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!

Beautiful house! If i was to knock the three rooms into one, I would try and get a study and utility room out of it.

Lifestyle choices can change when you have a family. Never underestimate the ongoing mess small children bring and then its lovely to have a grown up toy free room to close the door on.

Echo pp. knock the living room and morning room into one, divide the current kitchen into two with one third as a downstairs toilet and the other two thirds a boot room/ utility room with a door to the outside where the window is currently. the original bathroom is above the kitchen so soil pipes are in the correct place, within reason

Please don't buy it if you want open plan, choose something else, it would be a sin to knock all those walls out and may compromise the structure too. Old houses are just not built to allow that. Knocking the kitchen into the breakfast room is obviously a good choice though and not so hard on the building. It's got beautiful bones. As far as DIY goes, pick a room that doesn't matter too much and that you can close the door on, keep it empty and have a go at decorating there. Loads of YouTube help. Big bonus is that the doors won't need painting, just a polish. So it's only a clean and a few coats of emulsion paint

Did you watch the video tour? All the upstairs doors look like they’ve been panelled over in the 60’s. Possibly the stairs/bannister also. That’s a big/costly job right there - either bringing them back to how they were or outright replacing them.

@Jennyathemall I thought the bannisters had been covered over too. There may be a gem hiding.

@HouseofHills it sounds like you've already decided to buy it. It's gorgeous, and I wish you luck, but i would really listen to those voices if reason/experience. This is a huge job, not just a 'dash of paint'. It will be never ending, if you finally finish you will need to start again. And it will be very, very expensive to update and run. Personally, although I love a reno, i love family time too. So I'd consider something smaller, or more finished, if I were you.

Sorry to derail your thread OP.

Why do you say that about tanking please? We are about to buy a house with a tanked basement and there’s not a sign of damp anywhere nor smells, nor anyone trying to hide them. But the house three doors down stinks of damp in the basement and has not been tanked.

So now I am worried!

There is no need to do either, and certainly not immediately?

The house is beautiful but I think it will need considerable funds to decorate let alone renovate.

This is so extreme. Thr job is as big as they wish and for as long as they wish. The place is hardly falling down.

I also think the fact a renovated house costs 1m but this is on for 750k gives a clue re how much is needed to spend on it.

Also houses of this size are never done, my family home was similar albeit bigger. So much maintenance etc, it put me off wanting a big house 😆

Only if fully renovated,,and likely those houses are priced at a significant premium as they are renovated. The difference is not simply th4 cost;

@Frasers Ime in this economic climate the people who can make money on doer uppers need to be able to do a lot of the work themselves/be in a trade. You can disagree though.

@frasers, it really isn't.
What would you suggest needs doing?

@KievLoverTwo

Older properties need to breathe. Tanking with cement etc doesn't address the damp issue and can cause longer term damage. It's not recommended practice for older buildings. If you have a google it will explain it more in detail.

Good luck!

I don’t actually know what it’s been tanked with. She opened a cupboard door and it looked like some sort of mesh.
But I will investigate, thank you.

That's a nice house.

I don't see it as a renovation.

Paint and change the carpets? I don't really see what need renovated.

You’re right, older properties do need to breath and the best cure to any damp is to eliminate the things that might be a cause… but basements imo are different.

A large warehouse conversion in central ish London I was involved with was on clay soil and close to the water table. It was advised by structural engineers that to turn the basement from a dank, mouldy space into something useable would require tanking. That’s what we did and 20 years later its still being used as a professional workspace.

If I had one more downstairs reception rooms I'd use it as a downstairs entertaining/gaming room for my older teenager and friends so he could have people round separately from family and younger sibs and also most importantly so I could keep games consoles out of bedrooms but also out of the grown-up living room. Definitely worth keeping options open.

I missed that, what a shame, you could strip and paint them. Someone had replaced ours with those awful Sapele doors, in a Victorian house! We had to do upstairs one year and down the following year, couldnt afford a full set all at once