First home projects - save or loan?

firsthome1992

3 years ago

Hi Everyone, This is our first home. And wondering what your thoughts would be. We are currently saving to go ahead with multiple renovations, but my OH is impatient. The works we are saving for are:-

1) New bathroom - We currently have a sink, bath and seperate shower in main bathroom, then a seperate toilet in the ajoining room. we just want a big fancy shower and sink in the main bathroom. keeping them as seperate. OH wants to make it all 1 big room, but I like the idea of them seperated so someone can use the loo if another is in the shower. in total been quoted £4500

2) Rewire full house - Been quoted £3800

3) New Roof - been quoted £3400.

4) New boiler - not quoted yet

5) Windows - Not quoted yet

last on our list is New kitchen.

As i mentioned, my OH is impatient.

He wants to get a loan to do all apart from the kitchen. So as to get them all done straight away. Whereas I want to keep saving as get them done 1 by 1. What is everyone elses opinion?

Featured Answer

hedgehog99

2 years ago

OP please ignore these people who are posting ads for loans

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Comments (20)

Sonia
3 years ago
There isn’t a wrong or right answer. When we bought our house it needed everything doing, like yours. We decided to get a home improvement loan to cover the important things like central heating (there wasn’t any) and new windows as they were originals and were rotting in places. We also had woodworm treated in the bay window. We painted all the rooms as that was relatively cheap to do. We carpeted the bedrooms and bought some cheap furniture. We then saved up to do the bathroom and kitchen, but it took several years and looking back I wished we’d just got another loan to do that. Living with it was not much fun at all.

Since then (it was in the 1980’s!) we have refurbished the kitchen and bathroom again. For me, I would knock through and make a bigger bathroom, loo etc. If you have the space, a downstairs cloakroom will be vert useful. Your bathroom quote is pretty good - I paid just under £6000 to change my small bathroom into a shower room. I was quoted £6000 for a new slate roof on a 1930s terrace, so again good quote!

So looking back with hindsight I wish we’d got a loan to cover all the work, but this will depend on affordability.
Jonathan
3 years ago
It costs you no more to get the loan and enjoy them all now.

You might want to satisfy yourself that you will add as much value as you are spending because if circumstances changed it would be gutting to sell and not clear what is owing on the house.

Personally I would put the rewire at the top of the list as it’s the most disruptive, will likely be necessary if you have a new kitchen later with lots of appliances and of course there is the safety consideration.
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Hello egreevy, Okay, yes I see, it's a difficulty but maybe not impossible... Just whether you want to try to find out more about this.. Taking windows out to paint is a bigger job but it may still be possible.. ... So for the immediate.. Paint the front door (just the door) it might give a nice finish to have the side windows white.. Then you have a bit of contrast like your image above.. and add window boxes with lovely foliage or buxus.. it will work with the green you already have... I couldn't see as my screen was dimmed.. I think leaving all the ivy colour you have at present would be really nice.. (hence my suggestion of more green!! Also I wouldn't paint the pebble dash, to me it looks absolutely fine on the house itself.. Maybe the small boundary wall at the front and a bit of the garage.. Also a flat box hedge coming over the top of the boundary wall could be nice too.. It will be lovely and green.. : ) )
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HU-470112571
3 years ago
Honestly just talk to your local bathroom company as well if thats what you are looking to do. Our one fitted kitchens as well so we were able to work out a good deal with them also and its always easier when you have one company doing both of them, that way getting the loan out becomes a much simpler idea rather than trying to split it between 2 or 3 different companies and as Jon says, doesn't cost much more to enjoy them all now. Saves prolonging your house being a worksite every 6 months or so as you try to do 1 by 1 instead of getting them all out the way in one hit
firsthome1992
Original Author
3 years ago
Hey guys! Thanks for your input, I work in an fast paced industry, I have been made redundant twice in the past 4 years. So for me, its affordability if it were to happen again. We earn a decent amount between us. But it wont be enough to cover our outgoings in anything were to happen.

All quotes are fairly reasonable and I think its due to being in the North West, and using independent small companies. 1950s semi detached 3 bedroom house.

No idea on renovations, so we're going have to plan and think this through properly.

If we do decide to save up and do 1 by 1, which order should we put them?
lesleycurrant
3 years ago
It really depends upon why you need to do each project. In terms of safety and protecting your property as an asset, I would do the rewiring and roof first. You’d need to redecorate in every room anyway after a full house rewire, so that’s a good starting point. The roof, it would depend upon its current state - is it leaking/falling down/unsafe? Or would a couple of patch repairs keep it going for a few more years?
A builder will tell you that it’s more cost effective to do several big jobs at once - this maybe true, but it does depend on what you’re planning. And if you did the roof, bathroom & kitchen, are you prepared to live on a building site with no heating, hot water, cooking facilities and dust everywhere for a year? This is definitively worth considering before starting!
We’ve been in our house 25 years this year, and we did the projects as we could afford them, moving the downstairs loo & widening the narrow lounge, converting a garage into a playroom/snug, refitting the en-suite bathroom. This makes it much more affordable, this is true, I guess you have to think about what aspects of your house you find the most constantly irritating, and what you can either alter cosmetically/change cheaply in order to live with ‘for now’.
Honestly, I think most houses are always going to be a work in progress, there’s always something that needs fixing/painting/replacing. Also people change, your habits and lifestyle alter over time, and your house often needs changes to reflect that.
Love a house project! 💕
firsthome1992 thanked lesleycurrant
firsthome1992
Original Author
3 years ago
The rewire needs doing as we dont think it has been done in A LONG time. It still has red and black wiring in most places. The previous owner built an extension, we guestimated in the past 10 years as that has the new wiring in. We also want rewire as we just simply do not have enough sockets and we're not fans of extension leads trailing everywhere. We literally only have 2 single sockets in the front room. 1 single socket in 2 of the bedrooms and 2 single sockets in the 3rd. Being gamers, we're currently using 3 extension leads, 1 in both single sockets, and then 1 10m coming from the single socket in the extension. we have 2 pcs with 3 screens, and 2 plugs for my bearded dragon.

The roof has been looked at and patched up, Roofer said that he would come and check it every year, currently its not in extreme bad repair. But said would need doing within next couple of years. For now, we just had 20 tiles replaced and the ridges redone Costing £950. With this house, we have the main roof (tiled) and then we have the porch and extension as flat roof. Been quoted for the main roof. We've just literally today, and the felting changed on the porch, £340. the extension is in good condition.

Luckily, my partners mum lives local so we could temp move into her, whilst the work is being done.

The boiler we want renewing as its 10+ years old, and the water pressure in this house is abysmal. Been told a better boiler would increase pressure, but not looked into that too much for the moment.

The bathroom is in dire need (we think) as we have an electrical heater in there atm, and the bathroom fitter that came out, said that it was illegal. Also its 1970s cerise pink and it hurts to look at it haha!

The kitchen is also last on our list, as we're very particular in what we like and what we want, and know that its going to be expensive, so need to save longer for this. But we can currently live with the kitchen we have. its not offending. it is quite a nice kitchen. But its not our dream kitchen.

Again with the windows, one of the panes have condensation in them. But we've heard a radio add that the panes can just be replaced, so looking into both which would be most cost effective, as far as we can tell, there is nothing wrong with the frames themselves, but we're no expert.
lesleycurrant
3 years ago
Red a black wires?! Er, yes, they’re pretty old then! I’m surprised it wasn’t done when the extension was built, as surely it’s now illegal to hook into an outdated system with new wiring and leave it at that...unless the homeowners did it themselves. The boiler is an interesting one...it may not be just the boiler that affects the pressure, if you’re in a hard water area and the heating pipes are old, they maybe all furred up with limescale, a new boiler won’t fix that, and flushing them may not work, it’s worth asking your neighbours what their heating systems are like for local comparison.
Pink bathrooms are definitely a love it or hate it thing! We’ve toured some very very pink houses when house buying in the past, one had all the woodwork painted pink with maroon carpets. We decided we could change that and carried on...until we got to the pink bathroom suite and decided to throw in the towel! I agree that wiring and heating are important, as are bathrooms. There are some brilliant ideas on here for making things more bearable in the meantime, plus also if you look at apartment therapy dot com, it’s a great site for cosy/comfy living on all types of budgets.
firsthome1992 thanked lesleycurrant
Sonia
3 years ago
I wouldn’t say a 10 year old boiler needs replacing just yet. My old boiler was 30 years old and going strong, albeit probably not as efficient as a newer model. We only replaced it a few years ago with the help of a grant at the time. The wiring sound ancient!
arc3d
3 years ago
Red and black wiring is still very common. I wouldn't say it was urgent as long as you haven't noticed any issues like constantly tripped switches or blown fuses, but if you are adding sockets then definitely go the full rewire route.

Old conventional (non combi) boilers tend to be very reliable and as Sonia mentioned and can last a lot longer than newer ones. Newer combi boilers need servicing ever year which is an added cost to consider.

Another false economy is roof repair. Absolutely not worth patching. You've paid almost £1k for 20 tiles when a whole new roof, you mentioned, would have cost £3.4k? It would have been better to wait for another £2.4k and get the whole thing done in one go.

If the windows are not jamming and the seals around them fit well then budget option is just to replace the damaged pane.

I don't think the younger generation are as financially stable as the older generations. Not through any fault of their own of course. The world is just a different place. It's easier to take out a loan when you are financially stable. That's simply not the case for many young people today. I think it's a decision for you to make on your own. An online forum is probably not the best place to ask. Everyone's situation is different.
firsthome1992 thanked arc3d
Jonathan
2 years ago
£3800 for a rewire sound like the going rate
Susy Q
2 years ago
You may have already done the work as this is from April, but I enthusiastically put a separate bathroom and toilet together to make a big bathroom. Lovely and luxurious with two people living in the house, very much regretting it now with two small children and only one toilet in the house!
PRO
i-architect
2 years ago
If you're going to do them one at a time and your roof is in a bad condition then it's best to start with the roof and then the electrics - make sure your house is watertight and safe first. You can make it more attractive after and you can do little things like paint stuff a colour you love to make it enjoyable quickly.
hedgehog99
2 years ago
This is an old thread which is showing again today because of a spammer earlier today.
hedgehog99
2 years ago
@Lee Smith please stop spamming this site. You have been reported to site admin.
Sonia
2 years ago
So many spammers on this site. Well said hedgehog99!
hedgehog99
2 years ago
I just don't get why they bother! Does anyone EVER click on these ridiculous links?!
Stefan Gringer
2 years ago
You may not have known about it, but you can easily get a mortgage for repairs.
hedgehog99
2 years ago
Reporting you for spam, @navybear. I’d stop bothering if I were you.
pawlkerson
11 months ago
last modified: 11 months ago
Congratulations on your first home! Renovating can be exciting but also overwhelming. It's important to make sure you have a solid plan in place before jumping in. Have you considered speaking with a mortgage broker in Wirral to explore your financing options? They may be able to offer advice on how to finance your renovations and help you find the best rates and terms. Additionally, it's important to prioritize your renovations and make sure they align with your budget and overall vision for your home. Best of luck with your renovations!

First home projects - save or loan?

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