What would you do to this house with a 70k budget?

[SundayGirlB]

www.rightmove.co.uk/s6p/89550281

Thoughts welcome. Sorry can't do clicky link!

Is the roof sound? There's something going on at the top right of the front elevation.

If it is, the obvious things to me are the lean-to/conservatory, the general decor and the kitchen.

The kitchen layout looks okay, so you might be able to get away, depending on how study the carcasses are, with replacing the doors and giving it a really good facelift, but when we priced up doing the same, with some minor alterations to fit in a dishwasher for the first time, it wasn't significantly cheaper than doing the whole thing from scratch.

Our house is a little smaller, and we paid about £2k to have every room redecorated over the space of about a fortnight when we'd been there for three months. They painted everywhere (ours is mid century so we did a white palette everywhere apart from the two adult bedrooms), skimming where required in the bedrooms, and all the woodwork and ceilings were done. It meant that every room became a blank canvas and we have been able to repaint with colour ourselves now we've lived there long enough to see it in all the seasons, yet get a good finish because the underlying walls are in a much better state.

Also, even if they're leaving window dressings, you're going to want to replace all of those, I'd think, and curtains are always more expensive than I expected to be.

Do you want / need the conservatory? It looks very dated and hard to hear.

Heat!

Depends what the survey says. But it seems like a nice house and that's a really lovely road!

www.rightmove.co.uk/s6p/89550281

Extend kitchen into garden room?
Utility & click room at back of garage

I wold remove the beam between living and dining rooms and build a wall with french doors in instead. I would then knock wall down between kitchen and dining room and plan a lovely new kitchen.
Knock down the conservatory.
Can you fit an en suit in main bedroom if you pinch room from elsewhere?
Probably needs new windows.
It's a lovely house.

Needs too much for 75k imo.

go for this instead and save myself the work [[http://www.rightmove.co.uk/s6p/66577341]]

is go for this instead

Oops previous link went wrong.

I would knock the wall down between the kitchen and dining room, and make the living room smaller with a new wall between the living/dining room.

Redecoration
New flooring
New bathroom
New kitchen

It has a beautiful garden, so perhaps a single storey extension to make the kitchen/diner larger with no folds and an island facing the garden.

I've just checked the floor plan again, no to en-suite in bedroom 1 but if you use the airing cupboard/ boiler cupboard you could probably get a small en-suite in bedroom 2.

In terms of space, rooms:
1.Get rid of sunroom and build a full width single storey extension 4 m deep across the back of the house with ceiling to floor glass doors all the way across and flat roof lights
2 Separate sitting room from dining room.

1. Create family room/ dining kitchen at back and have sitting room as a snug type room
2. Get rid of that stone fireplace and replace with what you prefer
3. Divide the garage properly with a wall and have into store area at the front with fitted steel shelf units and the back into a properly fitted large utility room accessed from the hall.
4. New kitchen and flooring in back family room/ kitchen
5. Decoration.

The garden is fabulous!

New kitchen although I would want it 3 times the size.
Knock down garden room
Take off the horrid stone cladding around the fire
Remove the beam
Probably new bathrooms
Is it really worth it?

Was going to say new kitchen, new conservatory, remove beam in lounge and stone cladding on chimney breast... but actually, I’d go for the one @Bernadette posted instead. I love that one.

I would want to remove the pendant lighting everywhere and put in recessed spotlights.

Separate dining and living room.

Remove cladding around fireplace.

Agree about the single story extension with a wall of glass looking into the lovely garden.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz we have seen that one! The road is a bit too noisy but it is a nice house.

I think it would need a lot of work but we would be here forever. A lot of what I want to do has been mentioned which is good:

1. Totally redecorate everywhere
2. New windows
3. Knock down sunroom and put extension on the back to make mega kitchen and family space and close off living room as @LuluJakey1 said.
4. Considered converting gargage as we could use basement for storage but not sure if this is feasible? My mum who is a wheelchair user may one day live with us so would be good to have the option of a downstairs bedroom and could even nab the bathroom as an ensuite if extending and putting one elsewhere.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz worried 75k not enough.

@HerculesMulligan didn't spot roof thing!

Love the road, good catchment area and still walking distance to station as we both commute. Total novice at doing this level of work though and terrified it would spiral! Would it be mad?

I can just imagine the state of the bathroom looking at the dated kitchen, 75k wouldn't go very far tbh. Everything that's been said previously, although problem with a single story extension it makes the upstairs too small for the downstairs.

I suppose converting garage could be a job for later if needed.

What about the exterior? Some houses have been rendered near us but never sure if it looks a bit naff.

It might need rewiring, but if the wiring is safe you can do that in stages as you renovate rooms. I'm guessing the bathroom is bad as there's no photo of it. I would get in there and see what's what before prioritising the work you want to do. I think it's unrealistic to be able to do everything straightaway and when you live in a place you find out what needs doing as opposed to what you'd like to change.

I'd be concerned that beam is structural and get it checked out. It could be boxed in though or painted a pale colour so it blends in.

I think you'd need a lot more budget to do what you want unfortunately. Can you do it up over a few years instead? The garden is amazing!

Yep much bigger budget needed to do what you have listed.

We could do it up over a few years, or even just not be as ambitious and change downstairs layout instead of extending but I've lived with an awful kitchen in our current house for ages and really want a nice one now!

The bathroom is a classic 70s green number and quite minging really.

The garden is gorgeous.

One thing to also mention is the 10 month old baby who'd be living through all of this.

not fussed about en-suites so I would spend the money on the extension accross the back removing the stone fireplace and any electrics/roof work that needs doing....
I think that would cost at least that amount of money- if you are going to be there for years other stuff could wait...
I wouldnt do anything about the garage until you know about your mum - presumably she would be able to help with costs.....
fab looking place...and great garden

The general decor and the fact there’s no photo makes it odd on it has a hideous 70s avocado bathroom suite, so I would say new kitchen and bathroom, take out that beam in the living room, remove that god awful stone fireplace. The lighting in the living room is odd too - I think the wiring would need looking at. I’m not sure it’s worth it tbh.

Once you start extending it’s a lot of money.

I’d replace the kitchen and bathroom. Say 25 k. Paint throughout, you can do it or pay someone. Knock through from kitchen to dining room open it up, say three k with painting.

New conservatory on the back, no clue what these cost but say 15 k. and get rid of the lean to thing. New big patio extending into the garden from the conservatory , say ten k.

Then the rest of the cosmetics,window dressings, flooring etc, get rid of the beam in the living room and that shocking fire place. 5 k.- 10 k.

I reckon you could do it for 70.

That one that @BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz posted has an incredible garden! Might be worth a visit, if you haven't already, just to see in the flesh. I fell in love with so many houses online which were different in person.

You don't have to do it all straight away. The kitchen's dated but it's a decent layout and if the doors have lasted this long they'll be of reasonable quality. A coat of paint on the doors and some new lights would make it look a lot better.

Straight away, I'd get rid of the beam and remove the chimney breast, because I'd hate to have to look at them, and install a new bathroom. It looks like there's enough room in the bathroom for a bath and a big shower. I note there's no photo of the bathroom, always a bad sign. If the beam's hiding an RSJ, box it in and paint it to match the ceiling. Then paint all round and hang new curtains to make it feel like yours and live with it while you get quotes for everything you want.

Decide what has to be done first - for example, there's no point in getting a new kitchen before you knock down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, which looks like a big job involving an RSJ, and that needs doing before you re-instate the wall between the dining and living rooms. If you want to extend all across the back that'll need doing first of all and will be expensive, but I think you don't need to do that if you make the garden room less a lean-to and more an extension of the dining room.

For much further into the future, is there room on the first floor to put a staircase in above the one from the ground floor, to open up the attic and install a bedroom and en suite up there?