Renovations - where to start?

[newhouseplans]

Apologies, this is long!

I have recently inherited £50k.

My house is in desperate need of repair / upgrading and so I intend to spend it either on renovating the house as this will significantly improve the quality of life for my family - currently we're making do with sub-par living standards. The DC are 11, 13 and 16.

I'll get some contractors in to quote, of course, but I'd love some MN advice on where would be best to spend the money. I don't think £50k will stretch to all the things that need doing, so it's a matter of priorities... WWYD / what would you prioritise?

These are the current problems with the house:

• heating system needs replacing - new combi boiler & new pipes and radiators as the current ones are old and rusting. This one is essential

• lead pipes need replacing.

• kitchen falling apart, no dishwasher. I don't need a snazzy kitchen, but a functional one would be great, and a dishwasher would be amazing!

• bathroom is so tiny and water pressure so rubbish so as to be not functional. Two of my teenagers are too big for the bath. We desperately need a decent shower for them, it's not very easy to wash in there.

• we are overcrowded, one of us sleeps on the sofa in the living room. We could do a loft conversion - or if the conservatory could be made into a dining room, maybe turn the dining room into a bedroom

• the conservatory is about 40 years old and falling apart - we have the washing machine and dryer in there, which works well, but it's not usable as a room in winter as bitterly cold or in summer as roasting hot. It also has a outside type drain in it - when they converted it in the 80s they simply added a conservatory over the outside drain

Which would you tackle first? How many of the above do you think we could get done for £50k?

FWIW despite its problems, we do like our house. It's in a nice area, we have great neighbours and the bedrooms are significantly bigger than most in this price range (no box room!)

A bit more detail on the lead pipes:

We've had the water tested and as it's a hard water area, the levels in the water are low due to limescale build up - nevertheless we use bottled water for drinking and cooking to be on the safe side. However, we don't know the extent of the pipes - it could be just the ones you can see, or they could go underground to the street. If the latter, it'll be a big job to replace.

We've got so used to using bottled water, fixing this wouldn't make as big a difference to my DC's lives as some of the other options. However I suspect there may be an argument for doing this at the same time as replacing the heating system.

For the bathroom and bedroom, possible solutions I can think of include:

Bathroom:
a. keeping the bathroom in the same space and simply putting a shower above the bath
b. knocking through the bathroom to the toilet

Bathroom & bedroom
c. putting stairs to the attic where the current bathroom is, and putting a new bedroom and bathroom upstairs
d. putting stairs to the attic where the current bathroom is, and putting a new bathroom in one of the smaller bedrooms on the 1st floor. Put two bedrooms in the attic
e. something else? I'm open to ideas!

Here's a plan of the house:
The blue square is where the washing machine is.

Unless you are in a very cheap part of the country, a loft conversion will wipe out your whole £50k near enough. Costs have gone up a lot in recent years. Especially if you need a dormer for the roof height. So if you go for that, can you live without doing anything else on your list?

I think I'd be tempted to prioritise a+b from your bathroom plan, new heating system (but I hate being cold) + pipes and then a functional but affordable ikea kitchen. Id also just stick a table in the conservatory and use the dining room as a bedroom. Maybe look into those companies that can reroof conservatories to make it more usable? But I'm interested to see what others think because I'm def not very creative at this stuff!

Have you tried a high pressure shower head? It made a huge difference for ours, only £7 in b and m, but it has lots of tiny holes so completely boosts the pressure compared to a regular shower head.
Could free up some money for the extension as that sounds higher priority

Could you use the dining room as third child's bedroom, then use the conservatory for eating in?

Who’s your water company? From what I’ve read (apologies if it’s wrong, but it’s worth looking into) they have schemes for replacing lead pipes from the mains in the road up to your boundary at no charge to you, then you are responsible for the boundary into your house. It doesn’t even mean digging up your whole path or anything, it can be a relatively simple job and hopefully wouldn’t cost you too much. Have a look on your supplier’s website.

We're in the South East so not a cheap area at all!

We don't need a dormer however.

Good question if you go for that, can you live without doing anything else on your list?

I think the bathroom is a priority over the extra bedroom. FWIW, it's me on the sofa. I can live with it for a while longer, the DC need a decent bathroom more urgently I think.

Functional but affordable IKEA kitchen sounds great!

Sadly I can't just put a table in the conservatory though - it's unusable in its current state - too hot or too cold! And it looks awful too.

Good to know about.

However we don't currently have a shower at all, only a bath.

Yes, we could use the space in this way, but would need to put a new conservatory in (or fix the current one if possible - I suspect not though) as the current one is unusable for any period of time.

In the summer, I do the washing in there at night, or as quick as I can if in the day.

In the winter, it's freezing while doing it.

It's not currently somewhere you'd want spend enough time to eat a meal.

Ooh, that's interesting, thanks! It's South East Water. I'll go have a look...

Our house has an ikea kitchen (newly installed by previous owners just before we bought) and it has been perfectly serviceable for the past 8years. We are changing it next year but only because the layout doesn't work for us (2 x DC under 4yo, galley layout, not really safe for toddlers). If the layout worked, we wouldn't be planning on changing at all. They do a kitchen planner on their website so you can get at least a rough idea of prices.

I think given the age of the children and the time and cost of a loft conversion it might make more sense to get the conservatory improved and use the dining room as a bedroom.
Especially given the money that will go on the plumbing/pipes and fitting a shower (neither are cheap).

My priorities would be plumbing (boiler, pipes, shower fitted - cheap one with high pressure head to cut costs) then improve the conservatory to give the dining room to eldest as a bedroom, then any money left over on improving the kitchen and getting a dishwasher.

If the budget doesn't stretch to that then maybe trying to DIY the kitchen to improve it slightly, a cheap dishwasher should hopefully be able to be added yourselves too depending on your set up - if the plumbing allows it then could you just remove the cupboard next to the sink and place it there? Or cut a hole through the back sides of the cupboard and feed the drainage and water supply cables through.
Remember slimline dishwashers are an option if that would make fitting one yourself easier.

Second the plumbing then conservatory plan. We also have a freezing / boiling conservatory and are replacing all the glass to make it a useful space. I don’t know how big your conservatory is, but our glass replacement was less than I expected. That feels a really good use of funds to make a difference to everyone’s lives

I've been in similar position years ago with three older kids in the bedrooms and me on the sofa bed. Did move eventually ànd totally gutted a small terrace and put loft conversion in with ensuite. Forget loft conversion as would definitely eat up most of your money with building regs. (They make you do fire doors and windows that you can escape through as well as loads of insulation).
Boiler and plumbing need doing then if water pressure better you could just have mixer shower taps added to existing bath with rail and curtain which should only cost a couple of hundred. Any remaining I'd consider whether you could knock through from kitchen to sitting room to include a dining table then you could use the dining room as a bedroom. I put in a minimal ikea kitchen and still gets compliments 12 years later. I went for very small L shaped area to house just the essentials, white butchers sink under the window with washer and dishwasher (essential in my opinion😂) either side. Cupboard with hob on top and a tall housing for the oven which also houses the boiler then a farmhouse table that I use as extra work surface and to eat off. Ikea do some nice open shelves which I prefer to wall cupboards and much cheaper. The least amount of fitted kitchen you can get away with the cheaper it is, you can add other furniture when you can afford it such as dresser, sideboard, butchers trolley or whatever you fancy.

I'll have a play around with that, thanks.

My DIY skills are rubbish :(

I can do painting and decorating, including wallpapering, and getting contractors to leave that bit to me could get one way to save money.

But I'd need someone to help me do the kitchen, I wouldn't know where to start! And I don't have the tools.

I think you're probably right about the loft.

Sigh. I did for a minute think I could finally maybe get off the sofa and have a proper bedroom again, at last! Maybe the dining room / conservatory plan will be doable.

Interesting to know about that - but I think the conservatory is beyond it's useful life, I'm pretty sure it needs completely replacing if we're going to use it as a room.

Do you need planning if only a 2 story house going up to 3? I thought if it was pretty straightforward and you followed regs e.g. for stairs having enough height above them you didn't need planning and it wasn't too much of a big deal.

Admittedly I've not done any proper research into it yet, I'm right at the beginning of making my plans. Did I get that wrong?

About the bathroom - the walls need tiling also, we need a new basin at minimum.

Great to hear you finally got off the sofa! Hopefully me too before too long, although the kids needs are the priority at the moment.

Interesting idea about knocking through to the kitchen, will have a think about that...

I'd do heating, pipes and shower. Keeping everyone warm & clean would be my priority. Ask the plumber to add a dishwasher point at the same time. You could look for a secondhand dishwasher online.

Sorting the kitchen is not difficult. Find a local handyman and ask his advice on what to change on a very small budget.

"About the bathroom - the walls need tiling also, we need a new basin at minimum."

OP, you could use shower board instead of tiling. It is cheaper, faster and easier to clean (no scrubbing grouting).

Can you do a night course on DIY? Be the assistant to the builder who fixes up the conservatory?

My priority would be the plumbing, including installing a shower over the bath.
The conservatory - relining and insulating. Leave the washing machine there but use the space for eating too.
Use the dining room as a bedroom.

Kitchen. Replace what really needs replacing as you can afford to with IKEA.
Only put in a dish washer if you still insist that people doing the dishes will unpack, dry and put away the dishes.
It will not save time if no one but you empties the dish washer... it will just mean that you run out of plates, forks etc.

If it were me, I would lose the conservatory and replace with a brick built extension to house a utility and new shower room. Make the extension the full width to extend the kitchen and fit a dining table. Replumb, rewire and fit a new kitchen. That is all your money gone and more.
Dining room becomes a bedroom.

You don’t need a “new” kitchen, there are loads for sale second hand. You need to get stuck in a bit yourselves to save labour costs as well.

Do the bones of the house as a priority and reconfigure to give yourself a bit more space as above, but for your budget I don’t think a loft conversion is doable.

Make sure your £50K is in a high interest account while you're making your mind up!
Money saving expert has details of what the best ones are but you can hopefully can 4% on it