What order should I do up my new house in? HELP!

[bangbangprettypretty]

DH and I are about to complete on our first home - we have been renting for YEARS - both in our early 30s.

Now the house is, to put it mildly, a work-in-progress. It'll need new carpet throughout, redecorating through, new bathroom (and eventually new kitchen).

I have no idea where to start, but would:

Bathroom
Redecorate
Carpeting
Kitchen

Work? We'd also like to put new fireplaces in but that'll have to be when we can afford it...

We are total, total beginners so no advice is too basic! We could stay with friends for a few weeks if it's better to just do it before we actually move in.

We had a wreck of a house years ago. I don't know the size of your budget. We had less than £500 when moved!

To start:-

scrub the house from top to bottom
clean the carpets
check for decent floorboards or tiles
paint every wall/ceiling white - you need to live in house for a time to discover light or dark rooms
you can live with an old fashioned bathroom/kitchen for now
don't change walls or rip anything out straight away - get the feel of your house
use a spare room for all your tools and paint -close the door every night so you can't see the mess
don't spend every night and weekend renovating - you will lose focus
do one room at a time to stop your house feeling like a building site
we did the sitting room first - it's the room you will spend most time awake and relaxing - especially after a day at work

As you save money - decide on a project and see it to the end. If you start your kitchen - finish it before you move on.

Good luck.

I would definitely do one room so that you have an oasis to escape too when the rest of the house is in turmoil.
New Kitchens and bathrooms cost a lot and make a huge mess.
The hall and carpets should be done last.
Live in the house for awhile (if it that bad buy a tub of white paint and white wash it head to toe) that way you'll see how the light effects each room and how you use each space.

Insulate your attic first. It's not a glamorous job but worth doing properly.

Check roof, windows and wiring and plumbing before you do anything. If you don't need to do anything to these - and there's no point not tackling them if they need doing as you will need to pull up floors/cut into walls in order to get them done or have to tackle leaks so any redecoration etc will be ruined - then I would tackle the bathroom first and then kitchen which will take mosst planning. Then redecorate - don't bother with drop sheets if you are getting new carpets - then flooring. Always redecorate hall and stairs last as they will get bashed about as you move stuff out of other rooms to make space while you decorate them.

Check all structural stuff first, then

bathroom then kitchen, start at the top of the house and work your way down, decorating and painting always come last.

Do all basics first - electrics ( are there enough sockets?) , plumbing , get rid of artex etc. When you are happy replanted/paint. I start at the top and work down. But you could do bedroom first then downstairs or sitting room first - which ever room is most important to you. Spend as much as your budget allows on stuff like carpets and fittings eg work tops but you can get cheap paint ( others will say not but I did in first few houses). Painting all rooms same colour helps it flow ( but some say it's dull) and saves money.

Look at Pinterest/ magazine sand put together pinboards of what you like. Look in fancy shops and also cheap shops too!

Thank you all so much for your comments, I'm a bit nervous about the whole project but hope it'll go well!

Going to keep this thread so I can. Refer to the timings!

Figure out if it's your forever home or the home you want to live in until you start a family. Spend accordingly.

Basics first, roof, heating, insulation, drains, damp. No point in living in a pretty but freezing house that costs a fortune to heat especially if you are planning children.
Plumbing and electrics [install a surge protected fuse board.]
Bathroom
Kitchen
Rest of house, top down but beware spending all your budget before you get to the living room.

If you have no side access and the garden is overgrown, it's also worth clearing it and doing any structural work required asap. Torturous watching a ton of garden crap come down a nice new hallway floor even with all the protection in the world.

Depending on the layout of your house both the bathroom and kitchen can be treated as standalone projects. Much easier to do both without kids around.

Electrical work and new windows can really bugger up painting and decorating already done.

If you have old carpets which are simply not to your taste. Don't rip them up unless you can afford to replace, or lay some serious insulation under the floorboards. In my experience you will freeze :)

White paint or similar will give you the space to breathe and learn what you want to do with your house.

Beware very large spend items of furniture [built in wardrobes, dining tables, sofa's etc] or furniture which is a certain "look" eg: traditional which may be foisted on you or funded by well meaning parents and inlaws who get carried away with "respecting the period of the house". You'll be amazed at how much your taste will change over a few years and then you are stuck with stuff which is no longer to your taste but too expensive to discard, or wont fit into your forever home when you move.

I went to see the house yesterday - the kitchen is DISGUSTING so will now have to be a priority!

My MIL has offered us some magnolia paint... Trying to decide whether it would be very ungrateful to politely decline.

If the colours on walls are quite dark I'd accept the paint-a coat of magnolia could act as undercoat to get rid of bright/dark colours before you out your own choices in place

Bangbang just say no thanks, we're a long way off decorating yet

(Though actually our bathroom ended up magnolia once. I resisted and tried every other colour under the sun but I had to admit DH was right, it was the perfect shade with white tiles and biscuity & blue accents.

We tend to do the living room first - wallpaper stripped, floor sanded back or cheap carpet down, new curtains. It's not logical but with a done living room we can cope with the rest being in the dark ages! And a lounge-diner is a pain to clear again once you've moved in properly.

I would do the carpeting last. Unless it's a room where workmen aren't going to walk through.

So I would do stuff like new bathroom, kitchen first. Then decorate. Then carpets.

Don't do the kitchen now! Wait until you have got Christmas out of the way and then it will be the January sales anyway.

YY to doing boring structural work first - make sure electrics, plumbing, windows, damp, etc are all sorted before decorating or else you will have to decorate twice.

Following as we are about to do the same, but with 3 dc (ds2 is 6 months). Very very nervous about it! First thing we will do is deep clean kitchen and possibly replace gross old oven (we will use it in the new kitchen once ready to install). Replace boiler and any electricals. Then plaster and paint the living room, dining room (which will become a study/second reception) and bedrooms. Remove old carpets and sand boards and stairs. Then bathrooms. That's about it until we get planning approval for our extension.

Some GREAT ideas, particularly with regard waiting until January for the kitchen!

And carpeting last. God I have a lot to learn...