Run out of money for renovation - what do do next?

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We've done the main parts of our renovation but due to increasing materials prices and certain 'choices' by a certain S.O ;-) we've ultimately run out of money. We probably need another £40K-50K to get the nice-to-have bits done.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Does anyone know what the options are out there for low interest loans etc?

In your position I'd probably extend my mortgage as the rates are really low at the moment and you can more or less adjust the repayment term to your needs. Much cheaper than a home improvement loan. I'd then arrange a re-evaluation of my home to adjust the loan to value in view of the work done.

How would a garden tidy up cost much?

Tbh we just did a big extension, but decided to go all out on space instead of holding back for new kitchen etc. So we got a cheap second hand kitchen, have saved up for a patio etc.

We will be painting ourselves, skirtings etc. 2e have one shell of a room that will one day be a bathroom (we have another) so didn't want to borrow for any if these things.

If we were to, we would look to borrow extra on the mortgage.

Ah, landscaping isn't cheap. How bad is it?

When I looked at home improvement loan I couldn’t take it anymore than 7 years and max was £35k, so for £40k you would be looking at a payment of £600 per month with my high street bank Over 7 years.

@JuneOsborne

Ah, landscaping isn't cheap. How bad is it?

A decent garage is going to cost £20K at least with materials costs how they are, a landscaped garden could easily run into £20k-30K + for the size it is. At the moment it's just a huge mess that even if we tidied up we wouldn't want to use.

I'd extend the mortgage. The interest rate should be much lower than a loan and you're increasing the value of the property.

Did you mortgage to the hilt or do you have room to extend it?

You need to wait. We bought a money pit. You just have to live with it

£50k for 'nice to have' bits when you have a maximum of £300 spare income month sounds like you need to sit back, admire the work you have done already and maybe just enjoy where you are at while you build back up your savings. I would love to know how much your total budget was, what the value of the house is and what you would spend the extra £50k on.. but I am very nosy and love Grand Designs.. could you get your house and release some equity from the increase in value, and add this to your mortgage to fund the rest?

Mortgage is probably the best way if you can increase it. Other than that just lower expectations so do the garage but look at cheaper landscaping options.

You don't need to spend all that money on landscaping. Just tidy it up and work on it a bit at a time, year by year.

I'd personally borrow to do the bare minimum landscaping, something that makes it usable and sets you up to get it finished. Then do the rest as and when I could afford it.

We were in a similar situation. In the end out front we did the driveway and footings/concrete block for the garage. Out the back we did just the levelling of the land and a concrete base for the patio.

Then we laid the lawns and did the planting ourselves the following summer. Had the patio finished 2years later and then another 2 years after that we finished the garage.

Landscaped garden for 20k!

It was a tiny space but my terrace garden was full of rubbish and brambles and I had a very tight budget. I found a gardener who came in on odd days when he wasn't working and it totalled about 700 pounds to have it cleared and half of it paved, half of it turfed.

@JuneOsborne

Ah, landscaping isn't cheap. How bad is it?

I can't imagine any garden that would take more than a bit of hard graft and a few hundred spent on turf and plants and maybe laying some slabs How bad can it be?

Are you paying people to do all the work on your house or doing it yourself? The former is expensive.

I'm really surprised you're even considering a loan. Just do it bit by bit, give up on the idea of a perfect finished house as it'll never be done!

Those nice to have bits are things everyday people have so save up for.

Unless you add to your mortgage a loan of £40k repaid at £200 a month would take 18-20 years. No way would a lender allow that

You are better off either extending the mortgage if you can, or saving. Wanting to complete something is a good motivator to not spend on rubbish

An extra £50k isn’t “bits”. You need to start by being realistic. We just had our small terraced garden landscaped for £25k following an inheritance and we’re both 55.

Having completed an epic renovation (18m in static caravan, it was truly Grand Designs-worthy), we are in the same position as you with probably the same amount of money needed to do the landscaping / garden / patio. (For those of you wondering how you'd spend £50k on landscaping, it cost us £10k in materials and plant only to do our drive, labour was us entirely. Grab lorries cost £300 a go cash near us - we used 4x of them to level the drive and get rid of the left over building materials etc. We've priced the patio up as £6k materials only and guessing if we had to pay for labour that would be another £8-10k, plant another £1k maybe, we're much better at driving it now! That's before we start on the garden - levelling, new topsoil across most of the garden, create flower beds, flowers to go in the beds.... that's easily £2-3k)

The ways to raise the money are:

• remortage
• credit cards (only if you have access to 0% and are very disciplined about moving the money around, else don't do it or you will end up in a right pickle)
• loans
• savings

But fundamentally it depends on having access to cash to repay. We are doing it bit by bit - last year we did the front drive. Next summer we should be doing the patio (although discussions are ongoing about whether we are doing it ourselves or paying someone.. the £8k cost of labour is a bit off putting...). But we have accepted it will take time to do, and also prioritise the order. We had to have the drive done first, although we will need to cover it to prevent it being trashed when we do the back, as otherwise we would be wading through a foot of mud each time it rained.

I vote for doing it bit by bit providing you can actually live there I can’t see the problem You can get amazing bargains on Facebook selling But, I’m super tough and have lived in pretty horrible conditions doing my renovation I absolutely would not be getting in Debt for landscaping

4 years after buying our current house we're still not finished renovating 😅 We're due to start and finish the bathrooms in a few months and then it's just some very small jobs left.

We didnt have enough left over to do much to the house after buying it. We knew we would save and do as we had money. My partner is also in a field were he earns commission which is a huge part of why we are able to go this route.

Evening classes in building technology, home restoration, and DIY.

We’ve got all the hard work done while we’ve got builders. We’ve put £25k extra on the mortgage in order to get the garden finished, mend the garage, and put shelving and stuff and utility fitted.

I’d put it on the mortgage.

Before you borrow any more money have you considered whether all the money you gave spent and are considering spending is adding value. Property prices are at an all time high. Would you be able to recoup the costs if you needed to sell? Everyone is different but I have never forked out on work where I wouldn't get it back and more on resale. Some people tend to get carried away with renovations and spend way over the odds. The 30k for landscaping for example. Value wise what would it add? I know it's nice to have your house how you want it but there has to be a line

I’d be really surprised if you could get a loan on the terms you want, and it would be over such an extended period the interest would really add up. If you can’t remortgage now, I’d suggest waiting until property prices increase. It doesn’t really seem to me you have much option.