Large renovation, tiny budget... lets go!

rdone

Welcome to my new diary!

To set the scene:

In the last 2 years we have slowly paid of just over £10,000 of CC debt and last August decided to take the plunge and move to our dream house.  I call it our forever home, DH calls it the last but one forever home as he wants to be closer to the sea.  We're a 10 minute drive!  It's a large 5 bed house and we live here with our 2 dogs - both rescue foxhounds, one around 5 and the other about 10.  We're pretty remote (our village has around 30 houses) and it's beautiful.

The house itself is a money pit, it needs absolutely everything (and probably more) doing to it but luckily we were very aware of that when we bought it.

Our plan is to first do a rewire, replumb, create a kitchen diner out of the current kitchen and half the lounge and then a new lounge with the left over half and the front room.  So two major walls to knock down, an RSJ in and a new wall built.  This is phase 1.  Phase 2 involves the two upstairs bathrooms and the garden.  Phase 3 involves a bathroom in the attic and an additional bedroom up there (there is already one bedroom in the attic that's half the house, the other side is just your regular attic space).  Each phase will involve resaving and starting again.

For phase 1 we have around £20,000.  Quite a chunk of this has already been spent as we've already bought the kitchen and appliances in a sale last year (and has been stored in the random front room that will become lounge), a new boiler (LPG as we don't have natural gas down here and we can't quite afford a renewable yet but what we have bought is future proofed as it can be converted to use with a heat pump), reports by a structural engineer, a new shower for the main bathroom (will explain why this got moved to phase 1 below) and have taken the chimney out of the property.

Chimney - I had no interest in taking this out, it was really small and didn't have a fire etc and was in the corner of our utility.  Yes I could get another cupboard in but one cupboard compared to the cost didn't seem worth it.  Our main bathroom didn't have a shower and I had no interest in visitors (and possible future children) using our ensuite every time they needed to shower, so as we were taking the hot water tank out of that room anyway I thought we'd shove a shower there as a temporary fix until phase 2.  Then we realised the chimney was in the way.  So last week it came out - oh the dust! - and this week our boiler has been taken out along with the hot water tank and lots of lovely new copper is going in.

Had an absolute bargain on the shower - got the tray (1500mm x 900mm), glass (1200mm) and shower for £120 on market place.  So very pleased with the little expense we've put out until phase 2.  The tray is a very good one so we'll probably keep that for good now, possibly the glass too!

We still have around £4,000 of CC debt left to clear, it's on 0% interest and for now we've reduced the DD from £450 a month to £95 to put that money towards the renovation.  It seems sensible and my DH is happy with the decision but I hate having it there, will give it until the work has finished (phase 1) and then see where we are money wise.

So this diary is to curb our spend, we're both high earners (hoping to find out if I have a pay rise today too!) but equally are high spenders.  We've both had young family die and are of the mindset of having to enjoy our lives and that involves holidays and meals out.  Which we still intend on doing but just need to be a bit more sensible about it and realise that this is a project we really want to do and are enjoying this, it's our third house renovation so we know what we've let ourselves in for...

Happy_Sloth

I'm happy to see im not the only person living in a money pit   we are living in a victorian house with alot of work, i started my diary yesterday and found we'd spent £80k without even decorating a single room... scary!  We are also high earners but high income tends to come with high cost of living, we've just have to raise our energy DD to £450 a month!  

I'll be watching this thread with intrest!  good luck!  

GeorgianaCavendish

Happy new diary! I'm also about to enter the money pit ... we're completing on our forever home at the end of this month and it needs a lot of work   
Good luck and looking forward to hearing how the renovations go! 

foxgloves

Interesting times. Our 1930s moneypit is just undergoing the final stage of a 2-year renovation project. Lovely to have had the opportunity to give the place an upgrade but I'll admit I can't wait for all the work to be finished, no more workmen & to feel our home is ours to enjoy. There have been delays because of covid & one thing & another and it feels as though the work has been going on for ever. I know it will very much be worth it once everything is finally finished 
All the best with your project.
F

rdone

Happy_Sloth said:

I'm happy to see im not the only person living in a money pit   we are living in a victorian house with alot of work, i started my diary yesterday and found we'd spent £80k without even decorating a single room... scary!  We are also high earners but high income tends to come with high cost of living, we've just have to raise our energy DD to £450 a month!  

I'll be watching this thread with intrest!  good luck!  

Ooo a victorian house sounds beautiful!  Or at least I'm sure it will be once you're done.  The money spent is scary isn't it, everything just costs so much these days.

Totally agree to high income = high cost of living.  Need to think back to student ways when I'd have less than my monthly salary now to last me a full term!  I'll pop over to your diary for a nose.

rdone

GeorgianaCavendish said:

Happy new diary! I'm also about to enter the money pit ... we're completing on our forever home at the end of this month and it needs a lot of work   
Good luck and looking forward to hearing how the renovations go! 

Ooo I'm so excited for you!  Moving is definitely a lot more stressful than renovating in my opinion.  I'm always quite jealous of the Scottish house buying system.

Always good to know you're moving into a money pit!

rdone

foxgloves said:

Interesting times. Our 1930s moneypit is just undergoing the final stage of a 2-year renovation project. Lovely to have had the opportunity to give the place an upgrade but I'll admit I can't wait for all the work to be finished, no more workmen & to feel our home is ours to enjoy. There have been delays because of covid & one thing & another and it feels as though the work has been going on for ever. I know it will very much be worth it once everything is finally finished 
All the best with your project.
F

Sounds like you've had quite the challenging time!  I'm so excited for you that it's almost coming to an end, it is such a blissful moment to close the front door on that last trade person.

rdone

Plumbers are here for the last day of first fix today and are currently removing all the rubbish left in the attic by the previous owners!  Because of their good nature DH is going to pick them up some beer on his way back from swimming at lunch time.  Something that I find is never an extravagance as you can't be too nice to good trades people - they're in a short supply!  Builder is coming back tomorrow to put down floor in the attic and bathroom where he took the chimney out although I'm wondering if maybe he shouldn't because the electrician still needs to do some bits.  But hey, the electrician is my uncle so it's easier to sort him out to turn up then the other ones!

Other than that it should be a low spend day (except possibly fuel, but we might be able to wait until tomorrow for that).  Heading to my brothers after work which is a 2 hour drive away, he's making us food for when we arrive as it'll be quite late.  Then Friday we're away for the weekend.  I've somehow (drunk on Spanish Sangria last year) managed to sign up to do a marathon this weekend - so at least it'll be a low spend one as I'll be running most of the time!

We've booked food for each night and tomorrow we have a voucher to use.  Saturday and Sunday my parents will be with us so I'm hoping they'll pay   

Didn't hear about my pay rise yesterday, I'm on leave until after Easter after today so I have asked my boss to phone me to tell me anyway - a gender pay gap issue so I'm hoping they've corrected it!

Hoping to go through bank statements to see how much we've spent so far - I have a rough idea as we have a separate savings pot for the renovations but I know we've spent some out of our monthly salary as well if we can afford too.  Also a scary thing to do!

greenbee

Good luck with the renovation! I've been here nearly 9 years, just about finished and am now selling It was only the pandemic that pushed me into getting the kitchen done, as prior to that I was travelling so much it wasn't a priority (at least, not enough of a priority to be inviting trades back into the house, and trying to organise them around work). 

I have been told NOT to buy a project this time... 

rdone

greenbee said:

Good luck with the renovation! I've been here nearly 9 years, just about finished and am now selling It was only the pandemic that pushed me into getting the kitchen done, as prior to that I was travelling so much it wasn't a priority (at least, not enough of a priority to be inviting trades back into the house, and trying to organise them around work). 

I have been told NOT to buy a project this time... 

ooo that’s exciting! I hope the sale goes well. It is a lot having trades in the house all the time.

haha, I’m not sure I could ever not buy a project! It’s too much fun.

rdone

So today I have the entire day to myself in a town that I sort of know. It’s going to be very difficult to not spend lots of money! But I will post here and be accountable to whatever I do.

we did end up eating out last night and we filled up with petrol so that was spendy! Probably just under £100.

our dd for the cc has gone out this morning so that’s another £95 off the total taking us under £4,000! We will get there.

yesterday they ended up completely gutting our utility room which I was not expecting but is exciting. There’s some plastering to do where we have taken the chimney down and DH is going to give that a go - he’s pretty good with practical things so hoping that’ll work out. We will definitely get a trained plasterer to do big rooms, ceilings etc but this will only be behind a cupboard.