Renovating an entire house on a budget

[Renoonabudget]

So basically we borrowed as much as we could to get through the door of this property, £300k mortgage but its a bit of a fixer upper. Think 80s decor everywhere. It's liveable but desperately needs updating. This is the forever home.

So we have about £10k to renovate it until we build our funds up again, I can do alot of DIY, painting, etc even some basic carpentry like skirting boards and laid down laminate flooring before.

Kitchen is old with free standing range cooker (with a couple of broken burners) Awful laminate worktops, beige tile with a couple missing, lino roll floor, old stainless steel sink and drippy tap. It really needs ripping out and starting again however we might want to extend the kitchen one day but will be about 5 years before we can build the funds for that. But don't think I can live with it as is for 5 years.

Downstairs cloak has carpet floor and really old beige toilet, sink and mirror. But it's functional. Again could do with properly ripping out and starting again.

Carpets through out, beige but old, bit moth eaten in places. Probably wool or wool blend.

Living and dining room, ugly stone gas fireplace that doesn't work and has been switched off, generally awful decor with ugly wall paper. But liveable. Top hung sliding doors that seperate dining and living area, old and a bit wobbly.

Upstairs bathroom functional, at least its a white suite. I've already replaced the brown medicine cabinet with a white mirrored one and the knackered beige bathe panel with a wooden painted white one and installed a new over bath shower when the other one was on the fritz when we moved in. Again it needs redoing but its okay.

DC5's bedroom has been totally reskimmed and redecorated, with new light fitting and I've painted a mural on the wall (I'm a professional illustrator). Everything replaced apart from beige carpet (which we can't afford to do yet)

Our bedroom just replaced the handles on the built in wardrobes to more modern ones. It had been recently redecorated white but again needs properly doing, but liveable.

Spare bedroom/office, ugly decorations but functional for wfh. Just has our desks in when we do wfh.

Outside, lovely mature gardens. I've built a picket fence myself to secure it as its a wrap around side garden on a corner plot. Needs patio areas redoing at some point. I have also lifted up an area of patio to create a bark filled play area for DC's swing.

Combi boiler okay, not too old and Worcester. Loft partially boarded and needs more insulation, will probably need a new roof fairly soon (survey said it was only its last legs) but holding together atm and surveys are super cautious.

So where would you start on a tight budget? We'll have more money as we can build savings again. But with what I have now, where would you start?

We live in North East Cheshire. Early 40s, one DC.

Personally I think the cloak and kitchen need sorting asap but how do I make this budget stretch. 😬

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

For the kitchen the cheapest option is to paint doors and put down modern laminate worktops that you can’t tell aren’t granite without touching, they look great, this can be done for a few hundred whereas even a basic remodel is £5-6k without labour.

personally I’d then get to grips with rooms you spend more time in so living room is more important than cloakroom

Loads of good ideas here, and many of us share your story in our past.

Just a couple of things to add. Try to be as flexible as you can, and certainly do mood boards for the rooms, (also you may be able to get free/low cost software on your computer to enter each rooms dimensions and use for planning, *we did this.) but accept that your plans/colours and wish lists will evolve in the time scales it will take to get to each project. So run your ‘this purchase will be used again when I get to my next stage list’ with care.
For example buying an expensive kitchen tap to use in the meanwhile, before getting your final kitchen, may prove unable to be used again. (Due to size /colour / style). So better to get one that is good value for money rather than a showstopper. Save your wish list for the final version.

*We had at least 6 updates to our computer model of our lounge design. But it cheered us up and kept us focused while we waited.

Very best of luck OP!

Its that we'll basically be able to save a bit more by then and hopefully I'll be full time hours at that point. Currently I work part time because of our 5 year old. Not saving as fast right now, just a few hundred a month. It's more of a projection. IYSWIM.

The shells are fairly sound, I think its possible to reuse them, the only problem is the doors are not standard sizes, so I'd have to either paint them or buy doors in bespoke sizes, which starts to add up.

Downstairs is solid concrete floor, upstairs is very creaky floorboards. Xx

Thankyou for the suggestions.

You might be right but the living room needs some money spending as we need to get the old gas fireplace and ugly stone surround removed, I can easily see the living room getting up to 4 figures.

I agree there's some great laminates now, I've been looking at compact laminate as an option.

That's some really great advise thankyou! Xx

Ok so I’d probably start with a list of what I couldn’t live with.

Re: the kitchen I’d sand and paint the units as they don’t look too bad, invest in a new but not expensive worktop, sink and tap. I’d probably buy some new hardware - but again not expensive (look at screwfix).

I’d then use peel and stick tiles right over the existing ones which are cracked/missing and some new floor Lino. You can get some lovely designs. Pretty sure you can do all that for £1k and that’s a good return if you are going to be living with it for 5 years before the dream scheme.

Then I’d look at the living room as you’ll want a nice space to spend time in and relax.

I think even doing a proper job on the Lounge you could still have enough budget for the downstairs toilet if you are thrifty. For example I did mine and bought duravit toilet/sink. My parents did theirs a few moths after but found the same brand has a range for hospitality that’s just as good quality but far less pricy.

Hall last as otherwise you’ll damage your work with other Reno work.

Edit for typo.

Personally, I would do what I could with paint.
Paint/ stencil floors, walls ( obvs), kitchen cabinets. You can really have fun with it as it's not permanent.

You could also wrap the countertops, use paint or stick on tiles for the backsplash- there's so much you can do.

There's loads of this on instagram, so plenty of inspiration out there.

One room at a time is a good way to approach the renovations. If you want to move everything around and change the layout you currently have, think about using a program where you can build a 3d model and place things differently to find the best combination. Something like Interior design 3d might help, they have planning tools for kitchen, living rooms, bathroom, etc, and also there are articles with budget friendly design ideas (like this one) that could be useful. You can also work on color schemes in there.

Personally I would start with the kitchen but it depends on your living arrangements and preferences (maybe start with the rooms if you prefer). Outside areas could wait till the main house is done.

A chap who did some work for us got an entire huge high-end kitchen + appliances all only a few years old, for, IIRC, a grand or so, on condition he took it out. Even dismantled It filled two of his large vans!

@babyproblems Do you have any recommendations for websites or retailers for kitchen accessories (handles, lighting, brass rails, taps etc)?

Oh OP I love your kitchen tiles!