To think I can do all this for £10,000?

[Iremembertheelderlykoreanlady]

My house desperately needs a revamp, to the extent that it's causing my depression to rear it's ugly head just living in it.

(I realise I sound horrible and entitled...at least I have a house etc)

I was hoping to get additional borrowing on our mortgage and do a renovation for about £45,000 knocking through some walls etc but OH says we can't afford the payments.

So I've been looking at what the minimum we would need doing to make the house feel nice and this is my list.

Laminate floor in living room and kitchen/dining room

're paint downstairs

Get kitchen cupboards sprayed and over professionally cleaned

New sofas

Coffee table/tv stand

New interior doors

Carpet upstairs

Paint 3 bedrooms

New floor in bathroom

're tile ensuite
New floor ensuite (more like a cupboard, very tiny)

New bed x2

New garden fence on one side

I've spent the day on Pinterest and looking for ideas of costs and I reckon we could do it for £10,000 if we are careful.

Both of us are shit at DIY so would have to pay for everything except the painting which we can do ourselves.

Are we kidding ourselves that it can be done for 10 grand?

@Iremembertheelderlykoreanlady

See list of coatings upthread.

I have factored labour into the costings for floors/Kitchen spraying.

The one I had missed was doors, but as I've said I think family will be able to help with that particular job. Hinges etc do need factoring in. I have found doors i like for £35 each. We need 10. Just plain bog standard doors. What can i say, I have cheap taste 🤷‍♀️

I have no desire to turn my house into something out of the next/john lewis/ laura ashley catalogue. I just want it to be comfortable and make me happy.

I'm happy to do all the wallpaper stripping and painting myself. It'll be a project I think it will be good for me. When we are allowed I'll get my mum round to help, she loves a bit of decorating 😅

I'm not the sort of person who would pay someone £1400 to paint my bedroom, but I'm also not the sort of person who could watch a couple of you tube videos and then do a good job of tiling or spraying cupboards. It would look like shit and the stress wouldn't be worth what I'd have to pay someone else to do it for me.

A lot of the suggestions on here have been good ones so thank you

Why don’t you just paint the kitchen doors yourself? It doesn’t need anything fancy. Give them a good sanding, apply bin zinsser primer and use rollers and brushes to apply the paint. That would save you £920.

We painted our kitchen cupboard doors with b&q multi purpose paint. It's been excellent. If you can paint you can do this. With new handles it looks like a new kitchen.

You could save some by cleaning your oven yourself and painting your kitchen cupboards.

BIL and SIL recently painted their kitchen tiles with special tile paint and painted their cupboard doors and that looks good and didn’t cost much.

Be wary of buying everything really cheap though- it may not last and might be a false economy.

I’d paint every room for now and paint your kitchen cupboards, and look at sofas on sale at Furniture Village/DFS etc, then see how you feel after that is done.

It might be overwhelming getting it all done at once, and getting people in will only drive up cost.

Just to clarify we have cleaned the oven! 😅 but it needs doing by a professional. I'm not going to post a photo so you'll just have to trust me on this one

As to the taking on additional debt issue. If we were to split (and I'm not particularly impressed by the pp who decided it would help make her point to advance search me and post details that are not relevant to my original question) then we would sell the house. The additional money borrowed on the mortgage would be paid off and it would leave plenty in equity.

If the last year and a bit has taught me anything it's to make sure you are happy NOW, and not worry about what the next 10 years may bring.

Yes I could probably do it all very cheaply by doing a lot of the work myself but to be quite frank, I can't be fucking arsed!

I would rather budget for Labour, and do the painting myself which will not overwhelm me. Life's to short.

I applaud the people who have done big projects themselves and are/have partners who are good at DIY.

Re flooring and doors are your big spends. Flooring will likely cost a couple of grand. Doors maybe £500-£1k depending on how many doors (it costs a lot to get carpenters to fit doors).

Tiling maybe £1k depending what tiles and how much. Inc labour.

Kitchen spray paint, no idea. But personally I'd try painting them myself to save money given neither options are really long term.

The other stuff is cheap. Paint maybe £100.

If you run out of money you can always get secondhand TV unit and bed frames. Loads of nice stuff of eBay/Facebook market place.

It's doable but you may need to be flexible about what furniture you get. Sofas for example can really be very expensive so maybe you can wait for those and get some nice throws in the meantime.

Just doing the flooring, tiling and painting the kitchen will make a massive difference and can be done for under £10k.

I painted my own kitchen units. Cost me £25

Google your local Carpetright OUTLET shop, you'll get what you need for your bathroom at a great price, they even do made to measure carpet from last season. Great prices,
For the professional work, I got a great deal on my plastering, door hanging and fence by going to the local college and asking if any students needed some hands on experience. Was dirt cheap, and overseen by lecturer, they did a really, really good job. Most people don't think to try a local college but it benefits both so well!

@lifeinlimbo2020

You can also get this kind of thing instead of expensive tiling. I know a few people that have done this and it looks great.

I have this in part of my bathroom and i love it!

Cleaning is a breeze and it was so much cheaper and easier than tiling. I would recommend it to everyone

I don't have much experience to add about the costs of things, but I do think taking money out of your mortgage is unwise for cosmetic work like this.

A big job? Yes good plan, but not cosmetic work. Especially as you mention maybe moving.

Paint. Paint and second hand furniture. Try not to take an advance on your mortgage. Especially as you may move.

There's a recent post in the Facebook group called House Talk by Housfolk and a lady has completely transformed her kitchen for £60. She has never done anything like it and brand new to DIY.

I think there's a group that talks about transformations on a budget.

Have a look? Maybe get some inspiration.

Try not to take an advance on your mortgage. Especially as you may move.

It's either additional borrowing on the mortgage, or another loan.

If the house hadn't built up a lot of equity I wouldn't be doing it on the mortgage, but is has. It's just a case of using that money now (and paying interest) or leaving the equity in the house until we sell (that's not likely anytime soon - I was just responding to PPs claim that I'm in a terrible relationship) or until we reach our 50s and can withdraw equity. I'm not waiting 20 years to do the house up.

We have around £120,000 equity and I would only be using a small amount of that. I don't see it as an issue to be honest.

This thread really was about whether I could get what I listed for £10,000. And it looks like it will be more than that so will be having a rethink about what we can/want to do ourselves and how much the rest of the work will actually cost us and will get some quotes.

Maybe I'll come back with photos of the finished article 😅

I'll have a look at that Facebook group, thanks for the tip

Yes, I think this is possible. I would be looking on eBay and market place for bargain items. Don’t be afraid to ask for discount/make offers. If you see something you like carry out an internet search on the product to find the best prices. Ask companies when they will next be having a sale, do you know any tradespeople who can get you a trade discount. Get lots of quotes for any work that needs doing, the difference can be thousands. It could be worth looking into the price of replacing kitchen cupboard doors versus spraying them.

I love a project, good luck!

Yes definitely. No problem.

I had some of the stuff you're looking to do done last year.

8 new doors fitted last year, was £380 including nice handles, local place found on FB
New carpets for stairs, upstairs landing and 3 bedrooms was £1600 fitted, 2 year interest free with SCS

It's the work that costs more with some of the stuff you want done. Tiles you can get cheap enough, but you want a decent tiler not a cowboy builder

Look on spock for left over flooring

I'm very excited for you and your home improvements, @Iremembertheelderlykoreanlady... I think you can get a lot done for 10 grand if you're careful and savvy.

Quick point re - doors (apologies if this has already been said - I haven't RTFT)... My DP is a very good carpenter and he is often faced with having to explain to people the complexities and costs of hanging a door. Lots of people think it's a super quick and super cheap job and it's really not. So you might find you have to expand your budget a bit for that. Good luck with it all (I hope you do post pics ☺️).

Why don't you sell it as it is now and save money for the refurbishment on your new property? Most people redecorate when they move in anyway so it will be a waste of money. The stamp duty has been extended so I'd sell if I were you.

Yes you can definitely do that.

Why don't you sell it as it is now and save money for the refurbishment on your new property?

Because don't want to/don't need to move

Why not start with a total declutter
Like Marie kondo deep
Then a deep clean
This will majorly boost you

Then a repaint . Even do yourself ?

Then with a cleaner canvas you’ll be clearer in priority

As a general rule downstairs begets the most wear and tear

Also local Facebook
People are always selling food quality sofa and beds
That could save and allow money for the flooring etc

I think it's doable. There's is a handyman near me who who could do the majority of the jobs on your list. Easter is a good time to buy as they have sales on, from memory I bought a load of paint, it was buy one get one half price or something like that.

Absolutely you can. Buy the carpets online and find a local fitter. Do the painting and kitchen cupboards yourself.

Look at second hand decent sofas, much likely to last longer in good condition. Beds don’t cost much.

Tiling might be more expensive than you expect, but ask around.

Fence panels also doable

The thing that I think would cost you the most and you might need to compromise on will be the doors.

But if that’s the case, look on Pinterest for ideas of how to revamp

Good luck

I'd agree don't underestimate the value of doors that fit already. If they are solid wood they can be stripped or sanded, holes filled, new handles etc.

[quote Newnamefor2021]@HalzTangz ... maybe, but not in my experience. It's a pretty big list. My one a straight piece of fence cost over £1000 play paint cost around & £100 for it, sofas are easily going to cost over £1000 for basic sofas, beds (with mattresses?) could easily come in pretty high.

A kitchen (units) professionally sprayed is likely to be pretty expensive.

I didn't say it was impossible, but it's unlikely, I think it's better to prepare one or two rooms, do that and then move on to the next, rather than plan too much at once and have nothing completed.

It's my third house, last house was a complete renovation.

There are three or four floors in this list and all internal doors.

Yes you could paint everything in white or magnolia paint which wouldn't be a huge cost, but a floor being fitted for example isn't cheap unless you know someone.

You can do lots of jobs pretty cheaply if you know enough friends with skills. My husband is in a tread and things cost less as we do it ourselves or know someone sometimes, but even still, it's a big list.

Just my opinion, I'm only suggested trying less as I imagine your mental health could be worse if you have lots of josh unfinished rather than a few great rooms.

[/quote]
Fence panels can be bought for £20 each and changed themselves, beds,mattresses and sofa can all be bought for a lot cheaper than you say, I've just bought king size divan with drawers, headboard and 40cm deep mattress for 180, deals can be found. Paint for rooms pretty cheap, places like Wilko's nearly always have offers and they could do that themselves, they could even paint the cupboards themselves too to cut cuts. Laminate could be purchased from eBay and just pay a fitter, carpet shops often offer free fitter with carpets. I did a three bed house, all flooring, all the furniture and all the decorating for just shy of 9k