Victorian house renovation - advice for a newbie :)

4 years ago

last modified: 4 years ago

Hello,

A few weeks ago, my husband and I got the keys to what we hope will be our 'forever' home: a 3 bed Victorian semi with lots of original features and scope for extending in the future. We have a fairly modest £25k budget to do the following work:

Knock through between kitchen and dining room to create a lovely, spacious kitchen diner
Create a new utility room and shower room
Sand original floorboards downstairs
Plastering and decorating all walls downstairs
Replace a 70s fireplace with a restored Victorian fireplace

Ideally, some of our budget will stretch to a new bathroom upstairs, however I suspect we will have to save up more money first! I should mention that my lovely dad, husband and friends are doing the demolition work and the kitchen will be fitted by my dad, so that will save costs.

It would be great to get some advice from fellow renovators with tips on how to spread our budget more widely and where to spend money/save money. Thanks :)

Comments (3)

PRO
Leighton Home Style
4 years ago
Congratulations on your new home, it sounds like you have a healthy budget if spent wisely....! I would look at using a Howdens kitchen, very good prices, (need a builder/interior designer with a trade account to use them) they have great kitchen styles & colours, they now have a range of kitchen doors which are ready for you to paint in your own paint choice....Spend your money on good worktop surfaces & the appliances to make it look like a V expensive kitchen and longevity! When doing your shower room and bathroom spend money on the taps/shower & bath mixer valves and good toilet cisterns as this will see you through for the next 10 years versus using cheap no name brands..The rest of your listed renovation work can be done relatively cheaply with having a good eye for your finishes. A good decorator will always be the icing on the cake, its definitely worth spending your money on a good plasterer and decorator. Good luck with your project. If you would like any further assistance please get in touch as I offer consultations which provide lots of advice & tips.....
Huw Buckley
4 years ago
You will need paint, lots of paint so find a good trade centre like Johnstones for it. Their trade paint has been so much better than what I previously used from B and Q.
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That makes two of us (we're newish to Houzz!) Congratulations on your purchase, it looks like a handsome property. It also looks like you are using a property professional for your proposed work, we assume you've put the question to them and want another opinion? Either way, and whatever your brief for how to use the space, it is important that new spaces have character, and aren't simply caverns. The extension does look large compared to the original house, so how it is inhabited is vital to the success of your work (and for adding any value to the property should you sell). For an 'empty' plan, the lanterns might be right, but once you locate your kitchen, snug, or dining area, they may be better repositioned. The position, style and statement of the kitchen is quite a personal thing, but depends on how the flow of the rest of the house will work. Noise and smells from cooking are worth considering for the rest of the house's benefit, so perhaps starting with locating the kitchen to the bottom of you plan might make sense, unless you want a real statement, eye catching arrangement, in which case it might be better located on the axis to the top of the plan (on the long view through your rooms). Some owners like to have a dining area next to their new glazing, but with the bi-fold doors shown opening inwards, this will compromise the internal layouts immediately next to (perhaps this is the wrong symbol your professional has used for the doors and they are intended to open outwards - we would never have them opening inwards - due to the compromise noted above and water dripping internally). Without know more about budget, orientation and period of house it is difficult to offer further helpful advice, but if you would like to discuss further feel free to contact us for a free consultation at hello@catterallfranklin.com Good luck either way!
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Hi there! I’d love to hear what you are using the under the stair spaces for. It looks like the bike could fit under the stairs near main entrance comfortably. You then could use the current bike area for the utility i.e. muddy stuff mops and sports equipment. As such you would need to install shelves to add on the storage space. I’d like to agree with Minipie that, if you really love for the bike area to remain as is, as I feel you might, the next best position for the utility is in the basement. The basement offers several advantages as compared to hiving off a space on G.F, especially when you consider the available space which you’d require to store all the stuff you said. I imagine sports equipment for example would need quite a generous area. I like the idea of a cosier retiring area for the library and I would really recommend an alterations for that. As for a pantry usable from the kitchen, options look really limited but I’d know what you think about moving the toilet across to the opposite void area, and then converting the new space to a pantry. It’s both proximal to the kitchen island, and will also not complicate the plumbing process, since you also want to introduce a sink in there. Hope this is useful! If you need more guidance, feel free to drop me a line or check out our site: www.betterspace.co
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Good news that a builder is coming over. I suspect all the green walls I have drawn are originals and can’t be changed without permission- you can probably tell by their thickness relative to thinner partition walls but it would be good to check. As Bobby said you need to know where the buildings soil pipes are because this will dictate where you can put a wc. There may however be more than one- I suspect your wc pipes go under the kitchen and exit near the kitchen window. 1- get the builder to tell you if there is any extra bit to the left of your kitchen window that has been hidden behind boxing- extra square footage is nearly always useful. Are there original doorways (2 & 3) that could be reinstated- look for telltale signs in the skirting board, flooring, hollow walls where an opening has just been boarded over, door shaped cracks in the decorating etc.
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Hi gem, I think the more conventional Victorian entrance location has been working well for over 100 years so not sure why they thought to try out this layout. If your house is not listed or protected in any way then I would consider putting the entrance at the front. I would keep the hallway wide so storage for coats and shoes could be added. Double doors (pocket doors would be in keeping with the age of the property) to the living room. I would combine the lounge with living room so you could make more use of it. The shower room or and utility room would move partially under the stairs to make use of that space. An extension could be added to create a large kitchen diner with bi fold doors out to the back. You could extend sideways too i.e. to the depth of the current porch.
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PRO
Sarah Beeny's Renovate Don't Relocate
4 years ago
Hello,

I work for Outline Productions and we are making series 2 of ‘Sarah Beeny’s: Renovate Don’t Relocate’, which follows our property expert Sarah helping homeowners transform not just their homes, but the way they use them.

We're looking for homeowners who have a design dilemma and have a budget to renovate, for whom Sarah can provide expert advice and help make your design go further!

If you're interested, please do get in touch - my email is antoniao@outlineproductions.co.uk.

Victorian house renovation - advice for a newbie :)

Comments (3)

Leighton Home Style

Huw Buckley

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