the whole house ends up smelling of food and it is uncomfortable sitting in the same room when cooking as then you go to work and smell like curry. But if you try and make two rooms out of the space it all becomes weird shaped and small.

We do need two areas to sit as when everyone is over, not everyone wants to be in each others faces all the time, so the front room is more of the smaller, quieter relaxing room. The size of this room cant be adjusted but it's fine.

The stairs take up a lot of space (theres all this empty space half way (as the stairs dont go directly up, there is a landing then the stairs turn the opposite direction). The builder says he;ll add storage space there as it wont cost much at all and he's basically throwing it in. I dont see this as something important to focus on yet.

All of the above once again sounds like a muddle, I guess I should take pictures and you can see properly.

The main reason why the house is to get done is in the past few years damp has risen. It needs to be tackled quickly. Apparently our house is lower than the houses either side of us, so water is absorbed by our house (I am not a expert, I have no clue on any of this) and the floors are weaker, a lot of it squeaks. So everything is to be strippled, replastered, floors pinned down or redone, hopefully the cause of damp tackled or at least lessened or whatever can be done. Since this is a big job in itself, they thought it would be time to redo the layout of some of the rooms as theres no natural light in the back room when the wall was added to prevent the whole house smelling of food everyday.

When the house was done up all those years ago I was a little kid and they had a builder who didnt really tell them to rethink their ambitious plans of moving the kitchen and adding a bathroom which would block the light so I really dont want them to spend all the money and do the same thing all over again. The front room wall is wet. There is no other wall next to it (detached house) and this is now being found in a lot of rooms.

bui

I'm sorry if I dont have all the answers but I will try as at the end of the day I need your help. I'm 20, female and clueless. I do like to watch Sarah Beeny's programmes though.

bui

Dad wants to stay in the house during the build but they can move out as family nearby.

Part of the 30k on upstairs. There is a small room attached to a narrow passageway which leads off the main passage. Next to the longnarrow passageaway to the small room is a long narrow shower and toilet room. They will move this forward and open up the space to make the small room bigger.

Taylor132

Hi Bui

Just wanted to pop along and say don't do yourself down. You may be 20, female and unsure of all the issues/answers but at least you are questioning!!

bui

Taylor132 wrote: »

Hi Bui

Just wanted to pop along and say don't do yourself down. You may be 20, female and unsure of all the issues/answers but at least you are questioning!!

I question everything. No I am really into this moneysaving thing but I am clueless when it comes to a house mostly because I dont know what anymoney over 1000 feels like so I do want to help where I can. It's like wanting your dream (them getting the house liveavle again) and then it being shattered. The quote didnt even include the roofing stuff which was up on the list too.

Doozergirl

Which city are you in?

Sandals70

Hi Bui,

Ive got a couple of things which you may or may not know, in no particular order, to add to this.

1. Always always get three quotes, and dont be frightened of asking if and how costs can be reduced. When it comes to any payment normally you pay 25% up front, 50% at the end of a build and then 25% once you have had all the snagging addressed ( the little bits and bob you notice once you have a good chance to look over the work, without anyone breathing down your back, or you realise that the hot and cold water have been plumbed in the wrong way round, things like that)

2. Research things before and after the builders have discusssed things with you. Make notes all the time, and confirm everything in writting. Knowledge is power in this game. Believe you me as a 44 year old women doing up her flat, who actually works within the design industry, I have had some builders tell me all sorts rubbish. Perhaps because the dont know themselves or perhaps because they think they can get away with it.

3. Prioitise what needs to be done - the structure needs to be sound first. There is no point in putting in a lovely kitchen if you have damp. Your parents are getting on, they need to live somewhere healthy. The same with natural light, good ventilation, warmth etc.

4. To get any proper advise here you really need to do a plan - if your not sure how Im sure there will be thing on line that show you whats what. If you mark where the bathroom stuff is, water, gas etc is for existing bathroom and kitchen and where you think the waste pipes, drains (on the outside of the house) are, that should help, as these are the things that get expensive if you want to move them, but there may be ways that configurations can be altered but using the same pipe work, or adding to it.

5. You may need to get permission from the council for some of the work - to make sure that the builders do a safe job, so check that out to. There may additional charges on this as well.

6. Make sure you and your family are all agreed on what you want to achieve from a functional point of view. If you are all agreed then its easier not to be swayed by others.

7. This is a big project so break it down into bite size chunks, and bite size lumps of money, and keep a contigency fund. and then it wont feel quite so difficult. There will always be problems, and unforseen issue will arise so dont beat yourself up when this happens, its all part of a project like this.

8. Look on the web page DIYnot. Ive used this quite alot to read around particular things and to get a greater depth of knowledge.

9. The most important think I wanted to add - and I actually created my log on specifically so I could tell you this - never never never apologies for being young and female. You have been asking all the right questions, and seem to be pretty clued up on the things that need to be addressed. There are many people twice your age who wouldnt have gotten half as far as you with the understanding of this job. Gender has nothing to do this with either so dont go down that path in your head as its actually (in the nicest possibe way) irrelevent -Start channeling a bit of Sarah Beeny.

Hope that helps.

Doozergirl

Erm, can I just say that all builders are different. That 25%, 50%, 25% money situation is especially strange when you're spending £30k.