how do you feel about buying a family house that needs work? have you done this? how was it for you?

[Honesttodog]

I think I'd like to buy a house I can improve myself. We are planning to rent until we find the right house and have been looking at "finished" houses and houses that need some modernising.

Friends who have worked on houses seem to have found the experience pretty frustrating, but i am really keen to design my own kitchen, do bathrooms the way I want them, take time to choose the fittings that I like etc.

However i can be pretty indecisive. If we do take on a bit of work I'll get support (re: planning, project managing, not financial!) from my parents but my husband is the opposite end of the spectrum, he is the type to just want to go to one shop and choose, I like to do a bit of research and then once I find the right thing, I like to look for a really good price.

Would it be crazy to take on renovations? How did you cope with all the decision making? How did you pick yr builder? Did you use an architect as well? How much time did you spend plannign work??

ARe there any websites you can recommend to look at before I start?

[ArbitraryUsername]

Our renovation is still progressing. FIL is laying oak flooring in the hall and downstairs reception rooms. Not the front room though, because we need to have the radiator moved before we can do anything there. And we have no money at the moment because DH miscalculated . We had to have 2 floorboards replaced in the back reception room because 30 or so years of condensation on the old sliding doors had rotten through the original ones. Once we have some money, that'll have to be replaced.

The floor looks lovely now though. Even DS2 (3) seems impressed with it.

[ThatVikRinA22]

we did and we are now on phase 2!

its a small house but needed an extension and gutting inside - rewiring, new kitchen, we are just about to do new bathroom and new garage, and sort out the garden and drive. The rest was really cosmetic as it hadnt been lived in for a long time and hadnt been re decorated since the 70's.

it is really stressful living through it, but its lovely when its done and you have exactly what you wanted (almost - i keep wishing id chosen a different kitchen and the bathroom we put in 5 years ago is just about to come back out for a really good quality one) but on the whole its worth it, we bought at the height of the market and still havent lost money, and now phase 2 is about to begin i know it will be stressful for a few weeks but when this is done its totally finished inside and out. I might enjoy the house then! ive bought myself some expensive bath products for when i can languish in my new bathroom! and i look forward to really enjoying the garden this year, its got a large south facing garden which we havent been able to use for 5 years!

[Bakingtins]

We did. House is 110 yr old Victorian semi. Even though we had a full survey each job has been more complex than we imagined. We did the dodgy plumbing, bathroom with no running hot water and unsafe electrics very quickly, then had DS2 and work ground to a halt. 3 years later we are just about to embark on phase 2 which is to knock through 2 rooms to get a decent size kitchen diner instead of the poky little servants galley out the back. It will involve sorting out minor damp issues and replacing floor joists before we even get started. I still think it's worth it, we couldn't have bought the house 'done' within our budget, and a new house would have poky rooms and be 10cm away from neighbours with no garden. I didn't appreciate that we'd feel so differently about timescales for doing the work - we bought the house having discussed what we'd do to it, didn't think I'd still be cooking in tiny grotty eighties kitchen 3 yrs later. Thanks to a legacy we have the money to do the work needed, DH is ultra cautious and worried that we won't get the money we spend back in house price rises, I think since this is our family home for the next 20 yrs barring total change of circs it doesn't matter, it's about our quality of life and how we use the house. Have had 3 yrs tinkering around the edges to forget how disruptive phase 1 was, so bring it on!

[myron]

Our 1st house was dated but it only required cosmetic redecoration. We were keen FTB so our 1st weekend was spent sanding the wooden floor. We then spent the majority of weekends for the next 2 years stripping wallpaper - getting a plasterer in and then loads of painting. I think that we had a budget of £500 per room which had to include new flooring. Houses 2 & 3 were new build houses! House 4 - we have just gutted/renovated/restructured/extended what is our long term home. We paid an excellent builder to do it. I sourced the 2nd fix items but they did the actual hard graft. We lived on site (a) to have control and (b) to save £15K (extra 6 mths' rent/bills it would have cost us). It took 16 weeks so on time thanks to a truly fabulous builder. It is not for the faint hearted and we don't plan to move anytime soon. I would do it again if we had the funds - definitely, you get what you want (subject to budget constraints). I wake up every day in a beautiful home.

[Honesttodog]

I already have hundreds of scraps torn out, and piles of interiors mags. You are talking to someone who would have preferred a piece of furniture to the lovely diamond earrings that my DH got me a couple of years ago!

[GrendelsMum]

LittleMilla - good point about not getting yourself into negative equity.

TooMuchTea - oh yes, tell me about it. All too familiar...

[LittleMilla]

loved whoops

[LittleMilla]

Lives reading this thread, we're midway through doing up our 110 year old house.

I've actually gone back to work as we just got fed up with spending every blardy weekend doing house stuff. It became all consuming and we're both so impatient.

Ignore any talk of 'Making money'. You have to be doing this for your own needs but just keep costs in mind. This is our ten year home and whilst we're keeping an eye on house prices and costs, we're simply trying to make sure we won't be in negative equity if everything suddenly went tits up and we had to sell. So this has meant no extension and simply knocking thru kitchen and dining room.

Get your funds straight as money vs paint colour is the thing we've fallen out over the most tbh.

[noisytoys]

we are 4 years into a little and often plod along refurb of a flat. As FTB it was the only place that we could afford so, although it was hard work, time consuming and very expensive, it was worth it

[Booboostoo]

If you like decorating it's worth starting a scrap book of ideas now. Buy loads of decorating magazines and cut out everything you like. Then you can make mood boards for every room, with ideas for colours you like, examples of the type of furniture you like, bits of wallpaper, etc.

[Honesttodog]

Did any of you do one of those courses on plumbing and diy etc?
I have thought about it before, deadly dull but I love the idea of being able to take on a few little jobs myself where possible

[Honesttodog]

charlottery, thanks for bringing your positivity to the thread!!

booboo - noted thanks

I am really interested in interior design and am really excited about having the chance to do even just a little work to a house. Am encouraged by your stories both good and bad, am going to just keep reading and researching... and viewing houses obv!

[charlottery]

We did it - 2 storey extension and gutted the house. We rented for the time it took, and factored that into the budget. DH did suggest camping in the garden with a 2 year old dd, but I vetoed it! I think we were really lucky - ran to time and budget. I'm really glad we did it, got far more house than we would have been able to afford otherwise. I also think you pay over the odds for a pre-done up house, and you get the chance to do it exactly as you want if you do it yourself.

[Booboostoo]

We're on our fourth project and we have made money on each (although god help us with this one in the middle of a recession!). My top tips are:

• be very organised. Know your schedule, know which trade is due in next, line them up, have alternatives ready and plan for disasters.
  

• open trade accounts and get materials direct. You save loads of money but you have to be on top of everything so that you do not delay the builders.
  

• plan, plan and then plan again. Take as long as needed BEFORE you even start to get the layout perfect. Look at it every day for a few months, keep going back to the house, back to the plans, etc. until the layout is the best it can be. Then work in all the details, e.g. where will the bed be placed in the bedroom? This will tell you where you need sockets for the bedside cabinets, which side the door will open etc.
  

• be there every day. Don't let the builders sort things out on their own, you may not like the result.

[Loquace]

We bought a 300 year old farmhouse in N. Italian countryside almost 9 years ago.

When we sell this, a long time in the future (cos I will never trust another house not to reveal costly horrors when it's too late to uncommit and to require me to do work twice cos it "burbs" a problem that requires done stuff to be ripped down so something deep inside can be fixed) I am going to live in a tent.

You know where you stand with a tent.

[volvocowgirl]

We're doing it at the moment. It was the only way we could afford to buy as FTBs.
It's been messy and frustrating, but we're 80% finished now (started in August on a 3 bed 100yr old terrace that hadn't been updated since the 70s).
We've done most of the work ourselves (apart from electrics!) and we've been lucky in that both our parents have quite a lot of experience in building, plumbing, etc, and we have some very lovely friends who have traded hours of their time (and their kids') helping us peel off layers of wallpaper / rebuild walls / replaster / rerender / replace floorboards / etc.
We're currently living with a kitchen in our dining room and an actual kitchen that is just a pit of earth as the kitchen just had quarry tiles and no DPM so we're havng it replaced with a concrete one with DPM (luckily FIL used to be a builder who has done this a hundred times so he is managing the mess and just bossing his boys about to get the job done
We love our house though and it's very much us and we've renovated it to fit around what we wanted and our lives so that's been a great part of doing it like this. I would recommend it but would be concerned about being indecisive - as a week of indecision caused us to waste £250 and means we now have half a spare bathroom suite in the cupboard under the stairs that we're not sure what to do with!
On the plus side our neighbours' house (which is sort of modernised - but was done in the mid-90s by the looks of the kitchen, 'shell' bathroom suite and brass wall lights and has just been painted everywhere in magnolia for the sale) just sold for 1.5 times the amount we paid for ours (and we have a garage, they don't) so hoping we may have doubled the price if we did decide to sell. Though we think we might just enjoy it for a few years really!

[GrendelsMum]

2 years in, WildThong? We're flipping 5 years in and the work just keeps piling up.

[Fizzylemonade]

I think a lot of it boils down to personality and time.

I am a SAHM with 2 children in school. I like to research stuff, Dh does not. So because we have lived together for 15 years, we know what each other likes and dislikes and basically I will look through 200 different tiles, narrow it down to maybe just 4 different ones and we then choose from that. Dh would never make a decision if it was from 200.

We haven't exactly renovated a house as the oldest house we have ever lived in has been 15 years old so no re-wire or plumbing. Cosmetic work, replaced kitchens, bathrooms, carpets, and had two children. We are very handy at DIY so have put in bathrooms and laid floors but leave some jobs to the professionals like plastering.

I was here when the builders converted our double garage, I had given them the plans from the architect but also my plans for socket locations, the way I wanted the lights wiring to the switches ie I didn't want one switch to turn on all the lights, the new location of the loft hatch, what loft hatch and ladders I wanted. You sometimes need to make decisions on the spot, any delay can cost you money.

I was available all the time, only doing a school run and they did phone me as they sometimes could not wait 30 minutes for me to get back.

Having seen my mates house after she had it re-wired my skin would be itching with all the dust. It settles and you clean it and then you clean again the next day and the next. It gets everywhere. We are luckily in our forever house so can take our time with this one, but again it is just cosmetic apart from a kitchen extension this year.

[WildThong]

We are 2 years into a renovation. Yes very frustrating and slow (because we are saving up and doing one step at a time) but we're going to be here a long time so what's the rush. My dh is like you, research, read, research again then negotiate the price of the things he really wants. You will need to get your architectural plans and drawings sorted out first - then the fun begins...

[startlife]

"the rows with your DH at 1am over the placement of a sink where you call each other cunts, announce your intention to divorce and then both cry hugging each other and say you can't take the stress anymore"


This, this ^^ I think the stress on a relationship can't be underestimated. During the build DH & I found we didn't have any down time, every weekend,every evening there is something to do. Even if you allow yourself time off the pressure of knowing you have to do stuff is always there. For a period of time we couldn't have normal weekends, visiting friends or just relaxing and overtime the impact does affect you both.

[OliviaPeacein2013Mumsnet]

@aftermay

Our neighbours have been doing up their house since May last year. There must come a time when you get bored of talking about the choice of doorknobs etc.

We finished our work which ran from 1 Aug to beginning of December just in time for Christmas and obviously when I say finished, I mean the builders have left but there are still snagging issues
I am so GLAD not to have to be thinking about all the decisions any more and realised that doing it all made me INCREDIBLY boring. I bored myself

[aftermay]

Our neighbours have been doing up their house since May last year. There must come a time when you get bored of talking about the choice of doorknobs etc.