AIBU to say no to dh dream house?

[BakerBear]

We are first time buyers. We currently rent and have viewed a house today.

Its £300,00 and needs around £60,000 spending on it.

Its a lot of money even though we could afford it. Dh really wants it as its been his dream to renovate his own home rather than buy a home thats already been renovated to someone elses tastes.

I feel that as first time buyers buying a house needing £60,000 on it is out of our depth.

I dont want to live in a bomb site whilst things are getting done and also once you start renovating you can find all sorts of hidden problems.

Dh wants to do some of the work himself but i feel hes too busy with work and then it wont get done but he assures me he will find time.

We will have to get trades people to do some of the work.

There is nothing in the area that needs work doing that is such a big house.

The area if great with very good local schools etc

AIBU?

We did it. Three years ago we bought our house for a similar amount, and spent £55,000 on it. Had it revalued for our mortgage last year and it had doubled in value. As a result our mortgage went down a lot - due to loan to value ratio. Best decision we could have made.

However I would entertain the idea of 1) it livable and 2) you will have significantly more cash in a years time to just pay for trades to do it all in one go. Like you work in such jobs that have big annual bonuses. Or you have a high disposable income you can save for a year.

Would he consider a new build?you'd get the choice of different layouts, get to choose kitchen & bathrooms, flooring, paint colour & someone else does the work for you. Also a good first step from renting, as you have the 10 year building guarantee if anything goes wrong.

I have been there op. You are only first time buyers and quite honestly unless your OH is an electrician, joiner, plumber, painter and decorator and plasterer it will cost you an absolute fortune. Not just financial cost, but physical and emotional cost.

My DH is very handy (leccy by trade) but it is still very hard and I have lived for a number of years, due to family issues, in a scruffy, horrible house which I had grown to hate.

In April we started work on the hall, landing and stairs. Not a large job in itself. It is a large house and we had to scrape off years old wall paper which took us a long time even with steamers etc. We then had to replaster areas. The woodwork was in terrible condition and we had to replace. The floor was a mess and had to be resanded (horrible job). Ceilings needed some replaster work. Doors all needed restaining (loads of them) and door furniture replacing. Now it is all re-wallpapered, papered etc and we have only just finished at the end of September.

I only include this boring info because this gives you some idea of timescales and potential costs. You will also be working.

We painted the outside last year which was horrendous as we had to cover a rough render. Toward the end, I fell off a ladder. I walked away from it, but the next morning I had actual black bruising all down my body and I was in shock.

My dd2 has watched us do this work and unsurprisingly bought a new build because she wants a life. Even if you don't like newbuilds, surely there is something out there that does not need quite so much work, ie just redecorating.

It might be his dream but it is not yours, is it?

I think that it depends on whether he work is cosmetic, bathrooms carpets etc or most substantial, needs structural work, rewiring and so forth.

hi I did something similar to what you described. bought a good property at the rate of the time, it needed a lot of work doing. refurbishment, rewire, extension, roof changes, scaffold, structure, externals etc. all in all the work took 6 years piecemeal using tradesmen and doing some myself.

yes its a lot of money but in ten years time it will cost even more

ex lived with me throughout and it did put big strain on us. it wasn't her dream. project took most of spare disposable income and spare time. she realised we wanted different things from life so left and took kids the year it was finished.

my advice would be if you like the place / area and see yourself settling and raising a family there then go for it and support your partner but if you're not committed to making it work and have other dreams then you should follow them instead

We bought our first house as wreck, with a baby in tow. It's been great, house looks amazing, worth all the stress and we had the bulk of the work finished within 4 months. (House needed gutting, new heating system, new kitchen including removal of load bearing walls, rebuilt downstairs loo and refurbished, new family bathroom, new ensuite including putting up new walls the old owner had knocked out, opening up a door that had been bricked up, new flooring throughout, redecorating dark and dirty walls, front and rear garden landscaped, lawn laid and refenced and the driveway extended, new facia boards externally, a little bit of work on the roof...!)

Do it!

I'm slightly in awe @rosypony . Did you do any work yourselves or get skills in entirely? How did final budget compare with initial costing? New to the construction game or do you have previous experience?

Did you live on site Rosy?

We bought a fixer upper for our first home, but not for our second house for all the reasons that others have already said. I would only be prepared to buy a further doer upper if I didn't have to live in it while the work was being done.

Did you live on site Rosy?

We bought a fixer upper for our first home, but not for our second house for all the reasons that others have already said. I would only be prepared to buy a further doer upper if I didn't have to live in it while the work was being done.

I've heard a lot of stories on MN where this all went wrong. Bloke insisted he was going to do a place up. Ten years later, almost nothing done, wife and kids are stuck living in a hovel.

My own feeling is that doing up "fixer uppers" is best left to people who actually work in that field as specialists (builders, architects) and have all the appropriate knowledge, skills and contacts.

Also want to know, rosy!

We have been in our first flat (1 bed) 2 years, were moving in and intending to redecorate ourselves.

It transpired as I spent weeks peeling off
All the wood chip wallpaper that the plaster was all gone and needed to be redone. So the ripping up carpets/out bathroom and kitchen became renovating all of it, ourselves, as after the plastering we couldn't afford to get people in to do the stuff.

It's been really hard - I haven't really been able to have people back as clearing them a space to sit between the toolboxes isn't great, and we've been living in it all this time. It'll be worth it in the end, but really think about this and whether you have the money to have tradespeople do it, ideally when you're not living there. It may be easier to do it while you live in it as it's a big place, but it's pretty shit when you have to
Live in 1-2 rooms months on end as everywhere else is a bomb site!

I'd say it depends on the type of work - so if it's mainly cosmetic e.g./ new kitchen, bathroom which you'd probably want to do in a year or two to get it to your taste anyway, even taking a wall down to make a larger room, painting etc then yabu. However if it gets into re-wiring, sorting damp, big cracks indicating structural problems then yanbu.

Wow thanks for the great response!!

Its no where near as bad as some of you have done on your building work.

It needs ...

A new kitchen
Bathroom
On suite
A wall knocking down between the kitchen and diner
Full redecorating
Laminate flooring all through
New skirting boards everywhere
There is an extension on the back but its a bit crap and needs knocking down and re building
New front door
New windows as the double glazing as gone in most of them
I suspect there is damp at the front of the house as some bricks are black
The front garden wants tarmacing to fit two cars on.

We have two children aged 5 years and 5 months.

Dh is a plumber by trade but hasnt fitted a bathroom in over 8 years as he is no longer in that trade.

He can tile and do skirting boards, laminate flooring etc.

We are both crap at painting.

Here is a link to the house......

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50284029.html

The pictures are quite deceiving and its very tired looking.

No one has done a survey on it so anything could come up on it

The estate agent has not photographed nearly all what is has

The estate agent did say he felt the owner had unrealistic expectations of what he could get for it and that if he bought the property then he would be coming in there with a digger!

Could you afford to carry on renting while the worst of the work is done?

You're in a good position as first time buyers and you don't have to move in as soon as your purchase completes unless you want to or need to because of money

I think also some of it depends on your husband's personality. Do you believe him when he says he will do it??

Also, does he have any time? Does it mean that you will be looking after the kids every single weekend for two or three years?

Does it mean that your relationship will suffer due to resentments as well as living in a difficult environment?

I'd say you were miles out on a 60k budget for all that work if you're talking about knocking down a conservatory and building an extension. Honestly, if you're asking how much a survey is it sounds like you already trying to squeeze your finances.

What do you mean by black bricks? Do you mean a lower layer of intentionally black brick work?

The real hitters here you are missing for instance electrics, lighting, boiler, heating system. What spec finish you're after. The cost of a kitchen is one thing to consider, the fitting and electrics can be huge costs on top.

You are joking, right?

Unless there are some serious structural or building control issues with previous work, then there is no reason you can't move straight in, with a good thorough clean and the room to room decorating. It looks totally liveable.

If you have young children, lead paint and asbestos Are something you don’t want your kids to be exposed to. He will have to fix it up before you all move in.

Lead paint and asbestos..

Ohhhhh

That puts a totally different spin on it @bakerbear

That's in better decorative nick than ours was when we bought! Ours had wood panelling painted matte in the bathroom, including behind the shower and a 20 year suite. The survey said something like 'future occupiers are likely to want to replace the bathroom with a more modern suite'. We lived with it for a year and half. The wood got mouldy, and no-one was surprised. In the living room they'd clad over perfectly good clean plaster with OSB, painted a fire and stuck and fireplace onto it. Stuff like that :)

I would be persistent and nosy about the mould on the front. Drains? Blocked airbricks? Something potentially expensive there that would delay other more cosmetic concerns.

All of the things you're listing are would like tos, not this house is currently unliveable.

Your main issue would be becoming the cobblers children, in that your DH would have to be prepared to finish work and come home to work iysim.

The extension looks like trouble. I would survey, get quotes and bargain. But I've revised my opinion. You could live with that.

Unless I'm totally missing something then the kitchen, bathroom etc in that house look totally fine.