To think we can renovate a 3 bed terrace house with £25k

[Woodlandwalks]

We've been approved a mortgage to buy a run down property with £25,000 extra for renovations. It's not big but has scope to extend one day but that'll be a long way off. As we have a young baby I don't want to live in it whilst all the work is going on so the idea is that baby and I will move in with in laws and hubby will stay in the house to do a lot of the work himself for a few weeks / months before Baby and I move in.

We want to:
Redo the electrics throughout the house.
Laminate all floors (3 bedrooms, 1 living room and 1 dining room)
Put in a completely new kitchen and bathroom (both are only about 6.5 square feet so they are tiny and don't need to be fancy because the idea is that's where we'll extend one day so just a basic kitchen and bathroom for now)
Replaster all the walls and paint.
Put a log burner in the chimney (chimney already fully functional)
We can't do the plastering or the electrics by ourselves but my husband could do the vast majority of the rest with a little help from family.

Does £25,000 sound a reasonable budget or are we being too ambitious
Husband says it's plenty but I don't know and he has a tendancy to be overly optimistic and I'm the one who manages our finances day to day so would feel better to have more opinions on it.

[AnyFucker]

That is plenty if your H is doing most of thexwork other than the mandated stuff (electrics/gas)

We have renovated two houses recently in a similar manner for under £20k.

[Movinghouseatlast]

In my recent experience you end up doubling most budgets!!!

I just did a one bed flat (kitchen, bathroom, log burner, new flooring in 2 rooms) for £25k. That didn't include electrics or plastering which didn't need doing. So based on my experience you need at least £30k

[Movinghouseatlast]

Oh sorry, didn't see your husband is doing most of the work. In that case, yes. Don't forget you need a proper registered person to do the log burner.

[transformandriseup]

It depends how run down, we are in a 160 year old cottage which needs everything you have mentioned and so far we have been quoted just for an idea

• central heating (£7000)

-Electrics (£4500)
-plastering of our stairs area including removing old plaster (£700)

I think the kitchen could be the most expensive item.

Also with the plastering it depends if you need lime (as our old cottage does) as it costs more and then needs a lime based paint.

[YinuCeatleAyru]

if your DH has the time and skills to do most of the work that is fine. it's a laughably small amount if professionals are going to do it. how many hours a week can your DH dedicate to this? how long can you cope with living with your in laws? it could be years.

[onlywomennotmen]

I think you could do it if your husband is very handy. However, other issues can arise during a renovation so even with such a tight budget you need to keep a contingency for problems you discover.

You can save money by buying good quality fittings left over from other people's renovations or ex-display on eBay e.g. I just bought Roca taps RRP £300 for around £25 each and 8 sq m of tiles for £50 which were originally £50 per sq m.. It is always good to buy better quality items that you 'handle' or get a lot of use like taps, latches etc. as you really don't want to replace them.

Even with a fully functioning chimney, the log burner will probably need a new flue that could easily cost over £1000...

[ElizabethinherGermanGarden]

That's the budget I had to do a similar set of renovations 5 years ago. Uncovered a couple of extra things that needed doing during the works and it ended up costing £43k - had to borrow the rest as a loan to finish the job. However, I had builders doing it and although I did my best with the DIY (sanding floors, all the decorating, endless tip runs to remove the rubbish) I didn't do much of the actual work.

I'm in awe of those of you who managed to do it for £20-25k. That's amazing!

[user1728393]

As your dh is doing the work you'll be fine. Especially as your kitchen is tiny. Shop around for the plasterer and electrician though, costs can vary wildly.

We've done similar in the past and I'd say if you're careful and don't run into any unexpected costs you may even have a bit of change.

[BarbaraofSeville]

What's the heating like?

I disagree that the kitchen will be the most expensive item. Kitchen units from somewhere like DIY kitchens, Ikea or B&Q will probably be under £1k, say £2-3k with appliances, worktops, sink and tap etc and fitting it is well within the scope of a competent DIYer.

I think it's easily doable. If you say £5k each for kitchen, bathroom, electrics, flooring and plastering, they're probably all over-estimates for high street items in a smallish property, so leaves plenty in the budget for the log burner.

You don't even need to hunt around for better quality items if you don't have the time and places to look. We paid £75 for a tap from Ikea and its still like new 5 years later., as is the Ikea kitchen that it's installed in.

[Dumbie]

Even with family doing a lot of it, could be tight. It's surprising how quickly it adds up. My tip - don't overlook costs such as paint, skirting boards, light switches, light fittings, tiles, grout, the odd radiator, new curtain poles, etc. Even the cost of tools if you don't have access to them. Try costing everything ASAP.

Do you really need a log burner right now?
We have one and it has been used about 10 times in 4 years. They are lovely looking, but expensive.

[HappyPotato]

I think that's a pretty tight budget and timescale, if he's doing a lot of the work himself it's going to take a lot longer than few weeks/months.

[HappyPotato]

And do all the walls need plastering or just skimmed over? If you're having every room done that could take a decent chunk of your budget

[bravotango]

Budget is fine I think, we've embarked on similar and are on track to keep within budget. Just be prepared for everything taking slightly longer than you expect!

[ScarletZebra]

We have just bought a kitchen which came to double what we were expecting. DH will fit it himself but we need a gas fitter to disconnect the old cooker and connect the new, and someone to cut the worktops. Just found out we need a clean feed for the electric oven. These extras expected to be £800+ and could be higher.

Depends where you are in the country but I would suggest you have seriously underestimated.

[HowLongCanICallitBabyWeight]

Our log burner install, with slate hearth, mantel etc cost £3k, we had a friend of a friend plaster your house and at mates rates that was over 3k , we did a lot of grunt work and decorating ourselves , sanded and polyx oiled the original floorboards ourselves (back breaking but minimal cost) and ours cost that without the new kitchen and bathroom and only rewiring the kitchen.

[ScarletZebra]

Oh and we had 2 ceilings plastered a couple of years ago, cost £1000.

[TeddyIsaHe]

I’m currently in the midst of renovating my 2 bed 2 bath terrace. I am:

Replacing boiler and moving position
Taking out a window and replacing with a single pane glass door
Changing kitchen window height and new window
Moving radiatior and replacing with a new one
New front door
New kitchen
New shower room/utility
New flooring throughout downstairs
Landscaping front and back gardens

In total it’s costing circa. £30k so I think if you do lots of work yourself yours is a very reasonable budget.

Top tips are: get multiple quotes, and have a buffer (5-10k) for when something inevitably goes wrong and you find problems that cost to solve!

[Curiosity101]

That sounds tight to me.

Redo the electrics throughout the house - £6000
Laminate all floors (3 bedrooms, 1 living room and 1 dining room) - £250 x 5
Put in a completely new kitchen and bathroom - £5000 x 2
Replaster all the walls and paint - £700 x 8
Put a log burner in the chimney (chimney already fully functional) - £3000

+20% for things you don't think of (like new architrave, skirting, paint, replacing floorboards, skips etc or whatever surprises turn up).

So my guess is £30-31k

[IndiaMay]

Definitely. We've done similar between my dad who's very handy and my OH who's a plumber and it was fine. Shop around. Dont buy everything from B&Q, it might be that you need to get a bath from B&Q, a shower from the ikea sale, flooring from an independent etc. But you can make it work. Consider repurposed material. Scaffold boards are beautiful and can be put to good use as bannisters, flooring and shelving. Make decisions on what doesnt neeeeeeed to be done immediately. E.g. the garden, the drive. Will a quick tidy up be okay for a year until you've managed to save a bit extra?

Often gumtree will advertise kitchens that you can have free if you pick them up. You might not want the kitchen but the fridge/freezer/dushwasher/oven may be useful for a freebie.

[Woodlandwalks]

Thank you for all your replies. It is as I thought then... Potentially achievable but still very optimistic and ambitious.
A lot of it could wait like plastering every room certainly. It's just I don't want to live with my baby in a construction site.
The log burner could also wait but my husband works in forestry and we get unlimited free wood; it's our main source of heating now in our current house because we have a very efficient wood burner so it is something that would be well worth doing for us.

[Charleyhorses]

Electrics might be expensive. Plastering seems to average about 400 per room in my experience, but might be less overall for a whole house. Kitchen/bathroom should be fine and easy to do if you keep the plumbing in roughly the same place. I would plan/source kitchen before you start the other work so you are not changing where cooker points and stuff are.
Put in more power points than you ever think you will need.
Good luck, sounds doable but control the money

[Mirrorxx]

A few years ago we renovated a 2 bedroom house for under 20k. I think we paid 2k for rewiring, about 2.5 for plastering, flooring was probably 2.5k.
We did most of the decorating and stripping out ourselves. The kitchen cabinets were installed by my husband and his dad but we had people in to do the appliances, plumbing and worktops.

[BarbaraofSeville]

If you have 3 bedrooms and only one baby, you could leave plastering 2 of the bedrooms for now, but you might find that doing a whole house in one go doesn't cost significantly more than all of it except 2 bedrooms.

Depending on what it's currently like, you could also leave the bathroom until later, which will be a biggish cost to put off and fairly easily to have done as a one off project later, even if it does mean moving back into the inlaws for a couple of weeks.

I would get quotes for the kitchen, bathroom, electrics, flooring and plastering and go from there.

For things like switches, light fittings, curtain pole etc, you could get very basic versions for now if money is tight, and upgrade to nicer ones as the budget allows as they're quick and easy DIY jobs.

[bestbrowsintown]

Possible if he's doing most of the work. How is he doing to do all of that if he's at work though?

[CrunchyCarrot]

That looks reasonable price-wise, but do remember that when renovating you may always find hidden 'extras' that need to be dealt with! Plus the unexpected can happen in old properties. We experienced a sudden roof leak caused by poor repairs done by previous owner around the chimney. Not picked up in survey. Rain soaked right down the chimney breast in our main bedroom. We've also had a slow leak from a pipe in the bathroom. Again, it damaged our dining room ceiling and we had to replace the whole thing (it was an old lath ceiling!). A new boiler was paramount, too.

Also, do the most important things first in case you have to live with the rest of the house as it is for awhile. Ours is basically a work in progress! We did electrics first as DP wanted lots of sockets for all his work stuff and tech. Then the water leak meant we ended up redoing the bedroom first out of necessity. I also insisted on a new sink and taps in the kitchen as I use it every day and the old one was rubbish!

The log burner sounds like it will be not too costly to put in as you have a working chimney, and they are good for putting out heat, so I'd get that done before winter.

Best of luck with your new home!