Should I prioritise bathroom or garden?

[byathread20]

We’ve recently had our help to save account payout so have a total of £3500 to spend. We were planning to redo the bathroom after 2.5yrs of owning our house. The bathroom isn’t in a terrible state, it’s quite modern but the bath has a large chip in it, the toilet often runs so have to pay £60 twice a year for a plumber and the vanity unit has some water swelling.

Just before the savings account paid out, the decking in our garden (again already there when we bought house) began to sink at one side. I had a carpenter come to have a look who said timber frame is rotten so whole thing will need to be taken up, new frame and new decking boards.

I’m really torn between what to do as bathroom was part of plan in terms of fixing up the house however decking is an unexpected repair and could be dangerous if one of my children fell through the damaged decking.

I’m completely stuck on what to do as we won’t likely have these savings again as we live very hand to mouth (I’m an NHS worker and husband in office role) and have a very high mortgage (joys of South East) and lots of costs due to having two disabled children and paying for childcare due to us both working. I know this is a first world problem but generally interested in what others would do. We haven’t got a quote for bathroom but Wickes said roughly £7k-£10k which would mean putting some on finance. We haven’t had a quite for decking either but likely to cost a lot as timber costs have gone up. We would consider putting down a patio to keep costs down.

Meant to quote the removing decking altogether suggestion

We've had to bite the bullet and replace our bathroom as we had various leaks mainly from the shower cubicle but it's coming through the living room ceiling. No option but to strip it out. Various quotes from £6k-£10k! Eye watering but after 4 months of search we managed to get the whole thing done for £6300. We got quoted £2500 for just stripping the shower and replacing. We figured everything else can wait as the water was causing most damage. Next years jobs include new drive and staircase....the costs frighten me

One is Health and Safety (including hygiene in respect of rodents living underneath it and getting into the house/children playing in areas where they have been urinating/spreading leptospirosis amongst other diseases - animal welfare in respect of cats getting worms or other diseases from both or sustaining bite injuries from rats).

One is cosmetic with a side order of saving a bit of money in respect of water bills/plumber fees.

Sort out the decking and then use a few quid to replace the gaskets on the cistern (look it up on YouTube, it's easy - you just need the gaskets and some plumbers' sealant).

Why are you paying £60 twice a year on repairing a running toilet. Just get a plumber in to replace the fill, valve, flush valve and sills or go down to screwfix and buy the whole kit for around £15, watch a YouTube video and change it yourself.
spend a fiver on decent pair of workers gloves and rip out the decking yourself and then another fiver on grass seed or if you don’t want grass straight up to the house B&M do a basic paver for about £5 so buy 10 and lay them on a bed of sand upto along the house and then grass.

honestly - do both

i would pick a weekend, get some beer and your mates round and rip the decking up yourself (get gloves). Then watch youtube and do the rest yourself either lay turf or get someone to do the flags - but do the big work yourself save££££

bathroom wise - replace what isnt working, leave the bath for now if its cosmetic

rome wasn't built in a day! 10 years for me i am still doing "those jobs"!!

The last plumber that came in said the toilet was so ancient that it couldn’t be fixed long term and would need to be replaced. But it’s all hidden behind tiles so replacing toilet would then mean replacing tiles etc

I found Wickes is one of the most expensive companies for bathrooms and kitchens. Try getting quotes from local bathroom fitters and explain you’re on a budget, they should be to do what you want within your budget.

Can you not do a bit of both?

Replace the toilet, take up the tiles in the bathroom (could you do this?) and replace with good quality vinyl flooring. Won't be anywhere near the £7.5k. Get a couple of nice plants and new towels.

Then decking. Remove yourselves and get a patio put in instead.

If it really is one or the other it'd be garden for me. Obviously you don't want a disabled child hurting themselves and not being able to use your garden would be shit!

You should apply to Your Garden Made Perfect...you never know?

Take the tiles off the wall and clean them. It can be done with minimal/no breakage, with luck you could put a toilet with a visible cistern in its place and then use the old tiles around it, that way, the if you’ve lost one or two tiles it won’t matter.

Find a plumber, buy the goods from a plumbers merchant - price of bathroom is halved.

Remove the decking.
Level and replace with paving slabs.
You could do this yourselves over a weekend.
Price of paving slabs varies hugely but you don't have to buy the mega expensive ones.