Have a house you can't afford to renovate?

[Fishtankerous]

Anyone else?

My house needs so much doing to it that I am feeling completely overwhelmed.

We bought it as a fixer upper a few years ago, but you know how it goes - savings got decimated by issues that were worse than originally thought. Yeah yeah, naive first time buyers we were.

Currently the pressing issue is a rotten leaking old conservatory that likely won't survive another winter, annoyingly a toilet is attached to it which is actually part of the house so just demolishing it isn't straightforward and we've already got a quote for 9k to get rid of it, that's not even replacing it.

We don't even have 9k so fuck knows what we'll do. We could borrow against mortgage or get a loan but we're scraping by as it is, especially with the recent rise in energy costs etc and the general cost of living going up but our wages remaining stagnant.

(Ironically the state of the conservatory isn't helping us to save on energy bills because its causing the rest of the house to lose a LOT of heat - because it doesn't have external entry doors as the damn thing predates building regs!)

That's not to mention all the other issues in the house that we're ignoring because we're having to work on order of importance (i.e. If somethings gonna collapse soon that's gonna have to come first!)

Sorry to have a moan, I know things could be a lot worse especially with what's going on in the world. It's important to have some perspective I realise.

But after another quote for works for 10-15k today I'm just more and more annoyed, and needing some stories from others in a similar position!

What needs doing in your home that you can't do yet?

I have one tip others might find useful. If fitting new skirtings, cut to size then paint before fitting so to avoid getting paint on carpets or laminate. Put skirting on after laminate so to give a neater finish.

We also had condensation in shower room but managed to sort that one relatively inexpensively by having a fan fitted by electrician. He only charged £120 and condensation all gone now. Will paint over area used to get condensation with damp block paint then bathroom paint. Wanted to make sure it was cured before painting over.

@caringcarer

I have one tip others might find useful. If fitting new skirtings, cut to size then paint before fitting so to avoid getting paint on carpets or laminate. Put skirting on after laminate so to give a neater finish.

Thank you, I would have tried to paint them on the wall

Zinsser wallpaper remover is brilliant, removed woodchip wallpaper just like normal paper after scoring and spraying the walls.

Does anyone else dread dealing with contractors? We've had a couple of bad experiences, and I actually feel a bit sick when appointing anyone now, and can't relax until we're all settled up.

Yes Glumy. It makes me very anxious as so scared of being ripped off when I do eventually raise funds to fix things.

Op do you have a floor plan?

Do you actually want a conservatory?
I mean why replace like for like, could you use the footprint and foundations to build an extension?

I found my people in renovation nightmares.
We moved a year ago into a lovely bungalow with existing loft conversion and as we downsized we had the cash to do it up.......
Then the 40sqm mancave in the garden collapsed leaving wiring exposed to the rain. On taking on corner of wall paper off it appears the house is drylined with chip board then papered over - underneath which is bare brick. It rains inside the house through every flat bit of roof. And the plans we had to make the bathroom suitable for anyone over 4ft 5 as it's in the eaves are in ruins due to some technical something that I zoned out whilst it was explained. There's so much more that I couldn't begin to list
The house is in a far worse state then when we bought - far from saleable. Money we moved in with has pretty much disappeared in endless small fixes whilst making no progress on the big ones - let alone making it vaguely presentable.
#sigh.

RaininSummer exactly, if you get screwed over it takes years to get enough money to put it right. The pressure is awful.

Watershed moment for us today … ordered a very very basic kitchen refit. Budget carcasses, laminate etc. and I did haggle! But should be about £7k all in inc fitting etc which I don’t think is too bad. Can’t wait for it to be done as we have lived with bare plaster and stupid layout for 3 years now!

Paid a deposit on a credit card, 0% deal and won’t be paying that off any time soon…

If the conservatory is unusable and making everywhere cold I would recommend celotex sheets they are highly efficient insulation lightweight and you can tape them together. They are pricey but, you can sell them afterwards or use them yourself you will be much warmer We had no windows for 6 weeks and used them

@Fishtakerous I have had 3 doer uppers - a builder friend of mine said yes you want the nice paint inside but prioritise all the outside things which make the house water tight etc - so roof , windows , doors , sorting out the damp. - in your case perhaps getting rid of the conservatory and new doors . Not interesting but I think the right way to do it.

We had a toddler and then slightly older son whilst we were doing the inside bit by bit. I just stopped noticing the mess and I expected good friends to - the marvellous thing was I never worried about children's mess or anything as it simply did not matter. Once we got on to making things nice - a different matter

We had a rubbish leaking conservatory at the back of 2 houses ago - DH and I just took it down over a weekend. It was not able to be fixed in truth so we took it down and put a cheap door to the back whilst we decided what to do. ( It did not have brick lower walls )

I wish you well - I think my eldest son did not know what carpet was for 4 years of his life - but he has turned out OK

I do wish you well & just to say from one experience - you will probably get through it - don't worry. You will probably laugh about this one day ( I hope - we have )

TiddleTaddle sounds like progress. I have a falling off kitchen cupboard door on my to fix list. Our second time though so hinge plates at the ready. Would love to gut it and start over but that's at least 5 years away. We do have a bathroom booked for summer, quite excited about that. It's from Wicks, and the payment options were 1, full amount at point of sale (um, no way in hell) or 2, set up a finance deal which is 0% for one year from the date of completion. Seems odd there's no deposit and pat balance on completion option.

In other news something is leaking in my dd's bedroom ceiling, as we have a nice damp patch on the ceiling. It's middle floor so must be a pipe or something, sigh.

We waterproofed our conservatory for £20 last summer and it’s lasted fine during the winter and the storms! Where is the water coming from? Is it a flat roof?

So it transpires that none of our windows have air vents!that probably explains the damp?im having to open them fully in a morning when it’s -1 outside!
The boiler is leaking now,
Living room and our bedroom lights don’t work,we thought it might be the bulbs but nope.

We are knocking down an old conservatory in the coming weeks …… and building a new extension…… can’t wait to get started , hopefully it won’t cost anymore than a skip and hard work ….my tip would be to learn to try and do as much as you can yourself 👍

This thread reminds me of the old adage, if you can’t afford an expensive boat, you certainly can’t afford a cheap one.
Did anyone feel like they overpaid? What I see now is basic wrecks going for

Is anyone getting rid of nasty fake grass and replacing it with the real thing? I want that done by the summer but fear it’s going to be pricey.

I feel your pain, we bought a 1930s doer upper for a bargain tbf two and a half years ago. We’ve done as much as we can by ourselves, but it has cost way more than we anticipated. So far it’s been funded by any spare cash we have, a loan and 0% credit cards. Hit a bit of a brick wall now because we have our wedding to pay for, we have one of the bedrooms left to do, bathroom, hall stairs and landing, ripping off the old porch, the garden, the driveway, the outhouse and boarding the loft and fitting a proper loft hatch.

So far we have done:

My advice would be do every single thing you can yourself, we leave anything skilled to tradesmen like plastering and electrics (although we did chase our sockets into the walls ourselves very successfully, and I did have a go at plastering the spare room myself which took an eternity, but didn’t actually save much money in the end).

Source as much as you can second hand and upcycle, we have had some amazing finds on eBay like our solid wood dining room table and 6 chairs for £100 that we reupholstered and painted in F&B, got a vintage chest of drawers for £17, wooden fire surround for £20, cast iron style radiators for £100 each when we’re quoted £350 for the identical ones by our builder etc.

I also strongly recommend subscribing to some YouTube channels of people who are renovating their houses themselves on a budget, as you will learn loads and get great ideas. Really recommend Laura Melhuish Sprague and Hermione Chantal, we learnt so much from their DIY videos. Also, use YouTube to teach you how to do everything.

Colour match expensive paint with Valspar, try to keep as much of the original features as you can, we were quoted £4000 to replace our front door and stained glass windows with UPVC ones, we ended up getting a new wooden front door for £300, paid £160 to get it fitted and will be secondary glazing the stained glass ourselves.

Lastly pick your battles, if you can’t afford to do the whole house then pick the most important rooms and do those first.

Our 1970s house constantly delivers little surprises. Has had its share of bodgers over the years. As an example of our surprises...
Shower decided to gradually fail, no longer getting decent flow if you want actually hot water.
Decide to change it. Plumber comes to look. Don't do ones with that footprint any more, you're going to have gaps. OK we can live with that and a gun full of filler... your electrics won't handle it you'll need a better trip.
Electrician turns up, don't just need a better trip, need a separate one (2 joined in one trip somehow), oh, and the wire isn't thick enough, needs replacing, oh and there's no room on the olllllld consumer unit, so you need a new one. The wiring to the detached garage will need replacing, totally off spec, the lighting circuit wiring will need replacing, but the plugs are OK (as if that makes it ok).

Thing is the shower cost £119... the fitting would cost around £3800.

So we just got a shower mixer tap and stop anyone using the kitchen sink when someone's in the "shower".

I don’t think you save much in the current climate by buying a doer upper. In this area they are only proved about 5-10% less than a fully ‘done’ house (excluding costly additions like extensions, loft conversions etc).

I think what we got from buying a 1930s house that was stuck in the 1980s was-
Great street
Great big garden
Freehold
Ideal location
Little bit off the price
Negotiation power because - and this is the most important factor - there was a much smaller pool of buyers because most were turned off by the decor / old boiler / awful kerb appeal etc etc.

While I often lament the thousands - millions! Of hours spent planning, arranging quotes, discussing, ordering samples, buying materials, doing DIY, etc. I don’t regret buying this house. Even if we hadn’t done anything to it , the prices for houses in a similar state are now 20% more than what we paid.

It was the only way we could afford to buy in this area.

@Chumleymouse we sold our old conservatory on FB marketplace. We had 12 enquiries and eventually got £500 plus the buyers dismantled it! I was amazed and thought my DH was mad when he suggested selling it.

The doors are already spoken for, the windows and cills are starting to rot away in the corners , But I’m going to try selling the roof , I think it would make a nice covered area for someone if it was built on posts up against a wall. It’s all in good condition and a good design,

@TiddleTaddleTat - I agree - in that there is not the margin in a doer upper to pay for what needs doing - many years ago that was not the case. Our first house was right on the margin of this - even 27 years ago it was touch and go whether we could renovate for the cost af a fully refurbished house.

That said there are some houses which on the face of it are fine but are not to people's taste and you can find nasty surprises.

I have done doer uppers because I don't want to pay for someone else's taste & am happy to live with old things if they work for a while whilst we get things done.

That said I have never bought a house intending to make money - just some where nice to live & I am ( somewhat) patient