What’s it really like to buy a doer upper?

[NoFreakingClue]

DH and I have spent months looking for a house and we found one that we like and plan to put an offer on. Still trying to decide if the area is right for us, but I’m wondering if we’re clueless about what it will entail?

It’s a 4 bedroom, two living room, one dining room house. The previous owners were elderly and have passed away, so it needs a lot of updating. As far as we can tell, it’s in good condition, but it will need:

1. New kitchen
2. New bathroom (the main bathroom has just a shower instead of a bathtub)
3. New carpets and flooring
4. Paint the walls.

Now this is on the assumption that the condition is fine and the house simply needs to be updated.

We have busy lives and a toddler, so I think if we get someone like Wickes to do the kitchen and bathroom, another company for the flooring and a tradesman for the walls, it will take maybe three months in total and around £50k. We can stay in our current home before we move in so I think the stress of it will be arranging the various works and that’s it.

Am I massively underestimating all this? DH think it will take six months and £100k.

If its any help we purchased a sort of doer upper 2 months ago
It has cost approx 25k for painting carpets flooring and new kitchen and electrics in kitchen also had the boiler changed and new appliances and a the downstairs cloakroom done up so I think 50k is more than doable

If you have the time and budget for it to be 100k and 6 months, then plan for that and like someone said, be pleasantly surprised if it takes less time/money.

It's not great timing. People are finding it very difficult to get tradespeople to even come and quote, let alone fit them in to do the job anytime soon. My parents new bathroom fitting is for 5 months time and a friend seemed to wait 6 months+ to get her ensuite redone.

Is the house old? We bought a 30s house which we thought needed cosmetic work only. We bought it from a family who'd lived there 8 years or so and we made the incorrect assumption that they had spent money on the house.

We've done nearly everything to it over the space of 10 years and it has eaten in to family time and finances I'd rather have spent elsewhere. Radiators, boiler, electrics, replacing stained glass in the front door, flooring, bathroom ,kitchen, plastering, painting, driveway, knocked the garage down before it fell down.

It will be longer than six months. It will be more than £100k.

My parents just had builders in for six weeks and all they were doing was knocking down a wall and wallpapering (they needed a structural beam too). It all takes ages.

8 years and over £500k

Initially thought we could achieve what we needed for under £100k. Had full surveys and everything before buying but when building work actually started it basically needed to be knocked down. Plans also changed as we went along so had a few years going through planning permission. Bulk of the work was done in a year but it took years more than anticipated to get to the start point and more than a year to finish bits and pieces. Actually, not sure it really is finished!

If you are patient and have budget it’s worth doing, but bear in mind that materials have risen in cost & trades are very, very booked up.

Did the survey show any major structural issues or anything like that? How's the roof? Are you extending? From what you've described, I wouldn't think it would be anywhere near 100k but then again it depends on the finish you want.

My first ever house was a doer upper but I was also single with no children at that time, so it didnt really matter the state it was in whilst I lived in it alone. I just did things as I could afford them - sorted the roof, carpets and damp first, then gradually got other jobs done over the years as and when, finishing with a new kitchen and bathroom eight years later as I could only afford it then! It was a long job. I probably put in 50k of work over 10 years. If you can afford to do it all in one go in a big job, then I'd do that. Less stressful than constantly looking around at the things that need fixing.

We've been in ours seven years and still need to do the kitchen and downstairs flooring. Then we'll finally be finished.

We've saved up for each job, so it's taken ages but it's nice not to have any debt hanging over us.

So far we've had no nasty surprises but I guess you never know what you might uncover once you start scratching at the surface.

What I would say is absolutely vital is that you and DH need to be on the same page about timescales and budgets.

Throughout having to live in a one bed flat while the rewiring was done, dealing with only having one working toilet and needing to shower at the local swimming pool for a fortnight, endless dust everywhere for what felt like years, the most painful thing of it all was having to endure DH dragging his heels over every single decision. I honestly believe we would have finished this house years ago if it wasn't for DH's dithering over every goddamn detail.

So as long as you're a team with a shared vision, everything else is doable.

As someone who bought an 80’s house needing the same level of work a year ago it takes over your life (and finances) far more than I anticipated not helped by the incredible choice anxiety I seem to have developed as I’ve got older making every decision from what type of tap, what colour carpet take weeks to determine. Agree that everything is so much more expensive now so be realistic as not sure doer uppers are the investment they maybe once were. Having said that there is a real sense of achievement once you’ve breathed life back into the rooms and really made them your own. Patience is key- of which I’ve realised, I have none !

Take your time if you can. Work out what you can live with and what has to be done straight away, then work out if the sequencing of doing it that way will work for you.

we bought a place in awful condition 3 years ago and have replaced the kitchen, all flooring, lighting, 3 bathrooms and updated the plaster and painting after each area was renovated. Lead times on tradesmen are long and things are going up in cost, but at the close you get what you want how you want it.

We're mid renovation. Didn't think there was much to do other than updating the bathroom, kitchen and decorating.

So far we've had a whole new heating system and halfway through a rewire. Replacing pretty much everything, next it's internal doors and frames then plastering. The kitchen and bathroom are so naff but they will have to wait.

It's expensive, our budget went quickly with plumbing and electrics, so we're saving then do a bulk of work, trying to do as much as we can ourselves. Finding good tradespeople is vital, they need to turn up when they say they will and charging a fair price. The kids don't actually mind living in a building site, I'm counting down to the day it's finished but I am enjoying making this OUR house.

Hard work even if use trades you need to constantly be checking on them, making decisions etc. Always takes longer than expected and costs more.
Plus side is you have a house exactly how u want it.

I think 50k is definitely doable and 3 months if you plan all the trades right etc especially if you aren’t living in it.

We bought a 4 bedroom doer upper and have done;

• new boiler and radiators everywhere
• a rewire and new sockets and switches
• All walls and ceilings plastered
• fresh paint everywhere
• new carpet/flooring everywhere
• new windows and doors
• new guttering (soffits etc)
• complete new bathroom
• complete new kitchen
• a few walls/doors added/taken away here and there
• back garden redone

We have probably spent around 50k on all of that however we have done a lot of the demolition type work ourselves and had plumber and electrician family trades so saved costs there but we didn’t scrimp on what we wanted and could have saved money on some of the cheaper options if we wanted.

Also taken us around 2 years but we have lived here while doing it and saved then spent and repeat.

If it's not structural work, it doesn't have to be that bad. You just need to decide if it's really in good condition and if it has potential.

We did most of what you did (point 1, 3 and 4) and we did it in 2 months, while living there with a toddler.

We wanted to do 1,2,3 and 4 but decided bathroom wasnt a priority as we run out of money.

The kitchen, floors, walls and general updating cost us about 25K. That was about 20-30% more than we expected. We kept some of our kitchen appliances, we did the walls ourselves.

The whole 2-3 months was hell but we love our house now, and it's gone up about £100K in value since we bought and updated it.

good luck ;)

We're living in a reno. Our house is Edwardian and was in a grotty state when we bought it.

Luckily OH is incredibly handy and has done a lot of the work so far, and I have done the majority of the decorating and stripping back old fireplaces covered in years of old gloss and varnish.

We stretched ourselves to the limit to buy the house in the first place, so had very little ready money for the renovations, so doing a lot ourselves was more through necessity than choice! However despite it taking frucking AGES as OH and I both have full tie jobs and 2 kids, I know that things are being done thoroughly and properly. OH is a perfectionist, which although I find frustrating at times as he is so slow, I know that in the long run its better that way.

We have had some trades in, but we found a good local plumber who put our new boiler in and all our radiators at a very reasonable price, ditto with a local plasterer who has done us a load of favours and fitted us in to his very busy schedule as we have recommended him a lot locally and he has more business now than he can handle! He also really likes my OH, so has done late nights and weekends plastering for us..he's a diamond.

My sisters OH is a builder and came down one weekend to lay all the pipes for our new bathroom. OH has since been slowly fitting the bathroom out..it is taking ages but again we are saving money this way and getting exactly what we want.

I'm not sure how much we have spent in truth. The kitchen is going to be the very last thing we do, and the most expensive so a lot of saving up before we can do that sadly. It is what it is though. As a PP said, there is simply no way we could have afforded this house if it has been in good order, and now we have a half finished, 4 bedroom period house in London, which I have to remind myself on the days when I feel down about the mess/dust/upheaval etc!

We've been in ours just over 3 years btw.

We've been in ours 18mths. Georgian 4 bed semi.

We have a baby and a toddler - so little gets done on the house it's ridiculous. If we didn't have kids I'm sure we'd already have finished the renovation. It seems impossible to finish a room fully because there's so much else to do.

So far we've almost finished the kitchen, main bathroom and utility room. Both the kitchen and bathroom threw up issues we'd not thought of and had rotten joists and floorboards. There's been drainage issues that's going to end up being a large job. It also cost us almost £10k to re-do the heating system.

I think £50k could easily disappear quickly on a renovation and would expect to budget more. We've done all the work ourselves apart from plastering plus we work on a tight budget and have still spent a lot more than expected so far.

I have bought 4 complete doer uppers as btl. The latest one is a Victorian 3 bedroom terrace with beautiful corbels and ceiling mouldings to rooms. DH does some of the work fitting kitchen, my 2 sons do some such as skirtings and period internal doors I will source from ebay, and I have tradespeople in to do the rest. I have bought by a georgious period fireplace for lounge as someone stripped original one out. The house I am doing at the moment had old kitchen ripped out, new floor tiles, kitchen coat of white paint. Electrics upgraded with additional plug sockets put in every room. Kitchen bought on eBay for £1300 fitted. A few units left over. New worktops, range cooker, washing machine, dryer and fridge freezer. New lights in kitchen. New wall tiles and splashback. New downstairs toilet, washbasin and floor tiles to match kitchen. Tiled up to half way up wall. Painted on top half. Hall old wallpaper ripped off walls made good by skimming, new wallpaper hall and up stairs. Staircase painted white. Hall good quality laminate. Lounge old wallpaper off, skimmed walls, new wallpaper, good quality laminate. Dining room the same. All 3 bedrooms stripped of old wallpaper and new put up, new paint job. New carpets, New bathroom suite with bath, shower cubicle, new shower with plumbing I to the wall. New toilet and basin, tiled floor and walls. New lights in each room. New doors and door furniture in every room. New skirtings in each room. Doors and skirtings will need painting. New front door and back door plus door furniture. New alarm. Back yard levelled and some decking. Retractable washing line put up. Tidy up of front and gravel laid. A couple of potted plants either side of door. Every task takes about twice as long as you think it will. You rip off a bit off wallpaper and realise the wall needs skimming. Then you think might as well just get whole room skimmed. I am expecting to spend £40-£50k on renovation. I am saving a lot by DH and 2 sons doing some work for me. Also I get 10 Percent of everything at Wicks and similar discount from B&Q. Could you do some work yourselves? Even stripping off old wall paper and preparing the walls with filler and sanding will make it cheaper for you. My advice to you would be do one room at a time, especially if you are living there whilst the work is done. Otherwise it will be chaos. Also before sanding put tape over door tops, sides and bottom and over key holes.

The problem is the things you can't know yet. The house we bought was dated and we needed to replace everything. But it's what you couldn't see that whacked the cost and time up. All new wiring, plumbing, heating, asbestos removal (artex) and plastering just for starters. I think we'd spent £40k and the majority you couldn't actually see. That can be demoralising.
If you love the house, keep in mind it's a marathon and not a sprint. It is unlikely to stay on schedule and within budget. But the satisfaction of getting exactly what you want and bringing a home back to life is pretty special.

You'll probably need to rewire electrics and install a new boiler, plus lots of other little bits, so the costs would be more likely closer to your DH's estimate than yours.

Plus you'll be lucky to find available tradesmen quickly!

I spent 23k about 14 years ago....in fact am now just shredding all the old paperwork and bills....!. 4 bed semi,..whole house replastered, new heating and boiler and rads as never had any....new bathroom and kitchen....did a lot ourselves but used one amazing guy who did all the tiling and carpentry, plastering etc...electrics were all ok... we paid him weekly....still friends with him and use him for jobs if they pop up etc....dont use in house kitchen fitters etc....b and q are dreadful....sister had awful time with them....you have plenty of funds for your jobs if nothing nasty found !...so total of 23k all materials and items and labour...i know costs gone up but still doable.

@earsup compared to 4 years ago costs are crazy, so 14 years ago isn't really a wise comparison. Especially if you did lots yourself.
I think the more you do yourself and finding smaller independent workmen is a good way to go, so those points make total sense. I am just sceptical how far £23k would go now.

I will maybe find out soon as looking for a house for a relative who wants to return to uk and yorkshire...i have advised buying something already done up as no stress or hidden nasties..or maybe some thing that needs work...but dont think this is a good idea due to shortage of workers and price rises etc..we were very lucky to find Peter on gumtree...he was excellent...we even attended his wedding in Poland some years ago...

Let's hope you encounter more like Peter! He sounds brilliant, I love that you went to his wedding.

We've found that doing stuff ourselves is what saves money.

We moved into a 1930s 3 bed 5yrs ago and have...

Done the roof including re-felt, replace tiles, new joists in places and replacing upstairs ceilings. Plus central heating - combi boiler and 9 radiators. The roof and central heating were beyond our skill set but we did most of the rest ourselves, including:

New bathroom including stripping back to brick and replacing the floorboards. It was a shell.

New kitchen, again back to brick.

Replaced the conservatory with a garden room (needed help with this but only to first fix).

Downstairs shower room extension (1.8x2.3m), again builder completing to first fix so we can do the plumbing, installation of sanitary ware and decoration.

New flooring downstairs.

Decorate throughout.

Other odd bits like knocking out fireplaces and moving a wall.

It's cost between 50 and 60k all in. Difference is that we only use tradesmen for essentials like building work and electrics.

We have had no life whilst doing this but saved ££. I'm landscaping outside ATM and we're going to do the driveway in spring. Then we are DONE. It's hard work. New kitchen, bathroom and some decor/flooring shouldn't be too bad!

We're about to embark on this - bought the house in June and it's taken this long just to get trades in and working on detailed quotes for what we want. It's costing a lot more than the last time we did this - we spent £40k 13 years ago doing up our old house (£40k was the initial rewiring, plumbing, boiler, bathroom, some roof work to make it habitable, then a further £60k over ten years gradually upgrading and improving). This time we're expecting the initial work to be more than £100k but are doing more initially this time.

I asked in Wickes back in April about lead times for kitchen and bathroom installation and they said about nine months then.