FTB - Flat renovation - Where to start?

joe90mitch

My comment earlier about caulking skirting wasn't meant to mean it's something you have to do btw, just ours was all blobby and cracked and I had no idea about it two months ago either!

Ripping up carpets, if needed, is quite an easy task to get into the swing of things. We did it here. Just need some pliers, Stanley knife to cut manageable rolls, hammer or crowbar or painters tool to lever up the grip strips. Starting the first day or two with tasks like this and painting were a good introduction for us

joe90mitch

Also have you looked up some of the guides online about repainting kitchen cabinets ? If you do that and buy new handles it'd change that kitchen completely. You might be able to do that and get some in (or attempt yourself) to change the countertop and it'd change the kitchen completely. Just a thought

naf123

Don't mess about with insulation - just paint /wallpaper and not to worry about it too much . Installing insulation on the inside can lead to a whole host of issues including damp/condensation etc . 

Mutton_Geoff

I'm very experienced in property development and have owned my own homes for over 40 years. Some of the advice in this thread is plain wrong. My advice will be to save your money, live in it for a year and get a feel for the place before you start ripping anything out. Too much addiction to HUTH etc makes the work look simpler than it is. And without living in the place first, you may have no idea what you want it it to be post renovation.

Doozergirl

Mutton_Geoff said:

I'm very experienced in property development and have owned my own homes for over 40 years. Some of the advice in this thread is plain wrong. My advice will be to save your money, live in it for a year and get a feel for the place before you start ripping anything out. Too much addiction to HUTH etc makes the work look simpler than it is. And without living in the place first, you may have no idea what you want it it to be post renovation.

I'm inclined to agree.  Going at it in two weeks before moving in will only see superficial stuff down that will probably end up needing doing again. 

I'd spend the two weeks getting it spotlessly clean and just enjoying a leisurely move. It takes time to clean out the old place properly too and motivation for that is pretty low.  

Then you start planning.  It's much better to start from a grand plan than to do things piecemeal or in the wrong order.  

Once you start plugging everything in, you'll realise where you need new plug sockets, for example.  And you'll get an idea for how well the heating works etc.  It's everything you can't see that you need to reflect on initially.  

We moved into our place a little over three months ago.  Despite much of it being planned to a high level of detail over a long time and built from scratch, it's still taking time to work out the decor and I have made a few changes to the electrics based on how I thought we'd live, to how we actually are.   The garden still baffles me and I've not made a carpet decision, although that is very hard in a lockdown.  

You need time to even get to know what you have to work with and what quirks you've been left with by someone else.  

You'll be much happier in the longer term if you treat this like a marathon and not a sprint.  

naf123

Very good advice from mutton_geoff.  If it's possible to live in for a year , may at least get the bath resealed (cheap job) and you may want to replace the carpets with a cheap one with the intention of redoing it again . You would also know what the place is like in winter eg what rooms are colder than others etc . 

MovingForwards

Definitely move in and live in it for a while before changing things. What you think now, may not be what you want when in the place and seeing how it works for you.

I've been in mine for about 10 months, had a plan of opening up the fires places and putting real ones in, always wanted proper ones. Now I'm here and lived through my first winter I've changed my mind as they will be too hot.
Was going to have two built-in wardrobes made, decided just one bedroom needs it.
Then there's the kitchen and bathroom ideas I keep alternating.

Indigo_and_Violet

Thanks all for all your input. I am definitely feeling calmer than yesterday. We have agreed to go round for measuring up on Friday which will be the first time we've been in since our offer was accepted in August and I'm hoping will give us a clearer idea. So many hurdles came up during buying that we stopped planning because it really looked like it was all going to fall through, hence the last minute scramble now. 
For the two bedrooms the plan is very much quick and generic - plain walls, cheap carpet, curtains from my mum, existing furniture. We definitely don't have any grand design visions. If it turns out that the sugar soap lifts a lot of the smell then we'll live with the blue for a bit. Since we're unlikely to have guests for a while we're going to set the front bedroom up as a sitting room to start with.   
Bathroom I would happily tolerate for a while once resealed. I've lived in rented houses with worse.
The kitchen is the trickier bit. My bf's slightly stressful job is the reason we have the cash to move in the first place. Cooking is an important stress relief for him. The current owner is taking some appliances with them, and we have none of our own so will be buying from scratch. Bf has made clear that existing oven will not fly, and since longer term we want a hob in a worktop rather than integrated oven+hob it seems to make sense to just do the whole kitchen at once. However, the kitchen/diner is obviously a key room in the flat and one of the places where we might have more design flexibility. I think I'm just going to let him design his desired kitchen and then if we end up with something that blocks another use of the diner end then so be it - we agreed to compromise on a combined kitchen-living space in order to get such a spacious garden so if he gets that room I've got my garden and my sheds. I definitely like the idea of waiting to see what it's like in several seasons - I do like to be cosy in winter. Then once we see how much we want to be at the 'dining end' we can decide whether we want it to be a more formal dining space or a less formal living space. 
We've actually ended up with 5 weeks overlap between the two flats (our landlord is selling and has given us the extra bit of time between the end of our lease and their completion date for free as a thanks for 7 years of tenancy and helping out with viewings etc during covid). So, I am hoping 5 weeks of windows open gets us to not-stinky through the rest of the house and a boyfriend-approved kitchen. 

FaceHead

Having seen the rightmove pictures, this doesn't look like a 'rip everything out and start again' sort of place. If that's what you're going to do (OP), you should have bought something in a much worse state, or you're paying for things twice. The pictured flat certainly looks like a move in and give it a lick of paint job, and less take a crowbar to everything. 

The kitchen looks fine, although that stove (if still there) likely needs replacing, but replacing the whole kitchen seems OTT straight off the bat. You'll likely find critical things that need doing (damp, boiler) in the first few month, so save your budget for while. So, new stove and lick of paint on the cupboards.

The bathroom does look a bit grim, and having your only bathroom re-done whilst you're living there (showering at the gym, which is currently closed) is a bit of a pain. That's therefore the only thing I'd consider doing before moving into this place. 

 

joe90mitch

Sounds and a more relaxed and sensible approach I and V Like I was saying, we were in a similar position to you just two months ahead of you. Since moving in we started with things well within our remit, like painting, small bits of filling, touching up our battered skirting boards etc. Doing odd-jobs around like fixing dripping taps, putting up new loo roll holders, towel rails etc etc. You'll definitely get most of that flat to your taste with similar skills like that. Now we're both getting more confident and slowly widening up how much DIY we know and do, I did a plasterboard removal and fix thanks to the help of forumers on here and that would have terrified me just two months ago.  And we also had grand plans for rooms that we wanted to gut, but working on everything else has got the house looking how we want it in most of the rooms already so we've realised there's no huge rush!

Enjoy it mostly I assume you know the area already, but funnily enough we used to live five minutes up the road in the Haringey Warehouse District. Love the area, so many good restaurants and pubs (hopefully accessible soon...) and a stone's throw from so many nice parks and other areas.