so - rewiring. Is it a right royal pain in the arse, and will it eat up all my money?

[PaddingtonBore]

We're buying a house, and yes I know that house prices will halve the day after we sign the contract, but we need somewhere in which to live.

We've agreed a reasonable price on a nice Victorian place, but I have a feeling that the wiring is a bit tired.

We might have some overlap between taking ownership of the property and our rental contract here ending, so I'd like to know if rewiring is one of those things worth doing before we move in, or if it's not too disruptive. I'd rather wait a year or so to do it, mainly because it will eat up every last penny of my savings if we do it right away.

do it BEFORE you move in

it is messy and a PITA

we had some re-wiring and new stuff done - was so dusty

oh dear, I thought you'd say that....

do you mind me asking how much you paid?

Unfortunately, electrical stuff is expensive, disruptive and messy. No - use money now and do it before you move. You might cut corners because its not 'decorative' enough if you wait till you move in and floors will have to come up and plaster off walls etc...

We only needed some new sockets, light fittings, new consumer unit etc. Was still many hundreds of pounds

it was a good few hundred for some very minor stuff and we got a good deal because we were having lots of things done

we still haven't made good either, so that will cost more

...so I'm going to have to abandon my dreams of a new bed and some fancy storage to pay for some bits of wire. and live off baked beans for months. marvellous.

We actually moved out when we had to have our house re-wired (2 kids, youngest 9 months then). Had to move back in the day after they'd finished because they were late. The house was filthy and it took a couple of weeks for the dirt to settle out of the air. So was still horrendous despite escaping.
So would recommend doing it before you move in, though you will need to consider if all the sockets are where you need them, if you have enough, if any lights need adding etc etc ... (which might be hard if you've not yet lived there).

thanks for your thoughts everyone. we'll see what the survey says about the wiring, and bear all the disruption in mind.