To think where the hell do they get the money (and time)

[BetteDavisWeLuvU]

Just sat browsing through Instagram. I follow a lot of house reno accounts because up until having DC we were renovating ours, so as well people I follow I also get targeted by other home accs.

Obviously in lockdown I’ve had more time to browse, and am just astounded with the sheer amount of these accounts and how amazing most of them are and I’m just constantly thinking how the f do they afford it, and have time.

I’m pt (only 20hrs) but have a senior role and DH runs his own professional services businesses and is in the high earner tax bracket, we also have a relatively small mortgage living in the north. These seem like normal folks with normal jobs, like us, but there is no way we could afford the scales of these renovations and in the timescales, whole 4/5 bed houses with extensions in 2/3 years.

And before anyone starts it’s not jealousy per se, but more where the f are we going wrong?!? And the time, some of these people have multiple kids, I just don’t understand how you could hold down a job which would pay you the sort of salary you would need to pay for these renos and the quality of fittings (DH works 14 hr days, I worked 11 hr days before DC) along with planning and project managing it all and looking after young children. What are we missing?!?

Nb. Yes know it could be family money etc. in some cases but this unusual, the sheer volume of these accs means it can’t be that. And also yes I know I should spend less time on Instagram!!

@2tired2function We’re not crazy high earners. Household income around £200k

Your household income puts you in the top 1%. You really are crazy high earners.

National Average Salary £29k

I think a lot of 'influencers' get free stuff from manufacturers. Apparently, it's not just Kylie Jenner or Mrs Hinch these days, even 'micro influencers' with 1000s of followers are often offered products.

BetteDavisWeLuvU is a great name btw!

They can afford it because their household income can cover it? Why do you care? I live in a very nice house because we can afford it. No inheritance, gifts etc some people earn more than others. It’s a fact of life

We bought a 1.25m house last year and have spent 250/300k on renovations. We are in our late twenties.

DH just earns a lot of money, he’s in finance. It’s our first house. I’m a SAHM who took sole charge of the house project. Didn’t do any insta photos but will make a before/after book for my own records!

Surely I'd your one salary of £100k+ your doing more hours than usual 9 to 5.

Household income about £200k ... We’re not crazy high earners
The average UK full-time salary is £30,420.

Some of these 'budget' diy/home makeoever account look fabulous on filtered, edited squares on instagram, but I bet a lot look preety crap im reall ife.
Yes! There’s a real Insta trend for “panelled” bedroom walls that are anything but: strips of MDF tacked and glued to the wall to form squares, then painted. It looks fine if you’re quickly scrolling by, crappy if you stop and look at the square, I imagine hilarious in real life.

You can DIY for pennies but it takes time, particularly with small children, particularly now – I’m making over one small thing in my house while working FT with no childcare. So far, in 2 months, I’ve removed the old varnish, sanded it back, wood filled any dodgy bits, sanded those back, done one coat of primer. It needs another then two top coats. Two months! One thing in a whole house! I suspect the secretly mega-bucks Insta influencers also have secret nannies a lot of the time.

@BetteDavisWeLuvU RVK loves met her DH while on a school trip. She blogged about it once but has since removed it due to (I think) comments made on Tattle. He is ten years older than her. I think she said she was 15 when she met him. Apparently he was investing in property from quite an early age.

@BetteDavisWeLuvU

I'm late 20's.. brought the house 6 years ago. Have remortgaged since. Currently (based on predicted house value last year by surveyor), have £71K equity in the house.
It can happen. I've been lucky to live in an area that has been drastically improved in the last couple of years which I know has helped with house value.

@burritofan totally get this! With a 1year old and working from home its took me 2 months to paint 2 bathrooms and cupboards..

@Starling57. She was 15. He was 25 and either an instructor or a teacher on the school trip. It doesn’t take too much thought to work out the comments in Tattle.

@TryingToBeBold it's impossible isn't it?! Can't do it in nap time because it'll wake them up. Can't do it while they're awake because they'll do something idiotic. (When we had builders in pre-lockdown, 1-year-old DD fell in love with their tape measures and kept running off with them. She also fell in love with the circular saw and we'd catch her staring at it lovingly from the playpen.)

And this is just the boring stuff like painting and caulking and maintenance, let alone fancy projects – build a summerhouse! Fit a kitchen! Parquet a floor! Taxidermy the cat!

Last night I caulked one 6-foot stretch of skirting and had to go to bed at 9pm to recover.

@burritofan

The caulking! Yes! I've redone one bathroom and its took me..
A week? And I've still got a 2ft section to go!

Only 2 bedrooms to paint. Woodwork to paint. and ceilings to paint..

Eventually.
By the time I finish I'll be starting again!

And we have a playpen too! But guilt then sets in when they stare you down painting and you cant hide..

But renovations can be done cheap (ish).
I've just redone a bathroom. £15 paint. £86 for the flooring (should have been £60 but I paid more to have quicker delivery). £20 wallpaper. £37 for shelves. About £25 for accessories and it looks like a different bathroom

And things like the crappy red coloured gas boxes? Weather shield paint for £20. Changes it.completely

*In my village a fairly young couple with 5 children - her a SAHM, him a mechanic - have just built a 6 bed house that's been valued at £450k.

They must be secret drug dealers or something, or mechanics are on much more than I thought!*

Or they've had an inheritance, a lottery win, a big payout for personal injury or a lot of help from family.

If they built it themselves, it won't have cost anything like the £450k it's valued at. My BIL has, over 2 years, extended a small 2-bed dormer bungalow into a 5-bed, 5-bathroom house with a one-bed annexe. It's virtually a newbuild (there's only one wall left that was in the original house), and cost £400k to do. That included buying in some labour and paying plumbers to put the heating in, and landscaping the sloping garden.

The house has just been valued at £1.2m. Admittedly, he's a builder and got everything trade, and managed to source some fantastic bargains, but the valuation is still double the total cost of the original purchase and all the work.

The biggest single expense was some high-tech septic tank arrangement, which amused me for some reason. It cost £12k, which is more than he spent on the (absolutely fantastic) kitchen.

Round here, a lot of the wealth is inherited/family. Lots of our friends have good jobs But we’re also gifted huge deposits, made money in London properties (that were largely gifted), and continue to have nice holidays etc, often partially funded by parents. Many of those who live in £6-800k hones talk openly about upgrading once their parents downsize.

Inheritance, family helping out, hoise actually owned by several people.. they only put half the story and then only what makes them look good..dont believe it all

Living frugally (I know people who think they live frugally and I could never contemplate the money they spend). Eg only have freeview and netflix, second hand cars (one to a house), aldi or lidl shopping, dont buy new clothes unless really need them, dont eat out or get takeaways.

Inheritance. Maybe lost a parent in their late teens early 20s. Or inheritance from grandparents.

@julieandertoninthewarehouse I know the ones you mean, I’ve filtered those out of my thinking on this.....the ones paper thin kitchen units but in a nice colour, furniture from JYSK etc (not that’s anything wrong with that) no the ones I’m one about you tell they’re high quality fixtures and fittings.

Inheritance
Working up the property ladder *
Loans
Credit cards

*friends of ours, as you describe, made £150K on a 3 bed terrace about 12 years ago, just by living in it. The areas was up and coming, and it arrived in a big way during that time. The house was originally bought with an inheritance, and the area chosen because it was cheap, to minimise the mortgage. They have been exceptionally fortunate!

also, the family I described above, almost always holiday in the U.K. they only been abroad once in about 15 years, and that was to stay with friends.

Ooo I really want to know who the heiress is!

I also get really down about seeing what other people have achieved. I went down an interior Instagram influencer hole recently and found someone doing up an amazing house not far from me that probably cost a couple of million and then the work they're doing to it hundreds of thousands more. Couldn't understand how they're affording it and a Google showed me her husband is a banker.

I guess we'll just keep plodding along with our little two bed that we've renovated ourselves apart from the bits that could ruin the house (electrics and plumbing!)

Btw I also want to say that, despite how fortunate we are and despite our house cost and money to renovate - a friend of mine sent me the insta account of a professional “grammer” whose house looks like a bloody castle and it’s absolutely exquisite and I STILL felt a bit shit and a pang of envy 😆🙈 it’s what these things are designed to do. Don’t follow any of these people! Her children are always beautifully turned out in photos as well - not a poo on the floor in sight💩, so you know it’s not real!

Very long term mortgages
My assistant at work is 20 years younger than me. About 3 years ago, mid 20s she bought a £330k house with her partner. This is a pricey house for these parts!! Then they spilt up. She has bought him out, but has taken on a 40 year mortgage to do so!! She may have a big posh house, but - touch wood - we’ll have paid off our 25 year mortgage on our mediocre house in 3 years time.