Idiot’s guide to doing up house needed!

[egginacup]

I was over the moon to finally, after a protracted divorce settlement, be able to buy a little terraced house for me and 2 DC. It’s in the perfect location and I knew it needed a little decorative work but I thought how hard can it be... turns out I don’t know where to start. I’ve never done this before and don’t really know what I should attempt myself, what I should get quotes in for and how to avoid being ripped off...
For example- in the kitchen there is horrible ripped lino on a concrete floor. Can I just tile it myself straight onto concrete? Should I try to find a general handyman type person to do it?
There is a horrible carpet throughout downstairs, I had hoped there would be old floorboards I could sand, but after pulling back the layers of carpets it turns out it’s concrete too. Would really like to put wood flooring down but again don’t really know where to start.

And don’t get me started on the horrible wallpaper or the boxed in fireplace that I want to take out and see what’s underneath...

Any books/ websites that anyone could recommend? Any advice? Which bits could I realistically do myself bit by bit and which bits should I get someone in for?

Flooring is the last thing you do. If you want to see what's behind the fireplace do that before you recarpet. Paint walls before you recarpet too.
You can probably find a local carpet fitter who'd put some vinyl down. Try FB for recommendations.

Good point! I’ve borrowed a wallpaper stripper from a friend so I am going to get started on that first. But the kitchen doesn’t need painting and the floor is probably the thing that bothers me the most.

Unless you're very practical I wouldn't attempt flooring yourself as it's quite costly to put right if you do it wrong.
Decorating is easy though - do a room at a time as it's the prep and shuffling furniture around that takes all the time. If you can do an empty room it's so much quicker.
Definitely agree with PP who said do flooring last.
Walk around and draw up a list of fiddly jobs you might not have the tools/time for such as putting up a curtain rail, fixing a tap, etc and get in a handy person for a quote.
Enjoy it all, and make sure you get it exactly how you want it

Go on YouTube and watch the tutorial videos that will give you an idea if you have the skills to tackle each job. If you think do some jobs but just don't have the tools, hire them it's ideal if you are only going to use them once or hardly ever.

Thanks, good thinking about making a list of jobs and getting them done all at once. And the YouTube tutorials, had’t though of that!

Collins DIY manual, they had them in Aldi recently but is a few £ from amazon.