TLC Tips for First Home: From Bathrooms to Banisters and Everything In-Between!

[sour123]

Absolutely one room at a time. We started with the biggest things first because it does get to a point where you run out of steam and that's when you can temporarily stop or move onto something that's an easy hit to reinvigorate you! My hubby always says do the lounge last, otherwise you have a nice room to sit in and it gets too easy to leave the other rooms It's worth waiting for, and paying a bit extra for, a good tradesman (and never pay for all the work upfront), but they can be booked up a long time in advance so bear that in mind when planning when you want works done. Know that you will be living in relative chaos for a while and that project managing everything is almost another full time job. But also know that it's really exciting to shape your house to how you want it and that the end result will be well worth it

 

[woofiedog]

@sour123 I love this so much. Your husband is a smart man! I feel impatient now and like I know what I want to do and won't give up yada yada, but the sensible side of my brain tells me it will get old when the stress kicks in and if I have a beautiful living room I will shut the door and ignore the rest
I am absolutely going to be getting professionals in to do what they're best at! I'm under no illusion that life does have to go on and if I don't cough up for a proper job done we'll be living in a building site for absolutely ever

 

[erickl21]

One livable room even if you have to pay a plasterer to get it sorted then other rooms after. If you got a garden & it also pants get that sorted for the sake of the kids that’s what we did

 

[woofiedog]

@erickl21 absolutely! We're lucky that the garden is safe as is for them to play, but definitely we'll be paying professionals to do a lot of the hard graft as there's just so much to do! Were blessed that we can work on it for a small while before moving in so just trying to be as prepared as possible and prioritise correctly

 

[kenmtb]

Don’t rush it - have a plan on what you want to do when. We took 11 years to get ours as we want.
We did the kids rooms first & rooms we spent a lot of time in & them finished with a kitchen extension & new patio.

 

[woofiedog]

@kenmtb I am definitely planning in the long term to extend the kitchen! It's so hard for me to be patient as this has been such a long time coming, but I know it's worth taking the proper time to get it right

 

[coberst]

Just done this, 9 months it took us!
If you can, don't live there! We stayed with my parents while we got the work done.
Check the plaster that's on the walls. We found all ours needed stripping right back but we'd already spent time prepping some of the walls for painting by the time we'd realised

 

[woofiedog]

@coberst we are lucky that we can afford ourselves some extra time where we are now, so hopefully we'll get lots of the groundwork done in that time! X

 

[coberst]

@woofiedog ahh brilliant, that will be a big help! Get all the really messy stuff done then! We literally had to strip everything right back & start from scratch!

 

[tomwolfe]

I would say get the big things done first - like any re wiring needed / walls knocked down / new windows . . . . Then work room to room. Good luck!!

 

[beckylynn]

Do anything big first then redecorate 1 Rooney at a time.

 

[srlewis]

Do any electrical work plumbing etc before doing any decorating. Don't freak out how much money you are spending on the essentials they will last for years. You can always change wallpaper paint furnishings over time electrical and plumbing works you won't. Get good quality plumbing fixtures like taps etc that will last. There's nothing worse than getting the house done for the next year to start replacing parts. Do one room at a time you will get a sense of achievement. Doing more than one room takes longer to feel the benefit of living in dust. Do the labouring jobs yourself to save money. Such as filling skips, wallpaper stripping etc. Oh and one last thing you an never have too many cupboards. Good luck with your house renovation take lots of photos they are lovely to look back on.

 

[woofiedog]

@srlewis thank you for this I appreciate the advice