Anyone take on a major refurb? (shudder)

[lamandler]

So after two long years of looking and a year of renting we have had an offer accepted on a house a few doors away from our current rented house. It's of course (being London) too expensive yadda yadda but as a doer upper untouched for 50 years we can afford to do some major bits of work now and the rest over the next few years when I sell a kidney.

So the plan is:
Loft extension
Move bathroom to first floor
Rewire and plumbing
Strip out and replaster/redecorate the whole place

The kitchen is ancient and we would love the whole Victorian terrace side return but it won't be happening for a while, so we will make do with a quick kitchen refit.

I'd love to hear from anyone who attempted similar, and lived to tell the tale! Do I need an architect for that work? Any beartraps to avoid? How much will I get through?

Can you afford to stay in your rented house untill the work is done? I've just done a major refurb on a house I don't live in and I'm a jibbering wreck .

I wouldn't bother with the , what you need is gin....and an intravenous drip .

On a more practical note, I would use an architect and if you have never done major work before a project manager. If you really afford to, then a good builder should be able to advise about the loft extension, but an architect will be able to open your eyes to more possibilities.

We did similar when we bought our place six years ago. Our principle lessons learned were:

• If at all remotely possible, don't attempt to live in it while you are renovating. Or at the very least not while the water and electricity is off.
• don't be tempted to go with the cheapest quote just because it's the cheapest.
• do the roof first. Before anything else. Don't think 'oh it'll be ok for a couple of years' and then have it rain in everywhere just after you've finished decorating.
• keep your own DIY tools/gardening equipment/kitchen mixing bowls and knives under lock and key - builders will help themselves and use them for all manner of things, especially preparing concrete.

It will be worth it in the end. But you may have to recite that to yourself every day through the worst of it.

Good luck!

while the water and electricity are off

Oops sorry for bolding that.

Rhubarb did you go to see the house (that was flats)? Sorry for a thread hijack!

if you are living in it, keep 1 room nice all the time

if you are having a make do kitchen the try free cycle/ebay etc for pre owned kitchens

start at the top and work down otherwise all the crap is being trailed through your newly redecorated rooms

architect good idea but not essential

be prepared to wait for the right builder -if he is busy it means he is good

some rooms can be plastered by 'apprentice, plaster's mate' for much cheaper -think bathroom because you are going to tile it anyway

an estimate and a quote are not the same thing

If you want to go down the PM/architect route, DP could do this for you. We are in London- if you're interested, PM me and I'll email you his company details and stuff he does

Ooh thanks, good tips here. We could keep on rented house but not sure how long we can stretch to rent + killer mortgage. And we don't have a bottomless pit of money so I need to retrain myself to think about this as long term and that we can live with it not being perfect for a while.

Will pm you tethersend, thanks

Not yet, Oreo, going on Saturday. DH is getting v enthusiastic about Godalming though - good schools and commute

One thing that might be worth trying is architect in the house. You donate £40 to Shelter, and an RIBA accredited architect comes to your house for an hour and talks over what you could do. It's not a substitute for employing one, but in your situation it would probably help just clarifying what you might do and what you can afford to do, as well as what order you need to do it in.

I signed up before when I had a really oddly laid out flat in London, and the architect was brilliant, suggested a way of laying out differently that made so much more sense (although I sold it in the end instead!). We're just about to do the same thing again on our refurb project . You need to register by July 11th I think.

Oooooh yes. We just emerged the other side of a renovation late last summer. It took 2 years and was...interesting!

-If you possibly can rent somewhere else and don't live in it - at least while the worst is done.

• Even if you try to do 'one room at a time' really THINK about the whole project before you start and also focus available funds on things that can only really be done at the start. For instance we literally did one room at a time and blew money on loft early on. We also did kitchen first which meant that by the time we had money for extension a few years later we couldn't knock through from the extension into the house to have a huge living space as would have ruined a good-as-new kitchen. We have 3 separate living areas downstairs. I actually like it but would have been better to have a choice. (Sounds like you're thinking like this anyway).

-On the plus side we got the worst bit (loft) over with early. I know a kot of people who decorate the upstairs only to have it ripped to pieces two years later for a loft. Try not to do this!!! Do the huge disruptive things first even it blows so much budget the rest has to wait longer.

-We didn't have architect as money was tight and we we weren't reconfiguring anything much other than knocking one wall down and moving another. Doesn't sound like you 'need' one either. Although yes, it probably would open your eyes to new possibilities. With our house there's a limit to what you can do (and what we wanted to do).

• We got one of the cheaper loft converstion companies who pretty much had one layout template for our kind of house. There's actually a lot more possibilities. If we did it again I would get an architect for this bit. OR get quotes from dozens and dozens of loft companies - including the most expensive, even if you have no intention of using them. The informal chat on the first meeting can produce a lot of different suggestions (especially if you ask leading questions) that you can then ask another co. to implement.

• Even if you don't live there try to pop round as much as possible. Builders take the p*ss if you don't breathe down their necks. (Slow and leave the place like more of a tip than it needs to be).

-If you've only rented before (we had too) and especially if you're not living in the house first be V WARY of buying too much furniture/expensive curtains/expensive lights/painting exotic colours etc until it's largely finished and you've got used to living there. We were so fed up and desperate for normality that as soon as a room was finished I went mad buying all the stuff to put in it. Inevitably what seemed to work in one room in isolation was v different from what worked with the house as a whole. We wasted a lot of money changing things later. It takes effort but be patient!

-Esp if you don't live in house be aware of light levels. We paid no attention and installed a dark floor in a room with low light. We really weren't aware of how dark the room is for a lot of the day as we hadn't lived there. If in doubt, go light.

-Budget at least 10% for the unexpected.

-It will be awful at times, and fun at times. We had moments of wanting to give up and sell it. Now I can't imagine living anywhere where everything hadn't been chosen by me.

We spent the past year doing just that and I echo everyone else when they say try and live somewhere else if at all possible while the major work at least is done. It allows your contractors to take a better run at it imo and the work can then progress quicker without them having to worry about leaving you with at least basic services. Ours would work 7-7 every day 5 sometimes 6 days a week. We put in a loft conversion with a dormer & ensuite, replaced all windows, full rewire, new GCH installed, ceilings (asbestos) removed & replaced, walls removed, a large section of roof removed and replaced (unplanned but revealed itself to be an absolute necessity), new floors in parts, all freshly plastered. For most of it we didn't live in the house but even then a lot of alcohol was consumed to get us through the stress lol. I think it's all been worth it, dh is still reeling and not quite able to agree yet . He is however adamant we won't be doing it again ..... Until the next time

We got a major renovation done and three years on, it is still not complete. But this is France and workers are very slow, especially if you are not on site.

Our biggest learning was to look at the devis/quotes carefully and have a clear agreement on what is not included. Otherwise workers try to rush through at the end and do not finish the details.

I agree with the poster on going light when in doubt and also not buying loads of stuff before hand. I went on a buying spree and now have the headache and guilt of trying to fit things which don't go with the overall new feel of the space.

I would say live onsite for a year as is. Get a feel for spaces and light and build back your financial cushion. Then you can move out and start the renovation, knowing what you want and what works for the house.

If you have work to do in the garden, start now, so you are rewarded with a beautiful home and garden at the same time.

Ssshgobacktosleep please tell me it didn't take a year?!

It does take quite a while, the availability of the trades etc and getting them organised and in in the right order and time is very time consuming. Also bugdet can be a factor (if you have all the money up front or if some of the money will be budgeted out of your salary etc).

You need to allow a good contingency fund because always, and I mean always something unexpected comes up that costs a bloody fortune and holds the job up. Sods law is based in property renovation IMO .

It took 5 months before we could move in and then we stopped and just breathed for a while. We've now restarted and are pushing forward again with the next phase. One day it will be finished and beautiful .

I also strongly agree with Oreo - make sure you have a considerable contingency amount. We had everything detailed, budgeted and all the money for the work upfront with a £5k contingency and then the kitchen roof revealed its horrors - needed removing and replacing and the contingency flew out of the window with an additional £10k weeps Whatever you think you may need the house will always have other ideas

I have such cold feet about it - it feels too huge. Spoke to a builder today who said we need to start getting architect/structural expert in to draw plans before we even exchange - really??

Where are you shhh and oreo? Did you project manage it yourself?

I'm on the south (central) coast and yes dh & I project managed it ourselves. Although stressful when several crucial decisions needed to be made at once and quickly it did mean that we were always aware of exactly what was happening and NOTHING slipped past us. My take on it is if the location of the house is perfect then it's worth living through to get the house to match (we hope this is our forever home but dh and certainly I regularly have itchy feet so can't rule it out). Plan, plan and plan some more, stock up on patience, a sense of humour and a few choice swear words and you should survive to see it completed

Oh forgot to say, our builder was actually very good at suggesting ways to get round problems that the architect couldn't. We have a much larger living space in the conversion thanks to his thoughts on siting the staircase after seeing the architects drawing. A good builder with experience can often call on that to help advise you to make better/informed decisions.

I'm in the north east, I PM this one myself, previous houses I have had help and my early houses my DF was alive and trained me up on them!

Its basically organisation, but you do have to have a fair idea of what needs doing and what they are on about when they ring you complain/ask for more money/tell you the whole thing has been put back another month etc.

BUT. The day comes when you are finished. You may look in the mirror and think who is that disheveled hag and have hands like an old maid, but then it is over. And as you walk around your finished house it is a true joy, especially when you get to live there unlike me but thats a different thread. And within, oh about a week you are itching to go again

I would wait untill the house is yours before spending lots of money on an architect, but I would be looking around and meeting with them and builders now so that when you are ready everything is in place to start. As said earlier in the thread good builders have waiting lists!

It is big and it is stressfull no one is going to tell you otherwise, but you have to look at the big picture and past the work. If you are unsure I would look into a PM, but really you can do it yourself. It is a very special thing to mould a building and make it your own home, beyond paint and carpets but to put yourself into the fabric of the building. That house will always have a part of you in it .

What a lovely way to look at it oreocrumbs

link to house renovation blog worth reading

sixtiespalace.blogspot.com

How exciting. We did a major renovation on a listed property several years ago. We did use an Architect, as we wanted to shuffle some rooms around, and had to get listed consent for it.

My advice would be to start at the top of the house and work down if you are having to live in it whilst the work is in progress, (you can put up with a lot of you have a lovely bathroom and bedroom to retire to each eve). If not, then plan the work and manage it to set timescales, as you won't want to be overspending on rent elsewhere.

We've just got planning approval to considerably extend and renovate a Cotswold cottage...so it can't all have been bad last time around Good luck!