Rennovating a house, advice...

This.   If you're going to be "touching" every room... when the paneling comes down I would HIGHLY recommend spraying insulation.   I mean "spraying" and not "blowing."

Improvements to the "envelope" are $ for $ the best money you can spend.

Also, 7 acres?   You'll find you want one of these. You're welcome.

Happy Wife Happy Life.

Would you be doing all the renovations before you move in? The only real suggestion I have would be to get the kitchen completed before you move in.

Good luck sounds like a fantastic place.

Renovations need to be approached with caution, however you don't need to be afraid of them either.

Things are a bit different here, but finished renovating a complete double story house (other than 1 room) which we recently sold, and have bought in a better area and a bigger house that needs new kitchen, 2 x bathrooms and some other minor renos (floors re-laid, outdoor decking etc) and I'm feeling really comfortable and excited about it.

Plan out how you will live, ie can you live in one part of the house that isn't too bad, while you work on the rest.  Can you get good tradespeople in to do the first bit of work that you learn from as you go (this can be hard to find, I luckily have just about every trade in the family) so you can do the rest yourself.  Look at the tools they use as well, most times I found it worth buying the special tools they used of good quality which assisted in doing the jobs better and quicker. 

I also have heard people say to me that you need to live in a house 6 months before planning any changes.  I found this to be very correct as in my previous house I wanted to go back to the original rooms and change things around.

And finally, with no experience in renovating, take the budget for what you think it will cost, and double it.

I have redone every house we have been in.  It all depends upon whether you are comfortable with doing most of the work, or paying someone else to do it.  I have friends in HVAC, and let them do the HVAC work, even though I could, I want that warranty.

I always plan on having down time in rooms or like the last house, we owned two houses, as I got one ready to be lived in while we were in the other one.  Ours was built in 1890's.

Cottoneyes is right about living in the house for awhile before renovating.  From what you say you are definitely going to need to do a lot of cosmetic updating but if you live in and tackle one room at a time it won't be quite as much of an inconvenience.

Living in the house for awhile will give you a chance to decide what works or doesn't.  In the long run it will save you time and money.  Sometimes you can save money by doing things yourself but don't go cheap on materials (or getting a contractor when necessary) - get it done the way you want the 1st time rather than finishing a room and realizing you don't like it.

This

Agreed on the insulation advice.

I was thinking one of these... more fun...

Thanks for all the advice everyone.  I will be subbing out the big jobs and taking care of the smaller stuff myself.  I'm capable of doing most of it but just do not have the time.

Phoenix, I redid our current bathroom.  It too had a porcelain covered cast iron tub.  Upstairs and it was too wide to get down the stairs.  I had to break it into pieces with a sledge hammer and carry them down one by one.  It took me an easy 6 hours to get the tub out of the bathroom.  I do not envy you this job.

And that dryer is amazing.  Looks to be in awesome shape.  Love the cover of the manual.

If/when you get rid of that, sell it! There is a HUGE market for these types of appliances/mid-century furnishings! AND it works! Even better.

If you haven't, it might be worth taking a peak under the carpet.  I would expect to see oak flooring under it, as it was pretty standard during that time period.   It may save you a couple of bucks and just need refinishing. 

Any chance of asbestos anywhere in the house?  Sometimes this can be hidden and very expensive to deal with.  Most likely places would be tile, pipe insulation and attic insulation (vermiculite). 

I was not clear but it was built in 1981 (yet somehow the interior looks even older) so it more than likely does not have asbestos.  However that will all be looked at during the inspection.

I bought my first house last year. Built in 1916, but has had at least 2 additions. It was a fixer upper, but I got .25 acres and 1900 sqft right near downtown Boise for 100k.

First thing we had to do was fix the main bathroom tub surround. Completely cracked and not even remotely waterproof. That was relatively easy, just ripped off the old one and installed a cheap laminate style surround. I would have liked to have redone it in tile, but I figured I'd wait. 

There were no doors installed inside except for the two bathrooms. I went out and bought new doors and hardware and then found out the joys of trying to install doors on a house that is almost 100 years old and has settled a lot. None of them were even close to straight and I still haven't gotten the door on my sons room to successfully close (it's wider at the top than the bottom by 2 inches and the floor is definitely slanted down a bit).

I knew the roof needed to be repaired soon, and I had planned on doing it the next summer. 2 months after we moved in I had a leak in one room and a piece of drywall come falling down in another. I had to expedite that a little bit. The roof also had a flat spot from one of the additions. My dad is a contractor and he came in and helped me rebuild the roof to add a pitch to it and avoid the standing puddles issue.

The house didn't have AC and living in Boise (it was 108F 3 or 4 times last year), I knew I had to install one so I paid the HVAC guys to do that.

I am about to get most of the windows replaced for our Christmas present to each other. Most of them are single pane and it is very obvious how leaky they are. I am also about to finally repaint most of the interior. We've repainted my sons bedroom already, but I think for my Christmas vacation I am going to repaint the kitchen, hallway, bathroom and 2 of the 3 remaining bedrooms. 

To do list: fix the fireplace cover, build a fence, build a shed, build a deck, redo the kitchen cabinets, fix up my garden the rest of the way.

We knew when we bought it, that we would need to do a decent amount of work to get the house to where we wanted it, but it was livable while we did this.

I was thinking it was built in the 60's.  Being built in 1981 makes everything I said above completely and totally useless.  

They're more fun, but they cut like crap!  x748 with a 7-Iron deck ... makes it look like carpet!

I love renovating, so far anyway. my wife and I have been in our house for just over a year now. built in 1976 and safe from lead paint and asbestos at least. we painted everywhere when we moved in. redid part of the kitchen (purely cosmetic, there was no functioning back splash and just some ugly stuff on the wall that I ripped off and added nice tile back splash to replace.) we just got all the upstairs windows replaced and will be doing the downstairs (daylight basement) windows in a few years. Luckily my father in law is an electrician so we had a LOT of electrical work done when we moved in - all for the cost of materials and a few beers.

So far on the list still we have to remodel the kitchen, redo the floors, build a storage closet/washer/dryer closet downstairs, redo the bathroom, build an outside storage shed, rebuild our dock, build a garage...you know little stuff.

As for your situation I would say go for it. it will be a good excuse to get nice new tools if you are missing any, it can be a great learning project for yourself and your wife, provides a HUGE sense of accomplishment when you finish something, look at it, and know, you did that. Make sure you check the house exterior really carefully for any issues with the foundation, exterior walls, the roof and, especially, the gutter system (both on the roof gutters, downspouts, and drainage). good luck and don't shy away from it

That was my fault.  I mentioned it being decorated like the 60s but never mentioned the real age of the home.  No worries.

When you said "straight out of 1965" my first thought was lead paint and asbestos flooring.

I believe by 1981 both of those products were no longer used.

If you go the general contractor route, be very clear in the products to include.

I am in contracting and for some dumb reason I agreed to purchase expensive tile for the tile setter.  We had an extraodinary amount of waste because he did not care.

Get references.  Google the contractor as well.

Yes, on the list.  It's on a well (with a water filter and softener) so we're going to have the water tested for all sorts of stuff.