Project House- How would you tackle it?

[Catipepo]

Hi wise folk. Am after some advice. We have taken on a bit of a project house. It is currently liveable. I am after some thoughts as to the order in which you would tackle things. I have zero experience but do have trades in the family who are on hand.

I’ve put summary below, it’s a 3 bed semi. We have some cash but not a spare £150k lying around! In future we would like to extend to square off at back, removing conservatory to create extra living space, larger kitchen, maybe playroom or study etc, ?shower room. Am therefore cautious I wouldn’t want to spend too much on downstairs now if going to be ripped up in five years…

Grateful for any opinions or lessons learned! Have attached floorplan. Back is south facing if of any importance.

Living room- Has broken gas fire, no radiator. Floor is fine (just ugly/cheap). Walls need skimming and decorating. Ceiling has artex
Bedrooms- Master needs a radiator, all bedrooms need new carpets, skimming walls/ceilings, decorating, doors need sanding/stripping. Artex ceilings.
Bathroom- Needs new suite (is currently functional). No extractor.
Kitchen- Integrated grill doesn’t work (not huge issue), oven is small but works, gas hob functions but poorly (doesn’t heat well, small flames), cupboards are functional but poorly designed for use of space so not a lot of storage.
Whole House- New windows needed. Artex on most ceilings/walls. There's def some dodgy electrics around and not many sockets so will need rewiring.
Utility/shed- Fridge and washing machine are in utility. Both these rooms are essentially outhouses, they are not plastered etc but do have plumbing and electrics- no heating.
Conservatory- Currently used as dining but bit cold in evenings! Has electric heater.
Other- Will need new front door at some point. Garden is paved so not very pretty but also not overgrown so doesn't need immediate attention.

Thanks in advance

All parts of a project can be subdivided, until….there is rewiring to be done. Rewire is major job that touches every room in the house. So once you start that, you are effectively living on a project site. But really this is the place to start because no point skimming walls only to drill holes in the again. How much is your budget right now? You could do the rewire and upstairs renovations now. And leave downstairs until later. My guess is that the full rewire and upstairs including bathroom will cost around £50k. Downstairs upgrade, extension and windows can be done later as that is the biggest chunk of budget.

Agreed get the electrics done first and central heating/boiler upgrade if needed before decorating. Do any of the functional upgrades before the cosmetics would be a better use of money. Also, sort the bathroom out before starting on kitchen in case of leaks etc.

I watched a house reno prog on TV where they did it the other way round. The bathroom flooded and ruined the new kitchen downstairs and the whole thing had to be ripped out.

@sst1234 Thank you, that's helpful. Electrics sounds like a sensible starting place then. We could cover about 50k right now. At least then we'd have somewhere nice to escape to upstairs!

@TheLadyDIdGood Funny you say that, we did have a leaky pipe in the bathroom yesterday that was coming through hallway ceiling!

Glad general consensus seems to be same. Have spoken through with family but they're being too polite- 'let us know what you'd like help with first', 'just send me a list'. Very kind and am grateful but feel like I need more direction!

www.which.co.uk/reviews/extensions/article/extension-planning/building-regulations-and-planning-permission-aS7VY1N1IOSV

www.self-build.co.uk/planning-a-renovation-schedule/

From experience. Yes electrics as above and central heating. We also had to have all radiators replaced as they’d been put I. With microbore pipe and were all silted up. So that was carpets up.

Don’t put a tiled floor in an upstairs room where they might want to get access to the ceiling of a room below during renovation.

We got our en-suite and bathroom done first as they weren’t usable. We then did the sitting room as that was going to be untouched by renovation.

It was lovely to have somewhere to escape to.

Your house sounds similar to mine! We had re wiring done as soon as we moved in, then new boiler, doors and windows. We’ve just put the other internal works out to tender, so moving the kitchen, taking down a couple of walls, new bathrooms, and during this process we’ll replace some knackered and ugly radiators. We’re currently in the process of removing acres of woodchip wallpaper throughout the house so that when the building work is done the whole house will be redecorated and carpeted