WWYD - renovate kitchen now or after we move in?

[jamaisjedors]

We are currently buying a flat after renting and are going to get some work done on it (interior walls insulated, new bathroom, a wall moved[ before we move in.

We definitely want to do this work before we move in and hope to get it done in June and then paint in July ourselves and move in end of July/middle of August.

At some point I will want to renovate the kitchen, which is tiny right now, and knock through to an adjoining room to make a kitchen-diner.

Currently we are leaning towards just getting the bathroom and insulation done and then moving in.

But I'm torn between getting everything done at once (even if we have to wait til September to move in[ or living with the flat a while to see how we use the space and THEN renovating the kitchen.

WWYD - just do the essential work and wait and see for the rest OR get everything done NOW so we don't have to live in a building site in the future?

If you have the money, I'd do it now. We did all renovations before moving in, and it was totally worth it.

Do it now. The dust and mess will be awful if you do it while living there

Yes I've lived without a kitchen before and that was in a house with a garden when we could go away for a few weeks - in a flat with nowhere to go it could be unbearable.

But what if I spend a load of money and miss something essential because I'm not actually living in the flat yet?

Just realised that it's probably the perfectionist in me wanting to wait - but also I guess from experience of sometimes getting things done quickly and then realising afterwards that we could have done things differently/better.

Mind you, benefitting from the new kitchen SOONER rather than later probably outweighs any possible mess-ups with layout etc. that we would have eliminated by doing it later.

If you know you're definitely going to take the wall out, it would be worth doing that. But there's a LOT to be said for living in a space to know what kind of layout will work for you. I think you'll end up with a much more efficient kitchen if you've lived there are know what frustrations you need the new layout to solve.

Yes, it's not ideal living in a building site, but it's short term pain for long term gain. And you'd potentially save a month on rent by moving in sooner (which you can spend on nice things!)

After 6 renovations, do it now if you can.

Do it now. I’ve just been through a house renovation and while we moved out, a lot of our stuff was there.

Never again. I’d either do it all before we move or completely empty the house into storage before commencing works.

We've just done major renovations on what was a derelict house. Although we couldn't live in it beforehand (no boiler/heating) we did spend weekends there to get a feel for it. Could you do the same? Spend some time there beforehand so you don't feel you've missed anything?

I too would get it all done now. We had sealed boxes and those vacuum bags which still managed to get dust inside!
Note though, that many trades people will spend some time away in the summer. We had to juggle things about and it did cause a few delays when job A needed completing before the next tradesman could start. Fine if you know their schedule beforehand though.

If you're planning on removing a wall in the flat make sure you get your freeholders permission.

Good point about the summer, I guess we will have to see if people are available in June/July before we decide what to do.

I don't want to move in in October!

Excellent points about the dust getting everywhere when removing a wall! Bit daunting to think we need to replan an entire kitchen and bathroom right now though!

Having done a kitchen I know how meticulous you have to be about imagining which things go in which cupboard and getting the right layout. Bathroom seems more doable!

We are going to get help on the layout from an interior designer (plus my SIL who also works in that field[ so maybe we could get plans done for it all and then decide.

Thanks but we are not in the UK so apparently not an issue - no load-bearing walls in the flat either.

Before. Living in a place while it is being renovated will be hell.

Thanks all. Sounds like a fairly unanimous vote to get it done sooner rather than later although we would need to spend time in the space to finalise the plans. I guess if we know we are knocking the wall down we can get that booked in and finalise the kitchen floor plan afterwards.

I'm seeing a firm next week who also can draw up plans - but will share my floor plan on here too!

Is it possible to do a bit of both? Get the wall taken out now - which is the messy part - but retain the old kitchen units etc and use those temporarily while you decide how the new kitchen will look? Then you can live in it a bit and the actual kitchen fitting is only a smaller job and should not take that long?

If you can do it before moving in, I would recommend you do.

Our kitchen renovation and extension was started in September, and is still ongoing. We don't have children at home to worry about.

I thought I was prepared for the amount of disruption and mess, but it is a hundred times worse than I anticipated. The dust is absolutely everywhere - even upstairs in the bedrooms.

We have been without a kitchen since the end of September, just managing with a microwave, airfryer and slow cooker, and the novelty has definitely worn off.

If I'd understood just how bad it was going to be, I honestly would never have started.

I would definitely do any knocking down of walls before moving in. Probably the new kitchen, too - bear in mind the mess of destroying the old kitchen and flooring. If you're not sure about the new layout, then post the floor plan on here and ask for help. Most of us will have installed a kitchen or three in the past and will have ideas.

Ideally I would do this but the units are on the wall which needs taking down...

Left hand wall would be knocked through, on the right there just a small shelf and one wall cupboard

More photos, you can see how small it is

Kitchen is at the top on the right, I would knock through into the study on the left of it