Anyone moved to a reno project without the budget to actually renovate?

[Birchwoods]

Considering putting an offer in on a house in the perfect location, huge garden, good sized house but dated throughout. Our mortgage would increase by quite a bit so we wouldn’t immediately have the money to do any major works straight away but it would be our forever home.

Most of the house just needs decorating, new carpets etc but it would need a new kitchen, which would probably involve knocking through to the next room, and new bathrooms. Windows have already been replaced, roof looks good and the oil tank has been replaced so major stuff like that would be okay.

Has anyone else moved into a property like this and was it worth it? My husband gets a bonus so we’d be able to save for a new kitchen in a couple of years and the house is liveable as it is, just very dated.

We did in December and I was mad redundant part way through the buying process. We decided to continue, but as we are £46k down with my salary we haven't been able to do much. I am just taking a break from painting the fences to write this! Would do it again in a heartbeat but I feel bad for OH having to pay everything whilst I am job hunting. We started with the garage, then we cleared the garden, laid the lawn and the lift is next. Doing it all ourselves will take sometime. Previous occupant was 93 and had lived here since the 80s so lots to do.

It's a loft, we don't have a lift, 😂

Not exactly the same. We bought a derelict property that was unlivable, so we knew it would need alot of work. 2yrs of complete renovations to be livable and another 2yrs on now, we still need lots of things. The drive, the garden needs beds and designing, we still have temporary furniture and the spare room is completely bare, need a proper bed, still need a final paint, shelves, storage PLUS lots more. We did have the money to renovate, but prices just keep going up for materials. We can now also afford to buy some things, but its the time to actually go to the shop to look at furniture etc. By the time the weekend comes, the last thing I want to do is wander around homeware stores.

Its in a lovely, quiet lane, huge garden, great neighbours and its our forever home. Having tradespeople here all day can be exhausting and stressful. Living with a temporary kitchen, no washing machine etc can also be difficult after too long. Don't underestimate how wearing it can be to feel like it will never be finished! I don't regret it at all and love it, but just wish I'd known that 4yrs on, its still not done.

Has the house been lived in for the past 2 yrs? If not there is a little known tax exception for making it liveable again.

Yes! We’ve been here for six years. We bought a house which had not been lived in for two years and which had been in the same family since it was built 60 years prior.

DH was made redundant in the pandemic less than a year later. We’d already done rewiring, heating, windows, doors, boiler, some minor knocking through to change the flow etc. He was rehired 18 months later and it took some time to feel confident spending money again, but we’re nearing the end of a major renovation now. We still have decorating and flooring to do but the house is in much better state (roof and render replaced). We just did very cheap (self fitted) kitchen and bathroom to tide us over and will be improving again soon.

I’d say it’s fine to do if you have expectations of salary increases or bonus! I wouldn’t rush into doing jobs cheaply if you think you can get the right finish in the long run. And do think about your fall back plan in case things go awry - many buyers don’t have the appetite for reno projects, so you may be stuck there until you can improve things, especially the way the market is going at the moment. Good luck!

Yes. And it needed rewiring much sooner than we thought, we’ve managed to rewire, put a second hand kitchen in and decorate the sitting room and hall in just under two years but still LOADS that needs doing!!!

Oh and I’d add - the kids are teens now and have lived in renovation projects for most of their lives, but have been really good about it. It has certainly taken away some of our time and energy for them, which I worry about sometimes.

And in my experience, it all takes longer and is more expensive than you think. We’ve saved a bit because we do all the gardening, all the decorating, and quite a lot of the building ourselves, with help from family in the trade. We’re really fortunate, but it’s knackering. Probably not as exhausting as finding a succession of tradespeople though as a previous poster mentioned.

We moved into our forever home in 1997. New windows in 2002, new roof, render and gutters repaired/replaced and house painted outside in 2005, big trees removing 2009, driveway tarmaced 2016, central heating in 2018, new kitchen 2020, garage roof replaced 2023, new bathroom 2025. This year we are having a porch built on the front, rest of the gutters replaced, all paths replaced and new paved areas created, house repainted outside and loft boarded with a loft ladder fitted. Then next year we will get the inside redecorated, wood floor fitted in the sitting room, fitted bookcases built, new carpet on stairs and upstairs landing and bedrooms (2). It all takes time My pay wasn’t that great for years but I got a much better paying role in 2022 snd found a really good building company so it’s speeded up a bit recently.

To add we lived with a temporary kitchen - sink unit and eclectic selection of unfitted cupboards and also the hideous bathroom for a long time as we just didn’t have the money 😊

Bear in mind that (depending on area) the cost of doing work may well mean that it will cost you more than if you bought a finished house. It's very hard to add value to renovation projects now unless you DIY a huge amount of it.

Not to mention the psychological cost of living through building work and a semi-finished house potentially for years. Currently going through it and I'm not sure I'd have done it knowing what I know now.

My parents did this - huge house, huge garden, location nice for small children but difficult for teenagers (one bus an hour, finishing at 9pm). They did it up whilst we lived in it as a family - initially only a few downstairs rooms were habitable but they redid the floors and put down cheap institutional carpet upstairs so we could sleep in the bedrooms quite early on.

Living in a project didn't really matter as an older child but can't have been easy generally as one sibling was a baby. I was expected to look after sibling in the not very safe garden a lot while my parents were doing DIY or while builders and painters were in, which looking back was very unsafe as that start when I was 8 and the garden was huge, overgrown and had a large pond. That could have been the time (generation) though - it wouldn't be acceptable now.

The main thing is that they moved in when I was 6 and finally finished the work about twenty years later - having their dream family home after all their children had grown up and moved out. They invested more in the house than their children, although they said it was "for" their children, but it didn't really work out that way.
Parts of the house became almost derelict by the time they died (the entire roof needed replacing, theyd never actually fully ripped out and replaced the electrics or heating, just fixed things so it worked, and the electrics were properly dangerous as well as shorting out almost daily, the heating was completely unreliable and unbelievably expensive to run and needed completely replacing) as they wouldn't let anyone do any real work as they aged, because they didn't want the disruption.

The house was their baby and they left it to the child who they thought would "keep it in the family" - butvshe couldn't afford to renovate or run it and sold it at vastly less than my parents had believed it was worth, because it needed so much basic work...

We were actually tempted by a suspiciously cheap listed building ourselves for about 30 minutes until we came to our senses.

If it's just cosmetic it's fine, but if it needs serious work (heating, plumbing, electrics, roof, new kitchen and bathroom/s to even be comfortable) then it isn't worth it.

Oh yes and my parents had oil heating - I'd be very wary of that as their heating bills were astronomical (and that was years and decades ago/. The whole system needed ripping out really though, something was hugely inefficient!

Oil heating is very efficient in large older homes. The pipe work and radiators need to be the right spec to get the relevant output though.

yes, doing it now.
concentrating on fabric jobs first that we did budget for ahead of buying eg Roof, Pointing, windows.
Heating system will come next

Then once and if we can afford it kitchen, bathrooms and decor. They may be down to the next people though, being realistic, as much as I'd love to do them.
Big older homes evolve and each owner takes on a bit of the ongoing upkeep.

Yup, that was us! Ours was 100% 1980s. That was five years ago and in that time we've done about half the house (including a kitchen extension that we had to seek a remortgage for). At times it's felt frustratingly slow and I've definitely had "house-barrassment" when people come round and admire our textured wallpaper, artex ceilings and brown plush carpets. But what I will say is that because we took our time and lived in the house before renovating we've changed our ideas about what we wanted based on how the house feels. Which I don't think people can get a true sense of if they do it all as soon as they move in. 😊

Yes of course you should do this. This is true standard way for most people to end up with a wonderful property. Not many people can afford millions for the finished article.

The "but" is that you need as a family to commit to it as a joint project because there will be moments when you think "what have we done".

Do make sure the roof really is ok though. Other stuff is mainly liveable with!

If it’s a perfect rare location then yes!

wickes and other retailers do interest free kitchens so if you know you can pay it back you could get that done sooner.

get the bedrooms painted and new carpets and those are then nice places to relax.

id try and get at least one bathroom done too so you feel like some of the rooms are nice.

put off anything else til you can afford it so you don’t feel miserable living there

Just do it bit by bit if it’s liveable. That way you can also get a feel for what you really want rather than have to make decisions straight away. Renovating takes time as well as money.

Yep, we’ve done exactly this. It was the dream house (well, will be one day!) with the dream views in a fab location so threw everything we had at it to secure it.
We’ve been chipping away at smaller projects that we can afford with small amount of leftover savings and our salaries and will release equity each time we remortgage to take on the more major work.
No regrets whatsoever.
Just be aware that building/renovating has become much more expensive than it was - it WILL cost more than you think.
We’d also renovated multiple properties before buying this one so knew what to expect and are prepared to live with it as it is in the meantime.

Yes and major regrets to be honest. We got the big, hard stuff done before moving in but then lost all momentum and money to do the decor so just lived with depressing, dated rooms for far too long.

What is more important to you, where you live or how you live? :)

We bought a house and had to delay renovations. All I would say is old kitchens are easy to live with but bathrooms with poor water pressure are tough. I really struggled with the bathroom situation

Yes! We’ve been in for 18 months and we’ve done bits with a payout from a work share saver scheme, and in full Grand Designs fashion (but not that big a house!) a redundancy payout. We had it re-wired before we moved in. We got a second hand kitchen with appliances from FB market place for under a grand, new worktops, tiling and lino, that will have to do for now. Had a shower put in and tiled the bathroom (previously wall papered), stick on floor tiles and again, that will have to do us for now. We bought carpet roll ends for upstairs, and a new front door. All windows and back door will be replaced before the end of the year. We still don’t have a hearing system, flooring in the lounge, need to paint, sort garden front and back etc. And that was just to make it livable! Next round of improvements will be to actually make it nice, not sure where that money will come from. I love it my house, but I do sometimes feel a bit overwhelmed and find it difficult to relax

Yes, for this house but everything was working and structurally sound just not to our taste (pink bath, flaky gold taps, gold wallpaper sort of vibe) and we knew we would be converting the double garage into a playroom and extending the kitchen. We chose the playroom first as the children were nursery/KS1 age and we wanted them to have a space for all their shit- toys and crafts.

Over the years we have replaced all windows and doors, new radiators, boiler, fireplace, bathroom, kitchen extension, flooring, garden, extended the drive, installed inline extractor fans in the bathrooms and decorated each room a few times.

We have done a lot of work ourselves but we are very competent DIYers and this is not our first rodeo. Even when the house was not remotely to our taste we still loved living here for the location and what the house offered which was to grow with us. We did ask ourselves that question, if there was no money for 5 years would this be completely depressing and the answer was no. We enjoyed the process of choosing things and future planning and every time I drove home I looked forward to being home.