OK - this is my to do list - how long should it take if both working?

[MissisBoot]

Right

I have finally made a list of everything that needs doing in the house:

If you were doing this how long would you realistically expect it to take if both were working and have a preschooler? (DH works v long hours and not around at weekends) and what order would you do them in?

Bedroom 1
Finish coving
Repaint walls
Paint woodwork

Bedroom 2
Paint window casing

Bathroom
Replaster
New suite
Tiles and flooring
Paint walls
Woodwork

Sitting room
Move door (studwall so not major works)
Repaint said wall
Quick repaint
Paint windowcasing

Dining room
Quick repaint
Paint woodwork
Put french windows in

Kitchen
Completely new kitchen
Tiles/Flooring
Repaint
New back door

Will also at some point want to put new carpets in but that will have to wait til dd is older

We are also v slow at getting things done - because it takes so damn long to make a decision about what we want - have been looking at kitchens for about a year and no closer to making a decision.

Would a year be a realistic timescale? We want to do as much as we can ourselves as on a v limited budget.

No idea how long it would take - does it matter how long it takes?

Choose a room and work on it in the evenings, or alternatively, get your DP to take a couple of days of AL off, and get some friends round, you take the kids out and let the men get it all done (one room, I mean!)! If you don't do it a room at a time, you end up with loads of little bits of jobs left over that never get finished.

I'd say do room 2 first, cos that'll finish that one v quickly, esp if you do it one evening. Then choose whichever room you want changed the most - which do you spend most time in, or which do you hate the most at the moment.

No real urgency - its just that we've been here for ages and I just want it done!!!

Yes - we need to get one room finished at a time - everything is half finished and its driving me mad.

Forever if you work f/t and have a child and have no specialist skills. I'd say live with it until you have a bit more money and pay someone to blitz it - you will end up hating the house if you have to spend every free moment working on it. Alternatively try one room, see how long that takes and then decide if you want to keep going.

Usually work down.

So Room 2 first as said it's the quickest and easier job to finish.

Bed 2 Next.

I would try and save to have most of the bathrrom done by a contractor. Rough guess would be a week 5 days to complete.

I would actually think about the kitchen door as a priority purely for security reasons.

Then have the french windows and door moved.

The rest is decorating, excluding kitchen. which can be done in evenings.

So I would set a goal of doing all but the kitchen before christmas

Then having the kitchen done next spring.

erm... 5 years?

well we are doing similar in our house and I have worked on the principle of focussing on the rooms which you use most or which need doing the most. i have no idea what your bathroom is like but ours was grotty so we did that first.

We are working through a similar list in our new house. We have been here for 17 months now and slowly but surely are getting there. What I would say is to set yourself targets that are manageable so perhaps try a room a month so that it doesn't completely overtake your lives but you can still see things happening. Also it sometimes help to have a small intensive burst, say 3-4 days without dc if possible. Also however long you think it will take, when there are dc involved double it

Great - Like your idea of getting everything bar kitchen done by xmas - HumpingAnteater.

I'm away this week so have left a list of jobs for dh to get a start on whilst dd is at nursery

Are you living there?

we've got a similar list and are both working and have been here 6 years this year and we're nearly there now. Just curtains left to do. And outside paint.

My DH has taken two weeks off since Christmas to tackle a lot of jobs around the house. Of course he didn't end up spending all the time working, he did get some naps, honest.

Our house is late Victorian so lots of nooks and crannies. It really needs the wallpaper stripping and the walls re-skimming but that requires a professional we couldn't afford. Neither could we bare the thought of plaster dust .

He had to clean the walls and prepare them. There was a lot of filling and sanding to do. This probably took three-four days in total. He has painted the hallway, up and downstairs, the kitchen and our bedroom (quite big). He also made some complicated shelves which took a whole day.

If you both took a week off at the same time while your child was in childcare you could probably get quite a lot done.

Yes - we're living there.

ThingOne - are you in my house? Ours is same age and the walls are a nightmare - you can bearly put a picture hook in without half the wall falling dwn.

Yes, it's me, I keep pulling your pictures down! We have half our pictures hung up with rawlplugs.

We left the wallpaper on most walls. It meant more than one coat of paint as some of it was, erm, quite vibrant but quicker overall. He had to strip one wall and that wall took him nearly a day and a half to prepare. This was quite a large chunk of his second week as you can imagine.

Whatever you plan to do our top tip is to sit down and work out what you want in advance. B&Q has a shopping list facility which is great. You print it off and take it with you. There are so many types of filler, for example, that a toddler would be having a complete meltdown if you stood in front of the shelf in the shop trying to choose. DH either buys the stuff in the morning (B&Q opens at 7am) before work and school or we all go the weekend before work starts.