Priorities when renovating and order of work

[screamer1]

We're going to be moving into our "forever" home soon. It doesn't need any major works doing, but everything is very dated and the whole thing needs painting, new carpets flooring etc.

I have an impulse to want to do everything immediately, which in the past has proved to be a false economy as we've ended up redoing the works that we rushed into at our current property. However, there are also works that I'd wished we'd tackled immediately, because it would have made our time in this house better and we never ended up getting round to them.

The biggest works that need tackling are

1. New kitchen (at some point we'd possibly reconfeand put sliding doors where there is currently an external wall, or even extend).
2. New kitchen floor
3. New bathroom suite
4. New windows

These are all things we can't currently afford to do, but will be wanting to do at some point in the future (out of all of the above I would put windows lowest down the list of necessities)

Thing we'd like to do as soon as we can

1. Painting everywhere

1. Resanding the existing floorboards on the bottom floor (Out of interest, would you rather have the original wood floors or new engineered wood floors, possibly with underfloor heating)

1. Removing carpets upstairs (we will need to check out the state of the floorboards and replace if terrible).

I'm just worried that if we spend money doing this lot of work, it's just going to be a waste if we ever do the bigger jobs.

Budget is limited at the time being. But so as to avoiding making bad decisions and wasting money what do you think would be the best order to tackle things?

Any advice?

Insulated your loft before you put flooring down - dragging old carpets, etc that are often dumped in attics across new carpets makes no sense. You could rewire while up there and make sure all pipes are insulated.

If you are doing the wiring you will probably want more wall sockets or to make existing singles into doubles, and also to raggle some walls for wall lights.

Depending on how old your kitchen is, you will probably need more drops for wall or ceiling lights and new sockets. So make sure your DB is big enough.

I’ve just renovated a flat and I did flooring last. Modern sanding machines don’t make such a mess.

Sorry posted too soon.

What I was going to say is that doing the minor cosmetic stuff (repainting etc) was valuable as it meant we felt we could put off the bigger works for longer. That gave us more time to plan and save for those bigger works.

So although it may feel like wasted money if it will have to be redone eventually, that can still be of value.

A new bathroom suite is not expensive, as long as your new fittings are going in the same place as the old ones and are the same size. Of course you could go crazy and spent tens of thousands on designer basins and taps etc , but it’s possible to find lovely suites at relatively modest prices.

What costs a lot is moving the plumbing and then having to replace wall finishes and flooring because of the plumbing or because the new fittings are a different size and shape.

You might want to replace the wall finishes anyway because they often date faster than the suites. If you still have the original tiles this is one reason ( among many others ) to leave them if you can.

We moved to a 1930s semi in autumn. Knew we needed to replace the boiler but thought it could wait. Got first quarter gas bill of £600!! Some radiators weren't working properly either. Decided to put in New boiler, New pipework and new radiators. Gas bills a lot lower now.

I think our survey said we needed to replace the consumer unit. We decided to do a full rewire as there were not enough sockets, light switches were in the wrong place and we wanted outside lighting too. The rewire was horrendous with all the mess and dust. My advice would be do any rewiring first.

We are now doing each room one at a time. Walls are being replastered and then redecorated 4 years later! It is worth living with dodgy decor and as we are now getting rooms exactly how we want them albeit slowly.

"Is s full rewire / plumbing necessary for older properties?"

An electrician told me that it is best to review the wiring after 20 years. So if it was last rewired more than 20 years ago it definitely needs looking at. With regard to plumbing you need to know whether the pipes are made of lead.

Honestly, this thread has probably saved me a few thousand pounds in the long run. Thank you so much