Replastering?
Silly question really, but as we're planning to be here only maybe 5yrs longer, I'm starting to ask those questions - especially as I'm broody for 3rd and even 4th baby and that would mean getting a bigger car and I like to plan these things plenty far in advance....
So - please forgive the excessive detail here, not sure what to leave out...
We have a 1901 terraced house which when we bought it had all the original old horsehair plaster. Which all fell off when we stripped the wallpaper, disastrously, shortly before I was due with our first child. So the entire of the downstairs and the upstairs landing has been replastered. We repainted our bedroom and the small bedroom for ds1 - just over the lining paper that was already there. It is quite rough and ready and you can see some cracks and rough areas. Fine for us to live with really but it is a bit shabby.
The huge front bedroom is still the vile cheap bright turquoise colour it was when we bought it, also poorly covered in lining paper and has a corner of the ceiling wallpaper hanging off. Now ds2 is nearly ready to move out of our room, we need to tackle it. Now. (Are you listening dh?) We've had 2 quotes to replaster, each based on us stripping the wallpaper. The first, £400, is walls only. The second, £560, is for the walls and adding plasterboard to the existing ceiling (plaster&lathe) and skimming that. Each took into account the likelihood there would be some serious patching up of areas where the original plaster had crumbled, but included no painting.
Now, given the relative sizes of the rooms, I reckon we might manage to negotiate £1000 to replaster the walls in all the upstairs bedrooms, and plasterboard/skim the ceilings in the 2 large ones. Huge upheaval but it would look really finished after. The only alternative I can see is for us to cut straight to the painting in the huge room - buy lots of cheap white paint to cover the turquoise and then finish with a better colour. And all the bedroom walls will just be a bit shabby.
£1k for replastering, plus gallons of paint - that is a significant amount for us, given that we need to replace the disgusting stairs/landing carpet, the huge bedroom carpet, sand down the downstairs living room and hall floorboards, board part of the loft and, most importantly, get £1k worth of repointing done. They're all non-cosmetic things that are worth it for us right now and we don't "require" them to add value. But not much point in replacing a carpet and then having replastering later on. We have the money in savings. Oh and I would love to replace the shoddy internal doors...
We've already spent on an extension, new kitchen and replastering downstairs and I think we're likely to recoup most of that money given the prices houses are going for on the street. We got a bargain as the interior was a bit grim. Our next door neighbours house is pretty shabby and they aren't going anywhere ("we've been here for 29 years and I have the right to park my car right outside my house") and though there are young couple moving in & doing up some houses, others are rentals and some rundown ones are being redone presumably to sell on or rent. So no idea really if the area is going down or up.
Help? I feel just mired in a myriad of possible futures and cautious about spending more money than we need to. Please help me prioritise.