Tips for first time buyers please

[Teacupsandhandbags]

Hi, we are about to buy our first home. We’re just getting the survey done so long way to go, we’ve waited such a long time so we’re ridiculously excited.

Just wondering if anyone has any tips?

We will need to redecorate whole house although the bathroom and kitchen are liveable and will have to wait.

We are planning to declutter loads as we have too much tat. We also work full time and have 3 kids, 2 who have disabilities so we will need to plan time carefully.

Our plan is to get new central heating as it’s needed, new flooring, paint walls. Upstairs we are sanding the floorboards and varnishing.

Second stage will be wallpapering and buying better furniture than what we have now.

It’s a three bedroom terrace house. Very dated but lovely.

Be patient! Everything's takes longer and is more expensive than you think. Be aware of what you can do vs what you will need a professional for- don't try and reach too high as you will just need a professional to fix it.
When you move in you will probably feel underwhelmed/desperate to clean. This is normal.
If you live at home I 100% recommend starting to decorate before moving in, we didnt and our friends did and they make so much more progress than us.

And enjoy it!

*have somewhere else to live
(Not live at home..)

Everything is more expensive and more time consuming than you thjjj even if you DIY it. And if you don't then you're usually waiting around on tradesmen.

We got our keys as third time buyers end of May and we still haven't moved in. We thought kitchen and bathroom livable and it so wasn't once they'd moved out. So we've done absolutely everything and still not done kitchen is going in now and so is bathroom. Then radiators need to go on with new pipework and then flooring.

We hoped to be in start of August but it's going to be end of August for sure

Agree with PP to decorate as soon as you're in!

Sand the floors as soon as you can - it is by far the messiest, loudest and most destructive DIY job we did. Granted we did two bedrooms, landing, hallway and living/dining room, but it took a lot of hard work hours and caused a LOT of mess. It's also quite expensive to hire the machines. If possible try and do it before you move into those rooms to avoid moving furniture in and out to accommodate. Also - highly recommend staining the wood and then varnishing with a clear varnish. With kids/busy household, chipped coloured varnish looks really messy and patchy (original wood colour shows through) whereas if you chip clear varnish, underneath the colour doesn't change so you can touch up with varnish when necessary.

Budget 25% more than you think - even for cosmetic work. Stripping wallpaper cost us a lot more than we bargained for in unexpected replastering costs...

Our house sounds like it's in a similar state as yours - full decoration needed throughout, kitchen and bathroom liveable but definitely needs replacing in