Which things to do first on a very limited budget?

[kernowgal]

I've been in my new house for four months now and am starting to get a feel for how it works for me. I have approx £2,500 to spend on renovations initially. Jobs I'd like to do are:

• Put patio doors in and steps down from dining room
• Knock through from kitchen to dining room (just a door there at the moment, want to open up and install RSJ)
•Install woodburner and line chimney
•Plasterboard and skim all ceilings (aside from one bedroom and living room, which have already been done)
•New bathroom (current one is very dated but fully functional)
•New kitchen (same story as bathroom, also crap layout but functional)
•New carpets, new lino in kitchen and bathroom

The kitchen is a pipe dream and I'll be saving up to do that, but out of the above, what would you do first? I'm thinking getting all the ceilings done is a priority, but presumably it'd be better to wait until after I'd knocked through the kitchen and dining room? The ceilings just have shitty fibreboard at the moment, which is cracking and looks tatty.

Any thoughts very welcome.

We've beedbeedn in our house 5 years and we have a very similar list to yours
We did
Wood burner first as it saves us money on heating
New bathroom
New carpets in each room as we decorated
New ceiling in hallway
Patio doors
I am still waiting for a new kitchen but I want to knock through into the dining room, utility room and garage first

Its always a good feeling when one room is completely finished,so I would concentrate on trying to that

Thanks! How funny, your list is almost identical.

Yeah the woodburner is a priority as I don't have a radiator in the living room (it used to have a gas fire but I've had the chimney breast replastered). It needs a new hearth, so I'm deciding whether to have a slate surround or tiles, but the floor is thankfully concrete so should be fairly easy to do.

I like your thinking about having a room completely finished. That said, the carpet in the hallway is DISGUSTING (think 1970s brown and orange swirly) and I'm not sure I can live with it for much longer. On the other hand, I don't want to get new carpets laid there only for them to get trashed if/when the bathroom gets redone. So maybe I should concentrate on getting the upstairs finished and then start on downstairs?

If it's just the look of the carpet then you're best leaving this to the end, as you say, it will get trashed anyway.

I think you need to work out a budget based on what you can save each month. Your £2,500 will cover the woodburner +installation but not much else.

I'm guessing you have 25k. Seems a reason amount but I guess it depends on the finish you want as you'll pay a substantial amount of labour. Steels will require building control and there are fees attached to that.

Get a builder around for a quote. I found MyBuilder useful.

No, just £2.5k at the moment - I will have a lodger in a couple of months and will be able to save approx £250/month from their rent towards renovations, so will do odds and sods as I go. I do have the option of borrowing £5k from my parents and putting that towards some of the work, hence trying to work out what to prioritise. The carpets aren't in bad condition, they're just revolting colours. I'm thinking woodburner first, then plastering ceilings, then I can paint everywhere and decide where to go from then.

Putting in patio doors was what we did first and it made a massive difference, however, get quotes from lots of firms and really look at what they are offering. We used a local firm who manufacture everything themselves so we could choose our own door sizes making them as big as possible.

I'd add increasing the loft insulation to your list fairly early on. There's no point in heating the street, and you don't want to heaving old insulation out or new insulation in on cleaned carpets etc.

Loft insulation is all done - was already sorted when I moved in, thank goodness! I've had a friend part board the loft so there's lots of storage space up there.

The patio doors would make a huge difference - the houses either side have them and they would make the dining room a really lovely space, plus I like being able to sit on the steps watching the sunset. I need to get people in to quote for the work and then decide how to proceed.