Need advice with order of doing things

[lavenderhoney]

I'm moving to a house that's needs total redecoration, new kitchen, new bathroom, can't the utility plus loo off the kitchen needs to be replaced. All the bedrooms need re painting, new carpets and new floorboards, lounge needs re painting, wood burning stove fitted, new flooring, and the dining room re painting, new floors and the windows in the kitchen, one bedroom and the dining room are very ugly and need to be changed.

I have no idea what order to do it all! I am selling my furniture except beds and a completely new start. I have a builder to do the refitting kitchen etc and a friend who is a decorator to do the painting as I'm really really bad at it, plus I will be hampered with the kids and work to do it.

What's the best to start with? Do we camp in the biggest bedroom and do the kids rooms whilst the kitchen is being done? Only the stairs and attic bedroom will be carpeted, the rest will be rugs and floorboards, or tiles.

I have suddenly realised I have no idea how to even start it. And no experience of choosing anything/ deciding anything.

Any advice gratefully received!

Bathroom and kitchen first though not at same time because you use both a lot. If the place is in uproar it will be lovely to clean up in a nice bathroom. Then other non-cosmetic works. If you do the bathroom first then the bedrooms can be decorated when the kitchen is being done as each room should only take a couple of days if it's painting and wallpapering.

If the bathroom window needs replacing then do windows first so any tidying up can be done as part of the refurb process and the tiling, etc won't get messed up.

For redecorating, work room by room rather than, say, doing all woodwork throughout the house or it will feel like no progress is being made.

What you don't want is mess and dust being trailed through rooms you have just decorated.

Flooring last so it doesn't get damaged. Hall, stairs and landing last of all because of the traffic up and down with paint and materials, etc.

Our house was like that when we moved in. We did all the easy decorating in one weekend (for us this was painting the sitting room, kitchen and a couple of bedrooms). Obviously with help! I would only have one project going at a time. It's fairly hellish not having a kitchen but it wouldn't stress yourself out by decorating elsewhere too!

If I had the money to do it all

I would start at the windows, because ripping them out will damage the decor.
Then new floorboards whereever they are needed.
Then new kitchen and new bathroom, utility and downstairs loo.
Then decorating.
Then floorcovering/carpet.

Carpet definitely last, because it will just be ruined otherwise. We still haven't got carpet on our stairs and landings, 2 years after moving into our project (because money ran out).

We did everything at once (rewiring, replumbing, new windows, kitchen, bathroom) and it was very, very stressful. I didn't work for 5 months to manage the whole thing (and 3 dc, one of them small).

Good luck with it, it's exciting!

As for deciding things, some things we have just left and not decided yet.
Some decisions we made were wrong, but then that's bound to happen, we're not wasting energy regretting it.
Some decisions were quickly made and not regretted. It was our first and last doer upper and it was and is a learning curve.

Thanks - i don't even have an oven so I think the kitchen will be first, windows at the same time and if I keep the dc in with me then a start can be made on their rooms.

I can do most of it all at once, and I want it over with quickly:)

If you can afford it I seriously consider renting a holiday let for a couple of weeks till the worst is done. Somewhere close enough so it's no problem for work and school and easy to pop round to keep an eye on things. Not that it helps you decide what order to things but it would mean the builder and plumber can crack on without you needing it liveable for a short time.

if you want the woodburner this winter, that needs to be priority - summer is the time to get these things fitted. Kitchen also priority.

structurals and functionals first. Scruffy decoration doesn't affect day to day living.

So I should concentrate on windows, fireplace, kitchen, cloakroom, bathroom, flooring and the redecorate throughout then get any carpets laid?

I don't want to stay elsewhere, the whole things costing a fortune as it is!

Yes, that's the order I would do it in, and leave time to think about the colours for redecorating (unless you want white everywhere) until you've lived there for a while.

Are you able to take time off work? You'll have to be around to decide things and make sure things are done how you'd like them to be done.

Does it need the electrics doing? Or will they need doing soonish? If so, then get that done before anything decorative. It's messy and you'll have to redecorate after it.

YY to having a look at electrics. If they need replacing in the nearer future, do it now, before you do anything else.
Sockets in skirting boards? Round old light switches?
It requires taking floorboards up and chasing walls, the mess is only topped by hacking lath and plaster ceilings down (been there).

Also the plumbing. Lookt at it first, how old is the boiler, are the pipes copper? Is any piping on surface of walls?

We rewired and replumbed everything, took £600 worth of lead and copper to scrap yard which paid for new pipes.
Costwise depends on where you live, but our 3bed rewired was 4k, and the replumbing ended up costing 3.5k including all new rads and a Bosch boiler (SouthEast London).

PS I strongly recommend insurance cover for pipework in and outside house up to the mains.
PPS if you're anywhere near me pm me if you need a reliable and excellent plumber

Yes, some electrics might need doing. I have a builder going in next month and my painter/ decorater/ handyman friend too.

I think I've taken on a huge project, but its not structural so should be ok. I'm hoping it will all be done in 3 months, is that naive?

yes

yes, sorry.

In my experience, something has to give. Either time, money, or getting it right. We've been in our doer upper (which to be fair has had major structural work done and a lot more besides) for five years and it's not finished.

I actually thought 3 months was very conservative!

I see I shall have to rethink it all and sit down with the builder and the decorator.

I could have written your post. We've just moved in to ours. We decided to do an urgent drain repair and structural work first. Then next is the electrics and the windows.

After those are done we've decided to do the children's bedrooms (carpet and decorate). I think it's important that they are happy and settled.

Then we will pause and figure out what's the priority next. This is our forever house so it will take as long as it takes.

I'm going to get the builder to work on the big stuff and start the decorator off with the bedrooms. The whole place has a disgusting dirty sticky old carpet upstairs which has to go, and I'm thinking of having floorboards in mine and one other bedroom. All downstairs will be floorboards and rugs where needed, except the kitchen.

Any issues likely with floorboards? Apart from noise and maybe a bit chilly but I will put down rugs and we have slippers:)

Have you checked the state of the floorboards under the carpet? And do you mean keeping the original floorboards?

Sometimes floorboards have to be repaired, replaced, may have some chipboard down under the carpet, you won't know unless you have checked.

The floorboards then need sanding and varnishing. Big, dusty job. We have kept the original oak floor in the hallway and I stripped and varnished it. Everywhere else is either (going to be) carpet: stairs and landing, or wooden engineered floor: Kitchen, dining room, living room and the bedrooms.

So no issues with floorboards if you are prepared to spend a bit of money on each room to make them nice (I guess £400 per room for sanding and varnishing, SE)

Sanding floorboards is better done before any decorating.

I don't think you've said how old the house is - sorry if I've missed it. If you've got a cavity underneath your ground floor floorboards, then bare earth, it will get cold. You can't just stuff the cavity full of insulation - you need the air to circulate. But you can hang insulation in netting below the floor boards, leaving an air gap underneath.

Its about 150 years old. The dining room has laminate floorboards which are coming away and need to be changed. I haven't looked under the carpet as yet.