Can you upgrade a house for £10k or under?

[ChochoCrazyCat]

New kitchen, bathroom, floors and wallpaper/paint.
Standard sized 3 bed detached, think suburban 80s boxy type house.
Not fussed about what brand things are and kitchen/bathroom can be second hand/ex display/factory surplus stock (any suggestions of good places to get these in Scotland welcome).
Have you or anyone you know done something similar for under £10k? Or is that totally unrealistic?

I could. Our Wren kitchen was £5k ( we sourced our own sink and hob for much less than they wanted ) it would have been £12k fully fitted by them - we fitted the kitchen but paid someone to fit the worktop . Our flooring was £200, DH fitted it. Tiles probably under £50, tiling is really easy, grouting is very therapeutic 🙂
We redid the bathroom, new loo and sink /taps, including jacuzzi bath (never again!) for £1000, We have wall panels / tiles around the bath and a tile splashback at the sink.
We bought packs of end of line tiles that should have been £10 a tile! For
Less than £50 from a local tile place.
Flooring is a mosaic vinyl I found for £50 online.
You can buy 20 litres of trade paint for under £30 from toolstation.
Of course if you have to shell out for loads of power tools etc. it can ramp up the cost.
I have to disagree with PP who says tiling needs a pro, I don’t think there is a straight or level wall in our house but I find tiling really easy, far easier than wallpapering, for example.

If you need a full rewire and/or plumbing the chances are that you will make a mess of your walls. Which means an awful lot of filling in and rubbing down/skimming or full plastering (unless you are lucky and can get away with lining paper which you then paint). This house sounds like a lot of work for someone who doesn't have a lot of money and isn't terribly interested in DIY...

I think with doing absolutely everything yourself you probably could get it all done within that budget OP, but it would be quite a basic level of finish. I.E. no fancy solid wood or stone worktops, only partially tiled bathrooms, low/low-mid range fixtures & appliances, & no overpriced F&B paint ;)

I think if it’s liveable with then that’s totally different!
Yes do it over time and look for bargains
Will make the world of difference if you/DP is prepared to skill yourself up and try some things yourself or have some handy friends/family

They say you can have any two of cheap, quick and good. I think if there was no actual structural work, but refitting in the same rooms you might do it. DIY everything possible, certainly decorating and basic woodwork. £15k would give you more options. You can definitely use mid range fittings with good design, most people spend far too much on trends that get ripped out anyway after a few years.

Price up a simple kitchen say DIY kitchens, plain bathroom say Wickes. Get to know the price of everything. Some items are improbably expensive - shower enclosures, taps, kitchen trims and fittings. You can often find it cheaper by shopping around, using eBay or trade suppliers. And find a good small builder or collection of trades. Carpets and curtains can be a fortune, don't pay showroom price, go and find it in clearance somewhere. Or learn to make them.

The home report says electrics are dated and will need "upgraded". I'm not really sure what that means though. If it's a full re-wire that would put me off. Probably means the walls would have to be re-plastered and a bunch of other stuff done to put the place right.
I could cope with living with old kitchen and bathroom for a few years and do things up gradually, and replace the boiler and heating system to begin with.
But no point doing all this if house will need re wired in a few years time.

@FurierTransform I'm not fussed about any of that. Happy with IKEA type stuff. I would just want my home to look nice and fresh (eventually).

We did this, bought a house, rewired and put in new boiler, put down cheap flooring. Lived with it for 6 years then did proper renovation and extension. It looks amazing and I'm glad we did it this way. It is amazing what you can live with of you have a long term plan. Our kitchen was 50 years old and not in good condition!

Survey will very often say needs new electrics if they are more than a few years old. I've never bought a house where a survey didn't say that, and I've never had a full rewire done.

Yes you can paper over paper, or strip the wallpaper and get away with not replastering. We did a whole house bar kitchen once, virtually all woodchip with polyester tiles on ceilings, and only had one wall properly replastered. But it depends on luck and on the quality of finish you want.

I would say it is normal to live with a dated kitchen and/or bathroom for several years. However it's easy for someone to sit on the internet and gee you on to take on a project. It's not our weekends that would be spent decorating. I think you are being really sensible to question if the extra space is worth it to you. Time is precious, especially time with children.

I wonder if a better way forward might be to buy a smaller house that needs little doing to it, and look to add an extension in the future, or just plan to save up towards a move to somewhere bigger.

If you've got modern 3 pin plugs get an electrical safety check, could be pre exchange or as soon as you get in. Might just be needing a new RCB to replace fuse board. You might find you don't have "enough" plug sockets in the kitchen/sitting room.

Surveyors do very much cover their arses on electrical stuff - anything over about 5 years old is "dated" so not much useful information.

For me a deal breaker/full rewire would be the old round plug sockets or signs of old colour wires. I'd check out visible/implied socket locations on a viewing too.

I also think most renovations are easier to plan from living in the house as you get a better idea of what works if you're living with it.

I would be really surprised if a 1980s or even 1950s) house needed replastering. Strip the wallpaper with a steamer, fill small holes and maybe hang lining paper if you want a good paint finish.

DH says wiring regs changed in the 80s, post 1981 should be reasonably consistent with modern standards but may need a new fuse board and some more sockets.

Post 1985, rather, (there was a transition period to the new wiring standards).

I reckon its doable, just have to shop around.

My house sounded like yours when I moved in, aqua coloured suite, very dated/falling apart kitchen.

My kitchen units were second hand (ikea) they were £200(!!!) for 16 units. I paid a guy to come and measure everything, order additional end panels, work top and accessories ,sourced my own flooring and tiles and the whole lots cost £2.5K in the end fitted with appliances. It still absolutely fine 5 years on although i think ill be vinyl wrapping it for a colour change.

Bathroom ripped out, everything sourced by me, decent suite was 3.5K all in. Took all the tiles off ourselves beforehand.

I had what I needed skimmed and boarded and the rest my DF lined and painted. Probably spent £1K on skimming/boarding. Hired a sander for a week and sanded floorboards, spend about £500 on carpets for 2 rooms. The lining paper has been painted a few times since and looks as good as it did 4 years ago.

Other stuff to take into consideration would be any electrical work. Weve spent about £800 on electricians to do some rewiring in the kitchen and bathroom.

Dont get me wrong my house is not a show home but its great for the amount of money I have spent. Ive done stuff as ive had the money to do it with major things tackled initially. The bathroom waited 2 years before we had the money and things still need doing now, my driveway and roof have seen better days but function fine. We have since had the windows and doors done for £4k from a low interest personal loan paid off in 18momths.

I would definitely recommend a good survey and houses that have avocado bathrooms usually need basic updates on a lot of things (electrics/boiler/windows) so make sure they are in working order for the time being while you crack on with other cosmetic things.

For context I live in a 1930's 2 bed end terrace with 5 rooms total in Yorkshire

Sorry I meant if you had to have a full re-wire would the place need re-plastered after?
The house is actually older than I initially thought - 1970, and it looks like not much has been touched since, other than the windows (there is double glazing).
Do houses this old need rewiring as a matter of course?
Haven't made up my mind whether to go for it or not, there are a few other houses we have our eye on that won't need so much work, although they have other cons.

Get an electrician to have a look. They will not want to pull out wiring from the walls to put exactly the same back, but may want to upgrade sockets etc. They will test the circuits and may have to investigate any faults, run new cables for electric cooker, shower etc. If they have had to recess trunking/wiring into the plaster anywhere that patch will need plastering over but it can be done to blend in, no way does the whole room need replastering. Especially if you are on a budget, it's quite possible to ignore slightly uneven bits of wall in the odd corner.

It's better to spend your money getting the infrastructure of the house sound, good heating and electrics, and then you can find bargains in fittings if you shop around, look on ebay for ex display items for example. Bad workmanship looks far cheaper than inexpensive fittings.

If it's 1970 in Scotland, is it ex council? I only ask as I live in a 1970s ex council, which I did up on a tiny budget over the years (think £1,500 for bathroom, £1,500 for kitchen, £1,300 for new heating, etc). My other half is a joiner, friend is a plumber, carpet fitter cousin, I've ended up quite handy with a paintbrush so labour costs were fairly low.

My house has had very few surprises as ex council are often well built. But to keep costs low I had to buy when things were on offer (B&q had a £1 kitchen door sale, cooke and lewis bathroom suite classed as an online special for £250 instead of £1,500). If you are patient, you could really make the larger house exactly what you want by using sales, ebay, fb marketplace. Cut labour costs by using you tube vids, etc., and learning as you go (keeping trades for electrical /gas work).

I’d definitely go for the larger house with the potential to be the forever home over a small box. It’s also an investment. I agree with the PP who’ve suggested taking a room at a time (we usually do 1 or 2 a year) and spending money on it. Painting walls doesn’t need external help but other jobs do and get things done properly. Better to really spend time choosing the right colours and furnishings for a room and produce something you really love than a make do job.

I’d be getting rid of the Magnolia as a priority!

I think I spent around £1k on cupboards, workshops, sink, taps etc - and some appliances for a small kitchen - plumbed in and fitted (inexpertly) ourselves. It's was a bit unfinished looking - bits of paint etc - but has been in use for 6+ years with no issues!

There have been several ocassions over that past few years I could have picked up a perfectly good bathroom sink for £0. Bath and toilet not so much! So it depends on what you want really. Functional, for yourself, for now? Yes, easily. Nice, to a good standard, for selling the house? Possibly. Are you keen to paint and tile youself? Tradespeople are the expensive part!

Thanks, some good advice there and more food for thought. We've been looking for a while now and just can't decide what would be best.
The house isn't ex council I don't think, it's had one owner since being built. We've viewed a few like it and they all need the same type of upgrading.
We've also seen a few upgraded cottages that we like. They aren't boxes as such, but are semi detached or terraced, whereas the fixer uppers are detached.
The other option is a newer build semi or terrace, they're ok but I find them a bit samey.

Don't think there's many detached ex council houses around, most are semis, terraces of 4 or "cottage flats" which are like semis but with flats instead of houses.

I've seen loads of the 3 bed detached houses - they seemed to be more common than 4 beds in the 70s/80s (annoying for us as we apparently "need" a spare room to put up DH's family plus an extra room downstairs for child gubbins containment)

Sounds like you have a few options open to you, which is good. Hopefully you find the right one for your family and no matter what state it's in, you can put your own stamp on it over time.

There are some 70's detached houses where I live also, they usually have really well sized rooms and large-ish gardens. Again, seem well built and popular when they come up for sale. New builds, by comparison, seem to feel a bit smaller and more cramped together but that's just my opinion.

@ChochoCrazyCat

The home report says electrics are dated and will need "upgraded". I'm not really sure what that means though. If it's a full re-wire that would put me off. Probably means the walls would have to be re-plastered and a bunch of other stuff done to put the place right. I could cope with living with old kitchen and bathroom for a few years and do things up gradually, and replace the boiler and heating system to begin with. But no point doing all this if house will need re wired in a few years time.

Does the home report have a 2 for electrics and say something like

“Current guidelines recommend inspection and testing of the electrical installation by an appropriately registered contractor every five years or upon change of ownership.

“There are features of the electrical installation including dated switchgear and limited numbers of sockets which may not conform to current approved regulations”

@C0RA Yes, something like that