So offer accepted - where to start on the wreck ?

[mamatomany]

I'm guessing you start with the roof and work your way down ?
So roof, electrics, any damp, windows, central heating/boilers.

Then I'm thinking bathrooms one at a time (3 in total).
Children's bedrooms x 4, living room, garden, kitchen.
Master bedroom, study, hallway.

By which point I expect to be retired or dead.

Has anyone else done a big project, any tips ?

Definately Roof first, then insulation, windows and doors.

If you can do all plumbing work at the same time, it will be cheaper and will mean that all old pipework can be changed.

sounds like my ideal project!

We just finished renovated a terraced house- didn't need new roof, but had new kitchen and bathroom put in. Installed an additional WC, had the place rewired. Got rid of hideous 70's fireplace and built replacement, got rid of hideous enormous floor to ceiling wardrobes which left a hole in our ceiling. Part boarded out the loft. Installed central heating. New doors throughout. redecorated and recarpeted throughout.

tips:
Think very carefully about which way you want doors hung. We changed a few over and got electrician to alter light switches accordingly- but thinking about it there are about 3 that I would have also changed but its too late now! Sigh! Also think carefully about powerpoints and pipework. Our plumber had to put some jaunty angles to pipework as we had sockets in stupid places- oops

Allow at leats a 50% buffer to your budget. It WILL cost more than you expect.

When you have decided on a builder get a breakdown of costings as to what exactly it includes. Our builder kept stinging us for little extras which weren't included in original quote because we hadn't discussed them first- but our builder is lovely and has done mostly a fab job so it has worked out ok.

If your garden has no rear access and you need to bring stuff through the house- I would advise doing that at same time as roof- it doesnt matter if it turns house into a state then but will when your walls are all freshly painted.

Have you got a gas connection to the house? Organise that to be dug out early on (ours took 3 months from booking it to it being installed (which took 2days) but our plumber had laid all the pipework previously and just connected it later)

I have lots more tips but baby just woke up so I had better go...

Roof, insulation, windows, Exterior doors, damp proofing , demolition,

Wiring , plumbing, replastering

Skirting, bathroom1, kitchen

Bedrooms, living area(1?), bathroom2/3, other living areas, stair carpet/decoration last

Sort of the order we did it. We worked down the house so boarded the loft v early on as everything would have to go through the house and was messy. We have no back access so did the garden before carpeting.

If you are living there you need somewhere to escape to hence putting bedrooms earlier than living area & bathroom 2/3

If you can strip out and do the re wiring and plumbing while in rented do it! I have found (and am on house 10!) that it is cheaper in the long run by a fair bit as the builders just get more done and you don't cut corners.It is tempting for them to start clearing up early to leave the house liveable for you for teh evening which wastes time and also once you have lived through a bit of dust and chaos you sometimes decide to leave out some of your plans and go for the simpler option as you don't want the upheaval only to find further down the road you wish you had stuck to your guns.Good luck it sounds great!

thandeka - how much did it cost you & how long did it take?

has taken 7 weeks (builders worked their socks off) til we could actually move in (but now have issue with ceiling on one room and roof all needs repointing so will be a bit longer- haven't even started on the garden (need new fence panels and the extension painting). Oh and we had one room and hallway sanded and varnished too.

I think we are probably looking at a total spend of £30k once its all done (slightly more than we intended and including price we paid is probably ceiling price for the house/street so no profit in it but ack its a home.

defo don't move in til the bulk of the work is done if you can possibly avoid it. We had to move all our stuff in (but we stayed in nearby) and that slowed work down massively as builders had t work around our crap stuff which filled a room and a half floor to ceiling!

As you've got it, OP.

The only thing is you could probably put windows off a bit unless they are uncloseable. Windows can be made up elsewhere and brought to site quite easily, or refurbished one at a time on site as you have the money.