Help! Cost of remodelling terraced house?

[hyperspacebug]

We are eyeing one typical London Victorian terraced house, about 102sqm. It has tiiiiiiny ugly kitchen facing garden, and before the entrance to the kitchen there's a breakfast room.

To give you an idea, the pic is:
farm4.staticflickr.com/3751/8916866200_e95d29d7a8_z.jpg

I'd like to knock the walls off, to create a big kitchen. Set up even fancy French doors for better lighting.Voila new modern kitchen a la Ideal Homes :) Well, a girl can dream, right?

How big budget should I be looking at? What factors should be taken into account?

The ugly house is at asking price £475K on the market. We'd like to stick to £525K mortgage. Y/n?

Well, it depends, yes, it could easily be do-able for under £50k but - are the walls you want to take out load bearing? Will you need plumbing moved? What finish are you looking for?

Best thing would be to drag a couple of builders along for quotes now, before you buy and take it from there.

We had massive patio doors (3m wide) fitted in an end wall of our house. There was previously nothing in the wall, no window for example. We had a steel beam put in to support it and the old patio doors (on the side of the house) blocked up. It cost about £5k for the work plus about £2k for the new patio doors.

We have a small terrace, just over 500 sq ft, and I reckon it is going to cost us about £20,000 to get it looking nice (stripped floors, replastered, moving a staircase, new kitchen etc.)

Thank you for the replies!!!

MoonlightandRoses - I really hope it's not the load bearing wall - there was similar work done in other terraced houses in the area that we have seen and I hope the house isn't too different! So, I hope we can make offer subject to detailed survey.

Amyboo - I bet all looks amazing with the lighting now! Were the doors high quality or normal Homebase quality? The doors alone do sound expensive!

MinimalistMommi - did you manage to get the quotes?

We've had a rough quote for reversing staircase approx £3,000.
Approx £400 per small room to be replastered, but I think it will be more because plaster needs to be taken right back I reckon and not just a skim. Floorboards lifted and repositioned closer together, stripped and finish applied downstairs £1000-£1,200.
Clearview woodburner installed: £2,500.
We haven't had quote for small kitchen yet.
We need door frames replaced, sections of skirting board redone etc. New doors. The list goes on really. I feel it will be £20,000 if we're lucky.

It does look good. It's a triple aspect lounge so it was always light - we just did the work so that we had better/dafer garden access for us and the DCs. The doors are dpuble doors with windows either side and are pretty top end. We fitted double glazed wood effect UVPC windows in the whole house at the same time, so actually had a big hole in the lounge wall for 10 days while we waited for the wobdow fitters to come!

OP - I would have thought £20k would be enough, £30k if you want to go mad on the kitchen and appliances.

You could easily just remove the wall first say £5k if loadbearing, that would be a huge difference.
Then, 3 door panels of sliding, folding doors say £3k, same flooring throughout and redecoration another £3k.
Then you've got around £9k left for the kitchen.

Thanks! If it's only max £30K even with beautiful kitchen design (not necessary top range design), that would be brill. My DH is pretty keen on loft conversion with £20K.

MinimalistMommi - good luck with the exciting renovation!

amyboo - it sounds really gorgeous! The garden is really tiny (a lot less than 40ft), so not sure our house-to-be deserves nice French doors. Saving it for the dream house perhaps if DH is willing to go outside London at all :)

Sounds like you may have got your house then.

Flipping heck, I'm so glad I don't live in London any more. It is like a corridor. I'd be careful about making it longer and thinner if you're not able to make it wider as well.

Definitely not buying and having papers signed unless it's DEFINITELY possible to change the layout. Will find out.