Could you live in a doer upper dream house and renovate gradually?

[Otter1986]

Has anyone bought a house that is a true state and just lived with it? How hellish was it?

Our dream home has come on the market. It is wildly overpriced - as is everything locally - but the house will be insanely amazing when it is done. Currently it is two flats and it is a total state.

After payng for the house - including fees - we could waterproof the house (roof, windows, pointing, render). Then we'd have a slosh fund that would cover plastering the third floor bedrooms so we and our kids had a decent room to sleep in. Then, we could redo the bathroom cheaply and could put in a really cheap / second-hand kitchen.

But that is it really. The heating, electrics, other rooms would have to wait. It is would be - at best - a 'boho chic' style of living. Think sagging ceilings, horrible old wallpaper that is in poor condition etc.

Everything else would have to just be done slowly or not at all. We'd have to do lots of stuff ourselves - skirtings etc... We've done it before but it was a much smaller house.

Would we regret it? Or would we say - in five years when it is done - wow, look at our awesome and enormous house on an absolutely ideal road!

We're in 2 minds - we can tighten our belt and totally do it. We could even borrow more in a couple of years when it came to remortgage if we were struggling. But is it really worth it?

Our two kids aren't old but aren't so young that it would be dangerous. And when they are teens it will give us lots of space.

Thoughts?

Absolutely go for it. There will be times it’s hellish and you despair of ever being finished but it will be worth it. We bought a 100 year old croft house that needed everything doing to it 2.5 years ago. There’s hardly any trades around and we’ve been tiling, plumbing, decorating etc because there’s no option, but, we’re in the home straight and have just put up with it. It’s surprised us what level of squalor we’ve been able to cope with but the joy of a great shower in a beautiful new bathroom has been worth it!

Changing the decor and improving the home over time is fine. Ive lived in a doer upper where I wanted to be and it is hard work but worthwhile. But heating and electrics are not something that can wait really. It will make you misrable and could be considered a welfare or safeguarding issue for the children if it was cold and damp and making them ill or risking safety. Plus you dont want to do up a room or two and then need to rewire the house. Both rewiring and installing central heating are huge jobs that cause a lot of mess - particularly the rewiring job. So if you are going to do it make sure you have enough for those jobs. You can set up a temporary kitchen in a room with standalone units and camping cooker if needed for a bit. But the next priority would be to get the kitchen done. Then you have your basics in place. But yes I would do it (and have done it) but expect a long hard slog.

Yes, I would do that so long at where the house was positioned was perfect for teenagers and their education.
Then so long as you don't over capitalise in your renovation investment the house will retain it's value.
If the neighbourhood is not desirable, the investment and hardship will be a waste.

It is hard, always costs more than you expect, as you find things you didn’t expect, being two separate dwellings currently, you will have two council taxes and meters get this sorted as a priority. also get the re wire done asap, Do you require a mortgage, have you checked the property is mortgageable? You will be living in mess and dust for years and that is really hard going, as a young family. Wishing you all the best, it’s worth it in the end.

I can’t answer this but we will soon find out — bought our dream flat and it will need huge amounts of work it’ll take us many years to do, but in the end we will have a brilliant 4 bed in the heart of the city perfect for our family. It seems worth it to me if you can’t afford the dream house in walk in condition!

Depends what condition the property is in. In the case you’ve described above and given that it is currently two separate flats - I would be more inclined to get the work done in one go. If you just do it in phases, you could ‘loose the love and desire’ for the project.

We purchased our current home in January 2025 that the previous owner had lived in since the 1970s when it was a new build and it still had most of its original features. Given the extensiveness of the work required we decided to just do it all in one go - we moved into a rental for a year.

I have done twice, the children were young I’d recently left there dad and was our first home together. It was hard looking back, dirty, dusty, but at the time we just got on. Used to eat all means propped up in bed or on the kitchen side. Workmen in the house every day, spinning all the plates independently.

wouldbt change a thing, alot
pf blood sweat and tears have gone into my home and it’s perfect

I did when I was in early 20's and house prices and building works were a lot cheaper. I would say that unless you are wealthy getting trades in to do anything is nigh on impossible these days and hugely expensive. Quotes to put a 2mx4m extension on our house came to minimum £190k up to £350k! We had the house house electrics re-done and even without making good (walls all have channels above switches) it was £10k. If you are retired and both very handy then go for it.

@Otter1986 Do you have planning permission to convert it from two flats into one property, or can you speak with the council to see if they'd likely grant permission?

Don't forget extra legal fees to combine the two sets of deeds, plus costs for changing services to the property from two supplies to one.

Have you any prior experience of house renovating? If you have, go for it. If you're a novice it sounds a huge job. However you would learn as you go along.
We've done up numerous houses inc an absolute roof to foundations job but thankfully we weren't and in fact couldn't have lived in that one at the same time.
We've lived in some right states over the years but was always worth it.

I'm in my sixties now and have spent my whole life doing up properties I've lived in.

I've spent the last three years living in my 'forever downsize home' whilst I've renovated it from top to bottom including the garden. I spent all of last summer living entirely in one room.

Finished the project in October and an honestly say I will never do it again. I had no idea until I finished just how bloody wonderful life is when you're not a) living in a shit hole and b) either working 12 hour days on it or sitting looking at work.

Worth it in the short term if it gets you the house you need but grueling to the extent that you don't know how bad it is until you've finished and normal life resumes.

I was persuaded to do this 8.5 years ago, I was naive about cost and how few skills/ inclination to DIY my DH had and how much costs of materials and trades were and how much they would rise. Also we have had one horrendous experience with dishonest builders on one of the many jobs.

It’s almost ruined our marriage and now I am living in a 85% finished house that all our friends drool over and covet, but all I can see is the blood sweat and tears and conflict. And expense and what’s still wrong with it. It’s quite sad. Writing this post has made me think I need house renovation counselling!

We actually found the opposite to many posters. We did our bedroom first in the first house we did up but it wasn't until we did the lounge that we found a place of calm to escape to. The second house we renovated we did the lounge first and it suited us much better.
We don't have a TV in our bedroom after living in shared houses and a hostel the idea of using of bedroom as a all encompassing space for everything wasn't appealing and made us feel very restricted and penned in.

My parents renovated their house when I was doing my A levels and I found it really difficult especially around exams. My parents had a mix of trades and doing it themselves which meant there wasn't many times of day where the house was conducive for studying in. If I came during free periods or straight after school there was noise and builders in. Once my parents got home from work they cracked on with doing everything that they had to do, sometimes with tight deadlines as they needed to be complete for the next step for the builders. I found the hole situation quite traumatic. I was experiencing depression at the same time and unrelated to the renovation work but for that time period my house wasn't a "safe" place and that had a negative effect on my wellbeing

what makes it your dream property?
it is that which decides whether you can tolerate living on a building site for x months/years and watching the bank account drain to fund works

I grew up in a house like that and hated it….

It’s not a coincidence that I’ve only lived in new houses as an adult!

I have no experience of renovating and am never going to as we have purposely chosen a house that apart from having some wallpaper I'm not keen on needs to work! But like some pps have said, don't leave electrics. We've had a old consumer board that trips if the shower is on for too long, when the fridge or freezer is unplugged to move or defrost the electric cuts out when they are plugged back in, the tumble dryer and washing machine can't be on at the same time as the electric cuts out, we've had the same with very large power tools... a full rewire is also incredibly messy so you want it done before any sort of decorating takes place.

Yes. DH is currently pulling old plaster off the wall in the master bedroom. Currently set up bed up in the back TV room.
At least we get to watch TV in bed.

Thanks all for your messages - way more than I thought i'd get!

It is our dream house in context of the local area; about 10% are larger houses but the rest are old 2 up and 2 down terraced houses built for miners. This bigger house is 3x the size, got a bigger front and back garden, near our school, near our fave park, near shops, etc... There are better houses in the world, but not in the area that I live in.

However, despite being the highest offer we didn't get the house :( it was bought by a developer, as recommended by the EA as they were afraid we didn't understand what we were getting themselves into. That is a saga for another day but so ends this story...

@Otter1986 so sorry you didn’t get the house, you must be very disappointed. Hopefully you will find something else, that may be a better option for your family. Wishing you all the best.

If you have time (like a normal 9-5 job, not a stressful long hours job) and are good at and enjoy DIY, then yes. Otherwise, no. For reference we are currently buying a house which was renovated 10 years ago but has been tenanted since. It needs a full cosmetic refresh (everything needs painting and recarpeting), new front garden landscaping, replacement bathrooms, probably replacement kitchen, and most of the windows and doors probably need to be replaced. Hopefully nothing more than that - electrics, plumbing, roof etc look fine. I reckon we could easily spend £100k on this cosmetic work alone, although we could probably save a bit of that if willing to DIY it (which we aren't as we don't have the spare time or desire to do DIY).

So sorry to hear this @Otter1986, I know it’s easy for me to say but I’m sure another will come up and you’ve got time to think it all through. The developer may well have outbid you anyway.

Okay- honest truth

We bought a house 25 years ago. It is a semi detached and had to be pinned back together beccause it was falling into the street. It's in London. We pinned it to make it safe and lived for a year or so on the ground floor while we did one room at a time. This was 10 years before children.

It was depressing. The smell of 100 years of dirt as we pulled up floorboards and replastered walls will stay with me. The sheer misery of never getting away from it was just horrid. I used to cry at the thought of coming home after work and having to start on it again. Sometimes we would book ourselves into a Premier Inn because we could not bear it.

The house (thanks to being in London) is now worth 10 times what we paid for it, and about 7 times what we spent on it. But once it was done we couldnt stand to be in it any longer and we rented it out. It got alotof rent and we rented ourselves a comparatibely small house then bought a maisonette which I love and we have lived in ever since. Even going into that house to sort out repairs for the tenants makes me twitch and feel queasy. The experience was so grim. We won't sell because it is an absolute jewell and now our entire nest egg as we obliterated our pensions, our savings for it.

So- misery for about 15 years. Objectively a good financial decision. I'd never do it again. (But, neither would I need to as we are sitting on a very good proposition).

I am sorry to hear you didn’t get it OP. Horrible feeling missing out on a house you wanted and thought you might get.
Now you’ve had this interesting thread and lots of good advice you can make your next choice very well informed. Come back to MN for a big whinge if you do end up in house renovation chaos in the future! I’ve had a lot of support here.

To the poster who said about the 100years of dirt smell… oh god absolutely. I always think of it as the awful smell of ancient plaster being disturbed but loads of it really will just be… dirt. Urgh.

We did - 30 years ago

Moved in on the Thursday, I took the dog for a walk in the park opposite , 45 mins? , came home and found the ceiling on the floor

And that was the start

The whole house was taken apart, added to and renovated. The only remaining part of the house when we moved 10 years later was the front wall

6 months no kitchen, 3 months no back wall . I learned to cook everything on a BBQ

What saved our sanity ( just ) was getting the living room done. Then it was sealed off, but we had somewhere to sit in clean clothes on dust free furniture - a bit of normality where the rest of the house was missing walls, hanging electrics and wet plaster

Ive partially done it twice since, not full refurbs but new kitchens, extensions, taking down internal walls etc.

Once over 20 years ago.

I absolutely hated it. I have never done it again and never will!