To be jealous of other people's beautiful houses.

[DIYDummy]

We bought a house in September (doer upper) and I think I underestimated the amount of work that we would need to do.

It is all cosmetic things, but nothing has been touched since circa 1980 so it is really bad!!

Anyway we are not going to be able to afford to do everything all in one go and are doing all the work ourselves bit by bit. I just need a rant really as the state of the place is getting me down. It being Christmas we have had quite a few visitors and I find myself apologising for the state of the place all the time.

Lots of friend have bought similar houses and seem to just get everything done really quickly, and to an amazing standard! The don't seem to have loads more money than us and I just can understand why we are making such slow progress.

I honestly thought we would be further along by now but everything seems to cost so much and take so much time. Is there some DIY secret that I don't know about??

[Counterclockwise]

I blame all the diy/makeover/flipping programmes on tv for giving people unrealistic expectations. They make it look so easy and quick not to mention cheap.
"Oh just nip down to your building suppliers/local farm/butchers/demolition site and ask for any off-cuts of granite, spare reclaimed barn wood doors, butchers blocks, vintage hardwood flooring, Victorian stained glass windows, subway tile - they'll be delighted to get rid of them and some will even pay you to take them away."
No. No they won't. They know interior designers, architects and contractors will pay stupid prices for that stuff so they're selling it to them, who will then sell it to clients at 300% markup, not giving it away to you.

[Mrskeats]

Thank you thatwouldbe
Last room plastered so hopefully be done soon
Couldn't do it again though

[myusernamewastaken]

Me and my husband bought a run down georgian house 12 years ago..we did most of the work and got it looking half decent and then 3 years ago he left me....for 3 years now stuff has been going wrong in the house and i have neither the money or knowledge to fix it....

[Baylisiana]

I am jealous of people who get to own a house, and be able to do it up, slowly or otherwise.

Comparisons are odious

[oldlaundbooth]

This is us too.

Our house was built in 1984 and we have only just got curtains for some of the rooms! The two new bathrooms will be a long time coming. Other things take priority. I. E. New roof.

[LellyMcKelly]

Your house is beautiful. Unless you have a brand new home built to your specifications with everything you want, all houses are fixer uppers. And in the end, if you spend the next few years perfecting a room or two a year, you'll be back where you started a few years down the line. Eight years ago we moved into a house that needed so much upgrading it hadn't even been plumbed for a washing machine. For 5 years we didn't get much further as we had to save to get rooms knocked together to make a decent sized kitchen. All the carpets looked like they came from a Bingo hall - and some of them still do. And yet friends with beautiful homes come round and rave about original features and the size of the garden (this is 3 bedroom semi - not the Taj Mahal). A perfect home is a sign of people with too much time on their hands. Envy is perfectly normal, but appreciate what you do have.

[BillyShingles]

This is a nice thread, it's encouraging me to get my arse in gear a bit.

Another thing that helped us was living for a while as if we had fewer rooms than we actually did, so there was always one room "spare" without us having to shift furniture about and end up with piles of stuff polluting the other rooms. If you have 2 kids' bedrooms to do, have them share one while you do the other, then move them both into the finished one while you do the second, then either give them a room each or use the second to store eg dining furniture while you do the dining room. Or if you have a living room and dining room to do, don't move in fully to both rooms, don't stuff the whole downstairs with bookshelves etc which will need to be rearranged every time you want to paint a wall. Try to limit Stuff to what will fit in just one room, more or less, and just move it once. Even clearing out all the Stuff to get started can be quite hard going if it's everywhere.

[C8H10N4O2]

You need to make a plan and it has to be realistic. We went through a series of probate/modernisation sales as the only way we could afford to get onto and move up the ladder.

1. List everything in need of doing, big and small.
   
2. Prioritise building type work - remodelling, plumbing, heating, windows, roof etc, anything which is fabric
   
3. Next priority is kitchen
   
4. Interior decor last
   
   Ruthlessly work out what you can really DIY, then assume downward. Ditto the cost of everything then assume upward.
   
   It sounds tedious, you may want to slosh a coat of cream/white emulsion over everything in the mean time but if you don't do the building fabric first you will end up redoing chunks of work.
   If you have an overall plan you can minimise repeat work or at least make a conscious decision to do a room knowing it will need to be reworked.
   
   Be realistic in terms of financial budget but also your time. We knowingly overstretched when we had very small children to get a better house and garden than we otherwise had hope of. The price for that was a year with a kitchen with little more than a standpipe and butler sink but windows and heating were more immediately important. Estimate your time for each piece of work and then double it. You get better /more realistic with practice.
   
   Rejoice in the knowledge that by the time its all finished it will need to be redone but you will have raised a family in the meantime!
   
   

[HorseDentist]

Currently sitting in my lounge they has no plaster on the walls, gaping hole where a fireplace will eventually go in a few months time. Later i shall brush my teeth in a sink that has been glued together and turn on the tap with my monkey wrench. I shall then retire to my bedroom that also has not much plaster on the wall and shut the curtains over my stained glass windows that are missing panels of glass.
I feel your pain of living in a fixer upper. Sadly I am having to do things as and when I find the money based on need. There is no end in sight, however I adore my beautiful period house. It was a bargain and I wouldn't change it for the world.

[SleepFreeZone]

We have a fixer upper and have made very small progress in three years 😁 What's held us up mainly is me. I've had three miscarriages and now a baby. I was either too upset/depressed to cope with building work or too sleep deprived and busy to cope with works man appearing at 8 every morning and leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

In the time it has taken us to decorate four rooms and the landing a house up the road was bought and gutted and is now pretty much finished and is stunning. Yes I am very jealous but her husband is in the trade and he has gone a lot of it himself and just cracked on.

We are having the bathroom and ensuite done in Jan and then we've got to concentrate on downstairs where there will be building work in all the rooms and I've no idea how that happens with two under 5.

[MyPeriodFeatures]

Kon Mari, good space planning and some basic stuff with colour and styling. Plants books and loads of love.

It is amazing what you can do with very little and a good eye.

All these houses that look the same and follow trends are caused by a lack of skill, personal aesthetic and imagination. Be glad you've not fallen into that hole.

[SilenceOfThePrams]

14 years here and it's 3/4s done.

Assuming it is just cosmetic, and not wall-blitzing rewiring type stuff, throw all available time and energy into just one room. Any room. Here, we did the children's bedrooms first.

Just having one room made lovely makes such a difference.

Actually I've just remembered I'm lying. The very first thing we did was to sling cream paint all over the hall. Couldn't afford to replace the poo brown carpets, couldn't afford to smooth off the walls or so any of the bigger jobs. But the dark dark walls plus dark stained wood and dark carpets were awful. So I took £20 worth of cream paint and covered up the worst of the depressing colour.

Then I made sure no boxes ever stayed in the hall, I put a teeny tiny table in the corner (very small hall), and I kept a case of fresh flowers on the table.

So every time I opened the door, the first thing I saw was bright clean cream paint, polished table, and lovely flowers (even if only daffs). We had no coat hooks for another ten years, and it took 13 years to get the sitting room done, but just having that lovely entry way was soul soothing (and of course was the bit of the house the general public saw when delivering parcels, picking up stuff, collecting children etc.).

[DameSquashalot]

We live in rented accommodation with a really horrible bathroom and kitchen that's falling to bits. I feel your pain, but would love to own somewhere, even if it was shoddy and needed years and years if work doing...

I hope you get there soon.

[SillySongsWithLarry]

Another one here who maxed out and bought a fixer and now can't afford to do it up. We will plod along and get there a bit at a time.

[Gertiegoolash]

I feel your pain OP, this time last year we had not long moved into our fixer upper that I naively thought we could make look better by just making do with redecorating after stripping the walls and finding a huge crack and black mould, shoddy electrics ect ect I spent most of last Christmas looking at the shithole we had just bought and crying, but now it's (mostly) finished after a very stressful and expensive year, and it finally feels like home. It's not perfect by any stretch but it's mine. You'll get there

[Crowdblundering]

I've been in this house 11 years - still haven't done everything and the rooms we did when we first moved in now need redoing - most houses on TV look like a blinking Ikea advert.

Don't stress out about it

[Artandco]

I think you need to work alongside kids to speed things up if you want it.

There's a fair amount you can do with kids around or in the evening that isn't super super noisy. Stuff like sanding, filling, tiling, varnish, painting are all quiet enough.

How old are kids?

At weekends also you can get stuff done whilst kids occupy themselves a while. Small babies in Travel cot or playpen or highchair 30mins at a time, toddlers and olde can 'help', or get cheap stuff for garden and let them play outside whilst you sand or paint stuff or build stuff outside

[thatwouldbeanecumenicalmatter]

Mrskeats your dining room is gorgeous, well done!

DIYDummy it's been 10 years since we've bought our 'doer upper' and still have the kitchen and outside to do (as well as annoying things that had to be redone like a new boiler or replastering water damaged wall as well as general maintainance) Progress slowed right down when we had DC due to obvious extra time and financial constraints. I bought a couple of beehive brass escutcheons that are correct to the period of the house this year and the joy I get when I look at them screwed into place, on doors in rooms that are finally finished is immense. You'll get there in the end!

[Bassetfeet]

Owning your own home is wonderful no matter what the decor . Trends happen so fast that when you do get the time and cash you will be well ahead . It is hard I know when you are itching to get your perfect sanctuary .

We bought ours in 1988. Mortgage at its limit wage wise . Kept a thousand back to update 1960s decor . Put new MFI pine kitchen in ourselves and artexed the walls and ceilings . I know I know .
Pine staircase and yellow bathroom suite .

Time passes as it does and extra money was not feasible Today still have eek artexed walls and trusty old pine kitchen sanded down and revarnished . Looks like something out of Beamish history museum. But it is mine along with ancient rocking chair in corner nicely placed for fridge and landline .

What we have done is keep the roof, brickwork and guttering checked annually . The house itself is sound . New windows too. These are the important things OP .
It is the journey not the arrival that matters most isn't it ? Enjoy the planning and dreams . So pleased you have your own home . It will get done in your time not anyone else's

Hope when my house is sold after my shuffling off that a family sees beyond the pine horror and artex. Primrose bathroom suite is lovely you know . We did renew that but still mourn for it .
Enjoy your home and planning . Some retail therapy like throws and cushions ,plants ,lighting can make a difference for now . Good Luck

[Enidblyton1]

I think you might be me!
I have kitchen draw falling off syndrome too...

Agree with a pp that it's good to live in a house for a while before jumping in with the renovations. You might change your mind about something.

Every room (apart from 1!) in our house needs significant renovation. I'm going to do a bathroom first and then kitchen. Small steps...

[dangermouseisace]

It took 10 years to get our little home to a stage where it looked kind of nice but then already other things needed replaced.

Don't worry about your lack of progress. There is no massive rush, you have a roof over your heads. It's hard (ok nearly impossible) with small kids.

I found that it was best to take any estimate that tradesmen give you and assume that something will go wrong. It always does. The crucial thing I learnt from my old house is that it is best just getting work done 'properly' even if it takes longer and costs more.

E.g. patching roof up again and again before getting the whole lot relaid…should have just got it relaid in the first place.

worrying about damp, redecorating again and again and struggling with it. Should have just got the whole place replastered/rooms replastered before decorating. It sounds like you need to make friends with a plasterer. I love plasterers.

After trying to do much of it ourselves we decided that it was better to save up and pay out for proper people and stick to the stuff that we were good at- e.g. decorating. It takes professionals much less time and the finish is better.

As you said, you are fortunate to have a house. I don't have mine any longer, and am in rented accommodation instead- it is lovely to be able to do what you want with a place even if it takes longer! Don't fret, and don't compare yourself to other people!

[Chocness]

I should add that we didn't have our dc whilst doing up our pad. I reckon if he had been around you could put at least another ten years onto that timescale! hats off to you for giving it a go with young children.

[Chocness]

I think it's good to take your time. Then you don't make any rash/expensive decisions that you might regret later on. It took us 5 or so years to finish ours. None of it paid for on credit which I'm particularly proud of. For all you know your friends may be mortgaged up to the eyeballs now which believe me takes the edge of a super, shiny house.

[Winterfairy]

Agree with Ginandonit. Get that paintbrush out. Everything looks a lot better and fresher with a coat of paint and you don't have to apologise for the decor. If you go light it makes the place seem bigger too and gives you time to think about what you really want to do with the house because that can take a couple of years if you want to make a big investment in extensions/remodelling.

[DIYDummy]

And thanks mermaid it's not that lovely at the moment. Actually in between posts I just opened a drawer in the kitchen and it fell off (something like this basically happens every day). But hopefully it will be probably in about 20 years time, just about when we want to move again