Budget Conscious

Katie and Andy Thomasson are renovating two cottages in the East Midlands on a tight budget — but compromise and supreme organisation will be needed at all stages

Budget is often the most important factor in any renovation or building project, and ours is no exception.

With two houses to work on, and the end goal to sell one of them, it is important we don’t spend more than we will be able to recoup.

We’re planning on adding a two-storey side extension of 83m2 to each property. The average cost of an extension of this size (<90m2) in this part of the country (East Midlands) is £917/m2 — so, a total of £76,111 in our case.

But that’s not allocating a penny towards renovating the existing building. With a total budget of £200,000 to complete both sides, and a combined area of 400m2, this equates to a project budget of around £500/m2 — roughly half of the average budget for a project of this scale.

To help us stick to this tight budget, we aim to do as much of the work we can ourselves, in addition to managing subcontractors and tradespeople. But there will be many aspects of the project that we will have no control over in terms of making a saving — we’re building in expensive ironstone for one, which cannot be haggled down on price as there is only one local quarry supplying it.

This leads on to the need for hiring skilled stonemasons for the job, who come at a much higher day rate than the bricklayers we’ve been used to in the past. Other jobs such as re-plumbing, rewiring and plastering are all areas that we will also have to employ tradespeople to complete.

It’s a difficult juggle between quality of finish and keeping within budget. It’s just as important that the overall design of the project isn’t affected because of affordability. Therefore, it’s vital to plan from the beginning the areas

where we may be able to save money — without it looking as though we have done.

Balance is key. For instance, we’re not willing to compromise on the windows (we’ll be replacing the PVCu with timber ones) as it will impact the whole aesthetic of the house. While we initially wanted them all sash sliding, we have switched to casement windows. This will slash the price we’re paying by around 50%. We also plan on preserving, painting and fitting all of the windows ourselves, which will save thousands, as we’ll be commissioning 23 in total.

Some design/layout decisions have also been decided on to save money without having to compromise too much. We are keeping the original staircase, for example, which although a little narrow and slightly steep, has lovely Art Decostyle bars that would be expensive to reconstruct.

Being organised is also extremely important (and unfortunately, we must admit, is not exactly our strong point). Any delays will cost us in one form or another, especially when employing any tradespeople on a day rate. If we run out of something, or need to hire a tool that we’ve not had the foresight to realise would be needed, each hour it takes us to rectify is another hour spent throwing money away.

This being our biggest project to date, and with many new unknowns, I’m sure there will be times when it will be impossible for us to plan for every eventuality.

We will just have to do the best we can, and as always, be prepared to learn as we go. With that in mind, we’ve created an ongoing spreadsheet that will help us keep on track of estimated costs, actual costs, and what we have left in the pot as we go.