Renovation - out of money AGAIN

[Kevinthesnipe]

Can’t wait for this nightmare to be over. All our money is in the house now and now the money has ran out AGAIN.
No more loans or credit cards available - got a decent amount of equity in but can’t remortgage for another year without paying huge exit fees. House is able to be lived in but not finished, now with the cost of living going up I just can’t see it being finished ever.
Its really starting to get me down now it’s just so bloody depressing. Anyone else been here and managed to come out the other side not bankrupt with marriage and mental health intact??

We are going through this too so will be watching to hope that some positive stories get posted soon!! We will need to sell in the new year as amongst all of the renovation nightmares my DH had a mental health crisis caused by work and had to leave. He just did t have the resilience with everything happening with the house at the same time. We are just desperately trying to get it finished to a standard we can sell it in

the era of cheap credit is over. People need to learn how to save before spending x

Do you actuality need to remortgage or can you do it as additional borrowing with your lender?

Just wait to be unpause a bit I know it is depressing there’s no get in away from that it is living in a building site I have literally got a unit hanging off the wall right now been held up by a kettle but in the midst of this I took myself off for a 10 grand holiday because quite frankly I needed it.

Hi OP,

I'm so sorry to hear. I know it's so stressful. We did our reno in 2020, mid-lockdown. Loads of delays due to not being able to source supplies - loads of materials tripling in price between the quotes and the day of purchase. We went way over budget and JUST managed to get over the line, with max-ed out credit cards that we consolidated into a loan last year.

It's great that it's liveable! We were living out as had a toddler in the mix who couldn't be trusted not to play with exposed wires... Do you want to list exactly what you need to do to get it from liveable to finished? Maybe people can offer money-saving advice?

I did a lot of the painting. Metres of skirting board on trestles in the garden - eventually found it quite meditative! DH became pretty expert in sanding and oiling every wooden surface in the house... We found a local semi-retired handyman who we used for little bits and bobs like tiling the small WC sink area, putting up shelves etc, and used to charge us £20 a time for each job, bless him. The carpets for upstairs were the cheapest possible from carpetright, £3ish a metre in a pale beige, and they look great and have worn well.

All our furniture and the internal doors were off eBay and FB market and Gumtree, because of course we were running on fumes by that point, but it's well-chosen and really looks good - everyone always comments on the lovely g-plan dining table that was £80 delivered.

Wish you all the best - this too shall pass! Best of luck. x

@oiltrader yep!

This is what really annoys me about people just “having a go” at a Reno. No experience, no industry knowledge and you can absolutely guarantee they go over budget. Why? Because they don’t understand it at all. Tiktok and Insta are partly to blame as they make things look easy on their 30 second videos and as though anyone can do it all.

@Kevinthesnipe how have you run out of money AGAIN? How much over budget are we talking here?

Whats left to do? We started taking the kitchen apart and then ran out of money because we had to divert cash to something more urgent. We’re just living in it unfinished, the kitchen and all downstairs flooring, and small jobs upstairs will just have to wait. We probably won’t have the money again for 2years.

Is there any work you or a family member can do?
Have you ordered kitchens/bathrooms/wardrobes? Can you cancel and get cheaper versions to keep you going for the next few years - or buy second hand. ?

I'd look at what you can do yourself OP. It will save money, keep you motivated.

I thought this too initially, but OP mentions not having access to any further loans or credit cards so I'm assuming the further borrowing from existing lender which will trigger a credit check will possibly fail them on affordability.

And who are you exactly, a renovation professional?! I do hope so with nasty comments like that.

All I can suggest is to try to think of it as a break from the disruption, and cover up the bits that are really annoying you with cheap rugs or a coat of emulsion or a poster or whatever. If it's livable-in, then I'd sit tight for a while, and if I felt I had to do 'something' I might keep an eye on Freecycle for materials and such, even tools which you could use to do things yourselves, which you could use in the short term to improve things. There are even places that take unused paint and pass it on for free (though sadly not everywhere)- might not be the colours you want, but could be better than a manky looking wall until you can afford something different. I take time to plan later jobs in more detail, and look for the best places to buy materials or fittings, when ours goes quiet for whatever reason.
In any renovation there will be times when nothing much is happening even if the money is there- waiting for one thing to be done before others can be done, covid or other problems with material supplies, waiting for the right weather. Yes it can get you down, but it is part of how renovations work for most of us. At the worst, I remind myself to be grateful we have a house to live in even if it's not perfect yet, and a roof over our heads (though at times this year this last was only partly true...).

2008 called. They want their shit comments back.

Ours is quite small scale but I am already fed up with it. Kitchen is taking an age to
finish as everything is going wrong!

We have new external doors and windows arriving next week hopefully so that should make it warm at least but we will be completely cleaned out for a few years.

Left to do in no particular order is:

Plaster and decorate kitchen
Move hallway radiator as it’s in a stupid place
Re-wiring in lots of rooms (only kitchen and 1 bedroom are ok)
Carpet everywhere
Lime plastering in several rooms
Paint everywhere
French draIns need doing for damp
Garden
Bathroom - it’s liveable but horrid but the shower is new so it will be years off
New heating system - to see if we can get off oil
Home battery
Chimney mortar work, as they are smoking so can’t light the fires
Internal doors, all full of woodworm
Dining room ceiling - beams need uncovering
Beams elsewhere need sandblasting (apart from sitting room)

And by the time all that is done it will need a re-thatch.

It’s a good job it’s fecking pretty (and in one of the nicest villages in England).

We will have a better budget once DD starts school in 2 years. In the meantime it will be only cheap bits here and there. We hope to get a grant for the heating.

How do people gain experience if they are not allowed to experience something without having experience?

@Snoken 😂😂 quite!!

That's all well and good when wages were higher, rent and mortgage proportionally much less. My mum never worked and bought a house in a nice bit of London. My dad had an average wage.
Bit different now and very patronising to to be such a passive aggressive commenter.

@Gettingonabitnow joint owner of one of the largest and most successful building firms in the north of England, if you comment was aimed at me.

@Snoken gaining experience isn’t the issue here though, is it. It’s people going into it completely blind with regards the costs involved.

But clearly this is not the sort of thing to just have a go. It hasn’t worked out for OP.

It’s like saying have a go at your own dentistry or other specialist trade. Yes you can brush your teeth but doing fillings is a different thing and does not easy to DIY.

Haven't ran out of money per se, husband has had a health scare so can't work for now. He's fine BTW but the emergency referral for a consultant is 80 weeks!!

The kitchen company keeps asking when they can deliver..... I still don't have a floor or ceiling....

After that there's 5 more rooms but it's livable . The dust is really grating on me now though.....

I think this sort of comment is known as "bitchplopping"

I'm not 100% sure as I read this on another thread somewhere and guessed that it meant popping up on a thread with an unhelpful, bitchy or smug comment.

@oiltrader j'accuse!

We weren’t looking for a renovation but covid meant we didn’t have many options. We’ve spent the £15k we had at the beginning to do everything then an additional loan of £10k. Between tradesmen dropping us in the middle of jobs and materials shooting up and a reduction in earnings (again thanks covid) paired with the cost of living we’re back to £00 in the bank.
we do have approx £80k equity in the house but can’t get any out yet without losing a load in exit fees.
We’re almost there only a couple of rooms left now but I’m so fed up of it now, the dust is everywhere and I can’t seem to keep the place clean and tidy with tools and materials everywhere.
when you watch grand designs etc they always seem to be able to come up with an extra £000’s all the time and I’m wondering where even an extra £5k might come from

Due to covid shutdowns, lack of supplies etc we had about 6 months over winter and Christmas living in a house with the back of it, windowless kitchen crammed with everything, half carpeted and the carpets that were in were awful. Very old and worn decoration ….one ceiling down, dodgy heating ….

we had the money but no way of moving on.

it wasn’t great but we hoovered, dusted, packed away everything we could, hung up stuff on the walls to hide cracks…..it helped.

@Kevinthesnipe can you access a loan via work? Mine offers interest free loans, originally for season ticket costs, but they've made it more inclusive so you can use it for a wider range of things. Has to be paid back within a year (deducted from salary) and they'll only loan up to a certain % of salary.