Full renovation on a Victorian House – would you?

[taardnottired]

Happy New Year to you all.

First time post although I have been an avid reader for many years. I have read a few similar posts but didn’t cover our situation exactly - We have seen a house on the market and are seriously considering putting in an offer. Whilst I have started my research, some in-depth and other areas more superficial and will be getting professional architects and structural engineers to oversee the planned project, I find the experience, knowledge, bluntness, sarcasm and wit refreshing on this forum and will no doubt gain some valuable input along with a face punch to bring me back to reality. My partner thinks it is too big a project, yet we both want our dream home. I am not put off by the scale of the build itself for a few reasons and I think this will be a missed opportunity if we let it go. We did let a similar but already renovated house slip away a few years ago and have regretted it a lot.

The house is a large Victorian property (4000 sqft)and whilst structurally sound with ok maintenance, the floor plan is pokey with lots of little corridors and small rooms both downstairs and upstairs. The plot itself is the huge attraction, the house takes up around 40% of the plot only, with mature gardens and stone wall boundaries. It is very private yet centrally located.

The house is not listed or in a conservation zone. As the house needs re-wiring, re-plumbing, central heating, windows, new bathrooms, kitchen, pretty much everything and given the unknown surprises that come up with refurbishments, I think the best option would be to start from scratch – keep the outer shell and completely redesign the interior as we want it. We have a few must-haves on our list and some wants, and in our search over the years, we know we would never be able to tick them all off on one property and you have to compromise, but this way we get exactly what we want.

Our plan would be to have a large square hallway with a feature staircase, even if many consider this dead space. I would sacrifice living room space for a decent hallway but in this case we have plenty of space to play with anyway. Would also have 2/3 large reception rooms downstairs, formal dining, ensuite bedroom, and then a kitchen/ diner/ family room running the length of the back of the property, with bifold doors opening up to a patio with partial outside kitchen, brick oven overlooking the gardens.

Upstairs, master bedroom taking up half of the upstairs, with master ensuite (large wetroom, double vanity) and walk in dresser. Rest of the 3 rooms standard with the second floor open plan games room / bedroom 6.

To finish off, landscaped gardens, repositioning of the gravel driveway to get an approach that faces the front of the house directly, with a detached double garage and apartment above (timber build)

Ok so yes it sounds like a fantasy and I must be living in la-la land but I have circumstances that play in my favor for now. My brother is a structural engineer, a cousin is an architect, my siblings fil owns a seriously professional construction firm and a bil is a builder. All will be offering advice and drawings for free/ food except the sfil –he is retiring and I know he would love to be involved in this as hobby almost so may help in supervising builders / pottering about / recommending tradesmen but I would still be footing the bill. We currently live in a new build and have become very familiar with builders and the structure of our house given the snagging list and I honestly can’t see how replicating a similar internal build would cause major issues.

We would not be staying at the property until it is in move in condition as we have a home already, which would be sold or rented out after. I’m not concerned about the decoration as such, as we can keep this to a minimum and buy things at discount and hunt for bargains – we can source stuff pretty cheaply when we need to, for example when we were quoted 15k for our kitchen and declined, but managed to create an almost identical look with similar if not better appliances for less than 4k. We are not snobby, we are fine with Ikea / second hand furniture mixed in with some nicer pieces or know how to make cheaper items look expensive. Happy with fairly standard interiors with some personal touches, e.g an ikea kitchen with a slab of wood over it to make it look different. A door is a door to me, so happy with 20 B&Q doors if they are the cheapest, with maybe one feature door for the lounge. I don’t care for lime render, bespoke Victorian material or keeping expensive features, I prefer modern straight lines with no frilly bits. The only rooms where I would prob go for higher end furnishings would be the kitchen and master/main bathroom. Given the size, we will always have bargaining power in quantity alone. Some might say it’s a shame to do this in a Victorian house, I don’t as this home would otherwise be demolished anyway and turned into flats.

So to put in perspective, here are some numbers. I figure the property could be bought for 250k after hard negotiating (we are north) and my budget excluding soft furnishing would be around 150k. we are also not in a hurry to complete, so each stage will be taken slowly and I plan on doing as much basic work as possible with friends e,g gutting the property internally room by room before the professionals move in and cleaning up between phases.

Would appreciate your thoughts on all of the above – am I mad, stupid or does this make sense? We would make our offer subject to planning permission.

[WongTobyWong]

We did it. In 2011 we bought a wreck of a Victorian, built in 1890, and spent nine months renovating. Even though I say so myself, it's really beautiful. Original features restored, new master suite, fabulous attic conversion, new chefs kitchen.

We just sold it. For many reasons, few to do with the actual house, so I won't bore you with the details. It was on the market for seven months and I honestly thought we'd never sell. Because although it is quite stunning - it does not offer the "lifestyle" that many/most people want nowadays. No open plan (quite the opposite) a staircase (two actually) that take away from living space. "Boxy" layout. Apparently. We had almost 30 showings and virtually every buyer said the same thing...beautiful, but not open plan, etc. I wanted to string them up after a while and felt like screaming "of course it's not open plan, you muppet, it was built with maids' quarters!"

Sorry, forgive my rant! But that was a long way of saying -consider the resale prospects. We didn't and it came back to bite us. If you plan to be there for many moons, then good luck and get stuck in! But if you have any inkling that you may move on at some point, think very very carefully first.

[WongTobyWong]

I completely missed the part about you redoing the layout of the ground floor! That'll teach me to jump in as soon as I read the words "Victorian" and "renovation" .

I understand why many people think that it would be jarring to have amodern interior with a restored vintage exterior. Having said that, I think more people would like the character touches with the floor plan for "modern living". Hmm. Off to remove the splinters from my behind...

[JoeOLondon]

Please don't buy it. You want a new house. don't ruin and strip all the historical interest from a Victorian one. Please!

[taardnottired]

Dry your eyes, luv