Hi Emily,
In general the steps you need to take for a renovation project is in the following link:

http://myhomebuilder.ca/pages/blog-article?r=0AU732LSW9&send_to=%2F

However, in your case is a bit different. If you live in the house during the construction, you should consider your well being as well.
It's hard to do a plumbing or electrical renovation without disturbing the walls and floors.
Just remember, before hiring any contractor, ask them how they will approach to your project.
Make sure if they have any construction time line planned, otherwise you'll put yourself in trouble.
Good luck.

Hi Emily,
This is exactly the project we will be tackling. The first question is: who will be iiving in the house? It is a very different if you have a young family or if you are empty nesters.

If you plan on keeping the same roofline and foot print, the first step I would take would be to repair or replace anything that's causing or allowing water incursion anywhere. Roof, gutters, land slopes, drainage, drips, bad flashing, windows... the shell so to speak.

I would tackle the bedrooms first, for three reasons. First, they are probably an easier, less expensive job and a good way to get your feet wet. Second, it is a good way to "test drive" your contractor and see if you would make a good fit for the larger, more involved jobs. Third, living through construction is awful and having your bedroom to escape to at night helps a lot. If you have kids, it will be their safe play space too.

There are economies of scale in tackling all of one trade at a time, say all the electrical or all the bathrooms but it might not be worth it in terms of your sanity during construction. Or you could plan two areas that use mostly the same trades, say a kitchen and one bathroom, so that the plumbers, electricians, tilers, cabinets could be scheduled together.

If kids are not involved, it might make sense to tackle one area of the house (say, the second floor) and live in the other part (the first floor).

Chris is absolutely correct, issues involving the integrity of the house come first, even if they aren't as "sexy" as a new kitchen etc.

Good luck and remember to take before and after photos!

We had this issue years ago when we moved into our house. As newlyweds, we fixed up the master bedroom first, with new carpet and furniture. Then we had the windows and doors replaced on the front of the house. That way they all looked the same. Each year after that, we replaced one or two windows (there are 20 in the house). By then, my husband learned to measure and install the windows, so that saved us money. We installed attic insulation, got a new furnace with whole house air. We had a back porch put on. We had a three car garage built.

All of this (and more) took over 15 years. We did one project at a time, usually only one or two projects a year, paid them off and then tackled another one. I think it was much better that way. We didn't get too overwhelmed, we learned along the way, and our needs and tastes changed over time. About year 15, we finally were ready to install a much needed first floor bathroom/laundry, one of our best decisions for the house. By that time, we understood so much more about remodeling and made smarter choices and it turned out so well. Our last big renovation was our kitchen six years ago and once again, it was good to do that after we had spent years educating ourselves about home improvements.

Please let us see the interior. The exterior is very cute and clean looking.

The house needs to be liveable and without enormous heating and cooling bills first. So, if the roof and the windows need doing, those coupled with attic fan / insulation might save you hundreds every month on heating and cooling bills, money you can use to pay for the next steps. If it is liveable now, but will need those things over the next ten years, then the first steps are paint, flooring and new light fixtures. New light fixtures, paint and fresh flooring can make almost any home feel like new. If you save enough on the house purchase to do those things first, if the house is generally liveable, you will feel you just moved into "your place" and you can make the other choices more slowly and carefully. One caveat is that if walls need to be removed, do it before you paint and floor . .

I really am pretty much in this situation. My plumbing is all good, the electrical is good & my heating system is good too.

But...My plaster walls need some serious attention, I want to scrub up the old dirty shellac & put new on all my wood trim. I want to paint almost every room.

I need to have my kitchen floor professionally sanded. (by then the kitchen walls will have been attended to). Need to do some minor upgrades in there & want some shelving.

In the midst of all this.,...I am stripping & sanding my porch. My wood on the outside trim on the house needs stripping, sanding priming & paint.

My metal roof needs a strip, prime & paint.

Oh...and I have ballpark 25 windows to reglaze...

Not necessarily in the above order...each addition seemed more important than the one 2 steps up.

I want a nap....:0(

The kitchen, bathrooms and laundry room would be the first rooms I would tackle. If not all at once to economize on plumbing and electrical cost, then in the order that are most important to you. The kitchen is the heart of the home. Clean, functioning bathrooms offer comfortant and relaxation. A functioning laundry room makes sure everybody has clean school clothes, T-ball uniforms, work clothes and saves you time and aggravation of having to go to the laundromat. :)

When we moved into our fixer upper, we decided to give ourselves a 10 year plan. That immediately took the pressure off. Out of necessity, we upgraded the electrical first. Then came the plumbing. We were disheartened that so much money was spent on things that didn't show, but we really had no choice. The good thing about taking your time is that you get to live in the house for awhile and see how you'd like it to be eventually. Good luck on your project.

We bought a fixer-upper almost 6 years ago. Since it was in such bad shape, we waited 6 weeks after purchase to move in to get the work started. We had to prioritize due to $- couldn't spend the needed $100k right away to get the work done at once. So we started with the non-sexy stuff: insulation (roof, walls, basement ceiling, garage ceiling), electrical (upgraded from 60 amps to 100 amps, put outlets in every room, ran new lines in much of the house), plumbing (oh god, what a mess!). Part of our plan did mean getting a new kitchen (the old one barely qualified as a kitchen). We also refinished the wood floors downstairs. I painted the inside of the house myself. I do a great job & it was a way to save some serious money.

Year 2, the roof went. Awesome. Hadn't planned on that, so other projects were put off another year & more. Had to take out some bad trees. Had some emergency plumbing (boiler repair, sewer line back up, replace hot water heater). More awesome.

Year 3, redid the half bath ourselves to save $$, had the front steps re-made. Now our house no longer looked like it was about to fall down!

Year 4, the fun stuff!!!! We re-did our back deck, ripping off the falling down old porch & putting in a beautiful deck. Replaced the broken & cracked windows with new wood windows (alum clad on the exterior). Repainted the exterior trim to a better color. Finally looks like a good house!

Year 5, huge landscaping! Totally fun & installed by me. Hubby & a couple of friends helped to dig holes for new trees & we planted those 600 lb beasts. I did all the other work- moved shrubs, added new plants. I spent several thousand on new plants, but doing the work myself saved about $15k. now if this winter ever ends, I'll get to see the plants again!

Year 6- this year...... I really want to renovate the ugly full bath upstairs. Not gonna happen this year. Need to save more money before we can do that.

The decorating has taken place over time. Lighting is tough b/c I love fixtures that are extremely expensive (hello, Lindsey Adelman for $15-20k!). And dealing with an old home & old ceiling junctions isn't easy. I prefer a grown into look anyway, instead of everything brand new. Good thing!

Oh, and the reason we had to do the ugly stuff first: I called the gas & electric co to see the average bills of the previous homeowner. We were shocked that the gas bill averaged $250/ month on a 1300sf house. We didn't know what they set their heat on in the winter (in NE you need heat about 6 months out of the year), but knew that going from our condo where we averaged $60/ month, we'd need to take serious action or else we'd go broke trying to stay warm. The gas co offered great incentives to insulate: we spent about $2000 in total to insulate (excellent rebates). And replacing the windows was easy- gas co offered interest free loan for 7 years to upgrade to energy efficient windows. We've saved about $1000 in heating fuel every year. Plus we added a pellet stove insert into the old open fireplace. Even accounting for buying pellets, putting in the stove & doing all the other work, our investments have almost broken even after year 5. That's fantastic! We plan to be in this house 5-15 more years, so we've done right by our wallet & the future owners' as well.

One thing we were smart about was knowing what to tackle ourselves and what to hire out. Certainly, the roof was done by a contractor, but my husband was able to install the attic insulation. My husband does drywall and electrical work, but we had a professional install plumbing in the bathroom and put together the shower kit.

We didn't want our lives to be consumed with home remodeling yet we love the updates. One of our favorite sayings is "A home evolves over time." When we became parents, we had different needs and our remodeling choices reflected that. If we'd done everything as soon as we moved in, our house might not have fit our lifestyle as well as it does now.

brucebunch...excellent point! Got my BR done. At the end of the day, you really do need that room complete so you can truly relax!

We moved into our house on 4 acres 7 years ago with the full intention of remodeling right away.... then the layoffs hit and we have been at a snails crawl due to lack of finances. We love the location and the property but not the house. We first had all the windows replaced due to heat and cold loss. Everything needs to be done. We still have the same carpet and same harvest gold kitchen...uhg. We tackled one bathroom to completion and have done the master bath as well. We are in the middle of the kids bath. This summer we will tackle the bedrooms if we have the money. It is hard to not get discouraged. The kitchen is the biggest project along with removing a huge wall in the middle of our living space. Our A/C Heating unit is next as our 1970s condenser stopped working. This is a priority now due to summer coming. When I read the Houzz article on our happiness in our homes, it reflected that I have not been happy due to the condition of our home. We are just plugging away and will do what comes next w/ the available funds. Thanks for the encouraging posts.

Oh, and I cannot forget all the popcorn ceilings... who ever thought of these wretched things? It is nice to see that we are not the only ones who have major projects. All around us new homes are going in daily as people have sold their big acreage to developers. Sometimes new just seems easier....
Oh, what do you think of painting brick? The lower half our house on the outside is a putrid yellowish brick that is so ugly... we don't know if we should paint it or painstakingly rip all of it off. This would be a huge project. Ideas?

nanilove, I don't see why you couldn't paint the brick. Since you are watching your money, painting is the least costly yet makes a huge difference.

Also, could you paint your kitchen cabinets to give your kitchen a different look? Our house started as a "handy-man's special" years ago. At the time, we didn't want to go into debt making improvements. The kitchen cabinets were brown, so I painted them white and we got inexpensive laminate countertop from Lowes, the kind that looked like butcher block. We got one of those white farmhouse tables with a butcher block looking top so it looked like it went with the cabinets. I lived with disgusting peel and stick tile flooring for years until we finally remodeled in there. But the other changes helped.

I also lived in a brown paneled living room with drop ceiling, brown carpet and brown furniture for seven years before we had the money to have it drywalled and carpeted and add new furniture. I also often painted old furniture or decrepit wood flooring to give it new life with results I was happy with and could live with. Please don't get discouraged. Use you creativity to make some changes; paint is a great place to start and doesn't break the bank.