Crazy quotes? Regretting buying your fixer upper? Join me in home renovation rants!

[Yemelade]

Some of you might remember me from my house sprucing (low level, manageable DIY) thread where I was preparing to sell up my old house.

That purchase is now complete, and we are now semi-regretful owners of a run down fixer upper.

I dillegently made a spreadsheet and researched possible prices of work needed. New roof, kitchen, bathrooms, windows. Its essentially a money pit. IIinitially, prior to purchase, thought we had a healthy budget at 62k, but have quickly realised this is nowhere near enough.

Please join me in rants, woes, discoveries and doom. It would be good to hear from anyone in a similar boat so that my colleagues are no longer plagued by this regularly! I am in North East UK.

X

I am managing my own trades because we are doing it piecemeal and slowly and we have no money. It does save a lot but I wouldn't recommend it unless you know enough to know roughly how a job should be done and what needs thinking about and you know some reasonably good tradespeople who you can communicate well with.

I like it because it means I can do the bits I like, running cables, smashing down walls, decorating whilst getting labourers in to do the horrible bits like taking ceilings down.

Morning all.

Didn't get out kitchen fitted, but did get it plastered, dried, and applied a mist coat!

We will have alabaster coloured main units in a L shaped of a south facing kitchen, with a reed green island, and river white granite worktop. We want bright white woodwork and skirting etc. We didn't want a "bright white" wall situation in there because the light would be blinding and feel too clinical. But equally We don't want a colour that is too grey or yellow. So we are now trying to decide on the best colour!

We looked at timeless by dulux but it seems a bit too grey. DH prefers Jasmine white, and I'm a bit torn. Didn't think I'd ever be one of those people collecting 10 different colour samples in similar colours!!

Pictures of progress, and the paint swatches on walls 😂

Well, the kitchen fitting is going slightly slower than anticipated. But we are getting there! So glad we invested in pan drawers around most of the kitchen (even drawers concealed behind doors!). Our kitchen sink was delivered recently and was meant to come with a veg washing grid. They sent one, but in the wrong size. Our kitchen tap came this week too, unfortunately broken and a noticeable blemish on the handle. Both companies were great however and sent replacements/correct items immediately though I'm not left with 1 broken tap and the wrong size metal grids. The companies don't want them back. Going to keep the tap for spares I think, and see if I can resell the veg washing grid online!

Loving that the cabinets go all the way to the ceiling. Did you do the kitchen planning or get someone in to help?

Hi! Thank you. Though we're ended up adding under floor heating, screeding thr floors and replastering the ceilings after ordering thr kitchen which affected the height of thr space. Luckily, it all still fits! This is a mock up of the design. We had floor to ceiling cabinets in our last home, and each of us being over 6ft means it's all fully accessible to us!

We designed it ourselves on DIY kitchens. It was relatively straight forward. Building it is a different story, but we are getting there!

My word what progress!

Mine has made a little progress but of course nothing is easy. This week the bits for the shower room toilet weren't included. Wickes customer service were less than helpful as they claimed I didn't buy the toilet from them. I did. But the people in the store were brilliant. So hopefully that will be properly plumbed in, then the extractor fan. I've also got to order more flooring.

It's getting me down now. It feels never ending and I want the house at least done by April. Which seems a long time but it's stop start so far. Then onto the outside.

Never again!

Thank you!

You know, honestly we've been living here since December and its felt rather slow all this time. Its really just been in the past couple months things have ramped up! You're right though. Nothing is easy, we find we always underestimate price and time it will take to finish things, anx everything seems to have a knock on effect on everything else. I'm in the same boat. Waves of feeling grateful we're building the dream, but mostly just drained and fed up, asking myself if its all worth it.

Did the wickes thing resolve?

I'm getting bifolds installed tomorrow. Really excited to see the difference in light and space!

That’s amazing progress and that’s really exciting about bifolds!

Just had my second shower of the day having been wielding my trusty sledgehammer. I’m taking out a partition wall and staircase in my kitchen to enlarge it. Most of the wall is down so staircase next.

Currently the washing machine is under the staircase. I am thinking of moving it upstairs in roughly the same position in what will be a large cupboard off the lamding or could be off the bathroom. Need to think about this further .

I had to do an emergency door repair midweek as the latch had somehow become misaligned. I really need to buy some good chisels, or learn how to sharpen them as it would have made the job a lot easier (recommendations /advice welcome). And we had an internal waterfall because of the rain in an upstairs bedroom. I think the roof has failed and tree he rain is running down the back of the guttering. I hate heights though so jot looking forwards to that.

The Wickes saga continued because the toilet wasn't manufactured properly and wouldn't fit together so that's a complaint that's gone in with a request for a refund.

Oooh bi folds how wonderful! I love french doors and I've had them put in two rooms, it's remarkable how much more light I have now.

Quick update from me.

Bifolds in, all of downstairs flooring now down and laid, awaiting our electrician visiting to finish the rewire. Hoping to book the plasterer back in before Christmas to plaster the rest of downstairs.

Got measured for worktops today, those should go into production soon and hopefully be installed over the next few weeks. We're getting granite with purple flecks in. So excited to see it. After those jobs, we will have nothing in the kitty, so we will be saving up as and when for the rest of our windows, the ensuite and main bathroom. But other than that, (and the garden) everything on our initial to do list will have been completed in roughly 8 months. Half of that not living on site, whilst working full time and juggling life. Pretty happy with that, but by god it's been hard going!! Hope you're all getting on ok and making steady progress, although always remember how necessary rest and breaks away from projects are too!!! X

I love your floor. Not a massive fan of islands but you have the space for one and it suits the space so I can reluctantly agree that it looks very nice. My lime pointing lady has started our ridiculously expensive wall. I have offered my teens money to move the sand from the driveway to the wall but they are ignoring me and doing perler beads instead...

That looks really good Yemlade and you have done really well with everything you have done.

It was demolition day yesterday when had someone in to take out the rest of a staircase that needed to come out. I did most of it and the wall but doing it in bits was quite disruptive for DH who works from home and worth paying £180 which included taking most of the waste as he lives in middle of nowhere and had mates coming for a bonfire so needed wood. Total cost is £263 as I needed tools.

There was an extra door put in by the staircase which was in part of a room that was then sectioned off. Thank goodness I got him to take the boarding off over the door. The support is rubbish and even when the stud wall was there it wasn’t enough. Thankfully we were able to get an acrow quickly and it is now supported and I need a builder to put some support in .

Bought a doer upper. Took 20 years before we were able to afford to do what we needed. I love it now, but too long a journey.

Wow that's gorgeous!

This weekend I'm painting my dining and shower rooms (again) and then moving the table in! Then it's onto the kitchen.

We will all need lots of drinks at the end of this!

Just de lurking - I don't have a doer upper (just getting our kitchen done was a major achievement!) but love reading the updates and @Yemelade your insta is great!

Thank you! I love it too. It is nice underfoot too! We are happy we went for the island too. Kitchen width is only just over 4 metres, so U shaped and peninsula seemed to make such a long space seem small, whereas I feel the island keeps It open!

Teenagers eh 😂

Don't you hate that sometimes doing something that costs a manageable amount of money, nearly always uncovers something more costly and expensive?! It's always the way!

Sounds like a good use of funds to get that done though. What are your plans for stairs? We got a quote for a staircase upgrade and it was too much for us. We've been looking at stairbox and getting a joiner out to maybe quote for something bespoke but affordable!

I'll see you at the bar! 😂 gosh I really struggle with painting. One of those jobs I really don't enjoy and its hard work! Though painting does make rooms feel much nicer and fresher.

I was a serial lurker for years, it feels funny to me that I'm now doing the reno rather than watching it! Thank you.

@Yemelade this was an extra staircase that had been put in many years ago to access upstairs from outside then the entrance onto the landing was boarded over so a cupboard with stairs in and can just come out and put room back to how it was.

Our main staircase is kind of fine. I don’t think it is original and as another I saw in the road looked a bit grander. I might replace the Newell cap or whatever they are called and need to sit down with wood filler and caulk and have another go at the bits not covered by runner.

We had a crazy quote. 10k to remove a door that hasn’t been properly supported and replace with a window and to replace a bit of ceiling plus make a doorway in a stud wall.

I asked him to quote for the door . He asked if we wanted a quote for the ceiling and I said yes but as a separate quote, they came together. I then asked for him to break it down and he started asking questions about how the door opened and said it would be hard to support the wall when removing door.

There’s a few rotten boards by the door where the old door leaked but they are short sections of wood as there’s a dip for mat after. He started saying the joist night be rotten and I was thinking for goodness sake, it’s clear there are stone foundations under there as used to be a solid wall.

Just posted on a thread about Aga Masterchef and sudden realised that probably accounts for quote. But we paid £900 not 5/6k.

Oooo my people.

our craziest quote was £25k to replace a very average staircase.

We’re on a massive time bound countdown as we have carpets being installed soon and have to paint a lot of woodwork before that happens. I wanted to paint the walls too but I don’t think that’s going to happen in time.

My fun game last week was when my building was sorting out a hatch in the shower room he found that our drain was blocked. He sorted it out but it was more money. I know doing up means unpicking someone else's work but I feel like I'm not further forward.

I cannot paint this weekend because I've hurt my back.

But we keep on keeping on!