Tips for Refurbishing old house on a SERIOUS budget

[LemonSwan]

We found a lovely house to make our own. It requires the full works (rewire, replumb, new ceilings, new plaster/skims etc, refurbish windows, new flipping everything!. We planned to have 45k for immediate work fund (first year or so) and to add what we could afford later and work room by room.

We were already going to have to make compromises with the above budget (ie. wait for kitchen), but we have now found out we have lost just over 30k on our mortgage offer and now only have 15k for at least the first 6 months - potentially one year.

Where would you start?

Can you plumb/rewire part of a house and add later?

Thanks in advance

@Eleoura
No it was lived in so we have no reductions. I didnt know that though so interesting to know thank you :)

You’ll be living in a shit hole for ages
I know ahhhh!

You need to ask yourself whether you can put up with living in an unfinished house for years while you do it up bit by bit. We did our reno in two phases, but the first phase was major – we had to do electrics, plumbing (inc new boiler), plastering, flooring, new bathroom and kitchen. We started it six months after moving in and I don't think I could have waited much longer tbh, because I was starting to get down about the rundown state of the place.

If you do go ahead piecemeal, I would advise don't do upstairs first, do the living spaces downstairs. Bedrooms are just where you go to get your head down, the rooms you congregate in as a family will matter more if you can't do the reno all at once.

Angelica

I agree but I am worried downstairs will be even more complicated and expensive. We have lot of original tiling and some really nice polished parquets. Replumbing and rewiring that was going to be a mammoth pain as it was.

Hmm @LoudestCat14

Thrown a different opinion in there but worthy of consideration!

What do people think about converting the garage studio by putting up a wall in line with Pantry window wall and living in the back of there temporarily. Bed, wardrobe with essentials, sofa, tv and desk for a makeshift workspace, and we run out the back door to visit the kitchen and shower room.

You need to ask yourself whether you can put up with living in an unfinished house for years while you do it up bit by bit

I think at this stage we have no choice. And I flipping HATE dust. Its going to be hell.

@LemonSwan

Hmm *@LoudestCat14*

Thrown a different opinion in there but worthy of consideration!

What do people think about converting the garage studio by putting up a wall in line with Pantry window wall and living in the back of there temporarily. Bed, wardrobe with essentials, sofa, tv and desk for a makeshift workspace, and we run out the back door to visit the kitchen and shower room.

I can see what working as an option looking at the floorplan, but how long do you envisage living like that?

Also, have you take a builder round yet? It's worth doing if you haven't, as they may have a different perspective on what you can do for the budget you have.

We have original parquet and so the heating and rewire was done by dropping pipes and wires from above. Having pipework n show is fairly standard in a period property, the wires were chased in which was fairly messy.

Decorating wise we opted mostly for lining paper rather than re-skim. Sometimes that it’s a better option for an older house.

I’d really question if it’s worth it when you only see yourself staying there for 10 years. Usually this type of project is for a house you intend to stay in long term as the hassle and effort involved really isn’t worth it otherwise. If it doesn’t meet your long term needs I’d just buy something more affordable now. We stretched to the biggest house in the best location we could afford knowing it would take time to make right but that we’d never have to move again.

We found a lovely house to make our own. It requires the full works (rewire, replumb, new ceilings, new plaster/skims etc, refurbish windows, new flipping everything!. We planned to have 45k for immediate work fund (first year or so) and to add what we could afford later and work room by room.

We renovated a 4 storey Georgian townhouse which had been criminally neglected by its previous owners. It cost around £150k all in, including a new extension, doubling the attic, painting & decorating, and carpets etc throughout. But we now have a 5/6 bedroom house worth around £500k & it didn't cost us that!

Start with the basics: make sure the house is watertight, so start with the roof. Then rewire and replumb, then replaster. Get the basics done. Everything else can be doe as & when.

I got to design my own kitchen, which was fab! We extended the back of the house s it's in a wonderful new glass extension. I love it. We put in two bathrooms, plus scullery with loo. We doubled the size of the attic, so it's now a double studio for both us (we work from home) flooded with light & fabulous views.

Our house is in a conservation area & I had builders who were amazing & sensitive to the remaining original features. We're now about to start on the garden.

My policy was: I wanted the house watertight & solid. I wanted everything quite plain, as I have quite a lot of family antiques and so on, so didn't want fussy decorating.

I'd agree. You say you see it as a 10 year house, but 5+ years of that time it'll be a hellhole.

I'm doing a renovation in stages, but I can't see myself moving in the next 20 or 25 years at least, so it's worth it.

Telling the OP about your amazing £150k renovation and extension is utterly pointless.

The whole point of this thread is that she doesn't have that kind of cash.

Start with the basics: make sure the house is watertight, so start with the roof. Then rewire and replumb, then replaster. Get the basics done.

The OP can't afford the basics.

OP - I'm one of the ones saying don't do it, unless you see this as a really long term home. 5+ years of scrimping and saving, living on a building site, when you are only going to enjoy the finished product for a few years before you move is not worth it.

Theres 3 double bedrooms and a bathroom. Just focus on rewiring, and replumbing those with central heating, plumb the bathroom but don't install yet (maybe see if we can fit just the toilet in the budget), and use monthly top up to replaster/skim, and decorate room by room. But leave the window restorations for later.

Reading through a bit more:

Our builders started at the top (new roof, double the size of the attic), and one of the things they did was to wire & plumb the 2 top floors separately to the two bottom floors. So eventually, when we retire (we shan't stay in this area) we can renovate the house to 2 flats for an income). So it need not be as expensive that way, as doing it piecemeal.

We also ad all new windows made. For conservation/listed reasons, they have to be timber sash windows. It was cheaper to put all new ones in than restore the existing ones. But as I said, the house had been totally neglected before we bought it.

Telling the OP about your amazing £150k renovation and extension is utterly pointless

I'm pointing out that it will actually cost more than she has! And that a decent renovation will get the basics right, otherwise there's no point.

And yes, living 3 years in a building site for only 10 years total may not be to everyone's taste, but she might also be lucky and make a bit of a capital gain. If she does it properly.

I think everyones right and we were pushing it originally. We wanted to go as big as we could before kids (lates 20s) to lock in the gains we had made before our affordability gets destroyed.

We planned to leave around mid- primary as the schools aren't the best unless you can get into the grammars. So originally I estimated thats c. 3 years until little ones + 7 years to mid primary.

But we cant bring a baby into a building site so that might also need to be delayed. So maybe 12 years.

We are mad quite clearly. I need a face in hands emoji or to find the lost 30k.

I think we might have to just hope the broker saves us

*We have original parquet and so the heating and rewire was done by dropping pipes and wires from above. Having pipework n show is fairly standard in a period property, the wires were chased in which was fairly messy.

Decorating wise we opted mostly for lining paper rather than re-skim. Sometimes that it’s a better option for an older house.*

Thats really helpful thank you. My mum is a dab hand at paper so I am sure she will assist.

OP you'll get through it by hook or by crook. I'm almost 15 years here and right now I'm taking a break from paintbrush in hand eventually painting our loft conversion. 2 DC a divorce, another wedding and another DC put paid to original plans, but here I am.

Great advice up thread. Just came on to say that you'll find a way. When you get to decorating/ furnishing/ bathrooms/ kitchen be a total bargain hunter- it makes all the difference.

So, two things. Can you rebalance your LTV so you take more money on the mortgage (bigger loan) and keep more of your deposit? That would free up more cash but may delay things as you're going to need to get new mortgage decisions made.

Secondly, we did a rewire and plumb in 2019 including a new boiler and consumer unit, and they cost £12k for both (including radiators and light fittings) and our house is 2200sqft. So I think you probably could do the 'big' things, and then attack the rest one room at a time, as long as you're prepared to upgrade fittings as and when you can afford them and you're doing each room rather than front loading the cost straight after purchase.

My other advice is to get a couple of the cheaper rooms sorted if you can - two bedrooms and a living space - so that you have somewhere to retreat from the dust. We're two years on, and we're probably 85% finished now. It's a process but it's doable.

Oh, and also, it's amazing what you can do if you turn your hand to it!

@LemonSwan skimming a period property is difficult because you lose original features like cornice, skirting, picture rail etc. Also big old houses tend to have cracked plaster, which is normal but expands and contracts with the heat. Modern strong lining paper is resistant and also keeps the original detailing in place. I think this is actually why woodchip became so popular. Paper also retains a slightly imperfect surface which adds to the character (newly skimmed walls are dead flat). Our decorator was £170/day so if someone can do the papering and you don’t have kids yet then that’s a big saving. Our decorating bill was easily £10k+

I’m not sure about the layout changes you mentioned - it depends if you want to be pragmatic. There is nothing wrong with the layout per se, so you would have to decide whether you want to save that £15k and not bother. Our structural engineer basically said he would calculate any changes we want but some (moving a wall in our utility) would cost a lot and not really add anything.

Having said all that, if money were no object I would consider a kitchen diner in the dining room/utility space and then keep a second sitting room.

I’d also wonder if the studio space could become a home office because that will also add value.

I'd do it the other way around - I'd open the kitchen into the garage/studio, have an almost U shaped kitchen/dining/family space but with the 'messy life bits' (laundry, etc!) still hidden away. Then you could have a more adult sitting area in the living room, and use the other room as something like a study/playroom/library/spare bedroom.

That would also probably be one of the cheapest ways to do it - you'd need a steel to hold up the kitchen wall but presumably the services are all there already so you wouldn't need to move anything and you'd only be getting rid of one wall.

So turn the shower room into a utility, the pantry into a WC accessed off the utility. A downstairs shower is useful though, we had one in our old house and I miss it!

Thanks all :)

I went on a long walk of despair so was good to have these positive messages on return!

Yes we just need to get excited about the vision. I think we can live through anything if we keep excited about the end result.

I like that idea about kitchen diner in dining room & adjacent utilities. That dining room is a really nice room so that would be lovely.