Anyone else about to start a renovation soon and feeling very unprepared?

[LillyLeaf]

We start our building work the 2nd week of November. I feel so unprepared. Trying to get quotes for doors/windows etc, everything is so expensive. Worried about the chaos with 2 years and the cat!

Anyone starting about the same time?

Little bump

We are going through one right now. You can never be fully prepared. Things are expensive and you will have decisions to make. We didnt realise how expensive bi-fold doors are. And how much cheaper upvc is compared to Aluminium.
Stick to your budget and make choices accordingly. Dont get swayed by the trends too much.

If you're flexible and shop around you can find things on sale, but it requires more effort than getting everything from the same shop. I'll always remember the deal I got on bathroom tiles. We were doing two reasonably sized bathrooms, lots of tiles were needed. Builder told me how many to buy, and i one what overall style I wanted. After looking at gorgeous and accordingly expensive tiles, i found an end of line product with the right amount. I still look at them and admire that find years on!

There's only one thing i wish we'd done differently, but it may not apply to you. In the shower room we have a glass shower cubicle. We have hard water. I wish we tiled a 3 wall enclosure and hung a shower curtain. No prizes for style, but we're intending to live here forever and it would have been the better choice.

I'm absolutely up for shopping around. I'm already having to reduce my expectations in some areas, eg cheaper flooring.

Completely agree with shopping around! Also don't get sucked in with all the glitz and glam. Lots of people look like they have huge budgets and can afford 10k doors etc. All I will say is don't get swept up in it. We're going for simple aluminium bifold doors and although we're getting a Handmade kitchen, we're trying to make cutbacks everywhere- flooring, furniture from facebay etc. our budget is tight (hence garage conversion and not an extension!)

We're converting our garage too. Flooring will probably be lux vinyl instead of wood engineered. Kitchen will be ikea, although I think they are fab anyway. Wood/glass internal doors instead of steal crittall. I like researching but struggling to find the time to really deep dive. It's exciting though.

The best advice I got was to always ask the builder these two questions:

1. How much extra is that going to cost?
2. What would the problem be if I don’t do that?

Regardless of how well you plan, things will happen, and decisions are made on the fly. It’s a pain to talk to the builders everyday but myself or dh stopped in everyday, had a cuppa and a chat. It’s so easy to just say yes to what seems like a reasonable adjustment (and the costs mount fast) or say no to everything and miss something that could have a significant impact. Ime the builder knew more than the architect and the engineer, and the kitchen fitter fixed all the problems in the designer’s plans.

If you’re struggling with pricing, ask the builder. Ours was able to tell us what materials were in short supply, where not to go (shoddy) and whether a price was a rip off or a genuine market adjustment. The architect was clueless about everything. The builder was also able to suggest ways to shave the budget for minimal impact.

Great advice, thanks everyone.

What whatsleft said.

As we head towards the other side of our renovation (attic conversion, kitchen extension, double story side extension, full rewire, plumbing etc) I have developed a theory.

It’s like having your first child. You can read all the books. Do all the research. Buy all the things. Friends can try their best to prepare. But there’s nothing, really, that can fully prepare you - you have to just learn to roll with the punches. 🤷‍♀️

Good luck OP - it’ll all be worth it in the end.

Good luck, we're 1.5 weeks in!

We've agreed comms with builder so they email every time there's a decision to be made (we'd struggle to be on site everyday).

I wish we'd contacted Building control earlier as I have feeling it's that that will delay things just because they have big backlogs. Never done anything that needed building control before so didn't know!

Yep. 'Roll with the punches' is good advice. As you get started and expose old badly done jobs, other stuff will crop up, just accept that and grit your teeth.