Would you renovate a house with 2 young children?!

[42daystogo]

We've seen a dream house, although only within budget because it needs so much work.

Would you honestly renovate a house with 2 young children?

We need to sit down and work out if it's affordable first before considering putting in an offer.

We would have to spend some money just to make it liveable with the children then would renovate completely in a couple of years.

We know how stressful it can be as we previously bought a house which we renovated but this was to rent out and we never lived in it or had children at the time.

It feels a bit now or never, as i think the other house we've seen (smaller with less work) would be adequate and once done we would stay and probably buy another buy to let than move again

Anyone taken on a renovation project and did it break you?!

We've done it twice and are about to do it again (child number 1 turned up during the first renovation, number 2 during the second...there will NOT be a child number 3!)

It worked for us because DH is a builder and we are both happy to live in chaos until it's sorted - when I moved into the first house the 'kitchen' was an electric stove in the back bedroom, with dishes being washed in the bath! It definitely takes longer than you expect, but it's been worth it to get things as we want them (at which point we promptly move again...) If you can live in a rental while the bulk of the work is done, it's definitely doable!

Yes. We’re doing it now although we’ve only got 1 child. There’s another one due in the winter.
It’s time consuming but we will have a lovely home once it’s all done.

Would you have a working kitchen? I'd insist on that too - even if it isn't a long-term kitchen and just some cheap units and cooker, fridge, washing machine for now. Yes this is what we would do.

I think if it was just the 2 of us id jump at it. My worries are that it would drag on and on which might be a nightmare with kids. DH is self employed and lucky that he doesnt have to work long hours for the business to tick over. The rental would only be for about 4 months, so we would definitely have to make it liveable by then and then in the furure go room by room

@ChickensMightFly

Doing that here but kids were 5 & 7 when we started. I can't imagine doing it at baby and toddler stage! Any prospect of a caravan in the garden so you have a space away from the works... I could imagine that would help.

I could definitely deal with a caravan short term when we got to the stage of ripping out and replacing bathrooms and kitchen, but not the likes of the ones on grand designs where theyve been living in a caravan for 3 years through the worst winter of the decade

OP we moved into our renovation project 8 days before Dd2 was born. She’s now 9 weeks old and we have a 2.5 year old. The plan was to get in months before dd2 arrived and get lots sorted whilst dd1 was at nursery but lockdown put a stop to that. We need to re-wire, new heating system, extend and loft conversion and we are seriously wondering what the hell we have done. Thankfully we can still see it’ll be worth it in the end but it’s been stressful and it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.

We are thinking of doing this. Other half is a builder. I know it'll be stressful. But I think we are realistic that it won't be a walk in the park

If you can have a caravan as a dust free escape place then go for it
but having done a 9 month job with up to 15 tradesmen in the house at a a time with two primary school age kids
NEVER
unless I had a caravan or portakabin to escape to

We did it and it wasn't worth it. If your DH is going to do most of it himself. You'll get stuck with everything else. The kids will miss out on him. I'd give it a pass. Do it when your kids are older.

Yes! First one we did was when we had 2 DC aged under 3 and the second when when we had 3 DC aged under 5. We're now moving on to property number 6, but we only have the youngest DC living at home now.

The DC have always found it exciting, with walls being knocked down, rooves coming off, diggers in the garden, etc, but then we love renovating old houses!

Some serious thinking to do, a caravan is definitely something to think about

I'd go for it. The best houses come up rarely, and you'll regret it. Before long they'll be in nursery and you can have a bit of quiet time to get on. Or do you have a relative nearby? We've been in our house a long time and so it wasn't a choice thing but we needed to do some major works - a completely new roof and windows that had to be handmade (while I was just about to give birth) so not quick, and we've done lots of other smaller things. It was fine.

Yes. We are on our third project. It’s a big one. We are doing it with 3 young children. Last time was with 2 whilst heavily pregnant. Yes it’s hard, yes it’s stressful. Is it worth it. Hell yes!!

No it sounds awful. I grew up in a fixer upper and it just wasn't ever fixed, I'm exhausted just from looking at Rightmove the last 3 years. I'm excited to get into our new house and STOP thinking about houses and live our lives!

I also think it's a risk with the pandemic if things come to a halt again.

We moved into our project 2 years ago with 2 under 3. There's been times of stress and dust but we're both generally happy with our decision. DS is a budding architect and interior designer and DD has a wonderful vocabulary of building terms thats I've only just learnt.

We'd changed how we were using disposable income at that point anyway. There's not much point taking two babies to nice resorts so we'd bought a tent. DH had given up golf to spend more time at home with the family etc.

I guess it depends on you and the children.

We did and it was fine BUT and it’s a big but, we didnt live in it while we were renovating. We did pretty much everything to the house before we moved in bar furnishing it. Blasted through all our savings in 6 months to get it done in one go, and it cost literally twice as much as we had estimated. I couldn’t have lived here when the work was being done with the kids, one notable day when the kitchen fitters took a dump in the upstairs loo that the builders hadn’t plumbed in and decided it would be a good idea to ‘flush’ it with a bucket of water... right out the back and onto the newly laid bathroom tiles had me in conniptions and I’d only called round to check on progress... if I’d been living here with two youngsters and shit coloured water seeping through the kitchen ceiling I’d have had a stroke.

Just another viewpoint but I grew up in a house that was being renovated for my entire childhood by my parents themselves. I really didn't like it and felt bitter about the whole thing.
That might just be me, though, I'm ocd and like things to be 'done' and nice. I hated living on a building site. I just wanted to invite my friends over to a house that had carpets and wallpaper and nice furniture.

@missbunnyrabbit

Just another viewpoint but I grew up in a house that was being renovated for my entire childhood by my parents themselves. I really didn't like it and felt bitter about the whole thing. That might just be me, though, I'm ocd and like things to be 'done' and nice. I hated living on a building site. I just wanted to invite my friends over to a house that had carpets and wallpaper and nice furniture.

I agree with this too, my dad was always decorating or doing work to our childhood home then we moved to a new build, then they moved another two times, it was a nightmare and now im an adult ive realised he was the type to cut corners not doing it properly in the first place so had to go back and redo things. The house my parents are in now, they done the bathroom FOUR times in 12 years!

We're doing this at the moment and it's a no from me. DC are 4yo and 2yo. It's been several months of prep and it is agonisingly slow. DC1 is already asking 'our house is finished, isn't it mummy?'. We still have building work to do in the next couple of years so I'm worried about their reactions.

I constantly feel guilty that they don't feel like home is finished, and anxious about the amount of work I'm not getting done.

If you do go for it I'd say get some childcare and use annual leave to get as much done as you can as quickly as you can. It's the dragging on of tasks that makes it worse, I just want it done so we can get on with life.

^I could definitely deal with a caravan short term when we got to the stage of ripping out and replacing bathrooms and kitchen, but not the likes of the ones on grand designs where theyve been living in a caravan for 3 years through the worst winter of the decade grin^

✋ thats us! We are coming up to three years in our caravan... I'm surprised we've survived and the first winter it was leaking constantly and we froze solid for 3 days as the weather was -10 for ages and you can't keep something that is wet warm!
However, we have solved three leaks and still, living in a small space all things considered I would rather that than actually living in our building site.

We have but it’s taken over 5 years so far. Had a 3 year old when we moved in. Now have an 8 and 2 year old. Have to be prepared to rough it. Like all sleeping in one room for months. Tiny kitchen and only a hob for a year. Washing machines outside in a hut etc. Garden a building site. Need lots of childcare or else be prepared that only one of you can work on house whilst other does the slog of the kids. No fun family days out for a while.
It’s been worth it for us as we couldn’t have afforded this area otherwise and even now got our dream house (well in as far as our budget would allow). It has been hard, but I would do it again.
Our family are all trade though (carpenter Dad, plumber FIL, landscaper DH, plasterer BIL) so that helped a lot.
Main issue was DH wanting to do stuff himself to ‘save money’ but then realising he could earn more at work and pay someone else... tricky

We are going to view it again next week with someone DH knows to get an expert opinion on some issues to get an idea of costings. I think we will have a better idea then, DH is still in love with it though!

Doing it now, I have no kitchen at the moment. Kids 2 and 4. The summer has been ok massive garden so we can keep outside lots of BBQs etc. We have had trades in to do everything up to decorate, it will be roughly 12 months from planning approval to finish including lockdown. It's been pretty grim at times but for a year it's been ok and we stand to end up with a great house designed around our family. Would I do it again? Yes but not for a long time.