When every room in the house needs a complete over-haul??

[YouHaveNoPowerOverMe]

Just moved in to a house. Thank-fully there's no wallpaper in site but every wall and ceiling needs skimming, all doors and wood work need sanding back, the crappy Lino & Carpets need ripping up, the bathroom, downstairs toilet and kitchen need ripping out and replacing.

Where do we start?

I've had a couple answers in RL like "start at the top and work down doing one room at a time" or "Do one thing at a time" for example, get all the Walls and ceilings skimmed, then move onto all the doors and woodwork etc.

Thing is my kitchen is awful, cheap, shoddily fitted & falling apart so it really needs doing soon ish as we spend most of our time in there (kitchen/diner with access into garden)

So, give me your tips/advice. Where would you start?

Thank-you

[YouHaveNoPowerOverMe]

site = sight and whatever other spelling mistakes are in there

[Mammonite]

Are you doing it yourself?

Do you need any structural or whole-house work doing like rewiring or new heating, or new windows/doors? If you do, then do all that first.

If not then do one or two rooms at a time, starting with the bathroom/kitchens as they are the most work and most expensive.

[Firawla]

i think i would do one room at a time, in your case starting with kitchen.
we just bought somewhere too and i wanted to redo the whole place before moving in but realistically thats not possible as we ended up with less than 1 week, so will just do it one room at a time til its finished.
whats the logic behind starting at the top? not experienced in this so may be missing something but i would have thought start with the downstairs cos that is what people see when they come over??

[StopRainingPlease]

I vote for a room at a time, so that you can get somewhere nice to hang out and keep sane! If there's really dirty work to be done though, like sanding floors, that will get dust all through the house, do that first of all.

[YouHaveNoPowerOverMe]

Thank-you.

I think the theory behind starting at the top and working down is that you don't decorate the downstairs then trapse dust/paint etc downstairs when doing upstairs.

The central heating is fine although the radiators themselves need replacing. I think the electrics are fine but Dp did train as an electrician when he left school before getting into computers etc so he can probably do anything that needs doing.

Jobs like skimming Walls/ceilings will be handed over to a professional bit the rest will be pretty much done by us.

Better start saving for a kitchen then & in the meantime think we'll start with the bedrooms, one at a time, so we have somewhere to retreat to after a hard day's decorating.

Be glad when I can actually see an end, and a nice house, in sight!

[LoveInAColdClimate]

I agree with one room at a time if there's no structural work to be done - otherwise the whole house will feel like a building site for months and you won't have a finished sanctuary to retreat to.

[notcitrus]

If you're living in it, then get the disruptive pulling up floors/walls stuff done ASAP, like replacing heating and rewiring, then a room at a time based on which is annoying you the most (kitchen, in your case).
Or on what you have the budget to do... much as we'd love to do the kitchen, we either need to save up or wait until it falls off the back of the house and claim on the insurance (sort of hopes for big storm this winter!)

Doing up a house is a prime example of the 'good, quick, cheap: pick any two' rule...

[7to25]

If you have children, there is something to be said for doing their bedroom first so that they can retreat there when the going gets tough, it is usually one of the simpler jobs. I would also use the time to plan exactly what you want from the kitchen before wading in. expensive mistakes can be made in the kitchen.

[angel1976]

7to25 has good advice! When we moved in, no major structural stuff to do immediately but re-decorating every room/hall etc. The kids' sleep room was the easiest to sort out because it was just an empty room with magnolia walls before. As it's small too, it was limiting what we could do. Fresh coat of paint, painted skirting, shelves built into alcove, new curtains, bunk e and voila, all done. Once they are settled into that room, their play room is next. Then we are doing our bedroom, guest room, halls etc...

We are also planning to knock through the two reception rooms. Because we already have an extension, we are still not 100% about it. BUT I think after living here for 3 months, I think we have to as the front reception room is NEVER used. And we are looking at putting a set of doors somewhere! So the advice to live in the space for a little while is good advice. And once a room is done, you get a better idea of what to do next.

Also, some jobs can send you mental if you do them all at the same time! Painting does it for me... After a couple of hours painting, I go do-la-la. I could NEVER conceive of painting the whole house all at once. Good luck! :)

[narmada]

I see where people ar ecoming from with the doing one room at a time thing but I think this would be an expensive way to do big jobs like a whole house re-skim....

[angel1976]

narmada I guess it depends if OP is doing the job herself or getting someone else to do it? If you are paying someone else to do it, I can see the reasoning for getting it all done at one time. If you are doing it yourself, room by room is more bearable and if you buy paint etc in bulk it should be similar cost... :)

[narmada]

yes, room by room painting is exactly how we'll be doing it in our new place (doing it ourselves). I can't bear the thought of doing it all at once but have to say there is no way on earth I would attempt skimming myself - it's an art - and I'd prefer to get it done in one go as it's v messy and dusty.

[Mammonite]

Try and make at least one room a tidy refuge even if you just slap white paint over the yuk and put down some £5 carpet to make it temporarily bearable. (In our case temporary was 3 years!)

And do the hall stairs and landing last: obviously muck gets tracked through them from any other room.

We got away without a lot of skimming by using very thick lining paper and very matt paint in the better rooms. You may not need to do quite as much as you think.

Good luck, it is bringing back memories of late nights with a heat gun stripping our doorframes and skirtings. You will have a beautiful house when it's done.