Please advise a complete renovation virgin

[SouthGoingZax]

So - I can hardly believe it - the purchase of our absolute dream property is inching through with a completion date in early June. We've planned and saved for this for years, and it looks like we are getting there.

We're buying a farmhouse with some land in an area of outstanding natural beauty, a mile from the coast in a beautiful place.

The house itself, though liveable, is NOT a thing of outstanding beauty. It needs cosmetic renovation in almost every room - we are thinking of starting with the kitchen (knock-through, wooden worktops and wooden floor, white shaker-style units, Everhot stove in red, put in a stable door to the garden), and one of the upstairs bathrooms (tongue and groove, white suite). We need to redecorate and re carpet / re floor the whole place.

We have 2 children under 3. Any advice / experiences/ inspiration / good websites/ books / publications welcome. Please!!

Many thanks in advance.

If it's livable, then I would live in it for several months while you finalise what you want to do. Unless you have very strong ideas and (probably) some experience, I think it would be a worthwhile thing to do rather than steam straight in there. You will definitely save money taking a little time to get started.

Use the phoney war period to research like mad - Homebuilding & Renovating is a good magazine for inspiration (I sometimes contribute so I would say that) and has useful small ads of suppliers. Trawl the internet for deals - even estate agency details and floorplans can offer help. Speak to other people who have done similar.

We have done almost the exact same thing! Only we didn't have such young children as you. Ours has taken 6 years and is just about finished. We had to re-roof and put in new plumbing and heating system. They were the first jobs. We have underfloor heating downstairs which is very good. We had the bathroom redone by same company at same time as heating - saved costs.
Don't forget about the garden if you're planning to landscape it - takes years for plants and trees to grow, so try to find time to start that as well as house. We also had to spend money on driveway, outside which we had to budget for.

Oooh lovely thank you both. Yes, underfloor heating would be really lovely - did you put it under tiles or wood?
I was tempted to live in it first, but then thought about trying to live with the kids while the kitchen was converted and thought it might be best to do it first.
Delhi, if you don't mind me asking, how much did you budget for the reno? We have around 25K at the mo but also will be renting out our old house so getting monthly extra cash to save and then spend on the house.

We're doing more or less the same thing - with two small children also. We have lived in it throughout - it has been stressful at times but we didn't have the budget to live out, and I think we got better and faster work through being on site to supervise what was going on. We've been able to use different contractors, pick up on mistakes much earlier, and do some of the work ourselves.

Living without a kitchen and a bathroom was the most stressful - at one point our only source of toilet/washing was the outside loo - this was in December and it was bloody freezing! And managing without a cooker/sink for three weeks was not fun - I had to do all the washing up in the bath and cook everything (and I do mean everything) in a microwave. We survived though - kind friends gave us hot meals and we escaped to relatives for the weekends.

We are almost 6 months in and have done:

New kitchen - complete renovation job - replaster - new floor etc.
New bathroom
Complete rewire
New windows throughout
New insulation throughout (ceiling and underfloor)
A LOT of dry rot treatment. This was one of the most expensive single items and the extent of it was not picked up on the survey.

We still have to do painting, decorating and sanding the floor throughout.

I think 25k is optimistic to be honest. If it's literally just cosmetic and new kitchen you may get away with it. However if you need anything else doing (windows, roof, damp treatment, timber treatment, electrics etc etc) then I think you will be looking at at least double that.

I think youngvisitor is right - 25k is a bit tight. Obvious depends what your plans are, and you would be wise to build in some emergency funds too - there's always something that comes to light that just has to be fixed. Ours has cost substantially more than 25K - hence its been spread over 6 years because we didn't want to compromise and we were living in the house the whole time, so it's been a room/project as and when we can afford.We had a lump sum to get started ( sold house in London, moved to much cheaper rural spot) but once that had gone it was a case of saving for the next thing we wanted. Advantage is that you can plan and research while you save!!

South, we are just coming to the end of a two year and a bit renovation project. We too had two small DCs of 1 and 3 when we moved in, in December 2008.

We had a pot of funds up front for the priority stuff (electrics rewire, new boiler and radiators, roof flashing, damp proof course, cavity wall insulation, kitchen and ground floor flooring).

We then prioritised rooms and grouped work, where sensible, together ie: plastering, floor sanding, cloakroom toilets.

l had thought that getting the children's bedrooms should be a priority, but actually they didn't care a jot, so we concentrated on the kitchen diner and lounge and we all slept in one room for a while.

We did a bit each month, borrowing no more just spending our excess funds available, and waited for materials and things we really wanted rather than going for cheaper alternatives and regretting the finish later.

We had the weather against us for the first few months, but you may have a few months before winter this year ? l would advise getting the most disruptive and dirty jobs done asap. You can BBQ in the garden whilst the kitchen is being fitted and throw open windows and doors as you rip out and create plaster dust.

l read and still do Period Living for inspiration. Good luck. and ps. don't forget lots of before and after shots.

CheeseMeister - that sounds just like what we are planning - doing some of the big jobs up format and then saving up for the rest of it a room or job at a time.
We should be in for the summer holidays, so have a few months before the weather turns bad.
Period living is a good tip too, thanks. I do need a bit of inspiration - can't seem to get beyond the kitchen in my head at the moment!!

Sort out the major things first, rewiring, replumbing etc. My biggest regret is that we were told our boiler, wiring etc was fine, even though boiler a bit old, so we didn't do any of that. They are fine, but not great and wish we had just done it anyway.

Do the kitchen first if you cannot live with it, but ring-fence the budget. Our kitchen managed to eat the budget we had for the whole house (and that was more than yours), with the result that we are only now (5 years later) starting on the rest and are a long way still from rescuing the house from it's mid-1980's decorative hell.

OTOH, we did our kitchen (back to bare brick and concrete) while living in the house, in January/February, with 2-3mo DD and 4yo DS, and we survived to tell the tale..

Start buying Homebuilding & Renovation and Selfbuild magazines, not just glossy lifestyle porn, and start tearing out pictures and ads of what you like. Start researching for builders/electricians etc (start with checkatrade.com and take up references). Go the extra mile with everything - rewire and reposition lights and put in more power points whenever you decorate a room, invest in plumbing and re wiring in the kitchen if the appliances are in the wrong place, plumb in an American style fridge freezer with an ice dispenser, go for wet underefloor heating if possible.

Expect everything to cost approximately double what you expect and take twice as long, but expect it to be all worth while in the end when you have a fantastic home.

Thanks Oldenough have subscribed to H & R so I know a bit more (and so that I have something to do while the mortgage people and solicitors fight it out).

Good tip, stealth, about ring fencing and trixy about doing the wiring etc too. We will need to guard against cutting corners as DH is a penny pincher and I am a bit slapdash!

Gulp at twice as costly and taking twice as long but I know you are right. Luckily it is our forever home - hopefully it won't take forever to sort it out!

Keep the great advice coming!!

Speaking from the point of view of a mum with 4 young kids who has gone through months of renovation, do as much of the work first before moving in.It is incredibly stressful and demoralising to have no kitchen or bathroom while looking after young dc's.Certainly do any structural ,plumbing and wiring jobs first,then kitchen and bathrooms.Cosmetic work like decoration can wait until you are in situ. Yes you will definately need more money than you have estimated.You can pretty much guarantee that with an old house the plaster and ceilings will be damaged etc.But it is all very exciting so have fun planning.

DH is an electrician and his advice is to get all the first fix things done up front (plumbing, electrics, CH). Unless the electrics have been checked out by an electrician then assume that a full rewire will be required. This isnt an altogether bad thing as it means that you can bring the wiring bang up to date. Tell the electrician what your plans for knocking through etc are and he will be able to work that in as well. Dont skimp on the number of sockets. The cheapest time to do them is at the time of a full rewire.

Do the same with plumbing & CH - this will save you having to move pipes later on.

We have renovated a couple of two bedroom bungalows. In both we have done complete rewire, new or reordered CH, new kitchen & bathroom, new flooring and in one a whole new floor, redecorated throughout.

Total cost with DH doing all work except gas work has been around £12-13,000.

Get lots of quotes for things. I do the buying for our projects and always manage to save on things like taps by buying them on ebay. Same goes for things like underlay. Places like Focus give out 10% discount cards for new buyers. Use these to cut costs such as on paint. A brand is a brand it doesnt matter where you buy it.

Enjoy! We are in the process of selling our latest project and I am already mooning over Rightmove.