I have the money for repairs but cannot face dealing with trades. AIBU to just live in the house as it is

@TroysMammy if you have cracks/uneven surfaces it depends how bad they are but filler in any holes and then sandpapering over usually has made it look better before painting over

I have purposely not hoovered 🤣

No dust sheet been put down Mess and debris all over my hall carpet.

I should add I had an electrician to modernise the light sockets on Friday.

SHE turned up 20 minutes early, completed everything in an hour, tested it all and swept up after herself. Gave me a free light switch change as well as one was cracked.

This is me! I want my (high ceilinged) bedroom re wallpapered and get big ikea wardrobes built in. We can afford it but it's the agony of the process that stops us. I just live with old wallpaper and a pine wardrobe from 2001 because the necessary steps to get what I want are just too much.

I've got mine today too!

They have gone next door instead and are now in their van arguing with someone about my exact address. I've been waiting since last march for them to even turn up and I expect they'll now leave again as computer says no.

They do have my neighbours address and phone number as someone to allow access if I'm not in. I have gone out to them and said it's my house, but they can't do it unless the address correlates with the paperwork apparently.
Righto!

Can people recommend any you tubers they find good for teaching yourself or any courses you have done? I have come to the conclusion that it would be best to try and do as much ourselves as we can.

DIY/painting and decorating does take up precisely free time but most people don’t do this all the time. My DH and I both work FT, he studies and we have 2 young children (2 and 7). We have just moved and we are currently fixing the worst things eg electrical and plumbing. About to start on painting. I push all the furniture into the middle of the room and throw old curtains over it all. Will start with DS1 room so he can sleep in with us for a few nights. Usually can do 2 x coats on the ceiling and 1x coat on the wall over a weekend. Then an hour an evening to do the other coats on the walls and then the skirting. Then about three house staring at my completed work! It’s a bit of a faff but so worth it. Then we’ll leave a few weeks or months before we attempt any more.

My mother who has never held a paintbrush in her life used to tell me "all it needs is a pot of paint". Ok, do I paint over the cracks and uneven surfaces or paint around them?

Paint the walls and skirting, it will looks loads better. Those are really maintenance jobs. They don't stay perfect even if you have the best painter in the country painting them.

I'd probably forget the loft conversion though if you're fed up with Trades, I don't blame you btw!

I'd focus on sprucing up what you've got :)

Its the door to our flat Apparently the fire front door we already have is not good enough and has to be replaced AGAIN. Some ppl on our estate are on their third change.

When they did the door in to the flat underneath they managed to get dust and crap everywhere All over the stairs and banisters and didnt bother to clean up after.

New door works due tomorrow. Dreading it Contractors asked if DH can go somewhere else at 8.30am 🙄 (he has COPD and the dust and mess will exacerbate it) dreading it.

I’m really sorry that guy put you in that position. So frustrating! I’m not a building professional and don’t know the details of how to calculate the strength of a lintel with a hole in it. Personally, I would try to find someone who is and get them to judge its safety. As a first step, you could post a picture & description here in Property/DIY and see what people think. For me, if the hole took out 1/3 of the height of the lintel or if I considered the hole large in relation to the lintel height and it met the top or bottom edge of the lintel, I’d treat it as a matter of urgency, but either way, I personally would do some extra research to reassure myself that it’s not a problem.

I understand. It's doable for us, as we have no small children about - just one slightly naughty cat! 😆But even then it's stressful!

But yeah, you're right about the disruption, and all the prep, and where to put everything; it's stressing me out, and we're not even half way done yet! Been a tip in our house for about 3 weeks now!!!!!!! (And will be for at least another 2 weeks.)

Then everything has to be put back. Think we may chuck some stuff out actually/have a clear out. I have already done a cull on my books. I had about 200 paperbacks. I got rid of around 60 two weeks ago. (Just collecting dust really! I have read them all! I just like to see a house with lots of books!)

We don't have a massive house, and extra tat and crap just creates clutter/more work/cleaning. And 200 books collects lots of dust! We are going to go through the CDs, DVDs, and ornaments and the like too when we bring it all back in. See if we can get rid of more shite! 😬

The only thing I can think of if you are stressed about where to sleep etc, is maybe do one room at a time? One room every few months til it's done? Only a suggestion of course, and I understand if you feel that is too much too.

YANBU. I'm the same way. Would rather live in a shithole then try and deal with tradesmen. It's just so much stress and aggravation and you can't even be sure they will do a decent job anyways.
Luckily I have very low standards and will happily live with things that would drive others nuts!

Can't even trust personal recommendations half the time. A friend lost a small fortune after employing a builder who had years of experience and was a family friend.....at least until he scammed them!

Even employing reputable people can turn into a disaster. I'm convinced that the company who did my windows last year were normally very good. However they mismeasured one window, broke a pane of glass and one of the workers broke a section of my roof! By the time they had paid for the new windows and to fix the roof they actually made a loss on my job! (And my stress levels were through the roof!).

Yep, we have had similar a number of times. So much so that we try our best to fix everything ourselves/do everything ourselves now. I swear pre 2010s it never used to be like this. When we were moving into our first house (1990s) we went on holiday and left a spare key with the carpet and flooring people, and also a painting and decorating company. Came home a week later, and the place was immaculate. All shiny new paintwork and new wallpaper, and new carpets throughout.

Did the same with the next house too. And for other jobs we used tradies too. We have always been busy professionals who don't have the time - or the inclination to do shit round the house. So we outsource it. Why not? People outsource for loads!

These days though (mid 2010s onwards,) 'tradies' seem to be largely shit. Really pleased to see (on reading this thread) that it's not just me/us who find most of them impossible!

A few Tradesmen are OK, but some are just shite. DH and I have recently had a bit of a bad experience ... Wanted the house painting and decorating inside, (CBA to do it ourselves as it's so tedious, and as I said, people outsource for all sorts of things!) We rang FOUR companies. Two didn't get back to us, and one came to look and said he would send us a quote via email in 7-8 days! He didn't.

So anyway, the fourth one - a certain small-ish company in our town came around, and gave us an on the spot quote. Said they would be here Monday 3rd Feb, and it would take 4-5 days to do it all.. We spent almost a week in late January (probably 25-30 man hours) clearing everything out and putting stuff in the garage, and conservatory, and we feel like we have been living in a skip.

Everything is everywhere/upside down etc, and hardly any of our stuff is handy - it's nearly all boxed up. (Half our furniture is in the garage!) AND we booked the week off work. Well, the fuckers never turned up! I rang them multiple times on the Monday (3rd Feb,) and they didn't answer. Next day one of them rang me and said they had got dates mixed up, and would be there week commencing 17th Feb. 2 weeks later!

I told them to not bother. I said we have booked this week off now, and everything is boxed up/out of the way. We're not living like this for an extra 2 weeks! Also, we have plans/meetings for that week! So just no. No way are leaving them alone in our house while we're at work. Despite the fact we hate painting and decorating, we have been doing it ourselves now. Taking ages, but it's coming together.

Saves us a load of £££, even if it will take us several weeks. Obviously there are some things you can't do without a skilled tradesman, but painting and decorating you can. It's just tedious and time consuming (IMO.) And very disruptive, as all your shit needs to leave the house/be boxed up.

Could you not just give your place a lick of paint yourself @Eastie77Returns ??? (As a few others have said, and leave bigger things until you desperately need them?)

The consumer organisation Which has a scheme called Trusted Tradesmen, where they assess tradesmen who want to join the scheme.
I don't know anyone who has used it though.

I'm a lone elderly woman too.
I can't do work myself as my mobility isn't good enough.
I've been using the same tradespeople since I moved in just over 7 years ago. They all came via my friend's recommendation and they'd been working for her for years when I started using them.
They're all local and happy to recommend someone else if they're too busy to tackle something.
When I had a new kitchen they started just after I went on holiday. When I got back it was all done!

Thanks, I'm further south though so sadly probably no good.

Aww, you’re so kind. I must admit that I saw your username before reading your message and I immediately thought ‘’what an amazing coincidence, my post is actually about this poster’s username 😀😀’’

When the electrician was struggling to drill the hole in the wall to fit the extractor fan, I popped in the bathroom to see what was going on and saw that the hole was being drilled in concrete. I had no idea what a lintel was, but something didn’t feel right, so I started to Google why i had concrete above my window when the rest of my walls were made of bricks, Within minutes I was reading that you are absolutely not meant to interfere with the lintel in any way. I panicked, tried to stop him, I told him what I’d read online but he wouldn’t have it, because he was a professional and I was just some silly woman reading Google. 😞
I didn’t have the lintel checked after the work was complete, but I looked at the wall inside and outside the house and I can’t see any cracks. So I assume it’s ok?

I'd take a middle ground: just hang on until you find someone who is trustworthy, maybe an individual, friend or a friend, someone a neighbour's used, just... someone who isn't a random! It might take a while but it's your home. (I also just decided to live in quite a tatty home, not for any bad drama, but just because building work affects home life too much.)