Anyone else fed up of renovating?

[Maneandfeathers]

I’m thinking of putting ours back on the market. We’ve ran out of money and there’s no end in sight! It’s livable but not anywhere near the way we want it to be. It’s a large 1930s sem, rural with large gardens but it’s dropping to bits. Everything we wanted to do we can’t now because the cost of living and mortgage increase has meant we have nothing spare left after bills.

Antone else in this position, how did you fund it? Remortgaging isn’t an option as we were down valued due to condition (yep- that’s why I wanted the money!!!)
A loan is an option but an expensive one and not one we could consider for 3 more years as we already have a loan from when the boiler blew up on us and the ceiling leaked and fell in!

A new build seems to tempting right now.

Your probably better staying put and just doing little by little without borrowing. Your might loose out quite a bit if you try to sell in the current climate. Plus new builds are generally not worth the amount you pay until a few years afterward.

Hi, sorry to hear this. When did you buy the property?

I am in the middle of buying a fixer upper and it is daunting. I am also getting a headache thinking about the issues you've brought up - it seems like a lot of buyers in reno properties are feeling the same way.

May I ask how much you bought the property for, and what the done up (similar) properties are going for in the area? Does this make it worth the expense/ wait ? Can you do a little at a time over the years?

What kind of work have you been doing? Is it a complete reno? Or partial?

Yes I have sympathy. I am sick to the back teeth of my house. I’ve got no money, no time and the whole place is in a constant state. This is my third renovation so I’m no novice but it’s so much harder now.
I’m merely aiming for heating and hot water by next winter. Thankfully my parents live near and they have plenty of hot water.
Basically you’re going to have to stick with it and adjust your expectations.

We bought it in 2020 and were really enthusiastic at first. Managed to rip most of it out, put in a kitchen, boiler and heating system, electrics and windows so all the major bits were done. Then the money ran out…

The things really bothering me are the falling down conservatory and porch. We can’t afford to replace nor remove them so are just stuck in limbo. They both leak and look terrible. The conservatory needs new glass and doors but there’s no budget left.
We also need 2 new bathrooms (one of which is disgusting!) new flooring, new roof, patios all round. I’ve still got 3 rooms with artex on the walls we can’t afford to get rid of. I would also love to knock some walls out to open it up but was quoted 6k for one wall alone due to it needing a beam! Everything in the house is a money pit, as soon as we touch it the prices triples because the previous owner has bodged it at some point and it’s not straightforward 🤦‍♀️

Then there’s a wilderness of gardens we have cut but can’t really do much else with because there’s no funds so it constantly overgrown again within a week.

It just looks delapitated compared to my friends lovely insta homes and I can’t see a way out!

We paid £210k and probably would only get £300k if it was amazing which it certainly isnt! It was meant to be a forever home though so I wasn’t worried about resale. Now I would definitely have spent more than I would make I think.

you could sell up what's left of the conservatory. some people buy the parts. I would just get rid of it? is the porch a major structural part of the house? if not, get rid of. in the meantime, save up.

It might be best to live in the parts of the house you like for now, if it's just two of you. Do you have children?

It’s not just the two of us, we have 3 children under 6 and 2 dogs 🤦‍♀️

My original plan for the conservatory was to keep the brickwork but replace the glass and roof and put new double doors out to the garden. I could get rid but I would also need to find the money for new doors!

The porch is also complicated. As much as I would love to smash off the ugly thing, our block paving driveway is wrapped around it and I couldn’t afford to repair. It’s also sheltering the freezing original old wood windows and doors that are on the inside of the house 🙁 everything’s just so expensive and leads into another problem!

Weve shut off a few rooms that we can’t really touch, a bathroom and a bedroom at the moment. The rest we are just living in and hating and the same time! It’s hard to keep anything clean because it’s all old and broken.

Solidarity. Bought in 2022. Definitely bitten off more than I can chew. I have a one room that I’ve completely done up but the rest of the house is a bin fire. Half way through an extension that was supposed to take 16 weeks 21/2 years ago. Had to sack the builder. Now having to pay for the second time for stuff, when it’s so expensive already. 4 small kids. Everywhere I look is something that needs to be done —needing both time and money that I don’t have. I have also been wistfully looking at new builds.

I completely sympathise with this. There’s another thread on here at the moment about how much money people have for their own ‘spends’ each month, and since we bought this house there is no extra, no fun money, nothing is frivolous anymore, it all just gets swallowed into the giant renovation pot of a half-done house with literally thousands and thousands left to
spend to get it looking nice (not amazing, just nice!). I really want to back out and sell but OH and children love it. It’s become my ball and chain and I feel like we can’t live life properly. And don’t get me started on the mortgage! Feeling stupid because it was all our own doing.

(I would add up roughly how much all that work is going to cost, and see how long it will take you to pay for it / finish it. And add these upcoming renovation costs to the total amount you have already spent on the house. If the figure is way higher than potential market value, if I were you I would probably cut my losses and move)

25 years ago we bought a 1930's semi after the birth of our surprise but much wanted and loved fourth child. We thought it would take about ten years to get it to how we wanted. Immediate works were a complete rewire and replacing some of the old and draughty sash windows and installing a fitted kitchen because there was only a free standing sink unit and wall cupboard and we replaced the burgundy and very dirty bathroom. DH worked all of the hours, I did random part time work to fit around him when I could. Mortgage rates hit stupid amounts, but everyone was fed and the children had nice clothes. The house annoyed me for a very long time.some of the windows have been replaced twice (we could only afford soft wood to replace the original sashes at first), we have had two kitchens, the first replacement lasted us 23 years, two bathrooms the first being from B & q and cost us £199. We have just replaced some of the internal doors with new rather than stripping second hand and most of the rooms have been redecorated and recarpeted several times, new ceilings, damp proofing, new door casings etc etc. Lots of the work we had to do ourselves as we could not afford to pay for contractors. We had to put in a new driveway as the old one was tarmacced, broken and rutted. We have spent so much money and so much time to get it to how it is now, there is so much more than what I have mentioned and most of the work you cannot even see. Many a time I wished we had looked at new builds, but we wouldnt have been able to afford one. We love our house now, we are still working on it, but hopefully it will be completely sorted by next year and then we are looking to sell. Stick with it and dont get into debt, just do things as you can afford to and one day you might love your home too.

Thankyou everyone! Sorry to hear so many of you are in this position too.

I think I need to spend another 40k minimum, that’s without anything fancy. So I would probably break even if I sold in the future. If I sold today I would be making a loss probably.

It wasn’t bad when we moved here, but I didn’t anticipate the mortgage increases and random unexpected bills eating up all of our budget. Everything we try and do just escalates into repairing mistakes before we can do the thing we wanted. Even something as simple as changing a floor turned into digging out 10 layers of old floors and newspapers meaning it was too low and needing rescreeded, it’s that type of thing!

Weve booked some appointments to go and view near by new builds. The only thing putting me off is the fact we have almost no neighbors other than next door, I can’t see anyone from this house at all front or back other than trees. We have a huge (wilderness) of a back garden that’s completely private. I’m not sure if a new build would stress me out being so crammed in.

Solidarity. Our biggest issue is getting trades in. We still have most of our renovation money because nobody actually comes to take it. I have contacted countless people, maybe a 10% response rate. Of those maybe a third show up and then nobody/maybe one actually quotes. And then it's a big if if that one person actually shows to do the job. I have talked to people locally and we all are having the same experience, so it's not something about me that's off-putting.

I'm completely burned out from it and feel like I'm missing out on my young children because I'm always thinking about the stupid house. I'm very, very tempted to just buy a new build instead but then I guess I also couldn't be arsed with the selling process ever again. I'm hoping in a few years we can make the leap to a more expensive new build and just do a part exchange.

We're similar @earlycats certain trades are hard to get. The ones worth waiting for have long waits.
We learned a lot ourselves along the way, but that takes time, materials still cost and it's more time away from family. It's impossible to win really

It took us a good 10 years to just get all the basics done and we had to do most of the work ourselves. Gardening can be almost free, make a really simple plan for a lawn and flower beds, get out for an hour as often as possible, don't cut stuff down, get it dug, levelled and lay the turf, it's really easy. Decorate one room at a time don't worry if it takes ages, you will get it done eventually. Keep it simple, paving can be in phase 2 later. We've been here for 30 years now,it's lovely, I'm planning to leave in a box because it's lovely now, just what we wanted, mostly created by us.

Place marking. We’ve lived in our project house for three years and have done ZERO work, due to complicated finances. I want to sell it and move on but it’s perfect in lots of ways. I also feel like I’m missing my child’s development because we talk endlessly about the house.

My aunt bought a fixer upper in 1976 and finally “finished”” it in 2008.

By which time it was time to start again.

She and her husband loved doing it up and did a lot of the work themselves, so it worked for them. It’s four storey townhouse with a large garden.

An old house is like the Forth Road Bridge.

Solidarity - we bought in 2015 on discovering we were expecting DC1. Almost 9years down the line (& another DC) we've finally made a start on our very leaky roof!
We've had to borrow money from family to replace the windows as they were hemorrhaging heat & letting in so much water. We had to save every penny for a replacement boiler as the existing one died shortly after DC1 arrived (8months using a kettle to provide all hot water!)
We ripped out the disgusting kitchen & installed basic kitchen units (no doors on them) & basic worktops. We were buying 1 or 2 cabinets a month until we had enough to fill the kitchen.
We still have the ancient carpet throughout downstairs as we can't afford to replace it. Every time we think we've got enough saved to decorate/renovate a room we discover the countless bodges that were carried out by the previous owners meaning double (if not more) work than anticipated.

I don't even like the house! I love the area but I hate the bloody house.

Sympathies to those struggling. OP it does sound like it could be really lovely and you have done a lot already.

With the summer allegedly coming I think it would be sensible to try and get the garden under control, as the other poster said above that can be cheap to do and potentially free depending on jest tools you have. I think if you had the garden under control then you would get more of the benefit of what sounds like a lovely location. If you do decide to sell doing that would help.

How do you feel about posting pictures so we can make suggestions? We moved into a house last year with a mature garden that had got very grown over as the previous owner was very elderly and couldn’t cope. Although a fair bit more to do it is very much now under control, looks totally different and I love walking into the kitchen and seeing it.

Also with the porch is there anything you can do to make it less ugly? Could it be painted in some way and then a climbing plant or two in pots be grown up it to disguise it ?

If it weren’t for the old doors and windows then being exposed to the elements I would say it might be worth taking it down then over time filling the gap in the block paving with gravel and putting plant pots on top to distract the eye.

I think this is a very personal decision- but I agree with others, could you simply take the porch off and draught proof the door? Or is there no way to just clean it up and paint/ stain the wood? Same with the conservatory. It sounds like you’ve done the major bits, it’s going to be summer soon so hopefully a lot more time in the gardens. Plus interest rates will fall eventually, you’re generally in a very expensive time of life and kids of that age are unlikely to care!

I also think it’s quite a new thing to have a house which is “done” completely. When I grew up my parents and relatives always had houses which had dodgy areas- one family lived without a roof for about 15 years! If you can stay warm and dry and cook, especially if you’ve got a few nice rooms, then in a way the house is doing what it needs to- it sounds like the problem areas are sort of external in your house at least?

If you do go for a new build I’d be very careful- I hear nothing but horror stories from friends about them and some local trades I have had in have also been scathing about the ones near me. Loads of snagging, dodgy electrics, no storage, gardens which are completely waterlogged because they weren’t properly landscaped, 3 inches of topsoil with his knows what underneath so nothing grows in the garden. Plus I think a lot these days have problems with heating as they have to have air source pumps which no one can fit or repair. I am sure there are some good new builds on smaller developments but they are not likely to be a panacea unless you’re very careful. Plus you have the general issues with a lack of space, neighbours too and you’ll probably have people complaining about the kids and dogs if they are in any way noisy. So you could end up swapping one stress for another!! Personally I think I’d prefer to live with the 1930s semi if it’s quiet, decent size and has good gardens, but as I say that’s me!

Thankyou everyone.

Ive attached a similar picture of a porch that looks like ours. It could be saved I think, but it’s got a strange plastic roof that’s yellow and leaks. Any ideas how much that would cost to just replace the roof for a normal one? Or even new glass maybe?

I’m going to try and start the garden. It’s overgrown, clay soil and mostly underwater from winter! It also has a huge pond of sludge that needs to go and the bottom is fulk of nettles and rats (and an old dining table the old owners chucked there that the rats are using as a nice little ratty hotel)

Ive thought about growing a plant up the house to disguise its ugliness but DH is really against this!

We had another roof leak in the kitchen this week. The flat roof above it must be on its way out but we just keep sealing it over and over with tar 😄

Would help if it worked!

I think the location with a young family sounds ideal, but we are outdoorsy gardening types. In your position I would be learning to do as much of the works as possible myself. Look at ways to keep the garden tidy and usable for the DC to play in every weekend while I got on with various jobs etc.

Having said that, we did walk away from a full reno earlier this year; we knew it was a project house but didn't bank on asbestos wiring. So we backed out. In your position I'd do what I could to make the best of things, but put a timeline on it so you can plan for other options. What could you do yourselves in the next 3 years that would make it comfortable for you, and saleable for the market? What do you want out of a house, where will you look and how have your priorities changed? Do a lot of thinking about what you've learned from this experience and how you can make a better choice for the whole family in the future. And who knows - maybe you'll realise that this house is the best option altogether and you've gained the skills needed to maintain it longterm.

Exactly the same here. We have done bits and bobs on ours but now having lived in it for a few years and realising the extent of what it needs .... we just can't afford it.

We've joked (or not) about extending mortgage and literally ripping it down to start again as I think it would be easier to build a new build and start from scratch. Windows don't have lintels so they and sagging onto the windows - can't open one, patio doors impossible, 3 have blown. Discovered in 2 rooms they have replaced ceiling by just putting new ceilings over the top, potential old asbestos so we don't want to take down but both have had leaks through them. One room which was converted from the garage has no insulation and a single skin of bricks around 2 of the walls.

But we LOVE the location in the village looking out across fields and a lake so are so reluctant to move.

@Maneandfeathers we had a leaky rotten conservatory too and pulled it down, but instead of replacing it put a lovely outside wooden solid roof gazebo with a large table. So gives shade from the sun / a lovely outside eating spot. And a LOT cheaper than replacing. Is this an option?

I have to say that i love the sound of your location.

Maybe this bank holiday task is to get rid of the dining table? And what about planting some mint - apparently it deters rats? Ask on any local groups you have - if someone asked me they could have a full mint plant and I'd throw in a pot so that it doesn't take over as much of the garden as it wants to!

I have come to hate bodgers more than life itself. But one day you will have a house that you love, in a beautiful setting. You bought it for a reason.