House renovation experiences?

[lau86]

We're going to move and the only house we like is stuck in the seventies. The estate was built then and it looks like original/ near original kitchen and bathroom. The carpets are horrid and are the only thing I would insist on replacing straight away (crawling baby etc).
Eventually it will need a two story extension and the kitchen is at the front at the moment and we would prefer it at the back (the stairs are in the middle otherwise I would have a through kitchen and dining room
The only thing I have really considered is the rewiring. The windows and roof are mostly ok I think. Does anyone have experience of this and what was it like living with it and cost(how did you fund it). We're not very handy ourselves, I've done painting and made a neat job but that's aboit it

 

[Scout]

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[cupcake23]

Hi, we bought a house 2015 that was stuck in the 60s, it took 3 months to renovate, we had to replace flooring, plaster the whole house, then had new electrics so had to replaster again, new kitchen, new bathroom, new boiler/ radiators and then decorate, a few months after moving in we realised the windows needed replacing so that got done too.

Luckily for us we were living with parents, we are not diy types so got several trades in, probably spent too much but we were very eager to move in and should have really done more research, lesson learnt there. We got a loan out for the works, approx 30k.

My top tips, always get at least 3 quotes for each type of work you are getting done, go on recommendations and ask to see previous work. Good luck x

 

[lindseymw]

The only advice I would give is if you are looking at rewiring the house, do that first before anything else. My DH is an electrician and he has been to many jobs where someone has just plastered or refitted a new kitchen and he's had to wreck/take it apart to put new wiring in.

To do a full rewire in a house you are looking at £2000+ depending on the size of the house. It might be worth paying for a Condition Report first to see what needs doing. They cost around £150-200.

We fitted our own kitchen to save on costs. It was actually very straight forward to do. If you can put flat pack together, you can do kitchen units but I would get a joiner in to do the work tops (& a plumber / electrician for the hob/cooker)

 

[Scout]

Sorry, wrote message then deleted bc I couldn't finish it...dd was needing me.

I did buy a foreclosed house when I was 7 months pregnant with daughter. The house needed new electrical, a new kitchen and new bathrooms, floors, some wall heaters removed and holes framed in and sheetrock since house had central heat and air.

Before moving in, I had the electrical done (whole house needed rewiring to upgrade and make it up to code). My mom, dad, aunt and myself then went in a pulled out all the green, dog pee soaked, 1970's carpet. It was disgusting! I hired out to have the hardwoods underneath refinished and sealed and then carpeted the 3 bedrooms.(about $2000) We would usually paint ourselves, but since I was almost 8 months pregnant and wanted it done fast, I hired out and had the whole house, including ceilings and baseboards painted. (about $1600) Once that was finished I moved in.

I planned to gut the kitchen and start new before baby came, but she was 5 weeks early! I finally got around to the kitchen when she was a month old. I found a charity who rehabs old kitchens so had them come take the old one out free of charge. My dad and I took up the old floor. I hired out putting in a new floor and installing the cabinets and countertops. Got new appliances and I think my whole kitchen cost around $11,000. I was without a kitchen for about 6 weeks, but since it was just me and baby (I"m single) it wasn't too bad. I put a fridge and microwave in the spare bedroom and washed bottles and such in the bathroom sink.

My dad and I did both bathrooms. You would be amazed what you can learn to do by watching You Tube videos. I can now take out a toilet and put a new one in! LOL I also learned how to tile and put in floors, so I did both bathrooms with my dad helping me lift the toilets and vanities.

Over time I've done small things myself, like replaced all the interior doors. I've also repainted the entire house one room at a time. (when i hired it done, it was just cheaper to have the whole house painted one color and that's too boring for me so I've redone it) The only thing I have left that really needs done are new windows. I'm planning on next spring for that.

I tend to do things when I have cash to pay for them, which is why windows have to wait til next year! The house was a foreclosure so I had to pay cash for it so don't have a house payment. Plus, my car is old as dirt so don't have a car payment. Without those 2 big payments, it's easier to save money to spend on redoing the house. I was also fortunate enough to have sold a house which paid for this one and got me started on the renovations.

your renovations sound a lot more extensive than mine were, but I'm sure you'll get it all done. It's not that bad once you have a plan. Like another poster said, get at least 3 estimates for each job. Asking friends for referrals is also a good idea. Stay on top of whomever you hire too. Watch them work or at least check in on them often. (I learned the hard way with one of my projects that you need to keep an eye on what they're doing or you could have a job that will need to be redone correctly! ugg) Oh, and realize upfront that if someone tells you they'll have it done in 2 weeks, plan for 4. If you think something will cost 5,000, plan for 8,000. Everything with mine took longer than was promised and cost more that I thought it would. LOL (the diy stuff I mean. The quotes I got from contractors were known upfront and didn't change) Good luck!

 

[c1403]

We bought our house 9 years ago and still working on it now.

At first we wasn't living in it so did the works on the weekend. We completely ripped out. First job was new boiler and pipes throughout (DH and his brother are plumber shopping so we just paid for materials). Then we had an electrician tidy things up and fit a new consumer unit. Then followed new kitchen and bathroom and flooring to downstairs.
We then started upstairs and the master bedroom. Spare bedrooms were painted white as we hadn't no use for them.

The work about took about 1 year. We moved in once we had half a kitchen and bathroom

After five years we got new windows.

Since then we have re decorated spare rooms for the children and re decorated the down stairs. The garden too was a massive job taking years as was very overgrown.

Although we out in a new kitchen and bathroom it was only basic at at time as we needed to move in. Now we're settled I want to do it again to my style and taste. So my advise is if you plan on staying long term take your time on each room. DH gets so annoyed when I want to change things now.

Also, if your garden doesn't have a side entrance, you may want to tackle that first too. After re decorating downstairs we then had masses of overgrown plants, bricks, old shed etc to get through the house!

 

[.Mrs.B.]

How long are you planning to have it all done?
We moved in 7 years ago, at first we had the boiler and electrics done (£800 each), we have recarpeted every room (about £2-400 each room) and painted ourselves. The bathroom was the only room that had been recently done (nice and neutral as well) so it's the one original room left.
We had french doors put in this summer for £1200 (they also cleared the area of bricks etc) and had all our doors replaced for £600.
We also had our kitchen done this summer which cost £2700 for units, floor and appliances and £800 for fitting.
The kitchen went over by 2 weeks, I found it OK, we used a microwave, kettle and toaster to make meals. (Did you know you can toast yorkshire puddings?). The hardest thing was having to store all the dangerous kitchen stuff somewhere that the kids wouldn't reach.

 

[lau86]

We don't really have a timescale, just do it as budget allows really. We'll have to save or get some kind of loan for it. Mrsb those prices sound quite good. I guess the thing is if we want to do structural changes then we need to work out what they'll be before we do anything. I lived in lots of grotty student houses so I don't mind living with a dodgy kitchen and bathroom but I'll just change the carpets

 

[cleckner04]

We bought a house a year ago that was gutted. We bought it bc I could pay cash with a loan from my dad and we just loved the layout. We had to rerun the electrical before they would even turn on the electricity. Than we had to put in all new plumbing bc the pipes had burst after the house sat empty through two winters. It needed a water heater as well and than we moved in. From there we have re-drywalled and textured most of the rooms and now are deciding on trim and saving for carpet. My main issue is that I get antsy and want everything done quicker but my end goal was to fix up this house with cash only, no loans beyond the few years I have left to pay my dad back(with interest). My OH worked construction for over 20 years off and on so we are doing just about everything ourselves which is also slowing progress when we both work on top of it. But the results and seeing things progress and being able to say we did that ourselves and we modeled the house to be 'our' way is a very neat thing. I have serious pride for how it's shaping up. Financially, it won't be finished for a long while bc I can only afford so much at a time, so I have to keep reminding myself it's going to be worth it in the end when I own my own home outright and not many people can say that. If I didn't have a handy OH that knew most of this though, I would've never bought a fixer upper. But I'm a thrifty type of person and I can't imagine paying the labor fees to someone else. But I am not well off by any means, just comfortably getting by without too much struggle.

 

[jessmke]

We bought our house about two and a half years ago and we have been renovating it ever since, everything was original to when it was built in 1976. It is taking a long time because my OH is doing pretty much all the renos himself which saves us a ton of money. Work has really slowed down since DD has been born because OH can't use power tools all times of the day and night while she is napping/sleeping. We also didn't take out a loan, we just do renos as we have the money for them which has been tough since I've been on maternity leave pay for the last year. Typically when we are both working I'd say we spend about $1000 a month on reno materials but we are gutting the entire house. The kitchen was a big job, took about three months from start to finish, but we did a huge gourmet kitchen with a massive eat-in island with quartz countertops and all gas appliances. Luckily my dad owns a countertop company so we saved a ton of money there and we have another friend who does cabinetry so that was another huge savings. If you know trade workers it really adds up if they are able to give you discounts. If we paid full price for everything our kitchen would have cost us over $50k but we paid just under $20k. I would say just take your time and do it slowly if you can so as to avoid taking out loans to pay for things, especially if it's just cosmetic.