Do-er upper support group

[Whathaveidone3232]

I’m having a shit time. Completed on my new house two weeks ago and, Christ, it’s a shit show. DH and I have never done any DIY so why the fuck we thought we could take on such a big project escapes me! We have had to do so much in just two weeks and so many things have already gone wrong but, to look at the house, we have barely made progress. I am already beginning to dread pulling up to the house. This house is in an amazing area and the bones of it are great. But - BUT! - it was neglected by its elderly owner for circa 30 years and needs so much redecorating.

So far we have: re-carpeted upstairs, stairs, landing and downstairs garden room, stripped wallpaper in master bedroom and upstairs small bedroom and re-plastered master bedroom. We have also: burst a radio pipe trying to remove a radiator from the wall (£300 for emergency plumber), painted small upstairs bedroom (but then had to scrape paint off and re-sand because sticky all paper residue made it gunky). And today we have discovered that some of the walls are literally dripping in water because of condensation and a lack of cavity walls.

Please tell me it gets better.

@TaupePanda we did the same previously, buying a pretty much condemned house. But I will say the good part of doing that is you can see all three neglect up front, unlike our neighbours who bought next door after wee moved it and found all the hidden issues cleverly disguised to make the house look polished and done.

We're about to embark on some internal layout changes that will involve ceilings and walls coming down (lath and plaster dust yay). We haven't done our bedroom/en-suite yet, I fear that is a mistake.

How is everyone? We’ve been on a break apart from me doing some things since March and most of looked fairly ok. This week I have made a mess everywhere with things to go to the tip and charity shop in the hall.

Ordered carpet for a room and laminate plus underlay etc this morning whilst Black Friday discounts in and the guy who was doing work previously is back in a couple of weeks to fit the laminate and some other work. I need to make sure I have painted all the utility units by then.

Have put some furniture out of the way in DD’s room and she has announced she is coming for Christmas in 2 weeks which is a bit earlier than I had anticipated and not sure she will be able to get into her bed 😀

The utility room was installed in the early 70s I think and we have no budget for replacement so much to a friend’s disgust I am painting the units in the hope that they vaguely look like the modern handless doors. Have tiled over some tiles, chipped off polystyrene tiles from part of the ceiling along with textured wallpaper on ceiling and walls and spent many many hours on walls making good that need plastering really. Still got a fair few units to paint and the walls need another coat but I think I can see a reasonably decent room starting to emerge.

We spent 7 years doing up our old house top to bottom then, 3 years ago, moved to another full doer upper 🤣. We’re about to commit to a builder this week after the trial of getting planning permission sorted and people out to quote. In that three years though we’ve done the garden, two bedrooms, installed a modern stove, and generally fixed bits that were actually dangerous!

How old are the electrics