AIBU to think we can renovate the whole house with £11k

[loopyluloopy]

Just that really,

We want to -
Paint walls
Laminate flooring in 5 rooms and hall way
New full bathroom and new tiles
New internal doors and radiators
Carpet on the stairs

AIBU to think we can do that for all £11k
We are doing the work ourselves, with the help of my FIL.

We get 20% off b&q so this will really help. It's literally just the materials we need to buy. M

Yes probably just about manage if you're doing it all yourselves - do you or your FIL already have the necessary tools?

I think so.

We've done similar over time and I don't think it has cost us that much.

Bathrooms are obviously the most costly but it's the person completing the work that costs the most.

I’m normally optimistic about renovation costs when you’re doing it yourself compared to many on here but I think you’re going to struggle, especially depending on what spec you’re looking for.

This makes me feel better, my FIL will be fitting the whole thing for us - we are super lucky

Surely it's a yes if you don't need to pay labour costs

It will be done, but low spec/finish and 3 exhausted adults by the end of it, I imagine.

Yes you can but you will need to plan meticulously every detail. Also buy the budget items that look nice and are just as hard wearing as the expensive ones. You can often do this with tiles. I’ve been doing the same with extensive drawings on grid paper and lists of items from trade suppliers!

You'd be surprised I calculated the flooring at 2k alone

I think it’s possible. Maybe choose the most expensive looking internal doors. I dont think the bathroom needs to be expensive as you can choose expensive looking accessories from somewhere like homesense to make it look stylish shop carefully for flooring. I found the small independent flooring companies offer better value

We have more adults helping, we have a big family - husband has 8 siblings 4 are willing to chip in around work which is great

If I were you I would leave the doors till last. If you can't afford them for a couple of years that's not the end of the world, and I think if you get cheap doors you might regret it.

This is great advice, thank you. Yes the bathroom is around £500 for a bath, sink & toilet

work out a rough budget and prioritise each thing, allow contingencies

Once you've prioritised, do the most important first and if you run out of cash, the least important thing can wait for a bit.

I’m not sure. We’ve just had new flooring in our kitchen and that cost £1.8k alone. Good wooden doors can be £400 each, we’ve been quoted about £2k for stairs carpet. Radiators vary massively in cost.

I suspect you could do it but it might have an impact on the quality that you end up with.

It'll be easy enough to cost up the materials.

So much varience in costs depending on what you go for e.g. internal doors, rads, flooring etc.

It's actually far less stressful imo to do it yourself than the hell that is dealing with tradesmen. The cost saving in the bonus.

Having done two bathrooms in our house 18 months ago and knowing the cost of good laminate flooring, this seems like a highly ambitious budget.

however if you’re going for cheap bathroom hardware and cheap tiles plus no added labour cost I guess it could work. If you’re not doing a shower then that saves quite a bit.

Yes but you must use EBay and filter by nearest first for doors/tiles/floors

I have a fully marble tiled bathroom for £400 - would conservatively have cost £3000

Yeah I reckon that’s do-able, when you say paint walls, do you need to strip any wallpaper? If so I’d keep a little contingency incase the walls aren’t great underneath and need skimming.

Yes it’s definitely possible as long as you dont live in a massive house and aren’t using the most expensive material. As an aside, you are so luckily to have a fil who can do these things, keep hoping I will end up with a family member who is useful in this way but so far no luck 🤣

as someone who has just built there house I think no. if I was in your shoes picke what needs to be done 1st do that then save to do rest. cheap most of time doesn't last

We are not bothered about expensive tiles or anything, just want something that will last and look presentable

It's the taps and shower valves and radiator and radiator valves and mirror and cistern and shower tray and waste bits etc etc and all the little bits that add the cost though. I was super surprised to find baths 'only' cost a couple of hundred quid when we redid our bathroom earlier this year!

This, yes the whole house is filled with wallpaper even the ceilings 😭😭

Probably doable buying very budget materials but manage your expectations for the finished look. We’re renovating and just going slowly so we can get a higher end finish as this will hopefully be the last house we buy. It will be at least a 5 year project. If it’s for a house you are planning to live in for the foreseeable I would slow down a bit and extend your budget, especially for flooring once you’ve saved up some more money.
Agree with poster about cost of bloody taps too! In our last house we put in a lovely kitchen but cut costs on the taps as they are so dam expensive and it was the one thing that stood out like a sore thumb and looked cheap and crap!