Yay or nay? Edwardian doer upper

[ImaBuilder]

so torn and looking for your advice please

We need to move out of the penthouse flat we’ve been shedding out rent money for years and years and are looking to move into our Edwardian doer upper. It’s nowhere near town but it’d be the most sensible option.

This house doesn’t have any major structural faults I’m told but would need a complete cosmetic update (currently 70s to 90s decor throughout). Carpets / curtains / lights need to go, walls need a neutral colour, that sort of thing.

Also a remodel probably…downstairs layout is bonkers with loo and shower cubicles leading to a ‘conservatory’. New kitchen in order too…

Now that I think of it, the bathroom and loo upstairs need a refit. An en-suite fitted upstairs if I had my way!

We’ve been renting our whole lives so have no idea where to start.

But we can’t complete all that before we move in. We’ve 7 weeks notice to move out of our flat and if it were up to the landlord they’d have us out today.

Honestly, we’re not even sure we want to live in this house but in town we’d spend a packet on rent.

Schools and work are accessible from here if you were wondering and I could make time to manage a refurb (I think!)

Just one example: the textured wallpaper beneath the dado rail. Bugger to strip off if it’s painted, especially with shiny paint. Then you’ll find more underneath. Weeks later you’ll finally be down to the plaster, which will be the grainy grey horsehair stuff, not gypsum. If you’re unlucky it’ll all fall off the walls and cost you a reskim, before which you’ll need to sort out any sockets - getting them off the skirting and onto walls, for example. If you’re lucky it’ll remain intact but you’ll need to wash it multiple times with sugar soap, then rinse, then sand, then coat with Zinsser Gardz before even thinking about paint, which will need more coats than usual to cover the dark grey of the plaster. At which point you’ll be going “do i really need/want to strip paint off the banisters?” and losing the will to live, do a lead test on the stair paint, spend more than the money you’re saving on rent on Peelaway or Klingstrip… you have to really love the bones of a house to do it. It’s never simple, it’s never “just lift the carpet”. Our carpet had underlay, plywood, more carpet, more underlay, and newspapers underneath. Then bitumen and lead paint on the floorboards.

Do it room by room. You will probably spend 150k all in, but you can do this over time, prioritising areas that need to go first. If everything needs doing, I would start with the downstairs/remodelling as you will spend most of your time in this space. Leave bathrooms until the end. As I found out the hard way, most buyers will pay extra for a fancy/nicely done kitchen, bathrooms not so much. Look at done versions of your property (in the vicinity) and keep yourself budgeting spend with final sale price in mind. Everyone thinks they will live in their first house purchase for decades, realistically, most people sell up to release equity and pay down their mortgages. Good luck OP!

This is the voice of experience , please listen @OP. Who is so very obviously NOT a builder 😂

Why on earth wouldn't you just sell and buy something you love, in an area that works? @Newbie8918

The areas that work for us are more expensive. We’d need to buy a smaller place.

So I need to figure out whether I want this house with plenty of room for everyone or whether we can live with a smaller property. Mind you, we’re pretty squashed in our current place (and quite happy). So all in all I’d say, we’d be fine in a smaller place but in a better area.

We did it! Cost 70k and took us five years to get round to it. They are good solid houses as a base though.

makes sense what you say! Also, looks like we have no other option right now

Yay and nay could be a few things

• sell or keep
• rent somewhere we love or move into this one
• do this one up or live in it as it is (basic, partly falling apart, crusty around the edges)
• and if we do this one up: should it be a structural or cosmetic update (I think I got an answer on this on the thread!)
• do we like size more or location

Not what I want to hear but thank you! Yes. Voice of reason

Sorry about that! And if you do decide to partially do it up (rewiring, windows etc), for goodness sake, don't start reconfiguring the downstairs and knocking internal walls down to suit your own family's needs. Just get the basic, really important stuff up to date, and let someone else worry about the spaces.

You might find it useful to start a new thread with some photos so MN can further advise on what they think are the most crucial bits to do.

I think the overriding problem is that you'd find living this house quite depressing, and that you're used to more luxury, is that right?

Would it be financially feasible to live in it short term, rent somewhere else you love that's not falling down around you, and do it up slowly whilst renting? Then you have a marketable asset to sell further down the line, one that can get you closer to buying somewhere more along the lines of the places you rent that you love.

Is it a specific survey? Have just had a google and quite a bit came up!

Ah glad you’re imagining Edwardian detail! There’s some but I couldn’t even say if they’re original. My favourite is the oxblood and black checker tiles in the garden. I bet your dream Victorian home has lots of period features too! Listed even. I guess that’s another level

I feel like it’s definitely a milestone for us! And a millstone and blessing at the same time

Yes, good strategy for planning it all out! Thanks

I’m glad you’re not sugar coating it.

as a layman’s estimation I’d also say it could cost 150K to get to a high spec standard,

now need to decide whether we just move in for a few months as it is or get the reno ball rolling with a survey (and hoping that it’s going to give a green light so that I can start with the interior decorations) never going to happen is it. I think I’m just going to buy a tin of white Dulux and add another layer of paint on top of it all

MIL says house is in order and only the drains need cleaning every x weeks and the window in the kitchen needs replacing next year. She said they had some damp repair and roof fixing. But without an actual survey this is just hearsay isn’t it?

not sure how I came about my username 😂

Yes, the textured wallpaper beneath the Dado rail is indeed painted in a glossy paint. How did you know? And I assume this is already the bringer of doom

out of curiosity, what date did the newspapers under your carpets show?

Awesome! Cheers to that, really happy for you! Great price too! Yes I saw online that the Edwardian houses are supposed to be sturdy

If there is nothing more than decor to be done, it's not really a doer-upper, as most people would eventually redecorate any house.
'Doer-upper' is where you have stuff to deal with like drains, roof repairs, drains, rewiring, that sort of stuff.

Just to show hiw much chaos we have lived in, these are pictures from the first year we were in our house.

The dust/mess/noise was unreal..I would highly recommend not living there if you have any extensive work done past just cosmetic stuff.

We had no choice and although I was completely on board with everything that was happening, trying to live like this with 2 kids under 8 was challenging to say the least, and detrimental to my (already fragile) MH at the time.

The house is beautiful now, although still a load of work to do including a new kitchen/rebuilding a crappy extension, all of which will have to wait indefinitely as we simply do not have the money.

My OH has done 90% of the building work himself.. luckily he is extremely handy, but just the sheer cost of materials is prohibitive at the moment.

There is a Haynes manual called The Victorian House Book you can buy which will give you a lot of useful info on period houses, and how to best care for them.

@pinklemonsparkle wow thank you for the pics. That’s a building site for sure. I’ve once lived in one but only for a week. I remember the feeling. Couldn’t do it with young kids, but it was worth it for you.

Got to say that I’m slightly creeped out by the pic with the ladder 😂 Could we have a cavern in front of the fireplace? I’ll have to look at the book you recommend Thank you

but I LOVE your window! I can imagine how stunning your house looks.

We have just done our last major renovation, I would be surprised if a property with 70s and 90s decor didn't need new plumbing / electrics etc. What condition are the windows in? How are the drains? Any signs of rot? What condition is the roofing in? Those are the major costs as far as I would see them. Not completely adding up for me to have a dated house but only cosmetic requirements

Have I missed where you said what MIL is going to do? Is she planning on moving out if you move in?

Surely a big factor in this is whether or not she will continue living there with you.

If she moves out, you move in and then decide that it's not for you and sell up, would that cause disgruntlement or worse?

That’s not a ladder. Those are floor joists.

No way would I renovate somewhere I didn’t like in the first place.

I’d probably at least try just selling it first (maybe attend to anything which might make it impossible to mortgage) and then buy somewhere I actually like where I want to live.

🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 at the “ ladder “.

Please oh please don’t do this OP. Just sell the property and use the money to buy something that just needs decorated in an area you like.

I don’t think I implied that there’s no major refurbishment needed? I can see that it needs a remodel and if we stay there then I’ll also get a survey. MIL says drains have been recently fixed and roof repaired but I have no idea if it was a professional job.

Cosmetic update would be just to make it look better for the time we live there. There’s a ton of renovation stuff that needs done, new bathrooms, kitchen etc and as you say check for the hidden stuff.

No you haven’t missed that bit. The house is ours and there’s no disgruntled MIL in the picture. The opposite. She’s happy that she can finally move to a 1-bed in town…she says she hates the commute 🙈

Relax! If we keep the house I’ll get a good refurb team in. I’m not going to do that kind of work by myself obviously. What I’ll do myself is add some paint etc