We are taking our time 3yrs to date getting our house out of the 90’s for no other reason than we are busy, and then slightly lazy with the little spare time we have.

Kids bedrooms, living room, lounge, downstairs flooring hallways – all done. Our bedroom, Kitchen, bathroom, upstairs carpets & doors all to do still.

But you see pics on here of people’s living rooms etc and get slightly envious of the below par decor you are living in.

So, from purchase to up-to- current standard, how long has it taken you, and what have been the challanges?

I took a shortcut and built my own from scratch 🙂

But now it;s coming up to 5yrs old, it’s time to start redecorating again. Oh joys.

Twop Twip: Use the same colour everywhere and dont change it just because some girl on TV tells you that Teal and Violet is this season’s colourway int he living room. I just have to go and buy another 20 Litres of Dulux Calico 4 and work around the house. No detailed cutting in required.

God knows, we only moved in 2 weeks ago, so I’ll be happy just to have the house cleared of crap and boxes.
The house is pretty much together at the moment, just need to put our own mark on it over time.

18yrs and we’re still not done!

Generally just before putting it up for sale.

But you see pics on here of people’s living rooms etc and get slightly envious of the below par decor you are living in.

No I don’t. I spend it on bike bits, canoes, days out and other more important things in life.

Our first took 8 years and then we sold it. Finally finished a few days before the estate agent took his photos.

15 years so far here, not there yet. Aside from selling the place, I’m not bothered. Since becoming a property magnate and doing this stuff to houses for other people to live in, I can’t be bothered at home too. Oh, and “current standard” can get tae ****, I like rambling Victorian shabbiness so long as we keep the draughts out.

13 1/2 years and nowhere near done.

Currently have the builders in for a fairly significant job. Once that’s done, we’ll start working our way round the house. All of the rest of the house!

To be fair to us (ignoring much time spent staring at things thinking ‘we really need to sort that’) we had to get rid of one hell of a lot of crap from the previous occupants. That included hideous ‘deep pile foam backed’ carpet. that horrible ‘blown patter’ wallpaper, random things plastered over (plastering a curve from the crappy wallpaper onto the wood trim on the stairs was a particular joy..) not to mention the abysmal plumbing and downright dangerous wiring!

We’ve been here 3 years.

Kitchen took about 8 months and has been 95% done for the remainder of the time.
Bathroom has been done this year and just finishing touches to do.
1 bedroom is done, the other 2 still require woodwork, skirting, floor coverings.
Hallway and lounge not even started. Lounge currently looks something like this 🙂

That picture ^^ makes me feel so much better

Happy to help!

^Oh, I can do waay better than that.

I won’t though, becuase it depresses me.

what is spec ?

i change stuff as i see fit – but so long as the water stays outside and the heat stays in im happy.

although i did rewire and replumb/new rads/new boiler and insulate the place within the first year because those are critical safety items that i wasnt happy with the previous owners attempts at.

spent 3 years so far making good – no intention of rushing it any faster over the next 3 years…..

Been in the house since Feb 2011 (so 4.5 yrs).

We’ve done:

dining room
living room (was gonna give it a full going over, but decided for the time being to just give it a new lick of paint, so it needs revisiting)
Our bedroom
Guest bedroom
Currently doing third bedroom as ‘nursery’

+ stuff in the garden:
Get rid of pond, fill it in and cover with temp patio to blend into what is already there until we can re-do the whole lot.
Get rid of slabs where greenhouse & pots were. Level ground & sow grass seed.
Lots of general tidying & keeping on top of it

To do:
Kitchen – gonna be a while as we don’t have the budget for what we want to do
Hall/stairs/landing – big job and will need all re-plastering, plus I wanna get a new bannister put in – again, budget issue
Downstairs loo – low priority, but needs doing
Dining room – already looking a bit ‘worn’ 🙄 😕
4th bedroom needs decorating & turning into an ‘office/study’ type room.
Garage roof leaks in heavy prolonged rain so that needs doing at some point.
Better security in garage – ground anchors etc. & alarm
New garage door for improved security
New side gate on one side (wooden & falling to bits) & paint wrought iron gate on other side…..
Paint all garden fences & shed

Hmmmm. That’s still quite a to-do list.

EDIT – oh yeah. Forgot.

We had all the windows/doors double glazed that obviously knocked the savings a bit
I have laid a load of insulation in the loft.
Fitted an extractor into the bathroom.

I reckon about 20 years by the time it’s finished.

Moved in 3 years ago.
Done:-
LOADS of insulation
Double glazing all rear windows
Had the front and side repointed this summer
Decorated 2 rooms
Fair amount of work in the cellar.
Should get another room decorated early 2016.

April – October riding takes priority. Nov/Dec I’m really busy at work. Ho hum…

The red and purple walls that we “had to paint as soon as we move in” are still there 6 years later. I have built a new kitchen, laundry and downstairs loo so the house works better for us though. Its a long way from finished but very livable.

When I see pics of immaculate lounges and minimalist kitchens I just think I couldn’t live like that, no envy.

Dunno, the Miss’ers has decided that tonight I have to strip out the downstairs loo and sink.

This has 2 issues:
1) It means that all delays are now my fault, not for example that she hasn’t chosen a color yet, and we have have no carpet or taps.
2) She will want to poo while I’m in the shower or brushing my teeth in the bathroom, her poo could clear a third world slum it’s that potent.

And she is the worst project manager ever, she cannot plan ANYTHING. I swear she probably only knows to put up the lining paper then paint it by trial and error.

You’ve got to hold on to the fact too, that it’s far more satisfying getting stuff done if your before photos look like this

Been in our house for 13 months now, still have boxes in what will eventually be my office and our bedroom is half stripped ready for re-plastering.

Only room which has had anything done is the bathroom due to needing to replace the shower when it broke, so took the opportunity to redecorate and tidy a few things up.

workshop on the other hand is perfectly kitted out with shelves and workbench built by my dad and me.

we’ve been in for two years this month, so far built a dormer, including installing new floor structure to gain the head height, stairs to dormer, new roof. new bathroom, two new bedrooms, half of the wiring. all the rooms are getting the full treatment, plaster off, back to brick, start again. jobs to do…. living room to knock through into kitchen, kitchen to do, cellar converting into snug and recording studio, downstairs bathroom to fit, and front and back gardens. same level of work, back to brick etc, more on recording studio ie all soundproofing/isolating. toying with the idea of excavating front garden to build a live room for the studio…i reckon another 2 years, better half says double that

We’ve been in our place 5 1/2 years. It started out as a tiny 2 bed semi-detached bungalow.

So we’ve –

Totally gutted it, adding a 3m deep extension right the way across the back, and taking out several internal walls so we now have a 7m x 7m lounge/kitchen/diner.
Added a 2 bedroom + 1 bathroom Dorma loft conversion.
total rewire
totally re-plumbed
new heating/boiler throughout
built a 15m2 brick shed in the garden (fully insulated with electricity etc)
removed to huge hawthorn bushes from the garden and taken out various trees.
added a block-paved patio area with retaining wall and lighting

Currently ongoing –
New roof on bit which wasn’t removed to do the Dorma.

still to do –
finish decorating – mostly cosmetic.
sort out various groundwork outside – new front steps, tidy up paved driveway
sort out back garden

it never ends –

Does one ever finish a house and garden? Unless you spend a vast sum on getting the trades in to do everything, it all just takes time and expense….and then before you know it you have to do it again! 🙁

I’d forgotten we’d done this also:

+ stuff in the garden:
Get rid of pond, fill it in and cover with temp patio to blend into what is already there until we can re-do the whole lot.
Get rid of slabs where greenhouse & pots were. Level ground & sow grass seed lay lawn.

And installed an alarm system, had 2 new windows & a door installed.

Hopefully when Mrs K finds the time to choose the “right” one’s our Victorian curtains will be replaced before Chsristmas.

moved in 2 months ago. so far painted a few walls, painted the kitchen cupboards (this made so much more of a difference than i expected), put up some shelves.

gonna put up some more shelves and look at getting a stove and that’ll do for now 🙂

Finally got round to repainting the hall and the dining room this year, we’d bought the paint two years ago… DIY is not my thing, must be said.

Never. Maybe a serious push if we are selling. Last place I sold was half bare plaster though, so didn’t get that far even then.

Kryton57 – thank you for this thread. Makes me feel much better. We moved into a house in 2008 that needed a lot of work (re-plastering, central heating, new kitchen, bathroom etc). I think all the DIY shows on TV at the time convinced me that it was not such a big undertaking. We have finished now but it took a long time and i would never do it again.

I moved in 12 years ago and have barely started let alone finished. I want to wait until I’ve got enough cash to do a half decent job of it and don’t mind living in a bit of a tip til then. Half the house is given over to bike storage anyway so it’s never going to be a show home…

Generally just before putting it up for sale.

jambo has it – like andysredmini, the photographer came the week I finished sorting out the cellar. Thirteen years there; just coming up to year one in the new place and just got off the ‘phone with the truss manufacturers.

Still working on mine, bought it 18 years ago….

No I don’t. I spend it on bike bits, canoes, days out and other more important things in life.

this, but without the canoes

we’ve got enough stuff cluttering the place up without one of those great big things as well

I’m sure some people whose houses you’re envying would be envious of the amount of time you get to ride

I’ve been sorting out previous owners DIY efforts for the last 3 years. At some point soon I’m going to have to sort out the garage electrics, and shift a poorly sited soakaway

11 years and £125,000 so far. Wouldn’t have bought it if we’d realised it was going to cost so much. Happily the structure and exterior are excellent and all that money has been spent on a complete refit of the interior including the plumbing, boiler, kitchen, bathrooms, windows, insulation etc.

I’ve been in my house 18 months. Quite a slow start as bad a back op after 2 weeks in house, however in what is realistically the last year, have done both kids room, the spare room, mostly our room (1 wall of wall paper to hang, I don’t know how to do this!!), living room done, kitchen painted, garage converted to a play room, lots of work in the garden including splitting off a grazing paddock and a wild life garden at the bottom, office completed although needs better furniture, hallway landing and stairs done. I’ll do our ensuit before Christmas, and possibly do a partial new kitchen as well.
I hate living in a scaby house, I like working and I bloody hate TV!

We’ve moved into our “1940s ‘old person bungalow'” that was modernised (new ‘lectrics, plumbing, plaster and ceilings) and extended (large loft/dormer conversion.
This took 4 months from the start of the builders coming in.

I’d say it’s 98% finished and ‘brand new’ now – just a downstairs WC that I’ll be doing myself.
I’ll update you on that in 2017…

DrP

Moved in 4.5 years ago. Only managed to do two bedrooms and convert another room into a study. Only reasonably minor work required.

We’ve been dithering over what we should do with the rest of the house, with ideas from fairly minor mods to major building work – and if we do the major stuff there’s no point in doing the other minor stuff beforehand.

And Mrs North regularly threatens to leave her job – I’m not prepared to commit piles of cash with that level of uncertainty!

So we continue to dither and live in a house we don’t quite love as much as we could. Frustrating.

If it’s wind and water tight that just about does me. Plod along with bits and bobs as and when I get the time or inclination to. Before making any decisions to redecorate/replace anything I ask the following two questions – Is it currently functioning? Is it safe as it is? If the answer is yes then it can stay that way for now. Currently a mixture of 80s/90s/00s fixtures and decor.

My house is only a place to sleep and keep my stuff in. Been here nearly 15 years.

Maybe if I ever sell the place I will give it a quick makeover, then again maybe not, for now as others have said I have hobbies to spend my time and money on. Homemaking ain’t one of them.

Been in our house 14 years. It’s all been done except the kitchen.

Trouble is it all needs redoing again now…..

We moved into a shithole of a place 12 years ago. We did big jobs at the time like kitchen, bathroom, windows, built a porch, full rewire, etc., and then went round everywhere in dulux Hessian, fitted make-do carpets, and cardboard and plywood doors.

Since then 2 daughters have been born so both their rooms have become nurseries and subsequently their rooms in their own colour schemes.

So it’s all been ‘done’ but not ‘to spec’ – yet.

That process is just starting now. We’re taking out a built in cupboard in one bedroom to make more space, which means we’ll need to strip and replaster in there (might be patchable, might be 2 walls and ceiling) before it can be redecorated and carpeted. The upstairs doors are all being replaced with nice wood panelled ones (each door is more than the original 5 cost) and coupled to that the chippy who’s doing them who’s a friend has refused to cut them to fit the frames because the frames are so far out that he says it’d be criminal to bugger the doors up and he’d prefer to remove and refit square door linings for the same price. But that’s damaged the surrounding plaster so instead of just being a repaint on the hall stairs and landing it’ll be another plastering job. Then the carpet needs doing, and then the wife wants our room done. So that’s next year’s jobs……by which time downstairs will be ready again!

I view it like my trigger’s broom approach to bikes. The house is the frame which is the best I could get at the time even if it meant compromising with deore level fittings. Now they’re wearing out, I’m replacing it bit by bit with xt and xtr quality, but the bikes still rideable in the meantime.