Please help - closing date today!

[anotherexhaustedpigeon]

We've gone and fallen in love with a wreck that closes today, and we don't know what to do. If we're successful we'll have spent almost all our money on the house (and tax ) BUT will be left with this kitchen - no appliances except an old broken range cooker that also is supposed to provide heating. This is in a nook (not shown) directly above the angled wall. The angled bit houses the hot water tank.The top two doors are cupboards, the bottom right door is the only access to the room. It's listed so we can't knock anything down (to start with, an extension is on the long-term wish list)
My question is, can we make this a liveable kitchen for a family of four on a tight budget?! If so, how??

How much of a wreck is it and how long does it need to be in use for until you renovate permanently? Freestanding kitchen units like this can provide cheap storage and work surfaces: www.wayfair.co.uk/Ebern-Designs--Alexin-Kitchen-Island-V114326291-L56-K~U003215180.html?refid=GX425171388185-U003215180_625032105&device=m&ptid=1298410109030&targetid=pla-1298410109030&network=g&ireid=145586414&PiID%5B%5D=625032105&device=m&gclid=CjwKCAjwmeiIBhA6EiwA-uaeFa5ueS0ojTNZTS0dvX108rXUDLvQDzkufpLjVdJlhfNo6zEKwCXozhoCu_gQAvD_BwE

Presuming it has an electricity and water supply then you can buy a basic freestanding washing machine, electric cooker and fridge for a couple of hundred pounds each (or much cheaper secondhand.)

If the range also provides heating, and there’s no central heating currently, are you sure it’s going to be liveable with winter approaching?

Measurements would help. Depending on that you'd kind of be camping out til you sorted it, but I lived fir three months with a sink and a baby belling oven with two electric burners on top and a mini fridge in my dining room while my kitchen was being extended. I had a toddler and teenager at the time.

How long until you can put in a kitchen?
I often see kitchens available for £100 or less on FB. Would that, together with a fridge, freezer and washing machine off gumtree do you while you save to have a fabulous kitchen installed?

Thanks everyone. Agreed measurements would have been useful but I had to hold the baby whilst viewing as floor not suitable for crawling based on floorplan it's about 3.4m by 3.17m, I was just stressed about there not being any straight-run walls - everything has a door or window! Freestanding is a good shout, and I think we'd have enough random bits and bobs to muddle by for now, we'd get the range fixed if possible to give us hot water. I'm thinking if we took the door off the top left cupboard the fridge could sit into that, then space for sink + a 40 base unit either side then a cabinet on the side wall - hopefully that would give space for a table too!

Annoyingly we have an amazing 100cm range cooker and 80cm American fridge that I adore, but don't think we can fit it in anywhere

Do you need a workable kitchen to get a mortgage?

Listed wreck and presumably you don't have any survey. Falling in love with houses, especially wrecks is something I do, so I mean this kindly, are you sure? If by closing you mean a best and final offer that can be withdrawn if necessary all well and good. But if you're committed be careful.

My sister bought a wreck knowing and having budgeted for everything having to be gutted and done. Everything that is apart from having to take down the roof and one of the four walls and rebuild it. They could afford to lose £200k plus additional on the renovation but it hurt!

I think that it qualifies as a workable kitchen as it has a sink and a door! Central heating etc not a requirement. The roof is good, we've budgeted for damp coursing and the general renovation we just would need to live in it while we waited for planning permission & listed building consent before we'd free up cash to build an extension. I'm not sure, no, surely you have to be crazy to be sure!!

Well, look on the bright side, if you can fit a caravan in anywhere that's you sorted while you get it fixed. Extending into listed building curtilage, make sure you can get planning permission for that if you desperately need the extension.

Join SPAB if you're not experienced with listed or old buildings and it needs a lot of work.

I lived for months with a hot plate on the counter and a counter top oven both from Lidl while I renovated. It was fine! And I washed up in the bath.

Thanks, hadn't heard of SPAB (we're in Scotland so different org here I think) but clearly useful info! Well, we'll see what happens & if we've been successful soon enough! Fingers crossed 🤞

Fingers crossed!

You are in Scotland and you are not worried about heating? You are tough!

I’d not recommend buying a wreck if the purchase leaves you with no money, or maybe you were exaggerating ?
No kitchen no heating and a baby doesn’t sound good.
I’ve bought a wreck, we budgeted 150K for renovation, it cost almost double, it’s not for the faint hearted, even my teenagers struggled with the cold and dust/mess.
Hopefully you do have access to money if you are seriously considering buying.

@Itscoldouthere it's just complicated, rather than exaggerating. We've put an offer in that is affordable, and would leave us some assets we wouldn't need to sell immediately. Then hopefully in a few years when we've got planning applications done and signed off and are ready to go ahead with the major work we'll be in a good position. Immediately we'd be looking at energy saving trust loans to sort the heating issue and would do the damp proofing and decor ourselves which we can afford to do. I feel confident that it's manageable, and we have temporary heaters from when we did this 2 years ago that we can use in the meantime. Really appreciate the advice here, was reassuring just to write it all out and see how nuts it sounded!

I always buy a wreck at the top of my budget. So far so good. It generally works out ok if you know what you are doing and where to buy things.
Do beware of damp proof courses, they are not always a good idea in old properties.

@anotherexhaustedpigeon well if you’ve got some experience and money in the pipeline then it’s not so daunting.
We’ve always done up our houses, started off by buying something tatty and old kitchen/bathrooms are best for us as we like to make it as we like it.
I have however realised that we have sold all of our houses once completed, which is a bit nuts really.
Our last house was a proper refurbishment, we thought it would be ok to live in but after two weeks we had to go on holiday and have a rewire and basic plumbing put in, it had very dangerous electrics and was freezing cold, we were miserable especially the teenagers who couldn’t use the internet without a fuse blowing.
We lived there for about a year before we started building works and as I said it cost almost double, this was doing up/converting old buildings, no new extensions were needed, but with old you never know what you are going to find (a well under the flags in a corridor was one for us).
It was very rewarding and I did love our last house, but we sold it last year, I guess I’m not a forever house type of person.
Well I hope it works for you, I found it rather stressful doing our first house referb with a baby as it was so noisy and dusty, but it was summer in London so I just went out a lot.
With the Scottish system do you hear quite quickly?

Hmm that's interesting and reassuring!! We lost out today, despite bidding 45% over asking price clearly wasn't enough. We're gutted but will keep looking and hopefully the perfect place will be listed soon!!

Oh bad luck, 45% over sounds crazy, but I know nothing about the Scottish market. I hope something else comes up for you 🤞🏻