House not updated since 70s

[Sparkymoo]

House needs rewiring as plugs are still in skirting, new kitchen, bathroom, has central heating but imagine it is very old, at least two windows are showing movement, one ceiling has had a previous leak and big stain, ceiling in front bedroom has had part of ceiling replaced so maybe a problem with roof (done to get sale through as the rubbish is currently in the garage), complete redecoration.

It's perfect location, great garden, doesn't smell of damp at all, enough space and storage, would likely be our long term home.

It's also first home, we have a six year old, no local family support, enough money to do rewire, fix ceilings and windows but would have to wait a year for kitchen, another year for bathroom and what would we do for very dated decor in the meantime?

Feels like too much to take on but partner keen.

Living with dated decor is really not a problem, is it? It's what most of us used to do routinely until we could afford to redecorate and had the time to do it or the money to pay someone else to do it. It's often a good idea to live in a house for a while before you make big changes anyway as it gives you a better idea of how you want things and what the house is like at different times of the year. It sounds like a very good house for you - personally I'd go for it.

Dated decor is totally liveable with if clean. However, I’d investigate the cost of doing the roof as a very high priority. If you decorate/recarpet before upgrading central heating/insulation should those be needed, you will end up paying twice.

I suppose mean the carpets are very old and the decor is very dark. If it was just carpets and decor I would not be worried, we could just sort that or at least paint white and put new carpet in child's room.

I'm more worried that as it's so old that plaster will be coming off etc and that we will have a million extra jobs and no money to fix.

I can't decide if I'm being overly worried or very realistic.

Not helping that partner dismissing as decor when I think it's a lot more work than that.

Have no issue with living with older kitchen or bathroom till we can sort them, it's more we don't know what we are doing and if things haven't been changed since the 70s

Boiler is currently in the bathroom. If we updated the central heating at the same time as rewire and before moving in, is it a big faff to move the boiler if that is how we end up updating the bathroom in a couple of years?

Agree on the roof. Would the survey bring that up clearly for us?

If this is your first home and you have never witnessed a renovation project then you need to get onto YouTube today and look at what is involved with things like a rewire to see how much disruption there is in every room, floor boards lifted, new wall channels created and how dusty and dirty it is. The 1970s were 50 years ago. That is a long time for no updates.

Things that are cosmetically bad but functional you can live with but don't underestimate the mental toll that will take on you using that kitchen for 365 days. I have done 2 house renovations with children. However, I don't work, love research and am great at making decisions fast especially if I have a trades person asking me what do I want to do, this included an extension, kitchen plan by me etc.

It is often best to try to do a main room like a lounge so you have somewhere beautiful to sit whilst the rest of the house is in chaos. As I have said go in to this with your eyes wide open, expect to find when you do this it leads to needing to do that. It will cost more than you think unless you are good at DIY. Dh and I can plumb in bathrooms, tile, lay flooring etc but we have learned over the years. YouTube is a great resource for all things skill wise and renovation wise.

My first priority would be my child's bedroom after essentials like the roof or whatever the survey throws up.

Get a separate report on the roof. Our newish neighbours didn't realise how bad the roof was on the house they bought. The old neighbours were constantly getting in tinkered with, but apparently never got it actually fixed, the new neighbours had a big leak not long after moving in.

The rest, if you love the house, you can live with until you have the money to do what you want. A quick coat of paint on the main rooms will make it feel brighter and like home and some nice rugs over the cleaned old carpets will help a lot.

@spreadbedcandlewick such a useful post, thank you. I can be very decisive, my partner less so. But he is also more handy than me. Couldn't do plumbing but could tile.

@twomanyfrogsinabox great advice on the roof, thank you

@spreadbedcandlewick as we are in rental, my thought was to get the rewire done before we moved in so it can be dust free and a very disruptive thing can be sorted. We can then just paint over and clean carpets/add rugs.

If the roof is ok, I also thought to get the ceilings done then as it is disruptive.

But that money being available all depends on not having to redo the whole roof.

@Sparkymoo so if your Dh is handy this is two fold advice, make sure he isn't using his DIY skills as a chance to duck out of parenting their child every weekend leaving you to take on that solo. On the flip side, make sure he isn't burdened with the DIYer role in the house too. Skills can be learned and I have said this before on here, don't do something for the first time on the actual job. Need to tile? Watch a lot of videos on it especially about making your life easier with tile cuts etc and tile a piece of ply not the actual wall.

We always buy a sacrificial box of flooring to make sure it snaps together well or box of tiles to offer up across a wall etc. We worked every other Saturday on the house so that there were breaks and time spent with the children.

Just seen your rental update, brilliant. Then this is gold for everyone having access without having to shuffle furniture around. The best advice I can give you is buy a wet and dry vacuum cleaner from somewhere like Screwfix. I have had my Screwfix Titan one for about 15 years. Really good for builder dust which will keep appearing days after they leave. Don't use your normal hoover, it will kill it.

We moved to the house just like that. We are the 3rd owners of this property, people before us didn't change a single thing and I mean it even curtains where like the original owners have left it - we laugh often about it.
We've gone through full rewire, new windows, floors, walls, lights, boiler, hidden pipes in - you name it, all while living in there. We don't have small children so that definitely helped. Some things we did ourselves, hubby build media wall, learned from YouTube :) and we are by no means DIY people 😂 but enjoyed the challenge!
It wasn't easy especially during rewire... we still got plenty to do, bathrooms, back extension but! Location location location. For us rural location was a deal breaker.

You can ALWAYS change the inside and even outside of the house but you can't change the land around you.

@MadMadamMum it's not about perfect straight away, it's about being naive and biting off more than we can chew - that's what I've taken from those programmes!

Also we are not young, we're in our late 40s.

We're in the middle of similar!

Just had the rewire done. We were going to try and manage with the kitchen but in closer inspection, it was really rusty and not manageable.

We bought a second hand kitchen for £500 including integrated appliances and granite work tops. We're installing it ourselves.

We've had a new shower in the bathroom but left everything else for now.

We'll decorate as we go along.

It sounds expensive OP. Have you had a survey? Our house is stuck in an 80s time warp, but is thankfully structurally sound. New fuse board, boiler and downstairs carpets cost £5000 alone though.

@sakura06 it will definitely be expensive. We're going to see it for the second time today. We're in an odd position as we have a very good deposit which we can reduce to allow for ready money to do the first essential things and I now have a good job so we would have a good yearly budget for improving the house of about 20k so kitchen etc is viable. Having said that, I don't want to be throwing into a bottomless pit - although renting for so long has been that anyway.

Haven't put an offer in yet, just been arguing all weekend about whether it's sane or not.

It sounds doable if you have the time, money and energy. But this sort of renovation project is well known for testing marriages to the limit. If your husband is handwaving away any potential difficulties then that's a bit of a red flag.

@MadMadamMum been looking on and off for a while. It's a popular area, houses sell and prices are increasing although I've also noticed that over priced houses are staying on for a long time or having to make significant reductions.

It's taking ages because it's a coastal area, partner wants a garden above all else which means further out and smaller, I want close to town and beach, which generally means yard. This is close to town, beach, transport, schools and is a decent garden.

Basically it's worst house on a good street.

@Sparkymoo glad to hear you have the funds for it! Hopefully your second viewing will help you decide.

@JoanOgden yes! That's what is worrying me! I am doing potential costings, looking at what reducing deposit means for mortgage, worrying about how we live in it especially as he works remotely a lot of the time, he is referring to it as decoration.

Doing things in The right order is important. So get all the stuff out of the way like wiring and replastering. We had to take up floorbards to put in new central heating as they'd used microbore and it and the radiators had all silted up too much too be flushed. That was easier as still had all the old carpets...

Resisting boiler was easy but the pipes being removed and put in was a mess. Get the roof done first. Be patient...