Like most people undergoing a transformational renovation we have been faced with a multitude of decisions on what we should be spending our money on, and where we can afford to spend less.
The house before it all started
When working on a large renovation, and a fixed budget it is important to be really clear yourself about what you are prepared to invest in, and where you’d be willing to make the sacrifice. Sometimes the decision is too hard and the sacrifice is on the bank balance or your short term life choices. (Not going on holiday, living in the property / caravan etc)
The clearer you are about this from the beginning, the “easier” it will be to make important decisions during the build. Like: “Should we replace that wall”, “How much do we spend on flooring”, “Do we go for underfloor heating”, and “What is our kitchen budget”…. you get the drift.
It was clear that our house needed A LOT of work on the structure, and actually getting it to a basic working property with heating and lighting would all be starting from scratch. So along with this we decided that making the structure and workings of the house to be the priority for our budget – but also, to invest in making these last for as long as possible as this would be our family home for a long time.
We’ve been blogging a lot about the structure and extensions of the build, but actually there has been a huge amount of plumbing and electrical work done.
The heating was far from ideal!!
We were basically faced with a blank canvas. The plumbing and electrics were far from up to scratch, and with half of the house being demolished, it was clear that a lot of the budget had to go on this. Here’s what we’ve learned…
- Turning a 3 bedroom, 2 storey knackered property in to a 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom 3 storey property involves a LOT of pipes!
- The first fix involved getting all the pipes to radiators, towel rails, sinks, toilets and showers to the right places and then run under the floors (or outside for the soil pipes) and all the way down to the cellar
- It really helps to know your bathroom layouts as early as possible
- Also, where your radiators are going to go and if you want the pipes coming out from the floor or the wall
- The first fix involved getting all the pipes to radiators, towel rails, sinks, toilets and showers to the right places and then run under the floors (or outside for the soil pipes) and all the way down to the cellar
- It requires some horsepower to ensure the showers have enough pressure in the loft
- Victorian properties were built for one simple bathroom. When you’ve got 2 in the loft alone this calls for not only a large water tank but a way of ensuring the pressure is good and consistent – especially when other appliances and showers are going at the same time
The bathroom off the kitchen!
- The obvious place for us to put the water tank was in the cellar… a long way from the bathrooms but it’s out the way and doesn’t take up cupboard space
One of the 3 huge tanks!
- The water pressure from street level in our area is terrible at best, so we also needed a way of bringing in this water and converting it to a better pressure value to suit our needs – this means we needed an Accumulator. In fact, because our cellar was so low in height, we couldn’t get the big one we needed so we had to get two!
Accumulator tank
- Victorian properties were built for one simple bathroom. When you’ve got 2 in the loft alone this calls for not only a large water tank but a way of ensuring the pressure is good and consistent – especially when other appliances and showers are going at the same time
- There are all sorts of options when it comes to heating
- A mistake we made on the last house was not having underfloor heating in the kitchen, so we knew with a bigger kitchen this would be a must have
Boiler with underfloor heating pipes under
- We also chose underfloor in the bathrooms but not in the bedrooms or reception rooms
- Radiators come in all sorts of styles but we decided to spend the extra and get column traditional ones – although we have gone for the standard screw fix ones rather than the expensive cast iron version
- A mistake we made on the last house was not having underfloor heating in the kitchen, so we knew with a bigger kitchen this would be a must have
- The cables have to go somewhere!
- With an average of 5 double sockets per room, 3-4 light circuits and each bedroom having points for TV and internet, that’s a lot of cables, and they all have to terminate somewhere
We chose the utility room for the termination point of the cables
- With an average of 5 double sockets per room, 3-4 light circuits and each bedroom having points for TV and internet, that’s a lot of cables, and they all have to terminate somewhere
- Lighting makes a huge difference to the final product if done well
- Unless you’ve had a lighting layout done by an architect or designer at the drawings stage, your builder will base their pricing of a standard spec which involves a set number of spots/ downlights in each room spaced equally
- It makes a huge difference having a lighting layout that works for how you will be using each room – however this means that 1) you’ll be spending more in fittings and on the labour and 2) you need to know exactly where all the furniture is going in each room first
- We didn’t go over the top (apart from in the kitchen – see point below!) but we did end up getting lights cabled in next to each bed, and getting a layout designed so that each circuit created a different effect. We focused on the ground floor and kept the bedrooms quite standard
Cabling for TV, Internet and light fittings beside the bed
- If you’re going to invest in smart home tech – choose wisely
- We all love a gadget, but when it comes to the home do we really need an oven that you can turn on from your mobile when your on the bus home?!
- There are plenty of options to tech-up your home but they all come at a price, so think about whether this will really add value to your life, and if this renovation is for a 5-10 year home, perhaps skip it altogether!
- We decided to go for function over style with the radiator valves and have gone with EvoHome which means you can decide the exact temperature output of each room in the home
- We also went for a cabled lighting system in the kitchen, rather then the whole house. This was mainly because we were going to be using the kitchen the most when we move in and for many different functions, so wanted the lighting to reflect the moods.
So the past 2 weeks have been really about getting the arteries of the house to working order, as well as more painting, finishing the skirting and general getting on with stuff. Next week the flooring comes and we focus on the outside!
K
Axe & Kirstin 