To give up on "perfect" for my Victorian house?

[WickedWitchoftheNorthWest]

After living in fairly new houses all my life, my DH and I fell in love with and purchased a Victorian semi. It's in good shape structurally but the interior is kind of a shambles. Lime green paint, smelly stained carpet, ten layers of old paint over everything, tacky wallpaper etc are just some of the monstrosities I'm dealing with.

We're getting rid of the worst of it and trying to figure out how much of the rest we can live with. Lime green actually looks kind of okay toned down with the right accessories, for example.

The question is what kind of finish to go for with the parts of the house we do fix up and how much to leave of the rest. Do we really want to be putting all our spare money into this house for the next several years? It's a big house so removing all the old layers of paint from cornices and skirting boards would probably cost £10k alone. Then there is lining paper on the walls. Do we leave it and paint over cheaply or do we strip it off, reskim, and get a great finish? But that would be pointless unless the skirting boards and cornices are done right. It almost feels like an all or nothing proposition.

So AIBU to just make things look okayish by slapping more paint over everything and accept the house has battle scars and will never (and should never) look like a Barrett home? Or do I painstakingly and lovingly make everything perfect and go broke in the process?

Depends. Will it add value or not?

I wouldn't spend that kind of money, relining and re plastering would be a waste to me unless it needed it - I'd just paint it.

But stripping the skirting would be done gradually with a heat gun over a period of time - I would do one length a week rather than dedicate decades to it - I wouldn't pay 10k to have them dipped and stripped and reattached.

Why not work out how much spare cash you are willing to put into it; and then make a top ten list and work your way down the list sorting two or three things a year?

We don't know - we can't see it and don't live there.

Depends how long you want ti stay there. We have the ground floor if a victorian conversion and intended to stay here forever.

We have slowly but surely rewired, removed years of woodchip, replastered, sorted the coving, new deep skirting boards, sanded back the floorboards and picked suitable modern yet elegant paint colours for each room (no wallpaper going on those newly plastered walls!).

Weve done everything except the kitchen and bathroom as they really are the "big ticket" rooms.

As it is we wilk have to sell in a couple of years (two beds and am expecting a brother for dd so they wont be able to share forever)and we are now thinking of just "tarting up" the kitchen and bathroom so they are saleable and not going the whole hog.

if this bump was a girl, we would never leave and would do those two rooms properly.

Hmmm. Depends what the house is for really. For me, my home is a showpiece, and a chance to make something look beautiful, as well as my family home. So I'd have to go perfect. But slowly.

Interested as to why it would cost 10k to remove paint from cornicing etc? Surely you can sand that off yourself?

I'd go for cheaper solution as the reason you have this house compared to a new one is surely the charm and the fact it isn't perfect. To remove this history and make it perfect would surely just make it another i dental kit as seen on every TV make up house across the country. Boring! Make it yours but keeping its history and saving yourself money.

We have a real old ruin house and are slowly (think years here) stripping it back and renovating room by room. Initially we had said we would just tart it up with new paint, carpets and accessories, but one of the rooms needed structural work and so we went for broke and it looked amazing after. Far better than if we just plastered over the cracks so to speak. As do other rooms we have tackled now.

We aim to be here for some time, so are happy to see it as a long term project. We are also adding value so can't be bad. It really depends on your long term plans.

I think there's a middle way tbh.

Or house is 1930's and had previously been lived in by two sets of elderly wallpaper enthusiasts followed by a younger couple who were DIY SOS fans but sadly lacked the talent. Cosmetically they appeared to have done an ok job, but once we started unpicking stuff when we wanted to redecorate it turned into a bit of a nightmare! Hence nearly 12 years down the line, we are still living with bright yellow and white floral embossed wallpaper in our bedroom!

You can remove paint and wallpaper yourself. Nitromors isn't that scary and a steamer will get rid of layers of paper quickly (we had 5 or six in our dining room and with both of going at it had it stripped in under two hours). Only then you will be able to see what states the walls are in. Of not too bad, lining paper costs about £2.99 a roll and will be fine. A very lightly textured wallpaper will take care of moderate issues leaving only the more serious stuff for replastering. Get lots of quotes - I know people who paid hundreds - we had our 18 x 13 sitting room ceiling done brilliantly for £180!

I think you need to accept to a degree that it's going to be a labour of love. Maybe do a cosmetic cover up on the stuff that is really irritating you, then start 'properly' with the most important room and work your way through in order of how much you user the rooms/how much other people see them, whatever your criteria is.

Good luck .

Lining paper I would leave unless it is falling off. Stripping off some doors/skirtings wouldn't be that expensive- paint the rest white.

Disgusting carpets always have to go.

You sound like you kind of bought a project and wish you hadn't. I think you have to have an honest chat with your husband about how much money you have to spend on this and how much of your time and energy you want to spend on it too.

Why would it cost £10k just to remove paint?
We're renovating a house at the moment which sounds similar and removing paint is more labour than costs

I was estimating £10k for the paint because there's so much of it, the cornices are ornate and very detailed and currently painted with some quite bright shades, and there's also the staircase banister.

We started removing paint from some skirting boards with a heat gun and ended up with horrible fumes throughout the house and headaches that lasted several days. We got concerned about lead so called in a professional. We would need to get respirators capable of filtering out lead and wear them the whole time plus for several hours afterwards until fumes dissipate. It would be doable but not much fun! Or maybe we could do it with Peelaway?

Surely you realised the kind of work required when you bought it?

What you decide to do and how depends on whether you bought this property as a long-term/forever home or as an investment to turn around in a couple of years.

If it's structurally sound and doesn't need essentials attended to like wiring and plumbing, I'd focus on one area and progress room-to-room, possibly starting with the entrance hallway and staircases and doing it properly while making the rest of house adequate for day-to-day living. There's nothing wrong with a quick coat of paint to freshen up and a cheapish carpet to make things tolerable until you can devote the time and money required to raise it to the standard you want.

Some houses can take years if not decades to sort out. A awful lot depends on budget and how much patience you have. Some people love getting home from work and sanding woodwork for a couple of hours before bed, and others prefer to get trades in to do the boring, time-consuming stuff.

We bought similar 25 years ago. To begin with we had everything white, painted over old wallpaper, woodchip etc.
Gradually over the years we upgraded. First 'white with a hint of' paints, then re plastering, stronger colours, New bathroom, new windows, amazing new kitchen.
I love my home.

Thanks very much for the responses so far. We realised it needed work but underestimated the extent of it. And it does need rewiring but that's a given and non negotiable - so we will be getting an electrician in next month after payday.

I had planned to try to make it "perfect" but then read this article and looked at the photos. There are wires everywhere, poor finishes, and scars - see photo 6 bottom left for example. And it still looks beautiful. Is his approach the way to go, do you think? www.periodliving.co.uk/readers-homes/georgian-home-wales

That house in your link is gorgeous. It is a little like my style only on a much much smaller scale!

If you just want to do that, it is easily achievable.

Just think colour, instead of correcting. It almost always cancels out ugly things. I think if living in that type of space though, it has to be kept clean.

Other good thing is, you can put that together gradually and for pennies sometimes.

Can you post any pictures?

It depends whether you will sit on the sofa looking at the finish of the walls/skirting etc and feel bugged by it or whether you'll happily overlook it for the overall effect.

I had a similar situation, and just slapped cheap cream paint over everything, it looks much nicer and a bit of uneven finish doesn't bother me at all. I can think about doing it properly never when I have time and money.

My decor is a bit cluttered for many peoples taste, though, I have lots of books and antiquey / junk shop /ethnic bits, and my weakness is fabulous rugs and cushions. All that draws the eye away from imperfections, in a more minimalist house the slapdash decorating might not work.

Maybe do a cheap fix for most of the house and do one room 'properly' as a project, then take it from there?

Let's see if these photos upload correctly....

And a few more (as you can see there is no lack of colour in this house!)

Oh wow its amazing!

Id remove the skirting boards and put new ones on. Go for tall ones to keep the character.

That green ceiling with the stars is wow!!

That's actually nice - I like it. I've certainly seen much worse (I say this looking around my own house!).

Mine is definitely a "needs work" place. I've chosen priority areas and just "tidied up" a few areas to be done later. For example, I started small with the downstairs toilet. That's done now. And it's very important for me that the living room and entry/hall area are done next. Then the dcs' rooms (which won't be that much work - just painting, really), and then the kitchen. Last will come the dining room (we won't discuss the wallpaper that will need to be removed), my room, and the upstairs bathroom.

So currently I am in the middle of finishing the living room and entry/hall area. Painting and flooring done in hallway, but staircase needs bannister to be stained/varnished and then the stairs carpeted. Living room has been painted, fireplace whitewashed. Next is wallpaper to go up next week. Eventually I will replace the carpeting, hopefully this autumn.

I've set a time limit for living room, hallway/entryway and dcs bedrooms that I want it all done by mid November, so I can relax and enjoy Christmas. Then after New Years, I'll move on to the kitchen.

Choose the rooms that you absolutely want done first (the ones you're in the most? the ones that need the least amount of work so you feel you're making good progress?), and set yourself a reasonable time limit and make a list of what specifically you feel must be done NOW and what can be done LATER. Then just start working on it.

Lovely!

I'd do it bit by bit. Skirting boards are part of the character - don't replace! Our Georgian house had most of them (and the doors, sob) replaced by faux Victorian ones, and I battled hard to save the beautiful curved ones that remained on the stairs. I think you can over renovate - its a matter of choice because round here there are loads of Victorian houses and lots have been done up to within an inch of their lives (central location, small houses worth doing up like this due to their value). I think they are lovely places to be in actually, but there's nothing left to work on. As long as there isn't damp hiding behind gloss-painted walls (as in our house) Or walls that have had plasterboard stuck on the old wall (hiding damp again) then you can slap the paint on, and go room by room. Rewiring is the thing though - check its all tickety boo before decoration its its better to be routing out walls and sockets before your beautiful flat wall is made. I know most Victorian houses don't have as many sockets as we like nowadays. Also if you were rewiring now you'd have sockets in the actual wall a foot up - not within the skirting - so if you're doing skirting room by room its worth considering your wiring.

The other thing I wish I'd thought of is what side the doors open - against the wall or into the room. If you want to change this its best done when rewiring and before decorating as you can move the light switch. Victorians liked privacy and hung doors to hide room as you go in, nowadays having door against wall can make a room feel more welcoming, airy and light (have done this and it made a room feel 'happier')

The paint looks ok in those pictures, and the cornicing I would probably leave. Is the quality/finish bad close up? What is the problem with the skirting boards? Unless the finish is really bad, I'd prioritise replacing the carpets and then see how you feel about the walls after you've lived with them longer.

Whatever you do, don't rip out the skirting!
Your place looks similar to ours. We slapped paint on the childrens bedrooms but everything else is to be done perfectly. We had to move the kitchen and bathrooms and these were expensive as you can imagine, so everything else has waited til we could afford it.

We've just done our living room. It's beautiful and I'm so glad we waited so it could be done properly. It meant living with mis-matched anaglypta painted mustard for 6 years, though! I really recommend Peelaway, though you will need more than you think. I never imagined our cornices would be so beautiful.

The hallway and bedrooms have waited and we've still not done them properly. I really think it's worth plastering if you're going to decorate as you'll always look at the lining paper and think, 'if only we'd stretched...'

Concentrate on the essentials (electrics, plumbing) and then the public rooms. Bedrooms last. We've no original features left upstairs so will be putting them back in! Old houses are a labour of love, but do deserve being treated kindly.