Hi everyone, just looking for a bit of advice from anyone who's been through it -
Background: I've got a small Victorian terrace which is currently having work done on the roof, internal insulation put in the living room, the external walls of both bedrooms and the loft as well as a heat pump installed. Have done a massive amount of work on it myself this year too - so we live in a building site with no hot water, Wi-Fi or heating. We spend our time at home in one room currently. Temperature falls to 8-10c in the house at the moment so it's rubbish, but whatever we do with the new house, we have somewhere to live.
We now have a huge, freezing, externally Edwardian, internally a 1970s time warp home on our hands. It needs extensive work.
Three double bedrooms, one single bedroom, two on the second floor two on the third floor. At maximum, only two of these rooms will actually end up bedrooms and they will likely be the ones on the second floor, as there is one family bathroom and that's on the second floor. Three hallways, two reception rooms, big cold kitchen. Both of our parents have called it 'ready to move in', which is true, you could live in it, but considering our ages and what we want going forward and when we'll want to TTC etc, I don't want to end up stressing about the state of the house and how expensive it is to keep it warm with a baby in the mix.
I'm of a get up and go, make the best of it, get a hammer and some gloves and absolutely rip it apart persuasion. If allowed, I would put an airbed up in the living room, then absolutely strip and gut everything except the bathroom and kitchen, going room by room until there's a bedroom sorted for me to sleep in, then start on everything else.
DP is very apprehensive. He's realised the work he needs to do and once he starts taking off wallpaper, ripping out cabinets etc he can't go back. He's also realised how expensive it is to heat, way more expensive than my tiny 2 up, 2 down bolthole, which I have grown to love.
Now, here's the issues:
Whole house needs rewiring and plumbing work, new radiators etc as the current ones are battered and horribly inefficient.
There's a massive kitchen out the back of the house which we want to put a wet room at the end of after ripping out the old kitchen and getting a new one.
We also want an outside tap, and to change the old school back boiler to a combi boiler.
Flooring needs replacing throughout as all the carpet has stains and wear, kitchen carpet is gross, bathroom lino is also pretty naff.
All walls need stripping, most need plastering or skimming too.
Bathroom is a full avocado suite but it battered, toilet feels like it's gonna fall off the wall when you sit on it, etc.
Third floor has polystyrene tiling on the ceiling in both bedrooms installed waaaay before it was required to be fire retardant, so lets just say I won't be sleeping on the second or third floor until that's gone because I'm pretty sure it would burn like billy-o.
Water tank is right up on the third floor and I think that's why the toilet is a nightmare to flush.
Also cosmetic stuff like stripping the layers and layers of yellowy gloss off the period features.
Those who've done it: Where would you start? Where did you start? How did you make not be so bloody freezing and have you made any changes that have made it cheaper to heat? What would you not do if you did it all over again?
Thanks in advance!!