Refurbish an old house - where to start?

yeraulone

Hello
I've recently inherited an old house thats in real need of refurbishment. I'll first need to have the house valued, and also work out roughly what I'll need to borrow to cover the cost of the refurbishment.  I'm unsure how to go about estimating the cost of the refurbishment - do I hire a surveyor? A builder? Or try to do it myself and deal with the risks associated with that (like underestimating!)
The house itself is unique in some ways. Its 1930s 4 bed, 2 story house thats about 950 sq ft, and sits on the shore of a lake. Someone mentioned that the gates to the house are a lot older and may be 'listed' - so I would need to find out about that.
The roof is leaking in several places, and I can see from an inspection that one of the rooms is fairly damaged as a result. So I will need to have the roof replaced and any damage to rooms fixed. Other areas of the house that need fixed/repaired/replaced:

• New electrics
• New plumbing
• New central heating
• Septic tank needs to be relocated as its too close to the lake 
• Insulation (roof and walls - no cavity in the walls)
• New stairs
• New kitchen
• New bathroom and toilet (complete refit)
• New flooring through out
• Painted inside and outside
• New doors (all windows are new)
• Landscaping (looks like a jungle at the moment!)

My plan would be to gut the house myself and do as much of the landscaping/clearing as well. The rest I'll leave to the professionals! 

So as I mentioned, I'm not sure where to start estimating all this. Looking for any advise from anyone who may have undertaken something similar.

Many thanks.

jlm29

if You have to move the septic tank, you’ll need planning, so I would think maybe your best bet is to get an engineer to have a look first? We had an engineer look at our house recently (peeve also been doing it up, but it’s always been lived in, so not as big a job as yours). The engineer we got specialises in old buildings I think, so that’s probably where I would start. Maybe someone else will think otherwise
There’s a website somewhere that you can check if it’s listed. I can’t remember what it is, but google will tell you.

snev

Hi,

I have priced out something similar to this and well how I approached it was to make a list of each room along with the sqft and ceiling height of each room. Then add the items in each room that needs replacing or redoing e.g. new toilet, sink, window, flooring, walls etc. Then literally go onto google and find a local plumber, builder, electrician etc and email them the list of items that need replacing or redoing and organise a site visit and they will come up with a price to redo it all for you.

Best of luck with this,
Jo