Reno Budgeting
It feels scary to put pen to paper and admit how naïve we were starting this project. We’ve renovated two projects before this – a 2 bed Victorian mid-terrace and a 3 bed 1930’s semi – but whilst we learnt a lot transforming those, neither one compares to the scale of the 4 bed, 400 year old thatched cottage we live in now.
Have you ever wondered how much a full house renovation would cost? Or look at squares on Instagram and wonder how much money went into making it look that way? In this long overdue blog post, I am taking a deep dive into the finances of our renovation, how we afforded it, how much everything cost, where we saved money and where we were ripped off.
After a long drawn out moving process, which had many setbacks along the way, we were absolutely itching to crack on with the renovation as soon as the keys were in our hands. We plan to extend the kitchen and utility room one day, so whilst we've invested in replastering and new electrics in the rest of the house, this temporary makeover was always going to be about being simple, quick and super cheap. We just needed to make it liveable for 3 years or so.The only proplem there is...There was lime green EVERYWHERE.
If you've been following me for a while here, or on Instagram, you'll be well aware we've been trying to move house. Despite having only lived here for just over two years now, we always saw this house as a vessel to get our foot on the bottom rung of the property market. We renovated and decorated with that in mind (the house is completely painted in white, for instance) and nearly all our decisions have been rooted in the thought that this house, although much loved, is fairly temporary.To cut a very long (16 month) story short, after heaps of house viewings and offers falling through on other houses, a few weeks ago we were finally very close to moving. A three bed Victorian semi-detached with a drive and a garden, on a quiet road in a fantastic catchment area - just what we wanted and the perfect home to (maybe, once we've caught up on sleep!) expand our precious family in. We'd had the survey done on the house we were moving to and so far, despite being in a chain of five, everything had gone smoothly. We'd had a builder friend of ours come and see the house and we'd drawn up plans to reconfigure the downstairs. I was pinteresting like MAD for inspiration, and even spent a whole evening looking at different hinges and brackets for kitchen units on the IKEA website. Our hearts and minds had already moved...
Following on from my blog post last week about what to expect when buying furniture at auctions, here are some very important tips you should know before embarking on your bargain shopping spree at your local auction house...Measure up! I have a little notebook I take around with me everywhere with all the important dimensions of our home in. You never know what you're gonna find on that day, so although you might go in thinking, I need a desk that is 'xyz', you may get there and find a gorgeous mirror and end up wondering what the heck is the distance between 'abc' instead. I asked, Catherine Hockley, director of our local auction house, Andrew Smith & Son, to share some tips on finding something that is the right fit for you: "Our salerooms are very large and so some items look small in them - always bring a tape measure, or borrow one from us, and make sure that the item you are bidding on will fit through your door or up your stairs."She also goes on to say, "Check the condition well before you buy, for wobbly legs or sticking drawers etc. Most things can be easily mended, but make sure it is within your capabilities or you will end up paying for restoration."
After my popular post last week about how we've furnished our home on a budget, I've had so many questions about all the auction bargains we've collected over the years that I thought it necessary to write up a little guide so that you can start buying amazingly priced, but beautiful, good-quality furniture for your homes too. In a poll created on my Instagram stories, 87% of you shared you have never bought anything at auction which shows it is a massively underused tool amongst our generation. Despite the gracious words of my husband... "as long as they don't all start coming to our one and bidding against us for the good stuff", I've decided to utilise that old cliché of 'sharing is caring'... so here are the basic steps for how it works logistically which I hope will give you the confidence to explore this option further...
Does anyone else love those kinda interior articles where they pick an expensive 'investment piece' and then source a budget option that is often very similar? I love it when magazines and bloggers try to make their content accessible to people like us who have a realistic budget and can't blow the families' winter shoes and coat budget on a new lamp.Sometimes I find myself getting frustrated though, because even the 'budget option' makes my debit card quiver with anxiety, which, all things considered, is a bit unfair on the author really. Everything is relative and they can't please everyone. I'm sure spending £179 on a coffee table IS a budget option for someone, and, in a similar vein, when I suggest spending £40 on a coffee table as a bargain, others may disagree with me too.With that in mind though, I'd love to let you know about some of our own resources for spending less money as well as sharing a few of our mistakes so you can learn from them...
When we picked up the keys for our first home 'The Otto House', we had three weeks to get it ready for our little family. At the time Darcey had just turned one, and although a walk in shower with large white plastic handrails and a fold down seat may be welcoming for a weary mama after a long sleepness night, it certainly didn't please me aesthetically or suit our needs as a family bathroom. Thankfully a builder friend of ours was on hand to help us with the tiling and plumbing so we could crack on and get it finished in the couple of weeks before move in day.We started by ripping out the shower and the awful faux marble plastic surround that had been literally glued onto the tiles beneath it. Having spent ages trying to take the tiles off the wall around the fireplace downstairs, the thought of more tiles that needed removing (especially ones not factored into our tight time frame) was as unwelcome as a James Blunt song on the radio. I needn't have worried however as the tiles only required a few forceful taps, a bit of leverage with the chisel and they all fell down, bringing the wall with it!
I’ve wanted to write about living in a money pit for a while and have written two versions of this post already today which swiftly got deleted. This week we’ve been in our home for three years and I always share a yearly update on the budget at this time but thought a more generic overview may be a little more helpful. It may be that I’ve been ill and feeling burnt out this week (more on that later,) so my words aren’t formulating in the way I want them to, or more likely, that talking about anything financial is very emotive and nuanced and sometimes even triggering. Add in talking about a financial burden which stems from a place of huge privilege and this blog post really could be a baptism of fire.