Ball-park renovation cost

Emmylou_2

Thanks all.

All three quotes have come in now, and all in the same ball-park.

We're going with this guy, mainly because that way the cost is fixed, no matter what happens (other two have said "allow £10k/10% for contingencies - minimum").

It does seem on the outset that it would be cheaper to build a new place, but the way we look at it is in five months' time (or thereabouts) we get to move into somewhere that's perfect for us, should still make us money if we want to sell soon (albeit that we are planning to live there FOREVER, you never know where jobs etc will take you), and is HUGE.

It was just such a shock to receive that initial figure - but if you break it down to what we're getting for it, it does work out quite reasonable (I tried to cost it from the spec using prices I found online and got to £40k just upstairs - without labour)

Emmylou_2

We're now at the end of the third week of works, the entirety of upstairs has been stripped - no ceilings, back to just stone/brick walls. The roof itself looks in fairly good nick, but the ceiling joists are quite clearly rotten at the ends (so will need replacing) at the front of the house. The plaster was sodden, apparently, and the "stud" wall separating two bedrooms came down (all on its own) when the radiator/sink on it were removed.

A window has been discovered! It is on the side wall of the rear bedroom and had been blocked over with a fence panel and then plasterboarded :eek:

Plans for the kitchen/extension/new bit downstairs are nearly ready - I meet the architecty lady on Wednesday to give her cash and get the final bits discussed so she can draw where I want stuff.

The best bit, though, is that when I went yesterday to see how things were going they had removed the downstairs carpets and on the floor in the hallway was newspaper - from THURSDAY 25 MAY 1911...almost exactly 104 years to the day. I brought it home and am going to look at it properly when I can find my chemically resistant document gloves!