What did your redecoration cost?

blue note

What room did you do? What did you do to it? And what did it cost?

I'm asking with specific motives in mind - I'm looking to buy and everyone keeps telling me to ignore decoration. I'm told that I'll be surprised at how cheap it is and that the house is all that matters. But I reckon people are talking (partly) nonsense. I've looked at some houses that are truly hideous. They'd require every room to be done up. Compared to some that are lovely already and just require furnishing (not that that will be cheap). But when I listen to the same people who tell me that decoration is cheap tell me that they did up their bedroom and had to spend a grand on curtains because their window was an unusual size, or who got a lovely kitchen (but nothing too extravagant) and spent €17k on it I'm thinking that a house in walk in condition is worth 10s of thousands more than one that requires total refurbishment in terms of the savings you'd make.

I'm thinking about one house that requires total redecoration. Nothing has been done to it in about 40-50 years I reckon. So I'm trying to add up the cost of doing up a living room, a dining room, kitchen, hall, 3 bedrooms, an office and a bathroom. I don't think this is a cost I can afford to ignore.

So, would anyone care to share their experience of redecorating a room / rooms? How much does it actually cost?

mvl

I don't have a number to give.

But I'd think you can spend on a house so much as you can afford to (and it is your time, effort and money). You'd need a lot of patience/time if dealing with external contractors, as you cannot predict their availability/quality of delivery; even if you have more than enough money, coordinating works can be head wrecking.

Some notes from my experience:
- I am in full time employment, and I didn't want to go the path of buying an old house or building a house.
- We bought a house which is less than 15 years old, BER C1, and warm enough to allow us not to heavily invest in insulation near future
- As poster below said, it appeared ready to move in - but it still needed work.
- We've been doing some of the small work ourselves (repaints, minor re-plumbing, re-carpeted, installed new furniture/appliances), except for the specialized works where you'd need proper training/certification (central heating related)
- Our biggest achievement was to move in 2 weeks after we got the key.
- House needs few more big jobs done (... to change the design done by previous owner for ensuite, kitchen, garden) but these will be done next years, and I am ok with that.

PhoenixParker

blue note wrote: »

What room did you do? What did you do to it? And what did it cost?

I'm asking with specific motives in mind - I'm looking to buy and everyone keeps telling me to ignore decoration. I'm told that I'll be surprised at how cheap it is and that the house is all that matters. But I reckon people are talking (partly) nonsense. I've looked at some houses that are truly hideous. They'd require every room to be done up. Compared to some that are lovely already and just require furnishing (not that that will be cheap). But when I listen to the same people who tell me that decoration is cheap tell me that they did up their bedroom and had to spend a grand on curtains because their window was an unusual size, or who got a lovely kitchen (but nothing too extravagant) and spent €17k on it I'm thinking that a house in walk in condition is worth 10s of thousands more than one that requires total refurbishment in terms of the savings you'd make.

I'm thinking about one house that requires total redecoration. Nothing has been done to it in about 40-50 years I reckon. So I'm trying to add up the cost of doing up a living room, a dining room, kitchen, hall, 3 bedrooms, an office and a bathroom. I don't think this is a cost I can afford to ignore.

So, would anyone care to share their experience of redecorating a room / rooms? How much does it actually cost?

You're mixing up redecorating and refurbishing.

Decoration that should be ignored is the furniture in the rooms, the colour of paint, the knock knacks and frivolities used to stage a house so you can easily picture yourself living there.

A 17k kitchen or moving a bathroom is refurbishing and needs to be factored in, it's refurbishing.
A well laid out kitchen with decent units where you can change the doors to your taste is redecoration.

The ratty couch and the illuminous pink walls need to be ignored.
The neutral grey walls and modern decor shouldn't sway you.

The house you're thinking of, that hasn't been touched in 40 years, needs refurbishment.

Visibly appearing to be in walk in condition doesn't mean the house is in walk in condition.
Be wary of that.
Your 40-50 year old house with moderate redecoration might appear to be walk in condition but still need a major overhaul of wiring, plumbing and roof.

budhabob

PhoenixParker wrote: »

You're mixing up redecorating and refurbishing.

Decoration that should be ignored is the furniture in the rooms, the colour of paint, the knock knacks and frivolities used to stage a house so you can easily picture yourself living there.

A 17k kitchen or moving a bathroom is refurbishing and needs to be factored in, it's refurbishing.
A well laid out kitchen with decent units where you can change the doors to your taste is redecoration.

The ratty couch and the illuminous pink walls need to be ignored.
The neutral grey walls and modern decor shouldn't sway you.

The house you're thinking of, that hasn't been touched in 40 years, needs refurbishment.

Visibly appearing to be in walk in condition doesn't mean the house is in walk in condition.
Be wary of that.
Your 40-50 year old house with moderate redecoration might appear to be walk in condition but still need a major overhaul of wiring, plumbing and roof.

This!

To pull down wallpaper and paint a room = €30 for steamer, €100 - €150 for paint / paint accessories etc.

thegreatgonzo

PhoenixParker wrote: »

You're mixing up redecorating and refurbishing.

DYour 40-50 year old house with moderate redecoration might appear to be walk in condition but still need a major overhaul of wiring, plumbing and roof.

Yeah if it's that old you could be looking at replacing floors, insulation, windows and all the rest. I bought an old house last year and it was a lot like some of the freezing student house I rented over the years...so technically liveable. But once we started work on it all sorts of stuff had to be replaced. Chimney had to come out, none of the walls are straight and the floor was actually rotten in places.
Also discovered a space between flat roof and new floor of an extension that was full of smelly dead mice which was lovely.
It's going well though!

sleepily

I recently bought a 50 year old house that needs complete renovation. We don't have the money for the full renovation so the plan is:


Gut the place
Install new central heating
Partial rewire
New BUDGET kitchen
Minor insulation works if budget allows (we only have €20K total so this is doubtful!)


The idea is that by gutting it we can then just add to the rest over time when we have the money and it will be less disruptive than continuously gutting the house bit by bit.


We'll aim to have three rooms (bedroom, kitchen and sitting room) livable and the rest will be completely bare.


Maybe we're mad?!

mvl

I think it also depends if you can live with it while its being worked on, no ?
(is it about enjoying the house, or will you be enjoying working at the house more ...and if it's an investment the picture is really different).

A suggestion was made to me to get a house 40k cheaper than the one I've eventually bought (it was again ~15 years old, but needed work), and was told with 40k I can do it same level as this one, but with the furnishings I decide (flooring, tiling, painting, re-do kitchen, bathrooms, with possibly plumbing/rewires/knocking down walls), with again us doing some of the work.
- but I didn't want to get into that type of thing, as I don't have time for it; or patience to deal with external contractors.
May have made sense to me if I worked in construction/interior design/architecture...dunno.

budhabob

sleepily wrote: »

I recently bought a 50 year old house that needs complete renovation. We don't have the money for the full renovation so the plan is:


Gut the place
Install new central heating
Partial rewire
New BUDGET kitchen
Minor insulation works if budget allows (we only have €20K total so this is doubtful!)


The idea is that by gutting it we can then just add to the rest over time when we have the money and it will be less disruptive than continuously gutting the house bit by bit.


We'll aim to have three rooms (bedroom, kitchen and sitting room) livable and the rest will be completely bare.


Maybe we're mad?!

You'd be surprised how far you can stretch your budget. we bought a 70 year old house, hadn't been touched in 30 odd years. With a budget of a bit more than yours we did:
New central heating, new windows and doors, rewire, new kitchen, new roof and skylights on extension, insulation, stove, flooring (not everywhere).

blue note

budhabob wrote: »

You'd be surprised how far you can stretch your budget. we bought a 70 year old house, hadn't been touched in 30 odd years. With a budget of a bit more than yours we did:
New central heating, new windows and doors, rewire, new kitchen, new roof and skylights on extension, insulation, stove, flooring (not everywhere).

When was this? I'm convinced I'm hearing about recession prices. The couple of people I've heard of getting big jobs done now struggle to find someone to do them and then have to pay massively inflated prices when they do. Going off the redecoration / refurbishment note - a friend is getting an extension done at the back of his house. Going by the €1,590 per square metre guideline that I've read it should cost him 60-80k. He is struggling to get a builder for it and it's going to work out at closer to 130k. It has completely put me off the idea of getting a house that requires work to be honest.

JimmyMW

blue note wrote: »

When was this? I'm convinced I'm hearing about recession prices. The couple of people I've heard of getting big jobs done now struggle to find someone to do them and then have to pay massively inflated prices when they do. Going off the redecoration / refurbishment note - a friend is getting an extension done at the back of his house. Going by the €1,590 per square metre guideline that I've read it should cost him 60-80k. He is struggling to get a builder for it and it's going to work out at closer to 130k. It has completely put me off the idea of getting a house that requires work to be honest.

Extensions are not easy as you have opening up work to do etc, id imagine builders are going for the easier money with new builds and less unknowns.

With regards refurbishments, it very much depends on how you do it, for example if you order new windows and doors you will pay a premium, however if you go to the manufactures miss sized department you may pick up 80-90% of what you need there for significantly less, however you will have no choice on style, colour etc. The same can be said for kitchens and kitchens off of the showroom floor etc. Its all about whats acceptable to you and a bit of luck with regards what comes up when your doing the job.

budhabob

blue note wrote: »

When was this? I'm convinced I'm hearing about recession prices. The couple of people I've heard of getting big jobs done now struggle to find someone to do them and then have to pay massively inflated prices when they do. Going off the redecoration / refurbishment note - a friend is getting an extension done at the back of his house. Going by the €1,590 per square metre guideline that I've read it should cost him 60-80k. He is struggling to get a builder for it and it's going to work out at closer to 130k. It has completely put me off the idea of getting a house that requires work to be honest.

We'll be in the house 3 years this October, so over the last 2 -3 years (maybe I'm completely off and don't realise how much costs have increased in that time). We've lived in the house, and to be fair have done a lot of the grunt work ourselves e.g. fitting the kitchen, laying the floor etc. But the windows, doors, electrics, heating, roof were all professionally done.

I did a lot of research, specced out exactly what I wanted etc. We wouldn't have had the budget for an extension, but prices certainly are going up.

When we were buying, we just couldn't afford a new house - there wasn't that many anyway, and we were very keen on a particular area. Being handy enough, a doer upper was always on the cards. Doing it up while living in it was grand......but for 2 exceptions:
1. The rewire - we moved out for a week while all the chasing and connections were being done, but came in once finished. I have NEVER seen so much dust, I think we're still hovering it up.
2. Due to budget constraints and trying to line up various trades (required for cost) - we had no real kitchen for 6 weeks,

sleepily

Definitely some food for thought here! Our plan is to get the electrics and plumbing done first and then move in while we work through the rest. Not really looking forward to that element though and debating if we should move in with the inlaws for a while.


How long did your renovations take?

budhabob

sleepily wrote: »

Definitely some food for thought here! Our plan is to get the electrics and plumbing done first and then move in while we work through the rest. Not really looking forward to that element though and debating if we should move in with the inlaws for a while.


How long did your renovations take?

we mightn't be the best example as did a lot ourselves, but I would say 12-14 months (Weekends and evenings)........and we still have a few rooms to go.

Our project was slowed down an awful lot due to the fact that EVERYWHERE was wallpapered - even the hotpress shelves.

The_B_Man

Painter €300 per room. Hall stair and landing was 450.

Rewire: €5k

Upstairs gutted, Replumb, new boiler, new cylinder (both moved), new bathroom, new floors (before laminate), plastering: €18k (plus extras).

Doors 600, laminate floors 1700, skirting, architraves (can't remember). Labour €1100

Think that was it.