Week 51: A Nightmare on High Street
Wishing somebody would just wake me up what should've been a dream project is very quickly turning into a living nightmare. Yes, I calculated the numbers, yes I researched the feasibility of the project before the purchase, yes I spoke to my mentor and property peers; then why am I bearing the brunt of it? The truth is no matter how much investigation one carries out on a future project you are merely touching the surface. As each house has its own set of challenges which is unique to that particular property. At the very best you could always make sure that you do not repeat a mistake but only to find you make new ones on each project of the journey. I tried to do as much analysis beforehand so as to mitigate any future losses. On paper it looked great and we factored in as much as possible into the renovation. Everything that could've gone wrong is going wrong and if this graph continues then it will very quickly eat into any margins set aside.
We budgeted a £65k spend to bring the house back to a habitable state with a 10-15% on contingency. So far each task or spend has doubled!! Damp proofing was factored in so not a problem. Stripping down & removals including skip hire was in the 4-5k range which actually cost £10k. We factored in two out of the four floors to be re-done from scratch (not the entire ground floor). I can see this very quickly doubling too. There was a bowing on one of the external walls however, we were aware of this and set a budget aside to fix the left elevation. We were going to keep the original staircase as I felt its quirkiness added to the character of the house but now it seems it's better to replace altogether. It's like the more you delve into the project the more horrors you find lurking inside. I get that it's an aged house and yes there will be some costly work that will need doing. It's all these additional things that catch you out like the removals being so high just because of the positioning of the house and how you access it from the High Street with the least disruptions. You could only really find this out once you embark on the practical. As newbies there was no way I could have anticipated this.
Drains, together with some pipework, is something we have missed as well. Engineers are hellbound on making us spend money on reports or further investigations only to tell me something I already know. Now I don't need to pay £700 + to tell me the drains need looking at. I can tell myself this for free given the age of the property and without having an engineering degree. The walls are in a bad shape and will need restraints to keep them in place. My last visit on site just left me in tears on how bad it all looked. I just kept saying to myself it'll look wrong before it starts to look right. Costs & charges shooting in like asteroids from outer space. Plus having to pay council tax on this money pit, of course the government will want to get their leg-over at some point! It's just shocking, nothing can prepare you for what you will encounter on the job. I pray to God it's just issues at early stages and not something that will continue throughout the duration of the project.
Right now, I just want to wake up from this nightmare. But, i’m no Dorothy and my red shoes just not cut out for the grit…haha