cost of doing up a run-down house

Magentasue

LisbonLaura wrote: »

Please don't 'do it up'. It's a period piece

If it's sound, leave it alone. Try to find furniture, fittings (& clothes? -- it's fetish time folks ) of that era.

A 40s/50s house all original is IMHO far more desirable than a boring, modern, flash, box.... but then I'm from that era ... but I don't think I'm alone with my views?

Anyone remember the Pete Seager song "Little Boxes"...........not that it was about houses!

I do agree but ... the house we're selling has lots of original features (sash windows, beautiful fireplaces etc) and we've left them alone or stripped back. Renovating our sash windows has been a labour of love but they look stunning; something that cannot be said for the aluminium windows in the house we're buying.

The 'but' is things like central heating. We've tried to keep our new kitchen and bathroom in keeping with the style of the rooms but have a power shower, built in oven etc. because they're what we wanted ... and what buyers expect when you sell.

robwend

we have done the same with our 3 bed semi. brought it very cheap and ripped it all out, mainly done ourselves at the tune of £25,000, windows heating bathroom kitchen ect ect. the only thing that hasnt been replaced are the walls, its taken 18months and i would never do it again lol

Nenen

Wow! So many helpful posts... thank you all so much:beer:

A few little extra details... much as we'd like to, we can't 'do-it-ourselves for a couple of reasons:

1) we both work 50-60+ hours per week plus have one child still at school and two more aged 20 & 22 (who often need us) and an elderly aunt (for whom we are the only relatives to give a ****) we have to visit frequently;
2) More importantly... we're completely useless at that sort of thing!!!!:o

I know what Soappie means about the ethos today of so many people that we want it all NOW... but as we are in our late 40s and have lived in less than 'desirable' houses with second-hand mis-matched furniture etc all our married life (26 years so far) I don't think we quite come into that category. We would want to pay professionals to do it, in one lump if at all possible, just because that way we could budget up front and get it done before we retire!

I certainly want to keep the house 'in period' as much as possible and wouldn't want to rip anything out unnecessarily. A lot of it would come down to cost and practicality alongside looks. The reason I like the house so much is that it is individual and has bags of character... I don't want to lose that. We haven't yet seen inside... EA is a nightmare! We've had a good nosey all round the outside though and seen several photos plus floorplans on EA website so we know we like it. Just not quite sure exactly what state some things (eg bath) are in.

Good point re checking on it being listed... I didn't realise this was done on houses built less than 100 years ago.
Thanks again everybody

Nenen

HugoSP wrote: »

Hope this helps. PM me with more details if you want. I may not frequent this board too much for fear of running into HPC threads

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
Touché! I like it!:D

Doozergirl

The easy way to find out if a building is listed. Type the name of the village/town into the search and see what comes up. There are pics of every listed building in England on this site!

http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/

Lotus-eater

Whatever you think needs doing, always remember that more will need doing as well..... plastering?
Its a dirty place to live a building site, I've done it twice and both times have sworn to not do it again. I still would though The human being is a master of forgetting how bad things have been.


Consider getting a builder to quote for the whole job, if you try to get in individual workmen they will let you down and run rings around you by the sound of it. Also consider not living there for a few weeks when the worst work is being done.


Try to get a builder in to give a quote before you buy it.


Think about living in it a while before deciding on what to do to it, your thinking will change over time being actually in it.

Best of luck. Think three times before you do anything, if you are planning a kitchen, think 10 times

mlz1413

I bought a run down terrace house in 2005 took 1 yr to do it up (only bricks are original!) it cost £25k in materials alone, my fella is a builder and we worked min of 4 hrs every evening and all weekends for that entire year - i would not do it again.

But I was grateful of being able to buy a run down terrace and do it up my way - now so many houses are 'done up' which puts the price up and means that you live in a magnolia box saving up enough money to do the things you want.