Moving in and improving: Did you give yourself a time limit?...

[ampere]

... for getting that work done and getting those boxes unpacked and stashed!

We moved in here last Nov, a 4 bedroom 10 year old 'estate' house. We are right in the midst of getting the quotes now for:

Kitchen worktop and front replacement.

Woodburning stove

De-artexing the ceilings

Getting a mains pressure cylinder

Replacing a leaky shed roof

Reflooring the kitchen and both bathrooms

Possible recarpeting upstairs

Repainting certainly all of downstairs

Redoing 1/3 of the driveway to create more parking space.

Making the spare room liveable in (storage solution dilemmas!)

What we have achieved:

90% of the 'spare' stuff is in the garage or in the loft and has been 'gone through'

Serious garden pruning

Proper grown up curtains in the 2 reception roms.

Water softener installed

New shower enclosure and feature-tile replaced, new towel radiators to follow (with cylinder works!)

New lights in all upstairs rooms

Thing is, we have so many friends whose grand designs have ground to a halt. Some have been at it for 6 years and they've basically lost interest- most are DIY'ing it and tired of giving every weekend over to B&Q. Can sympathise with that! Nothing is quite finished, they feel a low grade sense of dissatisfaction.

Should we deadline ourselves and consign every weekend for the next 6 months to doing it all? Though we have to balance that against the needs of the DSs! IF one can scrape to afford it, should one get a professional in every time? On the basis the job is then done? Will the pain of the endless cheque writing pay off with the satisfaction of a finished house?

Tips, advice, experiences pls!

well if you can get stuff properly professionally done (and can avoid a cow boy) then in the long run its probably the best way. mainly because DIY'ers are rarely as skilled as they would believe so work done doesnt last as long, ends up being botched so needs a tradesman etc etc. That said, having looked at your list a lot of stuff looks like tradesmen territory anyway, but it is also annoyingly bitty - i.e lots of little jobs.

You're right re the bitty nature of it! The one 'mistake' we've made so far is that we should have got the same bloke in to do the kitchen and the ensuite as they all seem to do both!

We did eventually give ourselves a deadline because we knew we wanted to move.

We gutted a 3 bed house but took a break in the middle of it all when I had a another baby.

We agreed that we would "work" on the house on a Saturday, mainly dh but I also tiled the en-suite etc, then Sunday was always a family day so that we weren't giving over the entire weekend to it.

We have moved literally 3 weeks ago, so far I have redecorated my 2 son's bedrooms so that they feel more settled, and I have made curtains for the lounge as they weren't any here.

We prioritise rooms (like the children's) over unpacking the stuff that we don't need immediately.

We always know what we are capable of doing ourselves and what we need people in for. I think it also depends on the age of your children, mine are now almost 7 and almost 4. It was very different when they were 2 and 5.

So if you are the type of people who stay motivated to see something through then you can relax a little, but if you aren't then you need to crack on.

If you can afford it get someone in, then do it so the job is done. We now have all the tools we need to plumb/tile/drill because of our last house but that was a massive learning curve experience for us and took longer because we didn't have any experience of doing much to a house.

well we took on a renovation project (eek!) 6 bedrooms and several receptions - we wondered how we got it at such a bargain price and now we know its chaos but we love it!!
so far we've gutted the kitchen and had a new one put in with range.restored the original kitchen floor, ripped out the toilet that they had fitted in the utility room and converted that area to a 'chemical/cleaning cupboard' for mops etc.
completely renovated the lounge (there was plastic laminate floor, dodgy pine/plastic shelving everywhere so we've taken that back to its victorian origins and opened out fireplace etc.
upstairs, new window to replace old rotten wood one befrore it fell out (!) in bathroom. kids bedrooms are stripped of paper, polystyrene ceiling tiles off and floorboards exposed and varnished.
now we've run out of money and steam! will start again when we feel up to it. as we see it we are here for life and the priorities (health and safety wiring etc) all done.
also have livestock to cater for so time is shared between house and land, busy busy!!
good luck with it!!

hello Fizzy by the way - long time no speak - not since we were both trying to sell/buy houses. congrats on the new house!!

Thanks ouch yes it all seems like a long time ago

My house went on the market early September, I think I accepted an offer on my house early November, had my offer accepted mid November. At the end of November my Mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer so it is all a bit of a haze. She died on 6th Feb just before I moved.

Her funeral and my house move were the same week so I have found it all really hard going. She was one of my best friends.

You sound like you have been very busy! Livestock too Cannot believe you ripped out the polystyrene ceiling tiles, surely these are a thing of beauty, no?

we are saving hard towards converting one of our garages into a playroom for my boys and we will line one wall with storage cupboards for our stuff. Then it will be new boiler and a kitchen extension, redecoration and we are done inside methinks.

forgot I have no brain at present

Fizzy, I am so sorry about your mum just so sad. xx

Sorry to hear about your mum, too. The whole house move thing can be so stressful as it is without the other stuff, even if the house is 'perfect' and ready to go.

SOrry about your mum.

We moved in a large place that had been a nursing home. We started off with a 5 year plan. After year 1 we ran out of money. We have limped along for the past 9 years and are probably just about into year 3 of the "plan". Added another load we want done to it now aswell. I think we will need to be here for about 40 years to get it all as we would like.

BUT the space is wonderful!!!

ditto positiveattitude - we had a plan but after things changed along the way (always expect the unexpected! we had to have chimney's altered to fit range cooker for eg,) the money didnt' stretch to the plan.
we have reached that stage where we are happy with half stripped walls, boards that still need sanding and varnishing and so on. Like you say, the space is wonderful and there will be time in the future to get the next bit done and then the next bit etc..
(I bet your house is huge! an old nursing home sounds really exciting!! did you have stair lifts and things to contend with?)sorry - going off topic but sounds really interesting!

Thanks for all messages about my Mum, she would be the first person through the door telling me to get the kettle on and rolling her sleeves up to get stuck in to help.

I think it all comes down to priority, things usually do cost more than expected so lump jobs together if you can but also I think it is nice to have one room done. Feels like you have achieved something.

We are lucky that this house is an ex show home so only 10 years old but it hasn't been touched apart from the magnolia paint has been applied so many times you can only just make out that every room is actually wallpapered and not bare plaster!

But the last house we knew we had to gut from top to bottom and to be honest we were naive about how long and how much work it would take.

We took on this house knowing that we are here for at least 10 years so we can take our time, plus it is only a 4 bed not some big rambling pile like the rest of you have

We also know a builder, which helps so we can price things realistically.