Couple of years ago we bought our house. The house is from 1970s. The only things that were updated in the house since then was heating (including gas boiler), roof insulation on the main roof (not on lean to) and bathroom.

So since buying it, it had been a learning curve fixing it up and renovating it as much as possible by ourselves.

Some things such as windows and doors were put in by tradesmen. So was the stove and carpet in living room. We also got in someone to remove a cement base that covered half of our garden and put in a swing set and shed. We paid someone to put in external insulation.

The rest so far has been mostly just us. For garden we built our raised bed and planted different berry bushes and fruit trees.

Inside we started upstairs. Removed all of the carpets, put in click system wooden floors. Removed the wall paper and painted the walls. In one room because the walls were in quite a poor state we added a wallpaper and new skirting boards. Sanded down the window sills and are starting to paint them white. Took down all of the blinds and added fresh curtain rail systems. Removed all old furniture throughout the house and got in furniture to suit our taste.

We painted the house exterior ourselves. We removed a very damp toilet and extension ourselves (they were not usable).

Last year, we insulted the dining room floor as we have suspension floors and will be knocking down the wall between kitchen and dining room to make one large room. We will be insulating the kitchen, hallway and living room floors next, and changing the staircase.

Perhaps get in new kitchen and patio (excited about that) !