Worth doing a renovation ?

[24again]

Just that really! Seen what could be a lovely house on a great plot (one acre) on the edge of a nice village. It needs a new kitchen and bathroom and a couple of walls knocking down and a conservatory rebuilding as minimum with new windows to replace the PVC if we can afford them as well as repainting and new carpets etc. Also it has previously had a survey done which highlighted some damp and woodwork issues (It is nearly three hundred years old) But it has got a newish boiler and a new roof.

If it was worth the hassle we'd have a house worth £500,000 for £450,000 and it would be just as I'd want it.We'd struggle to get another house of this size with the garden in the same area for the same money. We might be able to get it for £350,000 and would have £100,000 maximum to spend on it.

If you are still reading - any thoughts?

I think that you could quite quickly run through £100k with your list. What about rewiring? Is it lime plaster?

My first thought would be to search the local plan and see if its within the village boundary. If so could it be possible to sell off a chunk of garden as a building plot to fund the renovation?

Yes if you are planning to live in it for a while. Maybe not if it is a short term home as you will eat up any profit on stamp duty and the contingency.

Mmmm, yeas, might have to re-wire, thought about £6000 for that. Thought we'd stay in it for about 10 years, more if we really love but we should be in a position in ten years to move. Must admit I had forgotton about stamp duty. It is within the village boudary and the plot could be further developed but I'm not sure how, there isn't an immediatly clear area to sell off for this.

I'm worried about running out of money.
No lime plaster needed and it isn't listed.

Arrgh, my spelling is awful, please blame the wine...

I think if your sensible you should be able to do it quite easily on 100k. Before doing anything though I would investigate the damp issues and the wood issues further and get a definite cost for fixing these out then go from there.

I'd be worried about the damp and woodwork issues? Do you know what he cause is? As it could be very costly.

Can you link the house? Will be able to see more then how far your 100k would have to stretch. X

Sounds doable-ish, but does depend on a few factors (RSJ's, house size, complexity etc). To give you an indication (and excluding decorating/carpeting etc) to get the following completed on a c.1700 sq ft Edwardian house cost around the 130k mark and took around eight weeks:

Full re-wire
Re-plumb, new boiler, new central heating
Resolve damp
Remove four, non-load bearing, walls
Build a couple of other walls (also non-load bearing)
Restore original staircase between second and third return
Custom build various missing architraves/doors
New main bathroom
Remove under-stairs shower room and turn into under-stairs loo
New kitchen
New roof with insulation on the return
Triple-glazed windows

As long as you don't end up spending more than the house would be worth 'finished' in the current market, then you may as well go for it and get everything done in the way you want it. If budget is tight, then go for whatever the 'must haves' are now to keep it watertight and safe (so fix damp/woodwork/electrics) and work on the rest over the next few years.

Thank you Moonlight - that is very helpful. We'd want to remove / put french doors in two load bearing walls but we could rebuild the conservatory at a later date which makes everything more likely to be in budget. We'd have to add in a staircase too but there is already the hole for this.
Would love to linky as I don't really have anyone in RL to talk to about this, DH is totally uninterested as long as at some point I buy a house, but I live in a very small community - don't want to out myself!

We are in the process of renovating our Victorian semi (2500 sq ft) we have a budget of just over £100k on a £555k house. So far we are on budget & still have contingency sums.
When finished we will have:
Re-wired inc new boards, new lighting & additional sockets
New alarm system (smoke & burglar)
New sound system throughout house (DHs toy)
New timber double glazed sashes
New boiler, new cylinder, new TRVs & controls - cleaned system
New plastic water main (replaced lead)
New kitchen
Insulated & boarded loft space
2 new bathrooms & new downstairs cloakroom
New utility
Refurbished original fireplaces & swept chimneys
Redecorated throughout - which has in places required replastering or at least lining.
Redecorated exterior paintwork which also required scaffolding.
New back door, refurbished front door
New oak floors in hall & 2 reception rooms, new tiled floors in kitchen, bathrooms, utility & rear hall.
New gutters & downpipes
New office extension to freestanding garage.
Refurbished garage door (new hangers & glass)
Landscaping & garden structures
Removal / replacement of some trees

We are in a conservation area and have had to get various permissions but professional fees are minimal as I am an architect. We have gone for a high quality finish as we intend to be here for a long time.

We planned out the work & budget carefully and had a good contingency figure. (Eg we didn't know about the water main)

Wish I'd had wonky's builder though!

Meant to add for prices - ours were brilliant, and weren't the most expensive by a long shot but obviously not quite as good value as I'd thought...

Wonky I wish we had your builder, we couldn't do our house for 100k, hell we were quoted 26k just for changing our windows to wooden sash windows and that didn't include the stone work which was needed to make the change happen, needless to say it didn't happen...

It's mainly because I've managed it myself and gone to the trades separately. We've done some of the annoying jobs ourselves (insulating & boarding the loft), patch plastering after the electrics was done, redecorating upstairs - (decorator did the reception rooms as I didn't fancy tackling the ornate coving/ceiling etc & outside & will do the hallway)
We've used small local tradesmen & been lucky, we are also in the NE which helps a bit with price.