Should we take on this renovation?

[HouseofHills]

Hello,

I would love some advice from experienced renovators!

DH and I both have busy jobs and no DIY skills, experience or connections. We’re currently TTC.

We’ve just sold our first flat and are looking for a house which we can make a long-term family home. We’re struggling to find something we like in budget and in the location we want. We weren’t looking for a renovation but came across this house which we love in our ideal location: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/148399262

We love houses with character and the idea of being able to put our own stamp on a house and have it exactly how we want it! But is it worth it?

How much would it cost to renovate a house like this and how long would it take?

We’ve recently had a big jump in income so we can get a large mortgage but don’t have a lot of savings due to previously being on much lower incomes. This means we have a budget around £800k but we don’t have a lot of capital to fund a renovation immediately (we’ll around 70k left after deposit and stamp duty on this house). So, we’d probably have to prioritise renovating some rooms and live in part of the house while saving more before finishing it.

Houses like this in the area are around £1m if completely renovated so we could never afford a house like this without renovating. But is it worth it?

I would love tips and advice from anyone who has been through something similar!

I agree about separate spaces being invaluable with older kids so personally I wouldn't knock through all three. Someone else mentioned the road being possibly busy - if so that could mean never being able to send kids out to play by themselves. I don't know the area though so obviously that could be the same anywhere round there and maybe this road is no worse than others. But if there are any 1930s cul de sacs around there, for instance, then they would be much more child friendly while still being nice old houses.

You can't have looked very hard.

Have you looked at all?

Your main problem, other than the fortune required to do it up, will be getting in the trades. They are very busy since Brexit. I’ve recently updated a house in the NW and I’ve had so much difficulty. They don’t answer their phones, you leave a message and they don’t reply because they don’t need to.
I managed to get a roofing company only because the boss was retired, but bored at home so sat in the office every day to answer the phone.
The price of materials has rocketed too.
Once you move in, the list of things that need sorting will get longer and longer.
just saying…..

Seems like easy redecoration job which shouldn't be too daunting. You might be able to get decorators in to do it for you and modernise it.

You have no idea what you are talking about do you?

I’m not concerned about the road. We know the area well and it’s a lovely road and great location - 5 minute walk to the tram, two lovely high streets and lots of parks and green spaces. I think it’s a great place to bring up kids! It’s just the amount of work and cost I’m worried about!

It’s got gorgeous potential but it will be a money pit. If it’s got electrical sockets in the skirting and heating pipes which aren’t chased into the walls, they’re big jobs. Rewire and new heating system. Peeling wallpaper in an upstairs bedroom-is that caused by a leaky roof? It’s really impossible to tell what else would need doing-but it won’t be a cheap house to run. But if you love it and are prepared for that, go for it-it really depends on the sort of people you are and if you’re happy to live in a house where it’ll be a while before it’s ‘done’.

Lovely house but whoever did those photos wants shooting!!

So much potential! My grandparents house was very similar and was a lovely, lovely home.

If you're planning a family do consider which schools you'd be in the catchment for (although I know catchments can change). Some friends bought an amazing 'forever' house and then found themselves in a tricky siutation a few years down the line because they were in a real black-spot when it came to secondary schools.

It looks like a gorgeous house to me that's been well looked after, just not kept up to date.

The key to whether it's ok for you, IMO, is whether you are happy to live in it as is and do upgrades gradually or whether you want it all done up front (which might cost about £200k and require you to live elsewhere for 6m).

That’s a good price for its size and location. It does need updating in terms of decoration and fittings(bathroom/kitchen). I’d be thinking of merging the kitchen and morning rooms, but leaving the living room ‘broken plan’, putting double doors between it and the new kitchen-diner. I’d also be asking an architect about where I could reconfigure to add at least one additional bathroom, utility/ downstairs wc.

I would have a full survey done. Check the roof. Get recommendations for an electrician to do a check. £750+vat I would have thought. You'll know the urgent work to negotiate the price

Tanking in the cellar in time.
Have the textured ceiling encapsulated. This will save a fortune.
Don't feel that you have to do the whole house at once.
Concentrate on the most important rooms. Bedroom, kitchen and living room.

It's a beautiful house and modernisation can be done over time.

Lovely house, totally understand why you're interested. From photos most of it looks a bit dated/personal taste, but looks liveable, so I'd give a good clean after completion and do things as and when - although I'm sure you'd want to do a couple of large things in first few months to make it yours. Sorry, I can't give you an idea of costs, but something like checkatrade might give you a rough idea for things like kitchen/bathrooms. If you go into a flooring shop, they might be able to give you an idea for flooring if you have that done in 2/3 stages as you go along. Any decoration you can do yourself, will certainly save money but appreciate that'd have to be a room at a time with working. Sorting the heating out would be my priority, that'll make it cosy - owner should give you access for heating engineer to quote, so you'd know approx how much before completion.

As it's older, obviously get a full survey just in case there's anything you didn't expect.

LOL, this is far off the mark!😂😂😂

Total rewire, new board and sign off will be about £7k plus remedial works to decor.

I've just looked at the agency's other properties with Property Log on. Between 725k and 1.8 million, 6 out of 24 have been reduced. I've done quite a lot of looking at agents and I'm quite impressed with that reduction rate.

So, either they're very, very good about getting pricing near what people are prepared to pay, or they're going in at the low end to start a bidding war.

Anyway, you know that old saying 'if it seems to good to be true, it usually is' - so - my first step would be calling them and saying 'I'm really surprised at this price. Is there anything my surveyor or lawyer are going to come across that would likely to be causing us a big problem to get the sale through?' and just see if they fess up 'the remaining family are all skint and need it gone fast' or 'it had to be underpinned two years ago,' or whatever.

lovely house. if the location is great, then that's your first criteria ticked.
We moved into a very similarly dated house 25 years ago and for us location and space has been great. Likewise we moved in pre children and have brought up 2 children there.

Clearly the kitchen is very dated - hence no photos - and with the exception of the kitchen, the rest is liveable with painting through out and new carpets to feel more modern and that it's yours. We have ended up skim plastering most of our bedrooms and if you are ok with plain walls, that can be done and co-ordinated with electrical re-wiring etc when each room is done.

Thorough structural survey essential but be aware any survey will say the roof is coming to the end of its life - ours did and is the same roof 25 years later.

Be mindful that it is likely to be a cold house and will need money, expertise and time to sort that out - but think all carpets on downstairs floors, internal insulation, secondary glazing or new double glazing if windows beyond repair.

Big rooms are harder to heat and a wood burning stove has helped us make our house cosy.

You may need to put in a short/medium term kitchen if it is really tatty and there ikea may be your friend - though not their fitters as I've heard poor reports of the service. It can take time for first time retro-fitters to work out what is best for houses and how you live, so if you don't mind living in a "not totally modernised" house for quite a while, you will be ok.

It's going to be a beast to heat! Agree it's a very attractive house, but some questions I would ask myself:
-Do we really need somewhere so big?
-Do we want to be tied in the continuing to both work FT to finance the big space and the work needed, if we are hoping to squeeze family life into our schedule too? Alongside the time and energy to oversee the work?
That last point is my biggest regret about the doer-upper (with admittedly a lot to doh 200 years old and brutally unmodernised with ridiculously big garden on top, in our case.) There was a constant strain on both money, time and mental space that I think sometimes got in the way if actual life.

DH has always been a bit "eyes bigger than stomach" and I think we paid the price a bit.. Of course the work may be borh straightforward and affordable. But it often isn't and you can't always know in advance...

DON'T knock through the three rooms at the back. Knock the morning room and kitchen into one to make a decent-sized kitchen diner and keep the living room separate. Knocking through all three will make an enormous space that will cost a fortune to heat (even with a south-facing aspect) and once your child(ren) is older you will be glad of separate living spaces.

There would still be a separate living room on the other side of the hall! We’ve lived in places with both a separate living room and kitchen and an open plan one and we’ve always felt so much happier in an open plan space! It makes cooking and entertaining much more enjoyable for us.

Pp is right, it will be cold and expensive to heat in an older house even if you put underfloor heating in (voice of experience) . Maybe you could have a really big opening with folding doors so you can close it off if needed?

We are in a slightly bigger house with underfloor heating but not open plan and our heating and electric bills are about £400 average for both per month and we keep the house at a max of 18oc.

Don't waste money on tanking and DPC. Sort out the cause of the damp. Both can actually make things worse.

Beautiful house.

In an Edwardian house, in a room of approx 40 sq m? You may reconsider when you realise quite how big a space that is. There are studio flats with a smaller footprint. You will freeze.