Budgeting for a renovation project

In this month's column, Natasha Brinsmead warns against taking a haphazard attitude towards organising the funds for a renovation

For me to be writing a column about responsible budgeting is ironic, to say the least. When it came to our own renovation and extension project (and the one before that), my husband and I were possibly the most disorganised budgeters ever, but before you decide not to bother reading on and turn the page, let me quote Eleanor Roosevelt in saying: “Learn from the mistakes of others.you can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” So, with that in mind, I'll explain where we went wrong and what we plan on doing differently when it comes to our next project.

WE SET OUT BLIND

Rather than planning what each element of our project would cost, creating a thorough breakdown of everything in the order that it needed to be carried out, and calculating what we could afford and when, we simply moved in and panicked. We scrabbled together what funds we had and threw them at the first job we fancied cracking on with. This led to a very stop-start project, with some areas being left uncompleted for months while we took on other tasks that were affordable on the funds we had left. The lesson? Do the former, not the latter.

WE FORGOT THE HIDDEN EXTRAS

There were so many outgoings we hadn’t accounted for that the funds we thought we had for the bigger, more obvious works, such as the extension, got eaten up before we had even broken ground. Important fees that you may need to be aware of include:

Renovation insurance

Building Regulations fees (from £80) Planning application (£206 in England) for an extension or similar and the associated fees (design, Building Regs plans and so on)

Structural engineer's fees

Waste disposal (we got through so many skips)

WE UNDERESTIMATED COSTS

Pretty much every quote we got for work or products left us going, “No way! That can’t be right, can it?” Everything cost more than we had thought, whether that was because we needed more of something than we realised or because the task at hand inevitably took longer than we had expected. That said, shopping around and getting lots of different quotes always paid off and saved us money, as did committing to an unhealthy amount of DIY.

WE DIDN’T ALWAYS PRIORITISE WELL

There is a window in our kitchen extension that annoys me every time I see it. The glazing bars are too chunky and the proportions look all wrong. Most of the other windows in my home are original and I wish we had paid to have the new one custom

made rather than buying it off the shelf. We always planned to change it once we were finished — we never have though.

We did make wiser savings elsewhere. Our timber worktops, which we sourced separately from the rest of our kitchen, were a steal, as was our new fireplace [shown right], thanks to a combination of reclaimed timber beams and a lucky ebay find. I’m happy too that we splashed out on high quality sanitaryware and flooring. My advice, like that of so many renovators before me, is to spend on the things you will look at and use all the time. When trying to cut costs, put in the legwork to really do your research. We bought a composite kitchen sink that was cheaper than the others we had seen. It has since stained and is pitted with little chips. I wish we had spent a bit more — or just gone for a good, old stainless steel model.

WE HAD NO CONTINGENCY FUND

How many times have I written that every renovator should put aside a contingency fund of between 15-20% of their costs? I won’t count but it’s a lot, which makes it all the more ridiculous that we didn’t do it. Everything was more expensive than we thought and, with no backup plan, everything took longer than it should have. Lesson learnt.

WE CAME BACK STRONGER

I hope that, in the not too distant future, another renovation or build project comes our way. When it does, we most certainly don’t plan on repeating these mistakes.there are a couple of other things I also plan on doing in order to make the most of our money, which you might like to consider:

I’m really keen on exploring the idea of buying an ex-display or recycled kitchen. I have featured several companies recently specialising in these and the savings can be huge — many come straight out of show homes or showrooms, while others have hardly been used and even include appliances. I also like the eco-friendly aspect of this plan.

I plan on spending a little more on things I really want — like an induction hob. Induction hobs were still relatively expensive when we were fitting our kitchen and we settled for a ceramic model. It takes an age to heat up and cool down again.

I’ll ‘spend to save’ — I’ve learnt that by spending a little more than the bare minimum up front you can make savings later on. I wish we had paid to insulate the house to a higher standard (we have had to learn to layer up), not fallen for the false economy of the aforementioned sink (which now needs replacing), and stumped up the cash for a few more lights in our rather dark shower room. Oh well, I’ll just think of it as mood lighting.

"With no backup plan, everything took longer than it should have"