Consensus on renovating or buy somewhere done.
Discussion
Vandenberg said:
After living with my wife and usually moving every 2-3 years I have discovered there is no such thing as a "Done house"
I have heard the following words uttered on more than one occasion "This is perfect we can move in and unpack no bother"
This is untrue, what this actually means is that everything needs redecorating or ripping out and replacing to add our stamp on the pad and once the house is done that is the time to sell up.
LOL. Sound like me and the OH.I have heard the following words uttered on more than one occasion "This is perfect we can move in and unpack no bother"
This is untrue, what this actually means is that everything needs redecorating or ripping out and replacing to add our stamp on the pad and once the house is done that is the time to sell up.
At the end of another long, painful and surprisingly-expensive renovation one or other of us goes "I wonder what's it's worth now.....?" and precipitates the next move.
Oh well, it keeps on paying out.....
mikees said:
Why not change jobs and take up being a cabbie? Just saying?
I don't speak arabic 
Anyhow I looked at the new build today and it's tiny, living room then kitchen you'd literally have no where to go if you were bored, at least I have 3 rooms downstairs to potter around in.
The dilemma continues.
I used to like it, it is a very narrow street and when I bought the house the road was filled with older married couples who kept their front gardens well tended. As they have been dying off the street has changed, Take Fridays for instance all the taxis park up and we can have 20-30 blokes all standing in the street ruminating with each other. The community feel has gone.
If you're not that fussed about the details of it all I'd go ready made. Be warned there's a lot of variety in new build quality, some is pretty good some is unbelievable carp. Same if buying a house someone has done up and flipping- there can be some dreadfull bodges and cost savings under the skin.
skinnyman said:
Friend of a friend bought a doer upper, back to brick, layout change, new plumbing, electrics etc etc, but he spent all his money on the bits that he's done, so has had to do stuff bit by bit. 18mths later he's a broken man. He's constantly knackered and skint
Who's your friend who knows me?Advice I'd give to anyone thinking of doing a doer-upper is:
1) If you have kids under 11, then (a) they don't care about the state of the house, if it's a building site etc. - they just get on with it, but (b) doing up a house seriously impinges on family time, especially in the run up to Xmas when there seems to be extra pressure to get stuff done.
2) If you're over 40, you do not have the same energy as you had when you were 26. I know this doing a direct comparison with my first doer-upper!
3) Electrics are a budget killer. Although you can do stuff yourself, if your house ends up needing a complete rewire, it's really hard to do it room by room and still remain sane and safe. If you get a sparky in (and you probably should), it costs.
4) Coordination of trades is hard work in itself. I needed our main fuseboard moved. I had to coordinate (1) the electricity supplier, (2) the electricity network (3) domestic sparky for one day's work. It was a fecking nightmare. Also trades don't like working around other trades, so even though the floor is up for the plumber, getting the sparky in at the same time more or less guarantees that they'll be tripping over each other and moaning.
5) Things take longer than you think. I did lots of plumbing myself, but in the end got plumbers in to do stuff as there was other stuff that I needed to do, and I bought the time I needed to do it by getting them in.
6) As a corollary to (5) you'll find stuff along the way that will contribute to a '1 step forward, 2 back' feeling. Example of this is only this weekend when I noticed a damp stain on the dining room wall near the chimney breast. Ended up taking 3 bricks out of the back of the chimney and raking about 1/2 a large compost bags worth of soil out of the hole. Then needed to make good afterward. Needless to say, this wasn't in the plan.
7) Things like the garden will take up time - the grass doesn't stop growing while you renovate, the fence won't fix itself etc. etc. This general maintenance adds to (5).
8) It will cost more than you thought. Some of this will be down to (5) and (6), but some will be down to you justifying spending more on 'better' stuff. Kitchens are a good place to burn loads of cash.
9) Setting yourself a deadline will inevitably lead to frustration as you repeatedly miss it. Don't do this - accept that it will be done when it's done.
OP -> Move, but heed the above.
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