Would we be crazy to take on a major project with 2 kids?

[jwilf]

Been looking for a house for almost a year now. We found one last year, moved into rented accommodation so as not to lose our buyer, then the vendor pulled out.

So now we've been in rented since October with our 2.5 DS and we have a new DD due at the end of May.

Just viewed a house yesterday which is a probate sale so no chain, I was excited about the potential of the house and the garden backs onto a large park with a gate giving direct access, which is great. It's a 4 bed 1930s semi with fairly generous proportions although the front lounge is a bit tight, no space for our dream L shaped sofa...

Anyway the house needs total renovation from top to bottom, it only has one toilet which is in a separate cubicle not even adjacent to the bathroom, which is very small and has a horrid avocado suite. It has some cracks in the brickwork around the front door which look worrying, it looks like the house has settled a bit in the corner, causing some uneven gaps around the windows by the door. More worrying, the staircase is wonky, the whole thing is tilted to the right so the treads are not level. Not sure if this indicates a structural problem in the house or if it is just the stairs that have shifted but either way will be pretty expensive to fix I'd imagine.

To maximise the potential of the house it really needs a rear kitchen extension and ideally a 2 storey side extension at the front (there is a set back garage with the 4th bedroom on top, this would fill in the space in front of it) which is what some similar houses in the street have done. That would give space for a lovely downstairs WC and utility room. But from reading the extension thread I'd guess this would cost at least £200k and we'd have to move out for the duration and get the builders to do absolutely everything, as we won't have time for DIY.

Also this would put the total spend way over our original budget, as the asking price is already at our budget (offers over £800k) although we wouldn't do the work straight away. But of course that means we would have to live with it in its current state for quite some time, with a newborn and a toddler.

I think we've pretty much decided not to make an offer but just wanted to get the mumsnet take on things and hear any similar stories...

No way

I don't know where in the country this is but if it's anywhere near London that is waaay more than £200ks worth of work

Yeah I had a feeling £200k might even be an underestimate, it is in Cheam, Southwest London.

Here's the house - www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/61030386/

Hi OP, from your post I thought "no way", but then I saw the listing. I think that is VERY liveable for 5-7 years as it is - kitchen fine, nice built-in shelves in the lounge, carpets obviously dated and without doubt you'd want to get rid of the Flintstones fire place and extend in the fullness of time. But the garden is lovely, access to the park is amazing, and very likely the house will hold its value while you save up to do the works?

We bought a MUCH more hideous fixer-upper when DS was 2 and I was pregnant with our second, all dingy and grotty with thick green shag carpets... The garden was/is lovely and spacious and we cleaned everything and he loved his bathtimes in the lavender bathroom suite :) Admittedly we had money to extend all lined up but due to planning, Covid and builder availability we lived in it as it was for longer than we expected and it was absolutely fine.

Big proviso is that you do want to find out about the subsidence issue and negotiate according to the costs of getting that sorted - but it's not all that unusual on London clay and affected houses get under-pinned and sorted, not knocked down! Best of luck.

Omg- buy that house- it's beautiful- your DC will love that garden!!! I'm in a similar area and you should see some of the wrecks coming to market for a similar price to this house. They're literal wrecks. Your house is totally liveable.

Your description made it sound much worse than it looks in the pictures (unless they are very deceptive!). I would only get the bathroom done now, very cheaply, knowing you'd refurbish in 5 or so years.

The kind of extension plus redecoration everywhere you are talking about will cost at least £200k, more likely the wrong side of £250k.

I thought no way from what you said until I looked at it. As long as the movement is old movement rather than subsidence I would do it.

I’d be using the front room as a dining room and toy storage and the back room as living room. Also if you think that it might not be possible to do the big extension long term then I would scale it back.

Scaled back version would be knock kitchen into back room and make it a rectangle giving the extra few feet from the current back reception to the front reception which then is living room with kitchen dining room at rear.

Door from kitchen into garage then downstairs toilet and utility room in there - the soil pipe is at the front of the garage I think so not to hard to put a toilet there.

Would see if would be possible to put a toilet in the current bathroom using existing soil pipe and a rejig of existing layout losing the airing cupboard with a combi in the new utility . If not (not sure how far new toilet can be from existing soil pipe) I would look at relocating the bathroom to where the toilet is chopping end off that bedroom to make more space for bathroom and then incorporate existing bathroom into that bedroom.

It’s a lovely house but I think that might be because it’s realistically out your budget, sorry.

You’ll need to spend £1 mill plus and I suspect you haven’t been looking at other million pound properties so of course it’s exciting.

That's a lovely house and plenty big enough for a four person family, you don't have to do a massive extension. I'd go for it, you can always do major works later

Gorgeous house. Why do you need to do loads of work up front?

Lovely house, do the stairs, which probably just need a joiner. And live in it.

Depending on your needs for a garage, I’d be tempted to turn the garage into living space and then do one big rejig of the downstairs area to give living dining kitchen etc plus separate living room, down stairs toilet and storage and possibly utility. Could still be £30k plus easily but would give much better living space without extending. Carport then in front of current garage.

Meant to say minimum £30k plus cost of new kitchen.

I agree with the others. Adjust your mindset about what you actually need from a house and that place could definitely be lived in as it is for 5 years or more whilst you save up for renovations. Definitely be wary of the crack in the small front bedroom. Looks possibly like a bad (subsidence) crack to me.

Your new neighbours will hate you!...months and months of building works? :)

But seriously, it'll cost far too much to get it as you wish.

A full structural survey would be your first step.

I did an extention at our old house with 1 x 3 yr old. It was grim.

I think that's subsidence.
Sorry :(

@GreenFingeredNell15

Gorgeous house. Why do you need to do loads of work up front?

This

Why do you think you need an extension?? It's already plenty big enough for the 4 of you.

Your OP made it sound like it was in desperate need of work, but most of the work looks cosmetic, and you can live with that and change things as you go.

You should definitely put in an offer, but if it's already at the top of your budget I suspect you'll be outbid by a fair amount.

OP I think you’re right. It has great potential but it’s going to cost you way more than a million in total and that’s if everything is just cosmetic.

I’m going against the grain and saying I don’t think it’s liveable. I think you’d need to live elsewhere with small children until near the end of renovation. If those are ceiling tiles in the living room and dining room they need to come down straight away. And then if you’re plastering you may as well get the electrics and any heating system upgrades done before. The only livable room is the kitchen. Bathroom is a mess.

You’ll be over a barrel because you’ll be reliant on trades for every single thing. I’d say don’t do it unless you can live elsewhere and have 250-300k tucked away to modernise and extend.

OK so I decided to go for it against my better judgement. Made a best and final offer of £842k but we were outbid. There were 9 offers! This market is insane!

Well done for making a decision. At least you'll never think, what if. At that price, you know that couldn't really afford to do much to it for a while. Good luck with your search.

Thanks @SallyLockheart

Aww that’s a shame, it’s a nice house. Good luck with your search.

Hope you find a house you love.
I agree with others that it would cost more than 200k to do all what you would want to the house. I'm in the north and it's costing over 60 grand for a single storey extension and kitchen (that's with the gas and kitchen plumbing hardly moving!)

Sorry you did not get it. I think it looked very doable with 2 little ones, only really bathrooms are urgent and maybe some new flooring in places but flooring can be done very quickly.

Bathrooms are a bit longer and also can be difficult to get people so you would have to make do for a month or so and that can leave you bathroom less for a week or so which is a challenge but otherwise as long as no structural issues would have been fine. Extension can wait and think that kitchen would be OK as a big house and can store extra things elsewhere.

We did lots of renovation on a house when kids where 2 and 3, new kitchen which was a challenge as it required an old bathroom taking out, everything redone and was 2 months with no kitchen in house full of dust I had to clean each night and was living from microwave, going out and takeaways which I love but got fed up off. We had to have structural support put in that was scary as they thought kids bedroom might collapse though the kids who were at school by then thought it was the best thing ever and got a night and balloons etc in local Premier Inn. Was quite full on and had to put kids in extra nursery through the worst of it but good to have house as you want it. Having said that our next house was in much better condition though both bathrooms are a bit dated here and kitchen but its an old cottage and very clean and lightly used so just changing taste.