Renovating my first home

Despite working in the property industry for nearly 15 years and helping 100s of people buy, sell and let a property, as well as coming from a family of property developers, I’ve never lived in one place long enough to actually buy somewhere of my own, until now ! 

Portsmouth is the perfect equidistance to my family on the Isle of wight and where I have grown myself professionally also. I love the Victorian style properties here in Portsmouth with log burners, ceiling rose, picture rails, bay windows etc and so I spoke to the fabulous guys at RBM solutions, got myself an AIP and started looking for somewhere to buy myself !

I was open to renovations but having never actually done any before, I wasn’t sure what it exactly entailed but I like most things in life, I love to learn so thought I’d give it a go, cant be that hard right, I know enough people to help and advise me so I found the ideal property for me, with parking, offered over the asking price ( yes even as an agent I did that because the property was more important to me than getting a ‘good deal’ ).

My offer was accepted and several months later I got the keys.

I’ve got the Keys

I remember collecting the keys from the agent and sending a text to my friends and family ‘I’m a home owner’ – It felt so surreal ! Time to get cracking then Danielle !

I’d spent the months before looking into and planning what I needed to do and the style I wanted so I had a rough idea ( which transpired to be no idea ha! ).

First up was the bedroom, as long as I got the bedroom done the rest of the rooms could be done whilst I was living there so I went straight in and ripped the flooring up and started stripping the wood chip wallpaper off– I now understand why everyone hates stripping this !

As expected, all the plaster came off with it so I then had to get someone in to re-plaster the room. I managed to get the walls and ceilings done for £600, next was the rewiring, extra plug sockets and spot lights, another £500, and then it was time to paint – I wanted to paint myself so I learnt all about a ‘white wash’ which is where the plaster is porous so you have to mix the white paint with water because it absorbs the paint so much, which also means lots of up and down on the ladder to reload the roller because it absorbs after one roll ( good for the calves )!  Next it was time to paint the walls my chosen colour and to repaint the skirting and door  ( I probably spent about £200 on all the painting equipment and paints ) and then it was time to get the carpets in, at last ! I went for big fluffy cream carpets and finally the room felt habitable and was ready to start buying furniture for ! Bed and mattress; £2000, bedside tables; £160, dressing table; £160, Wardrobes; £600 and then the TV £600, duvets, pillows, bedding, curtain pole, curtains, lamps, new door handles etc etc £300 – and finally I had a room ready to move into ! – only cost an additional £5000 ish !

The Renovations Continue

Next was the lounge – I didn’t like the fireplace so whilst there were lots of bags of rubbish from the bedroom that needed taking to the tip, I thought I’d get the lounge stripped of the woodchip wallpaper also and start taking the fireplace out, brick….by….brick….. this was absolutely super fun though! The lounge will also need replastering rewiring, and I’d like to get a media wall built in there with herringbone flooring too but I’m also conscious that this isn’t my forever home so I’ve changed my mind several times already on this.

Bathroom! Christ, I would strongly advise that you get the bathroom finished before you move in also. I had the unfortunate experience where by the plumber I used was extremely unreliable and everything they did went wrong – I guess you get what you pay for so make sure always pay that bit extra, trust me, I spent months having to shower in the gym every day which sounds fine as it motivates you to use the gym every day, but unless you are an every day gym goer ( I am not ) then just get it finished before you move in.

After endless promises and endless no shows I gave up and ended up getting someone else in to rectify everything and finish it off for me – this ended up costing me even more so I wont indicate how much I spent on this room but I am finally happy with the result.

The Kitchen is still a work in progress but its functional so for the minute I’ve sanded down the units and painted them with left over paint, and will laminate the work tops. Complete kitchen ‘tart up’ for less than £20 until I have the money to get this room done 😊  

What I’ve learnt

Many things ! Would I do it again? Yes I would, as stressful as its been with how many things that have gone wrong, unreliable contractors, doing everything and paying for everything on my own as a single independent woman, I now have the knowledge to be able to avoid these issues in the next rooms and in the future.

I’ve also really enjoyed seeing my vision come to life, but I would have definitely saved up more money first had I of known just exactly how much everything adds up to, all the little bits really make a difference!
If you want to follow my journey you can follow my Instagram page reno_withme17

To be continued……..