So out of my depth… Budget nowhere near enough

[Downdumps]

I’ve name changed for this as my friends don’t know my dire financial straits.

I bought a doer upper (because we had to move and it was all I could afford). I knew I would have a very fixed budget for it, but as I’m starting to get quotes in I’m realising that it doesn’t even touch the sides.

Everything is twice what I expected (I’m not stupid and have renovated houses before, but not for a while). Wtf am I going to do? At this rate my budget is going to run out and I won’t have done half the stuff this house needs. As an example, I’d budgeted around £2k to get the kitchen fitted - first quote is £4k.

Earning more isn’t really an option and the stress of the renovation is already taking its toll. I’ve already borrowed £10k from family. I’m not talking expensive kitchens and marble flooring either, just getting the basics done.

How do people renovate on a budget in this day and age? I’m not skilled so doing things myself isn’t really an option.

I am starting to get really worried I’ve bought a wreck that I’ll never be able to do up. Any advice?

I wouldnt go for a fitted kitchen. Free standing units will cost a lot less and have a nice Farmhouse look. I have a friend who did this deliberately and it cost her a fraction of the cost of a fully fitted kitchen (which is a really recent fashion to be honest) and looks so much nicer. Also she can move stuff around to suit herself if she gets fed up with it. I full intend to do that myself when I get around to doing my kitchen. I will probably keep the wall cupboards but the base units will all be freestanding and hopefully second hand!

You tube will give you loads of info on how to strip and repaint them. A length of good quality good work top cut and sanded to create several good size chopping boards meant that she didnt need to worry about work surfaces and again looks really nice with the added bonus that its a timeless look so wont date as a lot of kitchens tend to do as fashions change.

www.scaramangashop.co.uk/Fashion-and-Furniture-Blog/how-to-design-a-vintage-kitchen/

@Downdumps

The kids are teenagers and their rooms are AWFUL. I feel under so much pressure to get them done quickly so they’ll feel happier.

If it's just painting to make the bedrooms look presentable, the teenagers could do this themselves. Or at least help you - do you have any experience at all with decorating? Carpentry and fitting stuff is hard and and a skilled job, but painting is something you could reasonably expect to be able to do yourself, and within a limited mount of time. I can remember painting our house with my Mum when I was about 14, we didn't do a fantastic job, but we though it looked great! Your teenagers might surprise you.

How much work - does it need electrics/heating windows or is it just cringy 1990s decor and dated fittings?
You can get a long way by painting all the walls white, giving it a very thorough clean and maybe replacing one or two key units or appliances. Maybe replace floorings in the rooms you use most often. It won't be a show home but it will be a burden for years trying to renovate if you work and have young kids.

Will any family members help with painting at the weekends or looking after DC?

For kitchens and bathrooms, it's cheapest to keep more or less the same layout and just fit new fittings to the existing plumbing. For example we swapped the sink and bath to improve our bathroom and it was £500 labour.

I'd try to track down a small builder or handyman - start with some small jobs to suss them out - who will be up for doing odd jobs on a day rate such as putting up shelves or reconfiguring a few cupboards. They may know other trades e.g. an electrician.

A friend did the freestanding look. Bought an old big wardrobe painted it. New handles voila she had a pantry. It looked fantastic. Painted up other bits of furniture same colour it was impressive

Oh God it's overwhelming. But you will get there.

Make a priority list of jobs and refine them down to the simplest form. Put the word out that you are looking for free stuff for a house renovation - people are desperate to get rid of things at the moment. Agreed about thinking if you can swap any skills for DIY time.

What's awful about the teenage rooms?

Hold on - your kids are teenagers? Definitely rope them in to help.
Bedrooms are really easy to improve as they don't have any plumbing.

Also don't underestimate your abilities. Quite a lot of DIY can be done by anyone as long as they take care over it, there are loads of Youtube videos and books out there. A few tools and someone learning how to fix things to walls (shelves, curtain rails etc) will save you a fortune. You might even find a retired neighbour who would do a bit of coaching.

I wish they just needed painting! They need replastering, new windows, heating, shelving/storage, there are dodgy electrics.

I do have a handyman but he’s said he’ll only do painting for me.

Teenagers can paint but I’m pretty sure they can’t fit radiators or plaster a ceiling…

Again, I must reiterate: it’s the skilled labour I’m struggling with.

Can you find a local handyman who you can give a list of your most urgent jobs to? They’ll probably be able to fit a straightforward kitchen but without the kitchen fitter premium. When I bought my house, I got recommended a local guy who painted my hall, stairs and landing (v. high ceiling so didn’t fancy it myself), insulated my loft and replaced a couple of cracked roof tiles on a single story kitchen. If I’d done all that with “professionals” it would have cost a lot more for the same outcome.

Maybe then make a less urgent job list for the teenagers over the Easter/Summer holidays - DIY and decorating skills are a great thing to learn at that age!

Is it worth getting in touch with your local colleges - there may be students doing plastering and plumbing courses who’d like some more experience in the holidays for a bit of cash? Not sure if that’s a thing or not…

What is your budget? It sounds like you need to forget decorating as such you just need to make your house safe and sound. If you tell us what needs doing people will be able to advise you better.

@Downdumps

I wish they just needed painting! They need replastering, new windows, heating, shelving/storage, there are dodgy electrics.

I do have a handyman but he’s said he’ll only do painting for me.

What's on the walls atm? What's wrong with the windows? For the kids, can you focus on the electrics (but does that mean a complete rewire of the house?)? Is there no central heating? Can you have oil filled radiators for now for them?

Renovation & materials costs have gone through the roof (!) recently.

Two building projects with full pp due to start in our road have stalled until costs have stabilised.

It’s not you.
It is circumstances beyond your control, so take a deep breath & let the worry go.

The priorities are to have a decent working bathroom & kitchen, because that is what you need to live in comfort & efficiently, & it means that your house can go on the market at anytime if you have to sell. Everything else is just a lick of white paint & basic flooring.

Yes, the kids decorate their own rooms. Anyone looking to buy will accept that it’s a teens room.

@NeverChange has it right about ruthless prioritisation. I use this in another form for business analysis.

As an exercise, go through the house room by room. List everything that you want to be done & then allocate the item/tasks to a priority (essential, necessary, ideal to aspirational) listed with costs.

Kitchen Fix locks essential £x
Kitchen replace cracked window essential £x
Kitchen new sink ideal £x
Kitchen new taps necessary £x
Kitchen gold taps aspire £forget it
Kitchen units reposition - ideal £x
Kitchen work tops replacement essential £x
Kitchen door replacement - ideal £x

…& so on. Be ruthless about what needs to be done & what is essential etc.. Cost things up realistically.

Only tackle the essentials for now not what you fancy doing or feel obliged to provide for others. You’ll have a reasonable idea of the cost of the essentials, work your way through this list as & when you have the money.

Any money left over after the essentials are done, move on to the list of necessary items & do those works as money becomes available, & so on.

This is your decision making machine, driven by priority & cost, & keeps you in control of effort & spend, also helps project management of disruptions. You’ll put up with dust, boxes & workman for days on end because essential work is being done. You can DIY some work to save time & money.

You’ve done renovations before, so you can get back in the tongue & groove of it. You will get there.

with essentials first - make home safe & secure - & cost this out. Then work your way down the list priorisation list allocating things that need to be done & the costs. This is your decision making machine.

I plastered my whole kitchen. Didnt do the ceiling admittedly! So I would paint it white and try not to look up too often until I could afford to get it done!

My father once said to me that spending money on the right tools is what makes the difference between Do It Yourself and Fuck It Up Yourself. He is right. I have a friend in a trade that has said the same, he said that most of the repair work he ddoes is a result of people trying to bodge it without the right equipment rather than it being a difficult job.

I spent some money on proper plastering equipement, did my research to get the right plaster and went for it (back in the day before Youtube tutorials too!). In my defence I was naively thinking "how hard can it be?!"......well it wasnt easy and it obviously took me longer than it would a professional but 22 years later it is still there! There are a few bits that are less than perfect but I covered those with pictures or a handily placed fridge freezer!

I would advise making a list. Divide it into

PRIORITY JOBS - Health and safety.....so heating, electrics and anything that is a (genuine) risk of hurting someone.

SOONER RATHER THAN LATER - I would include windows in this. OK so they do need doing but as long as they are not falling out, they can wait a bit.

NICE BUT NOT ESSENTIAL - New kitchen/bathroom as long as the old ones function. If they dont function fully then just replace the knackered bits. So if the sink leaks in the bathroom just replace that in white, then do the loo/bath when you can.

You can do this but you are going through that horrible thing that we all do when we are doing a big job, like when I decided it was a good idea to clear out the loft. I got to that stage where I was totally overwhelmed but it was too late to just put everything back so I had to power through. You will manage, I have every belief in you (from another single mother who knows the struggle)

I know you say it’s the skilled labour you’re struggling with - have you tried posting on your local NextDoor page to see if there are an apprentices or other handymen/women who might be able to do something a little cheaper?

If you do decide you want to give anything a go yourself definitely check to see if your town/city have a “tools library”. Ours has one and you can borrow so many different tools and they have workshops on etc too. It’s volunteer led so if there’s one nearby you, you might find someone willing to lend a hand!

Electrics - essential.

That’s a start.
Anything to make the house safe & secure is an essential.

Prioritise the bathroom & kitchen over the other rooms as these are the most functional rooms used most often, & as I said you can sell or have your house revalued with these two rooms in good working order. You might even be able to have your mortgage raised if your house is revalued, & have the money to speed up the renovations.

It might be worth posting the jobs on check-a-trade or similar where people will quote more competitively to win the work. When you are describing the work you want doing, keep writing "we' instead of 'I'. Maybe even sign off with a 'Cheers, Dave'. Seriously - make it look like you are a bloke or part of a couple - misogyny is alive and well in the building trade and there's no harm in avoiding being stung an extra 20% by virtue of being a woman.

Might be work posting on Facebook local and looking for a small team of two or three that can take more than one job on - effectively offer it out as a small renovation job.

Insist on price per job not a daily rate
Insist on an end date in writing

In order of urgency, it sounds like:
Electrics
Plastering
Windows
Kitchen & Bathrooms
Decoration

It does feel overwhelming, but if you can find one good tradesperson, they will know others.

Good luck

You are being ripped off get a couple more quotes. Instead of looking for a kitchen fitter look for a handyman. Fitting a kitchen is not difficult. My husband can do it himself and he is an accountant. Tiling is easy even Incan do it.

Bedrooms need a good sand, bits of filler, sand again before painting. You can transform them. Also use decorators caulk to fill in gaps between skirting and wall, allow to dry before painting over.

Work out what needs to be done and what would be nice.

We had planned to rewire but although the wiring is old we decided to keep it for now.

Plastering is workable yourself, but you may well find lining paper is cheaper and faster.

Work out how much you take home a day after tax etc. Doing something slowly over three evenings or so can still easily mean working fewer hours than taking on extra work to then pay someone else. You may even find you are better off working less to free up time compared to outsourcing.

At present here at least nobody we know is taking on small jobs, bar one friend who is a plasterer but charging £600 a day. We didn’t find anyone working for £250 a day unless it was a contract of at least a few months and lower skilled stuff. This made the decision to diy things much easier for us as even if time consuming it meant we were better off than taking on extra work to raise funds.

Prioritise and don't expect to do everything in the same year. I have spent a decade doing my house. Don't set yourself impossible targets.

You need one room that you are comfortable in, can close the door and relax. So start there. Either sitting room or your bedroom. Then essentials....

• safety (electrics, gas),
• structural (holes in the roof etc)
• hygiene (kitchen and bathroom)
• decorative

Learn to decorate. Buy a reference manual, choose a small project to start with and you'll soon be able to do a lot of it yourself.

You say you think tradesmen 'see you coming' and slap on another 2k - do you have anyone who could negotiate the price for you? I. E. A brother, cousin, dad? Might be cheaper if they ask?

Sad but true

What needs doing exactly? Are the units solid? Can't you just change the doors? Plastering might be trick, but look into locking tiles. May be you can just use them? I have seen videos of people covering the lino/vinyl on worktops and it looks good. Sand the walls down and fill try ti fill the uneven bits with plaster. or put wall paper on the walls as it covers a lot of sins.

@Downdumps

The kids are teenagers and their rooms are AWFUL. I feel under so much pressure to get them done quickly so they’ll feel happier.

Get watching a few videos on You Tube and get them to do up their own rooms. Set a budget for each one and get them to do a proper plan.

Paint can do a lot especially if some pals come and help!

We did it ourself, well I say we, I project managed and DH fitted the kitchen, he did all the plumbing as that is something you can do yourself, he also does all the decorating, diy, fitted a new toilet, sink, floor, etc. The only thing you need done by trades is electrics and gas, even then there is some stuff you can do yourself like changing lights and some other small electrical things.