buying older home - renovations and redecorations chat

[mitch84]

I personally would pull up every carpet. I'd live with floor boards/cheap rugs til you decide on your flooring.

I'm not keen on carpet at the best of times though, especially not other peoples.

We do have a carpet free house actually because of the dog, so I am biased, we have painted floorboards in both bedrooms and the stairs, and tiles/lino/laminate downstairs. So easy to hoover/sweep or mop.

[Lisa123wm]

Originally Posted by Alien

we know of few issues too before we get the keys and will be getting plumbing and electricity checked, as well as chimney

We know for sure there is drainage work to be done (we did survey pre purchase and costed the repairs) and also we need roofer so it's not all redecoration

Hope we get keys next week, we are off work and will tackle the cleaning first! We hope to move in by Chrismtas

Hope your move is going ok Lisa

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Settled straight in, love the area as we knew we would.
Lots of TLC needed throughout the house, but nothing major.
New kitchen next year will be the biggest job.
Already ordered all new flooring to be fitted after Christmas which gives us time to fit all the new radiators.
Alarm/CCTV being installed soon and new front door too.

Have you exchanged yet? Exciting times 😊

[Alien]

Oh that's great! yes, we are all done with everything - the bank & solicitor need to get /transfer funds. Expected to be complete by the end of the week but unfortunately it will not be today

I am pretty certain now the house we are buying belonged to smokers and that's what the smell is

What flooring did you choose? We have a friend coming over once we get the keys to have a look at it and advise if any of the flooring is good to be left/sanded/painted

[Alien]

I think I have a plan

Remove the stained carpet and wallpaper from small spare bedroom to see what are the floor boards like under and what is the plasterwork like. My father in law is telling me some older plaster boards are not even and won't work if you just paint them. I really hope this is not the case.

After that focus on only small living room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, stairs and landing. This is space we will use most and we can live with. We can completely forget about the rest for awhile, half of the house can be closed. If we try to do it all we will go mad

[Gryff]

In 37 years we've only bought 2 out of 7 homes ( never mind the rental property we've bought ) that didn't need the works one being our Florida home and the other our home in Wales which after 18 months DH company decided he was needed back in Scotland but via
Spain for 18 months bought a solid house on Dads advice ( and he knew what he was doing ) DH when he saw it 'what the hell have you
Done now''
20 years on the one and only project DH was in charge of the boys shower room when they moved out wevevhad it 4 years it now our
Guest bathroom as we are in the granny flat is getting a whole new
Make over can't stand that mermaid board stuff I only go in to clean it
Hate hate it and it wasn't cheap honestly makes my skin crawl so much I won't book a hotel etc if it has it too much reminds me of
My generations as a nurse care in some fields awful,

[evergreen]

40 isn’t old, wouldn’t have thought much wrong with the walls, like others have said live in it and then decide we wasted so much money renovating ours, but I did have a young family, very exciting though, good luck with the move.

[Alien]

We got the keys yesterday, delighted with it!

Removed the carpets from the small spare room - floor bords are like new! The room is actually not small at all. It could be better to move to this room at the start as there isn't as much to do in it. Floor boards are like perfect! We will be removing wallpaper today

I find the smell very hard to put up with. Lovely quality curtains left behind, I may try to just wash them in the washing machine to see if this will get rid of the smell as I don't want to pay too much for something that we will likely change.

When we opened the fitted wardrobes in the master bedroom I think they need do come out

Have roofer organised already before Christmas
Need to get electrician and plumber, but they don't seem as easy to get on short notice!
Friend with carpenter background will drop by to look at what we have and hopefully suggest options. He has busy job but will be able to suggest someone

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Wallpaper is dreadful for absorbing smells and holding them.

We bought a semi derelict house in 1986 (still here) and the very first thing I did that took me 2 days was to steam off the wallpaper throughout the entire house. Both walls and ceilings That took away the old musty smell completely and I much preferred having bare plaster walls even in rooms we weren't touching yet than old dusty paper.

[Vinniecat]

Exciting times, you sound really happy. Brilliant news about the floorboards. I think washing the curtains is a good move and as mr Tom says stripping the wallpaper will help with the smell. Good luck with finding tradesmen good ones always seem to be extremely busy. Enjoy your new home.

[Anne]

Check that you can wash the curtains! I shrank one pair by a foot lol Just taking them down and getting them on the line would freshen them up.