Owning your own home

It's easily doable with a bit of patience, tools and basic skills.

Completely agree with this.

Not everything has to cost a fortune. I did a whole bathroom (with the exception of a new toilet, because the previous one was fine) for less than £3k, including paying for a plasterer (skim of all walls) plumber to install new shower and associated pipework and move the toilet/soil pipe and a tiler (walls and floor). No mates rates, just got a few quotes for each.

I was quoted £11k for a turn key solution. I saved money by sourcing all the bits myself and arranging the trades myself. I don't think it would have looked any nicer if I went for the £11k option, although it would of course have been less admin for me.

Thanks all, this is all sounding good.

The house I linked is probably in better nick than most that come up around that price but it does give us some hope that we might be able to make it work. It doesn't help that this is all very theoretical at the moment but I'd assume most places will need at least boiler or electrics replaced and possibly both. I saw one place come up which had no bathroom and the only toilet was an outhouse...

For reference a £50k renovation cost would be maxing out the budget, £100k puts it in completely unattainable territory.

For reference a £50k renovation cost would be maxing out the budget, £100k puts it in completely unattainable territory.

It all depends on your timetable and what you want to achieve but from the photos it looks fine to live in whilst you crack on. Unless there's some hidden horror, making that place nice for 50k looks easily doable.

Can anyone recommend a good tiler in SE London?

I don’t but if I did I’d worry if they could match your standards from your shed building thread.

Not a popular opinion but I think there's something to be said for living in a space so you understand it probably before jumping into work.

But it should be a popular opinion (in MY opinion...) - if a place is livable with no major issues, which to me includes maybe rank wallpaper you don't like, a dated bathroom or slightly threadbare carpets, it seems mad to start ripping stuff out/making a mess/firing the money gun before you've worked out how you live in it and what's most important to you.

Each to their own of course and if someone's got a dream plan they're confident with and the bank balance to see it through, fire away I guess.

We've just taken something similar up to a good standard last year in Brighton - cost more than £50k in the end even with lots of DIY, and friends and family in the trades but we did also have a complete re-wire, new boiler, full new flat roof over the rear of the house, and rushed stuff for imminent baby arrival.

Without those big bits and with less of a rush to complete it probably could have been done for £50k.

Ha thank you. I do think I'm a tradesmen worst nightmare.

I'm also on board with this approach - for now I just wanted to sense check if we could purchase and renovate a place within a total budget.

I can live with dated decor and barebones kitchen/bathroom for a while but don't want to end up in a situation where we get a doer upper then find out we've totally fucked the numbers and can't afford the work to make it good.

*obviously I would get surveys/quotes/scope the work before actually getting in this situation. We’re not going to be in a position to move until at least next spring so right now this is just theoretical thinking and trying to get a vague idea of what our future looks like.

Depends what you need to do.

Property of that age and construction can be a massive money pit once you start poking around.
Having just spent £50k and 5 months of doing a lot of the work myself on a renovation you are going to have to do all the grunt work yourself and likely compromise on the quality of fittings/fixtures/flooring/paint to hit that target and prey you don’t reveal any horrors.
Just get the bones right and plan to do other things later instead of giving it a mediocre laminate/static inducing grey carpet rental make-over

We came into our do-er upper with £30k cash to do things gradually. That IMMEDIATELY went on windows and roof. Easily put in twice that now with the big project still remaining.

A lot of it will depend on what you are prepared to live with and for how long. Getting a good, general builder in as well as a survey will help tell you what realistically can wait vs what you will need to do now/immediately.

IMMEDIATELY

good, general builder

LOL

Does anyone have a recommendation for a company they have used for replacing misted units in double glazing? I'm in south east se23/26

People in the flat upstairs from me used Catford Glass.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/150846137#/map?channel=RES_BUY

You're sort of not wrong.

Peeps, I did search the forum and tread on this but no result, so;

I am about to embark on buying my first home, and we need to engage a conveyance solicitor.

Are there any recommendations of solicitors, things to watch out for, specific questions of note to ask? Is it worth getting a solicitor close to the home we live in now, or the purchase Property, or maybe this doesn't matter...

Only ever get a solicitor based on a positive recommendation from someone you trust.

Geographical proximity is irrelevant.

You want a good solicitor for two reasons, 1. Because they are good, 2. Shit ones will fuck everything up.

As above, get one who is recommended. You also want one who is tenacious in chasing things down. When your buyer/seller has a shit solicitor who doesn't like responding to questions, its good to have your own solicitor who is like a terrier chasing after them.

Also, many of the good ones do it for a flat fee. This is really helpful!

I had a conveyancer from a really good solicitor firm who managed the sale of my flat. I had 3x sales that fell through various reasons (lack of funds, COVID none of which was our solicitors fault etc) and the flat fee really kept the costs down.

I have a great solicitor I'd recommend that I've been using if you're interested. She's nowhere near me, so I don't think that's important.

I spoke to her this morning, I'm pretty sure that she's one of the only source of value for money out of the various people I've hired through the process...

Feel fee to message me if you want details

Wouldn’t recommend the one I used recently, they were fuckin shit and rude!

I looked up the one I used ten years ago, last time I moved, recently. They'd been shut down by the regulator for serious failings!

Thanks all, I’ll be in touch for references.

3x rendering quotes in, thank fuck. 1x roofing quote in.
Celebratory beer whilst I simultaneously sell the repair works to the other flat, plan strategy with neighbour (we need to lean on your roof) and go back to the insurers who aren't paying a penny

Any recommendations for a sofa bed that's a really good sofa and a decent bed?

We got one from Willow and Hall that we thought was expensive enough to be the one but I think it's going back. It was a big gamble seeing as you can't try them out in real life but I don't think it's paid off.

We're going to try the Swyft ones in John Lewis bit is anyone currently happily using a sofa bed as an everyday sofa?