House refurb - WWYD?

[WhatWouldOliviaPopeDo]

We recently moved into a three-bed Victorian house that needs updating - new kitchen, new bathroom, new flooring, knocking through some walls and redecorating every room. We do have the budget to do everything at once, but it will be tight based on the builder quotes we're getting and I'm concerned about making sure there's enough in the pot for emergencies. One option we have is to do the big ticket stuff first - kitchen, bathroom, hallway and two reception rooms (which we're knocking through to one) - and leave the bedrooms until a later date. They're perfectly liveable as they are, just a bit Eighties!
My WWYD is to ask whether we should push ourselves to do everything at once, because the prospect of having to fill the house with workmen again in six months/a year down the line doesn't exactly fill me with joy (I work from home), but know that it could leave us skint, or give ourselves some breathing space and see what's left to play with. In two of the bedrooms the ceilings need taking down and re-plastering.
Anyone else faced this dilemma?

Do you have children? Are you going to live there whilst the work is done?

I definitely see the argument for getting it all done at once. Replastering is so messy and the builders will have to traipse through the rest of the house to get to the bedrooms meaning the dirt and dust will get everywhere. Not to mention the disruption. In an ideal world of unlimited budgets this would be my preferred option, however, if funds are a bit tight and this wouldn’t allow for a contingency, it would be better to wait. It would be awful to have to compromise on the dream kitchen as funds were running low! Definitely better to have a bit of patience and do things properly.

What I would say is that if you do do the work in 2 stages, definitely leave the hallway to be done in stage 2 with the bedrooms as materials being dragged through the house, messy work boots etc. will probably leave you needing to redecorate which would be ridiculous if you’d done it up 6 months previously.

Fluffy We will be living there throughout but will stay with friends/family in neighbouring streets during the worst bits! They're also giving me their keys so I can escape to work there. We have a DD8 but she's lived through a loft extension in our old flat and a complete rewire of this house already, so we're not worried on that score. She loves the mess!

Lemon Yes, I see the wisdom of doing it all at once too because of the mess, but as you say I don't want to compromise on my dream kitchen! I think leaving the hallway as well is an excellent idea. That's pretty much all decorative anyway.

I'd probably do the downstairs to start off with.

We've just had an upstairs room done (electrics, replastering, some plumbing, flooring, decorating, built in storage etc) and it's been fine. Some dust did get into the hallway but it wasn't that bad at all. Just make sure your builder is considerate and keeps the door shut + extra foil/tape over the spaces around the doorway.