Anyone bought a renovation house, and just been too busy/ lazy/ broke to do it?

[Flamingosareflummoxed]

Because this is what I think might happen to us. We’ve been here over a month and have done nothing. It’s liveable but not cosy.
Yet I can see myself just not wanting to sacrifice the time or money to do it lol.
I think maybe we’ve overestimated our abilities.
Anyone else?

I thought we'd be finished in a year. 3.5 years in we've done maybe 20% of what's needed to finish it.

I know you ll
probably get horrified at the mere mention of it but please hear me out.

this is why you engage an interior designer / architect, a good one. It is for clients like who dont know where to start or dont have the bandwidth/skillsets/not sure what they want.
a good interior architect will do the heavy lifting for you and manage the decisions so you re not feeling overwhelmed.
costs vary and can seem daunting at first, but a good one, especially in the mindset you are in can help you save thousands.

they will help prioritise the areas that works done, define your vision/goals/ways you want your house to support you in years to come and then carry on the jobs. They ll project manage as well if you dont want to, again doing the heavy lifting for you.

i agree with a PP. a month in it is nothing. Buying and moving is super stressful. Give yourself the summer to recover and see if you re ready to tackle some jobs yourself or with someone in September. You ll have a clearer idea of what you want, where the natural lights fall, what frustrates you in the layout and what you love. Better still stay put for the 4 seasons so revise it in May 2027.

but dont underestimate how sometime appointing someone to do the work for you can be helpful.

if you were to go down that road though, choose carefully. Meet with prospects face to face and in your house, talk to them, they should listen, and listen to your gut feelings.

good luck and dont beat yourself up. How you are currently feeling is absolutely normal.
one of my current client is always second guessing herself and needs lots of reassurance. I help her with that thats my job. She is growing in confidence everyday. It is a lot of money to spend on top of the works so choose carefully who you appoint.

In 18 months since moving in. We’ve had the house rewired, installed a second hand kitchen, put a new shower and cubicle in the bathroom and decorated and replaced the flooring in the kitchen and sitting room.
Trying to get on top of the enormous garden is a real issue…..
we’re turning our attention to the hall next…we have the flooring already as it will continue from the sitting room but need to decorate. I’d love a new front door but can’t afford that!?

We took 12 years and over £500k just on renovation/extension costs! But it's the house of our dreams now and we've doubled our investment. Nothing that's worth it comes easy :-)

Yes!!! This is us! We’ve had a house for over 3 years which is empty as my DH refuses to live in it until it’s been renovated. We’ve been too busy/lazy/broke to do the whole thing at once so instead we’ve done nothing at all other than have some plans drawn up. FWIW, we have enough saved to build the extension shell but not to complete the entire renovation in one so have ended up doing nothing at all with it 🥴

10 years in and we've just got the gardens (front and back) left to do. Oh, and a thousand and one little jobs my husband started and nearly finished but needs to go back and actually finish, so basically nothing is completely finished. It's a long and painful process I would never want to go through again, especially with my husband (!).

We've had to do everything from the roof down, including replacing all the blown plaster, reboarding the ceilings, all electrics, woodworm in the joists, new windows, plumbing, kitchen etc. I love the changes, and it will be incredible when it's finished, but it's taken its toll.

I'm on the last part of my house, after 15 years.

You say yours is livable but not cosy, so nothing is mega-urgent. Sometimes it is better to live in a house for a while, so you know better, what needs to be done.

I'd make a list of things that really need to be done before winter - fixes to roof, gutters, doors & windows. Check the chimney has been swept if there is one. Get the boiler serviced.

Then decide on priorities of rooms. What do you want done first? Agree a realistic time scale with your dh. Set a budget for the first room. Pace yourself, you'll do a better job.

Yep. Knew it was project but needed to move for other reasons. Done a fair bit but we're now in the "love it or list it" phase.

I'm too tired to be here for a full renovation, menopause, caring stuff, age, cba and according to family, too fat and lazy. Sigh.

It's perfectly liveable and people who like "quirky" love it but...

I bought a house with grand plans, which over the years have become smaller and smaller. It's "done" but it hasn't had any where near as much done as I originlly planned

Yes - to some degree. We did some of the more minor and cosmetic works when we moved in and in fairness cosmetically many rooms in the house look much better than they did but really it does all need properly modernising and there's an awful lot of general maintenance/fixing that needs doing. We had much bigger plans, including new kitchen and bathroom but never actually got them done. The costs to do so now are a bit galling.

Obviously the cost of living has had quite an effect on the available budget but also I just got so fed up with trying to source decent tradesmen, people not turning up constantly and when they do the quote is high, the finish not what we expected or wanted. When you don't have any decent word of mouth contacts or know anyone in the trades, I've just found it's all a huge stress, which puts me right off.

DIY is great for some things but unless you've got some experience or a bit of a knack for it then you don't always get the finish you imagined. The actual process of using all your spare time and days off got really wearing and unless you're a couple who cope well together under strain that can also be a factor. I don't enjoy DIY, renovations are hugely inconvenient now I WFH and have a dog (who would spend the entire time barking). I've just lost the will.

At this point we plan to finish up what we can over the summer in terms of redecoration and put the house up for sale, next time I would choose something that required less work. It was never supposed to be a forever home so we just reached a point where it is what it is and we will invest in those things for one that is.

I think there's plenty of benefits to just living in the house for a while and taking your time to think about what actually needs to be done. You get to understand things like where the light comes into which rooms at what time of day, how warm the house is, what things are useful and what aren't, and so forth.

I think sometimes people are too quick to just bulldoze into things and rip things out before they've even lived with them.

I lived with no carpets for about 2 years as I was so poor at the time (but I lived alone so it wasn't so bad). I only did the kitchen and bathroom after about 8 years when I had a good job by then!

In our current house I had been keen to renovate certain things and actually had an architect draw up some big renovation plans, but I didn't like his design because I realised he had put the living room / kitchen at the dark end of the house, and all the lovely light would just flood the bedrooms and be wasted.

It's fine to take your time.

About 2 years to renovate a 3 bed semi. I did a lot of the work and also got a friend over from Poland who does, carpentry, tiling bathrooms etc..he stayed here for a year to help get jobs done and was paid weekly. I wouldnt do it again and if i move, i only want to paint or change a carpet etc..!!

this thread is reminding me how hard it was to do up our house! tf we were in our 30s, I must remember NOT to sell and think I can do it again.

Yes we live in a “ work in progress” type house, but due to lack of funds and ill health, everything is happening at a snails pace. It’s frustrating at times, but I have cancer and am on permanent chemotherapy, so ask myself, do I really care about a bit of loose skirting or the destruction my house bunnies have caused in one room? Some days, yes, others no. Structurally, the house is sound, it’s the decorating that needs doing, which we will do bit by bit I guess.

Things that look so hideous when you move in gradually become less and less important. Took 6 years for me to get round to changing the stairs carpet from threadbare orange swirls..

I’m literally too scared to get anything done because no one seems to do a decent job for a decent price. I can’t get anything done well and it still costs a lot of money. I have a list of things that need sorting but who to call who won’t fleece me or do a half baked job 🤷‍♀️

We've been here 30 years and are still doing jobs that we didn't get round to/couldn't afford when we first bought ( interest rate went up to 16% when I was first pregnant, we had no money spare for anything). We've finally got double glazing and a nice front garden, back garden is still evolving.
I think it's a fairly modern phenomena to expect it all to be perfect. As a child,most families I knew lived in quite big houses in what are now nice areas of London, but which were then fairly shabby. Most of my friends were no strangers to buckets in weird places because the roof was leaking, dodgy DIY jobs carried out by their dads, furniture being hand-me-downs and smoke stained ceilings, with peeling paint.
OP, if you are dry and warm, that's a win. Take your time.
I can remember putting a coat of paint on a door or wall before going to school in the morning, so it would be dry by the time I got home and could do the next coat. Do what you can when you can . There's no rush, and it doesn't all need to be finished straight away. You still need a life and enough rest to function comfortably.

Yes but it will get done and over a 10 year period we will look back and smile when we remember how far we’ve come

5 years in we’ve done all the windows, just done the front door. Did the garden ourselves by laying some grass and moving flags and bushes as the quote was 20 grand for a full new makeover. Nearly done all the internal doors. New kitchen no skirting boards. Need new floor in the hall. Need to repaint the whole house as the paint we originally bought was cheap. I regret not getting the good paint as the thought of repainting is a nightmare. Still need to do the living room and finish the half done bathroom then we’re done!

I get paralysed by this as well. We just don’t have the funds to repair a bad job!

My entire adult life has been a series of fixer uppers, they only really got properly finished when we were getting ready to sell them to buy the next one.

Yes,we moved in in December but I lost my job during the buying prorand hav3 yet to find one. All my savings hav3 gone on regular bills so nothing is happening till I get a job, and build up my savings again,

Because some of us move into clean, safe, usable space that is cold as ice and the least energy efficient I’ve ever seen. My gas and electric cost £190 last month and I didn’t put the heating on at all! It’s not a bad thing to not want to live using irritating drawers and cupboards installed by old owners that stick or with walls covered in cracks 😂