We renovated our 1950s home room by room — here's what we got right and what we learned the hard way

When Katie and her partner Ronan walked into their 1956 end-of-terrace in a quiet rural village, they knew immediately it was the one. It was also right at the top of their budget, but that wasn't going to stop them. If securing their dream home meant rolling up their sleeves and doing a lot of the renovation work themselves, that's exactly what they'd do.

The house had been a much-loved family home, sold by grant of probate and frozen somewhere around 1989. Every wall was woodchipped, both bathrooms were carpeted, and the kitchen – with its yellow wallpaper, red dots, jug-themed border – was what Katie describes as "oppressively cheerful." Upstairs, an apricot bathroom suite sat in perfect, unloved condition. Stylish, Katie concedes, about forty years ago.

Their philosophy was simple from the start: "we'll do what we can ourselves, but if something needs doing properly, we'll get it done properly." The harder part, as they quickly discovered, was working out which was which.

What followed was two years of evenings spent stripping wallpaper, weekends given over to sanding floors, a YouTube-assisted crash course in bricklaying, and at least one near-electrocution. They've done a remarkable amount of the home renovation themselves, but they'll be the first to tell you that not all of it was wise...

The jobs they tackled themselves — and nailed

Refreshing the kitchen

The first battleground was the kitchen refurbishment. With three weeks between getting the keys and the end of their rental contract, they spent most evenings stripping wallpaper in the kitchen, and Katie recalls that there was layer upon layer of it (including one particularly funky design featuring chickens that predated everything else).

"I thought it would only take a couple of days," Katie admits. "But it took us basically the entire three weeks." The culprit was a strange, shimmery, glue-like coating on the walls, which turned out to be aged wallpaper paste that had hardened over decades and defeated even chemical stripper. The trick, it turns out, was to soak it with warm soapy water and work it off with a scraper (though you'll want to have filler to hand for any wall damage left behind). The couple persevered, listening to Radio 2's country music festival on repeat, and eventually got there.

Ronan then took a week off between jobs to sand and paint the kitchen cabinets. "We invested in high-quality kitchen paint," says Katie, "because if you don't get good quality stuff, it chips. And it chips anyway, but at least it lasts a little bit longer."

Reviving a hidden parquet floor

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The bigger triumph came when they lifted the hallway carpet. They'd assumed, based on a patch of concrete near the front door, that they had solid floors throughout. What they found instead was an original 1950s parquet floor, hidden under decades of carpet. "Ronan had been joking that we'd find something like that — we've all seen that viral parquet video," Katie laughs. "And then we actually did!"

Dust sheets went down, and Ronan got to work sanding the floor himself before finishing it with a deep wood stain. The dye went on so alarmingly dark that they briefly convinced themselves they'd ruined everything. They hadn't. "Believe what it says on the tin," Katie advises. "It does lighten. Just don't put it on too thick."

DIYing a stair runner

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A multicoloured stair runner was something Katie had been eyeing in a catalogue long before they'd even bought the house. "It was just that one little thing I really wanted," she says. "It felt so bright and colourful — exactly the kind of atmosphere you want to walk into."

Before they could fit it, though, the stairs themselves needed attention. The old carpet came up, and what followed was a full repaint of the staircase. It's a process that sounds straightforward but absolutely isn't. Every spindle, every riser, every awkward angle needs to be coated. "You think you're going to be fine," Katie says. "You're not."

With Katie by this point heavily pregnant, she found herself lying on her side to reach the skirting boards while their cat, unsettled by all the disruption, repeatedly charged up and down the freshly painted stairs. "She kept getting paint on her paws," Katie sighs. "We had to shut her in the kitchen, which she did not appreciate."

Once the stairs were done, Ronan fitted the stair runner himself. It was a much more physical job than it looked, requiring a carpet kicker, a good eye for level, and plenty of patience. But the result is exactly what Katie had pictured: a shot of colour and personality the moment you walk through the front door.

Building a garden wall

Most recently, Ronan has turned his hand to bricklaying. He's currently building a garden wall where an old, shaded pond used to be. He used YouTube to teach himself the basics and has since become, in Katie's words, "an overnight expert in brick bonds." They now cannot pass a wall anywhere without him identifying the bond pattern. "Riveting," she says, with a tone that suggests otherwise, though she concedes it actually is quite interesting.

The jobs they tackled themselves — and wish they hadn't

The sequencing

The couple's subtlest regret isn't about any one job, but the order of operations. When Ronan started his parental leave, he embarked on what Katie calls "a moment of great ambition", removing living room wallpaper during their baby's naps. He got it done in the first week. The problem was that they weren't yet ready to replaster because the heat pump installation – planned for several months later – might require moving radiators and rerouting pipework. Their plasterer advised them to wait. That was October. "It is now April," Katie says, with the measured tone of someone who has been staring at bare, patchy walls for six months.

The living room, its layers of old paint exposed in a patchwork of green and red, has been affectionately nicknamed the 'Christmas room'. "We dressed it up with fairy lights at Christmas," Katie explains. "You can make anything look nice with a Christmas tree and fairy lights." She pauses. "It's now doing my head in."

The lesson, she says, is to think carefully about sequencing before picking up a scraper. "You don't want to replaster and then have to rip it all open again. Think about what's coming next – heating, plumbing, electrics – before you start on the walls."

Fitting the study carpet

Their more straightforward regret is the carpet they laid themselves in the study. Armed with that borrowed carpet kicker, some tools from a joiner friend, and equipment hired through their local Library of Things (more on that later), Ronan laid it himself.

It wasn't a disaster, but with the benefit of hindsight, Katie is unequivocal: "One hundred percent, the carpet was the one thing I'd get a professional in for," she says. "The cost of carpet installation isn't actually too much, and someone who does it every day will do it in a fraction of the time."

One tip she will pass on is to invest in the best carpet underlay you can afford. "It makes more difference than you'd think," she says, "and it's not something you can easily go back and fix."

The jobs they always knew needed a professional

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Upgrading the windows

One of the first hard lessons of their hands-on renovation involved the windows. The house was draughty, visibly so. "You could see the curtains moving ever so slightly," Katie says. "Not all the time, and not in every room, but when it was windy, there were definite draughts."

So, getting the windows replaced jumped straight to the top of the list, ahead of the kitchen refresh Katie had been planning. They got three quotes, which varied considerably. The cheapest – several thousand pounds lower than the others – came from a sole trader who would have required them to apply for their own certification.

"I just felt like we'd be storing up problems," Katie says. "We've tried to do what we can ourselves throughout, but if something needs to be done properly, you get it done properly." Window installation requires official certificates, not least because you'll need them if you ever come to sell, and cutting corners at the quote stage rarely pays off down the line.

The bathroom renovation

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The apricot suite had to go. Katie had known it from the moment they walked in, but with a stretched budget and a long list of priorities, timing was everything. Her reasoning was pragmatic: with a baby on the horizon, she knew that once the costs of starting a family kicked in, the bathroom would keep getting bumped down the list. "I also just couldn't justify keeping it anymore," she says.

Unlike so much of what they'd taken on themselves, this was never a candidate for a DIY job. "Bathroom plumbing is not something you want to attempt if you want it done well," Katie explains. "And if you get it wrong, you've got a serious problem on your hands." So they found a fitter they trusted, got it designed, and waited. The lead time turned out to be lengthy, which, in the end, worked in their favour, giving them extra time to save. It was expensive, but it was worth it.

The plastering

Throughout the house, Katie and Ronan have stripped paint off walls, polyfilled, sanded, and painted over wallpaper. It's a perfectly respectable finish, but it's not the same as a properly plastered wall, and Katie is honest about that distinction. "It never creates quite the nice finish that a replastered wall does," she says.

For the hallway – the first thing you see when you walk in – they decided it had to be done properly. They stripped the walls themselves first to keep costs down, which also gave the plasterer a clear view of what he was working with. The result, clean and smooth, made everything else they'd done in that space feel worth it.

Their renovation takeaways

Two years of evenings and weekends has left Katie with some solid home renovation advice to share. "Be honest about what you can and can't do yourselves," she says. For her and Ronan, painting, wallpaper stripping, sanding floors and fitting a stair runner were all fair game. Bathrooms, windows, carpets and heating systems were not. "If it needs certificates, or if getting it wrong causes real problems down the line – just get a professional."

She also recommends being resourceful about how you get there. Ronan taught himself everything from fuse replacement to bricklaying via YouTube, and Katie swears by schemes like the Library of Things for borrowing tools you'll only use once. Don't be too proud to call in favours either. A joiner friend has lent tools, given advice, and is now commissioned to build their fitted cupboards in the living room.

"Get help where you can," Katie says. Above all, don't try to do everything at once. "Make small improvements," she says. "And when it feels frustrating – step back. You will get there."

Inspired to take on your own renovation? Read our guide to renovating a terraced house for room-by-room ideas, and weigh up whether living on site while renovating is right for you.