Buying regret and renovation woes

[Shopgirl1]

We bought our house 9 months ago paying top of our budget.
The house is in a great location for access to our work, children’s school, city centre, amenities etc.
It’s very old though and needs a lot of work - it was vacant for a year before we bought it and rented for years before that.
It needs new floors, new plumbing, heating and wiring, fireplaces ropes out, bathroom redone new front door, insulation upgrading, new gate, windows, decor, and and and. The kitchen is in an extension that needs knocking and our plan is to build a two story side extension instead.
We knew all this moving in. If it was in better condition we could not have afforded it in this area.
We put all our money into the house, have been saving to rebuild savings a bit since, we could probably do half the work early next year (half of refurbing, not extension) but would have no savings left again which terrifies me.
How on earth do people finance these kind of things? I hate the house currently, we’ve had lots of experiences due to its condition since moving in - mice, cluster flies, bathroom leak, wasps nest...
Just looking for advice from anyone else who took on a big project - will we ever get there?!

It sounds like you’re building your savings back up quickly.

I’d say you’ve just overstretched yourselves really so it’ll take time to do the place up. You’ll either need to save up or remortgage to release some money if your affordability goes up.

I think thr issue here is you didn't have the money to renovate it, so need to save to do it. Mainly people ensure they have enough money to buy and do at least the required renovations ASAP.

I'm sure you'll do it, but just it will take you longer as you need to save as you go.

We had no choice but to stretch ourselves to buy in this area, I have to keep telling myself that.
We have made a lot of cut backs to be able to save fast, and I think I’m just really frustrated as we haven’t done anything much yet and to get it where we want it will take at least 5 years. We had our last house 12 years and it was all done up how we wanted it..but alas too small.

We bought a house that needed renovation. Saved for 5 years and then did it.

Some times you just have to save and wait.

I had the drawings of my new kitchen printed off and put onto the insides of the wall cabinets of my old kitchen . Every time I opened the cupboard I was greeted with an image of what lay ahead . It helped!

We have just bought a 200yr old house which had a botch renovation to make it look good. It's got no insulation, the kitchen is laughable, cannot open the fridge door as they put a radiator in afterwards, the dishwasher can't be opened as it's on the end of the worktop and the sink then travels across it. We couldn't figure out where switches for oven, wine rack were until we pulled plinth off and discovered extension cables plugged into extension cables. Lots of weird and wonderful faults.... However the wallpaper is certainly the expensive stuff so not quite sure what the seller was thinking.

Anyways, we are just doing it bit by bit, luckily my DH is a handyman so is doing most of the work himself to save costs.

Personally I would have a small contingency savings and plough everything else in. Also make sure your taking full advantage of any heating/insulation grants etc. We are off grid for gas so have sourced local companies to quote for air heat pump system which is being fitted at Easter, taking the government interest free loan and RHI payments for next 7yrs-should cover the installation cost with a bit extra.

Electrics etc, find a good locally recommended trader, network amongst friends/family.

I feel your pain and we would never have considered this house had my husband not had the skill set he has, and he gets trade prices at most builders merchants.

666onmyhead I love that idea, I may have to copy it!

Y'up, you get there. We did. Took a while for sure and a lot(!) of hard work, but was so well worth it in the end. Sold it for a decent price and now onto another challenge.

I know at least two people who have done this by doing a certain amount of work to raise the value and then re-mortgaging based on the new value of the property to raise funds for stage 2.

Requires nerves of steel and an absolute conviction that you can afford the additional costs.

Thanks combatbarbie, you sound like you have a lot of work ahead too. I’m just impatient I think, I like getting on with things and can’t do much here as it’s pointless.
We did know we were taking on a project, my DH is an architect, but it seems like our own house is at the bottom of his priority list, I suppose because he knows we need to keep on saving.

Honestly, saving and waiting is the best way. I had a pinterest board - kept me company during the dark days of renovation. We moved out for 6 months so it was pretty expensive and stressful but so worth it now.

You are just going to have to wait it out I’m afraid, it does sound like a massive renovation and rebuild project, anyway of making one room reasonably nice to retreat to?

Same as others, stretched ourselves to the max to buy the house with a small pot to do "must do's". The day we completed, we got a call which meant my H had to fly to the other side of the world unexpectedly and pay various expenses including a funeral - using the pot.

We had to live here for years doing little bits as and when we could, then after about 5 years, we remortgaged taking a chunk of the equity out to extend.

For us though we loved everything about the house (so location, neighbours, access to schools, work etc) so knew it would be worth it in the end.

We love those things, I’m just not in love with the state of the building itself.

We’d have an option of a personal loan to pay the balance for the works, I’m just conflicted on whether to take on additional debt for 12 months or so or just save first and then pay for it without borrowing.

That wouldn’t include an extension, we will have to save for a few years for that, but the rest of the living space and bathroom would be nice at least.

Done this. Worse decision of my life, spent a fortune and it still isn't finished 15 years later. I'm moving and cannot wait to get out of here.
I'm fed up with the damned house.
I'm buying a modern bungalow that needs nothing doing to it.
I never recouped my costs just broke even.
The estate agent told me at the time not to bother renovating just put it back on the market in a couple of years time and how I wish I had listened.

You have to balance your mental health (state of house and how it makes you feel coming home to it every day), and what impact extra borrowing could have on you, including what if car or boiler went phut and you needed to fix or replace?

Can you spruce up the living room with paint, rugs, cushions, candles etc and make it a nice place to be? My last house took 3 years to get a decent amount done and 5 to finish (then a few months later I got divorced and moved and started again...) but it helped to have one half decent room that I felt I could relax in and shut the door on the rest.

OP yes I meant we loved all those things - it was just the inside i didnt like. Think Old Lady / Dank / Small rooms cut off, nothing conducive to family life.

Personally I'd take the loan, get the work done and enjoy living there. It wasnt an option for us, we wouldnt have been able to service a loan, but 5 years later we could manage the remortgage costs. Do your research about what adds value to your type of property if you think you might sell in the next 5-10yrs. Its your home so do what works for you but be savvy about it. Its been brilliant financially for us, we would never have been able to afford a "done" house in this location.

Our house is ca 500yrs old in parts. It's not in a cheap area, we have a big mortgage and had 55k cash to do renovations. Naturally this will be gone soon and we most likely need another 20 to 30k.

So far we've got heating (yay, snowed the day after we moved in with our 1yo), roof stripped and recovered, chimneys partially rebuilt, upstairs windows, freshened up the bathroom with new paint, tiles and furniture (suite ok luckily and DH did this). Rest of remaining budget will go on structural repairs to the timber frame. DH will then lime plaster the house (he's been on a course....).

We will borrow further to complete timber frame repairs, window replacement downstairs and internal lime plastering when I get a permanent job (we bought on DH salary only). Or grim as it sounds await an inheritance. So yeah, time! In 5 years I also want a new kitchen!

I’d say the same as above
Nice cosy living room somewhere clean to sit and chill out while you wait

We are not in a cheap area either, the only way to buy here was buy in this condition. I’m inspired by all your stories of getting there, I know we will eventually too.
One room approach would be great, but nature of the work means we need to do a bit more - awful suspended uninsulated wooden floor runs between two reception rooms and hall, all needs to be ripped up...I guess if we did those rooms and bathroom it would make a huge difference...to the house and my mental health!

I feel your pain @Shopgirl1 We're in a similar boat. Bought this shak over two years ago after seeing it for five minutes in the dark, whilst hangry. It needs everything doing, rewiring, replastering, new kitchen, walls down and RSJs up, new doors and windows etc. Soon as we moved, an utterly unexpected massive expense of 100K landed and we had to postpone all works. Get my new kitchen fitted this week, have been without one for five months (no kitchen sink or hob). I know it will be done as and when we can afford to and we should be finished in a year (have already re-wired and put new doors/windows in) but I honestly think it's not been worth it. I look longingly at new build boxes now. Or maybe I'm just tired. I think if you can afford it, I would be tempted to take the loan and speed up works.

I don’t think anyone realises how stressful a renovation can be until you have lived through it. I will never do a renovation again unless I have all the money to do it as I want it straight away and I can rent another house whilst it’s being done.

I’ve twice bought a renovation project without the money to renovate. Start at the top and work down and do one room at a time, don’t spend any money on anything other than the house unless it’s essential.