Property purchase- VERY dated decor

[Daisy778]

We are currently going through the process of purchasing a property via probate. The decor is extremely dated and there are some issues with the layout we want to resolve but likely next year and will involve structural works and a new kitchen. Do we live with it in its current state.... dated but serviceable or make some short term improvements? I dont want to feel like were throwing money away only to replace in the (nearish) future. We will be replacing all flooring throughout, but this will need to be done during the renovations but I'm not sure I can live with current prehistoric carpets.?!? Would.it be madness to strip all carpets back to floorboards and wall coverings and cosy up with some rugs for the next year and a coat or 2 of white or shall I make my peace with the 60s/70s decor for the next 12mths and do the improvements only once?

I'd get the carpets professionally cleaned, move in and start planning what you want to do. A lot of structural work at the moment has huge waiting lists so you might be waiting 6-12 months for builder availability.

We are doing a renovation of house we've just bought - not extending but rewire and moving a couple of walls, new kitchen and bathrooms. The earliest we can get a builder in is Oct/Nov (this is after getting quote in June) and all the other builders were booked up to next year.

look for some inspiration on instagram or pintrest , there are people that manage with a few accessories and charity shop buys to bring it all together.

I’ve always ditched the carpets , even when you clean them I’ve known underneath to be smelly/ stained ( animal pee ).

we’ve had bare floors for years while slowly doing building work, it’s easier to keep clean, just wear slippers in winter.

It’s worse downstairs, it’s all tiled, but have rugs down so you can walk on them without your bare feet freezing onto them in winter 🙂

The whole floor is coming up so no point in putting anything over it.

Those floors don't look too bad and very little gaps for draughts. I can see why you would work around those.I have a suspicion that we are going to have some rather dated slatted floor boards that haven't seen the light of day since the house property was built quite some years ago!

We lived in chaos for 2 years. We worked out the one room that was least likely to have work done, the sitting room, decorated that and lived with the awful wallpaper and carpets till all the work was done.

I was so glad we did as in the end all the radiators needed replacing so we ended up with carpets up and plaster off walls as that was done. We got two windows replaced in other rooms while the builders were there and it meant we had no worries about electricians channelling into the walls to move light switches to more useful places or put in new lights and sockets.

We needed some patch plaster work as well so I was happy enough for that to happen. The old carpets were destroyed even though the builders were as careful as they could be. And then the painters could just cut a strip round the edges when they came in second to last trade.

Then the carpet people.

It was worth the 'interesting choice of decor' comments from people who came to visit.

We knew what we were letting ourselves in for when we put the offer in and in a odd way I quite like the process of renovating and 'making do', every week being a little different however of course there's going to be periods when it will get you down. Like you say, peoples reactions are always amusing and I will be most interested to see what my dear old DSM has to say as she's not one to mince her words 😂

I’ve lived in renovations all my adult life, the best advice I would give is don’t make the house any worse than it needs to be if your living in it , just rip out the area your working on to minimise disruption, no point ripping out the whole house if it’s going to be years before you can get round to working on it.

heating systems and re wiring are the most disruptive parts of any renovation.

I think a PPs idea of putting dust sheets down over the carpets (the big fabric beige ones) is a good one. Rugs are expensive.

Having said that I have lived with old carpet, and after the initial yuck feeling (despite cleaning) you do get used to it.

Also just paint over the paper, stripping the walls can be a nightmare and result in plaster crumbling off.

I’ve been round the local carpet shop, picked out some nice large offcuts and had them whipped/bound around the edges to make rugs. It’s quite an efficient way of getting a different look to your floor without £££. You could carry them through to your new renovation.

Im smiling wryly at some of you being horrified at the ‘dated 70s decor’. I thought 70s interiors were back in fashion. Don’t chuck out your avocado and pampas bathroom suites… there’s a good market out there.

For those that have 80s interiors… hang on. Your time will come soon 🤣

Don’t rip up carpets for boards before winter. We were planning to do this in ours but there’s a crawl space under the living room floor with air bricks (both needed to let the house breathe and avoid damp), and when we pulled back part of the carpet to check the boards it was so draughty it was like opening a window!

we’re living with everything aesthetic as money went on wiring and damp, and we just don’t have the funds for new flooring etc at the mo. It’s not great but we’ll update gradually when we can.

be warned that if you strip wallpaper you may find the plaster is too knackered to just paint over. We’ve taken off hideous textured paper, filled, sanded and then hung 1700 lining paper and painted that where this happened. Not perfect but millions of times better and a lot cheaper than replastering. If we had limitless funds I’d gut it and take everything back to brick, but that’s just not an option.

Thankyou Verbena87, yes seems like the advice is to leave it and live with it for the time being. Glad I asked as ai think we may have lived to regret it. Like you I highly suspect we have space under the floorboards that will create a draught and in the height of winter would be impossible to manage. I might try removing a few sheets and see how it fares.... 🤞

Of the wall paper not carpet

We are in this situation although it is not as dated as yours - we are just going to live with it until ready to do things properly as it is a waste of money, time and the planet's resources to buy twice.

You also get a lot of internal pollution from new carpets so changing them twice is not a nice thought for me.

I bought similar and ripped up the flooring immediately. It was a mistake. We all felt like we lived in a hovel and had to wear slippers in case there were random nails poking around. The day we got new carpet was very happy!!!

We moved last year with the intention of not doing anything as we planned to have work done. I ended up getting our room and dd’s room decorated and new carpet in each and I am so glad we did. I can cope with the 70s carpet everywhere else but it is nice to have a sanctuary….

We moved into a similar house. Gave the carpets a good clean but kept them throughout the renovation and toddler years. Carpets were good quality and withstood all the plaster dust and renovation debris. Plain white paint once the rewire was complete gave a good base for the proper redecoration when we got to that stage. Pictures went up to break up the solid white.

It was great to get to a point when everything was done and we could decorate and put down new carpets throughout. Haven't ever regretted doing it that way

Be careful if striping the walls, the plaster may come away too.

The house I've just moved in to had well-done but drab wallpaper downstairs, which Dulux wallpaper primer & undercoat, covered a treat with one coat - inoffensive soft white now!
Upstairs was a different story - the wallpaper in one room was peeling & tatty, and the 'strip/fill bad bits/finish' process is taking ages. Glad it's only one room like it...

If it is functional, there is no reason to change it before doing the real updates. Functional includes reasonable cleanliness / lack of mold and mildew. Save your money and your effort for things that really matter. Your budget will go much further. Remember that every unnecessary coat of paint is less you have to splurge on a ridiculous light fixture that you don’t need, but really want.

You may find you can't just paint the walls as removing the paper is likely to reveal all sorts! Our need replastering for a paint finish.

We bought similar. I painted over the wallpaper, borders and all. Jobs needed doing in a certain order that wasn't immediate so it was a quick fix for a year or so until we could work through them properly.

Even painted over fake wood panelling to reasonable effect!

Freshen it up in a weekend to make it liveable as the big jobs like rewiring will inevitably take time (and ruin what you've done)!

If you do buy a cheap offcut for carpet my top tip would be to roll it up during work that creates brick dust/ plaster dust etc. and then shove it back down to give you a clean surface. It means a room can still be useable part way through renovation or while waiting three weeks for the plasterer!

Buy a carpet cleaner and clean them all? We did that with our house when we moved in as similar to you, everything going - we’ve not bothered painting (apart from playroom which we have now decided will also be ripped out!) as zero point.

We are in the same position as you OP buying a fixer upper but we've not got much money to do anything for at least the 1st 12 months