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We’ve never had loads of money to spend on doing up our home. But when we first moved in over ten years ago, we did have some budget to put towards renovating it, which it desperately needed at the time. Everywhere needed replastering, it needed a completely new kitchen, old carpets and floors had to be ripped up, and the bath needed to be replaced.
As it needed a lot of doing up it up meant that we could get it for a cheaper price than others in the area whilst making it how we wanted it right from the start.
It was a massive job and not the most enjoyable one, but we learnt a lot along the way. Now, all these years later there are lots of things that now need doing or doing again. My list is pretty long but there are some bigger things, in particular, that are a priority right now.
The carpet on the stairs is horrible and desperately needs replacing so that is the next big thing I want to do. We took the carpet up everywhere upstairs when we first moved in as it is mostly lovely old wooden floors, but the landing floor is a bit of a mish-mash of different pieces of wood so I would like to get a lovely new carpet up the stairs and on the landing.
I ripped up the carpet in the entrance hall a while ago now as there are some lovely original tiles underneath, but there has been some subsidence in the doorway to the lounge so some of the tiles are a mess. If I can get that sorted then we will hopefully be able to keep the floor tiles with a bit of fixing up rather than carpet over them.
We can’t afford to spend loads on a new carpet but as it is a high-traffic area it needs to be really good quality and of course I want it to look good too. If you do your research you can get premium carpet at a very good price and especially if you look out for remnants or offcuts for those smaller areas you need to carpet, you can really get a bargain. We found companies like Designer Carpet are the perfect fit for these kinds of products.
We’ve put this off for so long now as it’s a pretty big job that will cost a lot. But it’s got to the point now that much of the fence is breaking and falling down and we don’t have the privacy that we want or the safety, plus it looks scruffy!
We’ve almost managed to save enough for the cost of the fencing but realistically we can’t easily afford to then pay someone to put it up for us, so that is going to be something we are going to do ourselves, probably saving over a grand in total. We are also hoping that some of the fence posts are still solid enough to keep and still use which should save quite a bit of money, time and effort too.
When you are doing up your house it’s a good idea to see if there is anything you can do yourself, or that you can learn to do. Hiring people is very expensive and sometimes means you can’t do the job at all with the cost of labour plus all of the materials.
I’ve already been doing this over the last year or so but there is still much more to do! We’ve accumulated a lot of stuff over the years and so it’s a pretty big job, but I am getting there very slowly!
We currently have piles and piles of things to get rid of (charity shops have been closed until recently) that I need to go through and divide into different piles – things for the charity shop, clothes to pass on to a friend’s daughter, plus things that I could sell on.
Facebook selling pages, Gumtree, Freecycle as well as eBay or Vinted, are great for making a bit of money during a clearout, that you can then add to your budget to spend elsewhere.
Local Facebook selling pages, in particular, are brilliant if you need stuff gone quickly, whether you make a bit of money or offer things for free. It can often save you time and money hiring a skip, for example. Even things like some bricks or old wood (for burning) can be offered for free and can be re-used by someone else.
Look out for freebies or well-priced second-hand items for yourself on these sites too! You might be surprised what some people will give away for free because they just want it gone and you get to save some money too. Even something like an unused pack of tiles or flooring that someone is getting rid of can save you a ton of money if you are just doing a small area like a downstairs loo.
Also, make use of your local tip when doing a big clear out if you can as well as the recycling parts of them which most of them have now so things can be reused and you can be eco-friendly too!
The majority of the downstairs needs a repaint now, plus some of the upstairs – all of the wear and tear over the years has taken its toll and it’s all looking a bit scruffy and dull. We painted the lounge last year so that’s out the way, but giving everywhere else a fresh lick of paint and maybe changing some of the colours is quite high on my list.
I know some people get people in to paint and decorate for them, and in an ideal world where we were rich, I would definitely choose that option!
But that is certainly not in our budget and so we will be doing it ourselves (hopefully with a bit of help from the mother and step-dad!! Hi mum!).
It will be a much slower process doing it ourselves but it is something we are able to do ourselves and I do quite enjoy doing (to a point!) so it makes sense to save money there. We will also be doing a bit of polyfilla-ing before painting too.
Neither of us are particularly handy or good at DIY, but I have laid our bathroom floor, painted and done some polyfilla, albeit a long time ago now, so I know I am capable of doing it and it’s always good to learn new skills that you can use again and again and save money along the way!
A good tip when buying paint is to use the colour-match service in stores to get a, often much cheaper version of a colour you love from an expensive brand. If you take a sample or sometimes just the paint card then they can mix a custom colour for you, saving you a lot of money, especially for bigger rooms that you are painting.
The bathroom is a right mess now and I want to sort it as soon as our budget allows!
We need a new side for the bath, as after one too many leaks and being taken on and off it is all cracked and broken, as well as a new shower screen. I also would like to replace the flooring as some of it has started to break off and it just needs updating now.
We’ll do all of that ourselves and then pay a lovely family member who runs a window and door company to replace the glass in the bathroom window as it’s all fogged up. The frame is fine so we should be able to save some money there too.
Do your research when hiring a tradesman – If you do have to hire someone to do bigger jobs that you can’t do yourself, such as plastering, make sure you do your research before choosing someone.
Local Facebook groups are also great for this. You can ask on there for recommendations, or do a search to see if anyone has asked the same thing before, and often you will find that the same name keeps coming up time and time again and people often have first-hand experience of the work they have done for them and the quality and reliability.
The person we hired to plaster our entire house was not good – he did a decent enough job in the end, thank goodness, but we had so many problems throughout the whole job so it really wasn’t worth the money we saved.
He skimmed over beautiful, original shaped corners, got plaster all in the top of our BRAND NEW washing machine (HOW!? I have no idea) , didn’t turn up some days, took forever and was just overall really shoddy! Sometimes it’s much better to not hire the cheapest person available because you will end up spending more and losing time whilst fixing the problems they have caused!
Borrow tools – rather than buying all of the larger tools you need, which you may use once and then never again, consider hiring anything you need or borrowing from a friend or family member where possible.
Use cashback sites – I’ve only started doing this properly recently, and I still forget sometimes but it’s literally free money when you online shop! I use Quidco or TopCashback (if you join either of these with my link you’ll get £5 cashback free!) as not all of the same stores are on each one and sometimes one has better offers than the other, although I find I’m making a lot more with TopCashback on general online shopping.
You can make a decent amount of money from these sites that you can then add to your overall renovation budget, especially when making big purchases. You can get add-on’s for your browser that will remind you that cashback is available when on certain sites, which is very useful.
Builders Bay – makes use of leftover building materials, excess stock and other unwanted items by offering them for sale preventing them from ending up in landfill, as so much does from home renovations.
You can make some money and free up space by selling your surplus building materials and stock, as well as browsing for anything you need and getting a bargain.
Community Repaint – a brilliant initiative where you can donate old and unused paint you no longer need or want which is great for our planet but also means you don’t still have it sitting around years later (like in my understairs cupboard…).
Most of the paint goes to the local community to brighten their spaces, such as local groups and charities as well as those on low incomes. Exactly how it works differs from area to area but you can also sometimes get some free paint for yourself saving you more money.
Check out trade sites – lots of trade sites also will sell to individuals, so it’s worth looking online to find any when buying more expensive household items. Trade Radiators, for example, offer a huge range of radiators at trade prices.
This is a paid partnership. See my full disclosure policy here.
Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
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