How long did it take you to do your house up?

[Newcoat]

I’m in my first ever home and beginning to feel really frustrated because it’s never quite ‘done’. I can’t afford to get it all decorated and furnished in one go and I have a chronic illness which prevents me from decorating it myself, plus it’s so hard to find the time between work and kids!

How long did it take others to get their home to an acceptable standard? I won’t have anyone round because I’m so embarrassed, but it’s been almost 2 years now and it’s feeling like it will never be done.

I think it will vary hugely depending on how much money and time people have. We moved into our new build house five years ago, we don’t have much time due to young kids and have probably spent an average of £250 per month on decorating, furniture etc. I’d say we’re 70% done…

Three months, but we were lucky enough to have it empty and to be able to live elsewhere while we did it and take time off work to work on it, so it was easier. A hell of a lot of work though, which is why it took months, and I still find little things to do now, but I'm very glad we were able to do it the way we did. It's so much harder when you're trying to live there and work on it and just go through normal life all at the same time.

Will it ever be done?

I mean I’m not living in a building site but by the time we’ve decorated through the whole house it’s starting to look shabby and needs doing again.

13 years and counting 🥲

To be fair, that time includes tough pregnancies, bringing up small children, chronic illness, serious illness, cancer treatment….. but it feels neverending.

I say: have people round regardless. True friends want to see you, whether or not your house is up to scratch yet. I really care about the state of my house but have had to learn to balance that with “having a life” with my friends. I try to focus on how far we’ve come rather on all the stuff that still needs doing.

This. Never. Ending.

Always a job to do.

Oh this too! One DC’s room is about to be painted for the 3rd time since we’ve lived here. It never ends!

What’s an ‘acceptable’ standard though? If its clean and warm, who really cares what it looks like? Your friends certainly won’t so don’t be embarrassed.

back before Instagram made everyone feel crap about their homes, I moved into a house then lived for 7 years with the kitchen having doors hanging off before I could afford to change it.

I lived with bright blue painted wood chip in the hall, a brown wood chip kitchen walls with cabinets from the 80’s for 5 years in this house. I’ve been here nearly 7 years and have only just finished painting every room, although the spare room does need repainting now as it was the first one we did.

Don’t let it put you off inviting friends round, they really won’t care. They go to see you, not your house.

Er. Well its been 13 yrs so far and no room really looks "done". I'm not even sure that's the goal anymore.

Yes this is certainly a big part of the problem. I’ve had to change the flooring in the kitchen, both bedrooms, living room and landing/stairs because the first lot I had put down ended up not being quite right. Same with decorating, the rooms I’d actually managed to get done will need doing soon! And I’ve had to swap out furniture countless times before finding out what actually fits/works for us.

I was hoping to be all done with that after a bit of trial and error though!

Don’t worry. I’m 8 years in. Gave it a magnolia wash when I moved in. Done quite a bit but loads more to do time & money permitting.

The area of my house that needs most attention is the hallway so everyone sees that but other rooms are lovely. It’s a work in slow progress.

Don’t be so hard on yourself, enjoy your first home and think about long term plans.

I'm 4.5 years in and it's in a worse state now 😝
Getting an extension built, need woodworm treatment to entire ground floor
Needs new bathroom

22 years and we're not quite finished, but we've done some big jobs (kitchen extension and attic conversion) several years apart without much planning what order we'd do everything in advance. By the time I've finished redecorating some of the bits which got trashed, the new bits will be old enough to need touching up!

This. We bought a Victorian wreck in late 2020 and despite doing a lot of work on it, it currently looks far worse than when we moved in, because we needed to rewire, replumb, gut, and knocked down part, which is only partly rebuilt, so there’s a freezer in the living room, we’re all reliant on a tiny, leaky en suite loo, and the kitchen is a tiny, bare concrete shell with early eighties units, which is going to have to wait till the next phase. But we still have people around a lot. I genuinely don’t get the ‘visitor-ready’ hysteria on here. They don’t care.

We are 2 years in and still not done. I don't think we ever will be as by the time it's done we will have to start decorating the first rooms we did!

Been here over eight years; the only room we've decorated is the lounge, and that needs doing again. Everywhere else is still as we bought it. I've stopped noticing, there are far better things to be getting on with in life.

7 years. Theres only so much you can do in winter months and things need doing in the right order. We took a break in winter.

Ha, same as some other posters ... 13 years this year and there are still parts not done. We have been through a lot in that time and I am grateful to still have a roof over our heads. It isn't perfect but it is a happy home. We just tell people to ignore the buckets strategically positioned to catch the leaks when it rains and the chipped paint work etc... I could be really embarrassed but I just give myself a talking to and get on with inviting people round. If I had time, money and a functioning body it would be fixed. I have none of the above.

We’ve been here for 5 years and still have the 20 year old kitchen that I said we’d absolutely need to change as soon as we moved in. There just isn’t the time, energy or spare cash alongside raising 3 young children, working etc.

We've been in our house 8 years - I think it finally felt 'done' about 2 years ago when we decorated the front receptionroom and stopped it just being a junk room, and is now the nicest room in the house. Getting the hallways done and painting over a LOT of dark brown wood a year or two before that was also a big step in really making it feel like ours, and made it so much brighter.

14YO's room we only did about 18 months ago and the only unredecorated room now is our DS (11)'s one.

I’m getting the impression that you have very high standards, rejecting the first lot of furniture and flooring and thinking that the rooms done at the beginning will need doing again. That seems more than most people would do.

It’s overwhelming. The decision fatigue is real.

I would just focus on one room. Just try to make good gains on that for a month. Then move onto the next one.

It is a process that builds over time so to focus a room really helps. You get an understanding of what you need and want for that room. And even if you can’t afford it at that time you will have this in the back of your mind as you do other room and might see something cheaper, a sale, something secondhand or perfect alternative for the first room.

FWIW we are coming up to 2 years in autumn. And a third of my house is still in construction and a third is about to go into construction. We are about 6 months since moving into the upstairs and have been focusing on bathroom, kids room and master. About 80% on kids room, 50% on master and 80% on bathroom. Going to finish these before I start cycling through spare, and hall.

My first house was a project. Mostly DIY with DP and it took us 10yrs.
We were just happy we weren’t renting.

We've been in our house 15 years, it was all 'done' at the same time for a couple of years but then things needed redoing as the kids grew, things faded, kitchen need replacing. Now the bathroom needs to be redone. It's an ongoing process!

You sound restless and as though you’re making bad decisions because too rushed, if you’ve replaced flooring in lots of rooms in quick succession, and ‘swap out’ furniture such a lot? I’m assuming you mean moving furniture around between different rooms, rather than buying stuff, deciding it doesn’t fit and replacing it…

You've decorated rooms once and you think they will need doing again, in less than 2 years? And how come you've already had to change the flooring in so many rooms because the first lot you had done was wrong - in what way was it not quite right?

No wonder you feel like it's taking you so long if you keep re-doing everything.