Moving house and redecorating

[silversixpence]

Can I ask about your experiences of moving into houses that need some work. Do most people move in and then start redecorating? What if it needs a lot of work eg old carpets or has dire bathrooms? We are looking at some properties which are a bit cheaper but need a lot doing to them but can't imagine living in them with 3dc and don't really want the upheaval and expense of renting until the house is ready.

Wow Raphaella the house is unrecognisable! I am dreaming of a house like this so wondering if I should hold out for a Victorian semi.

Thanks sixpence! Took buckets of hard graft and as we did a lot ourselves it left me (at least) feeling burned out.....didn't help that we sold it as soon as we were finished as I hated the thatch roof and have started on the next one

Love the latest one you linked as I'm a sucker for that style too, but the first one could be made to be amazing.

That house certainly has the space to just go room by room updating. It's not unlivable by any stretch.

Heh heh , just to paraphrase some PPs - you haven't much experience of doing up houses have you .

That house is perfectly able to be lived in. Not to your taste but I would echo others - if you can get walking into the perfect house out of your mind then it's fine (obviously dreadful survey things aside) .

Our first house was more like Raphaella's "before pictures" - I was pregnant whilst we were in it and due to budget we didn't really do all the structural things we could have. I think my mother was ushering in the tilers as I left for hospital. Our second needed more structural work and as we had underestimated the costs I think that DS lived from 3 to 7 without really knowing what a properly done up room was like.

It depends on your POV. I am with Special - I can live with a kitchen that is "not mine" (euphemism)
(and mine in the 2nd house was way worse than the one in your details) if I know it will happen one day. I also echo PPs in that if you can bear to - live with it a while. Your view as to what you might want to do might change, compared to doing a lot of expensive work on the basis of some viewings.

Also - do not underestimate the utter liberating freedom of having young DCs clattering around when you absolutely do not really care what damage they can do to the paintwork , carpets etc.

I emulsioned the whole of the kitchen in our second house to lighten it (think Black hole of calcutta) even the cabinets as it didn't matter if it was going to last and the bathroom (dark olive green all over - everywhere , bathroom suite , walls everything) I painted the walls white and painted big balloons on it - DS loved it.

But it is not for everyone so you need to decide. Now DH and I are in our dotage and DC away - last time we moved we rented and had house done from a distance.

One last point - also do not underestimate how different a seemingly perfect house will look once the previous owners have taken away all their furniture , pictures etc. You will end up pretty much decorating it all anyway I bet. FWIW I think that the house you are looking at could be a fabulous house.

Raphaella your house looks fantastic - would love to be a fly on the wall in the new one.

Good luck
Agnes

That looks fine to me. I've done it twice- its a lot easier if the doors, windows and walls are ok.
This house we've had to replaster each room which is a pain but the ceilings and walls look fine in that house.
If its basically painting, new flooring, kitchen/bathrooms then that's more than bearable

It's not always an option I know, but I moved into a house 4 months ago that needed everything cosmetic doing - flooring, painting, kitchen, bathroom, plastering etc. The house was vacant so we negotiated a longer than normal period between exchange and completion, and we did the bulk of the work during that time so that the really disruptive stuff was done before we moved in. It was a real headache trying to renovate an entire house within that timeframe - we only had a month - and obviously all works has to be agreed and signed within the contract. But it was def worth it for us, we also have a toddler.

That may not be an option for you, but it's called a key undertaking I believe, if it's something you wanted to look into.

Our house was a bit of a dump when we bought it. Everything needed doing. We took about 2 years to get the essential decorating done, replace the kitchen and have a small extension built. But it was 21 years before we finally got round to replacing the bathroom, by which time both the DCs had grown up and left home!
It's not much fun trying to live in a house while it's being refurbished, especially if you have young children. Ours were 6 and 3 at the time.