Elbow grease has made a comeback. These days no one wants to hear how your interior designer transformed your living room. Everyone is too busy taking courses in upholstery or learning to hang wallpaper. In a devilish combination of the credit crunch and the desire for an individual living space, we are all desperate to do it ourselves. When we bought our house at auction last year it consisted of three ruined flats with a tree growing out of the ground floor. Dozens of potential buyers inspected it, inhaled deeply, speculated that the refurbishment would cost at least a million pounds, and decided to do something else instead. We didn’t have a million pounds anyway, or even half a million, for the rebuild. We had about half that, and no more. During the next six months I cultivated a bargain-basement mindset and here is what I learnt. 1 Take your pick Don’t use your old builders out of habit, hold a beauty parade for the best deal. for a painting and decorating team, received dozens of applicants, then we interviewed four of them.

We didn’t choose the cheapest, but we got a good deal, and a team of brilliant painters. Several were very good looking, too. Some refurbishments and repairs qualify for partial VAT exemption, or zero VAT rating. Check www.hmrc.gov.uk for details. 3 Out of site out of mind We decided to visit the site every day. A blocked-up door and a misplaced window were just two of the wrongs righted. Remember, mistakes can be rectified much more cheaply if they are spotted straight away. pvc strip curtains madurai4 Courses of action Learn about plastering, damp-proofing, double-glazing and all the other areas of expertise involved with a major refurbishment. hookless fabric shower curtain with built in liner, www.thediyschool.co.uk or www.i4diy.co.uk to find courses in plumbing and plastering. detachable blackout curtain liners

If that’s a bit too much, a day sitting down with your site manager going through every single plan and detail is a must. 5 Always look for a cheaper substitute We ordered Bisque radiators for our previous house. This time I went to B&Q. Can you tell the difference? Only in the cost: the B&Q version was about £150 cheaper, but radiates the same amount of heat, and I can still sit on them. Think likewise with paint: get ideas from a Farrow & Ball colour chart, but have it mixed in a DIY paint shop. springmaid shower curtains walmartDo this across the board and you will save a lot of money. star curtains gltc6 Make do or spend? jill zarin curtainsDon’t assume that retaining the original is always cheaper. allen and roth curtains sullivan

It might be more economical to replace worn wooden floors than to mend them. The same could be true with ceiling mouldings and cornices. 7 Budget realistically Remember to allow for rubbish removal, scaffold hire, plant hire and so on in your budget. Bear in mind that professionals always have a contingency fund of 10-20 per cent to cover unexpected costs. You should do the same. In an older house you are likely to use it. ) sells unwanted and ex-display kitchens for a fraction of the original cost. The company currently has a six-year-old John Lewis kitchen for £1,950, including granite work tops and appliances. If you were to buy this kitchen new, then you would expect to pay about £15,000. 9 Shop abroad I saved thousands of pounds buying Villeroy & Boch tiles, plus grout and adhesive from Dado Ceramics in Warsaw (www.wpb-dado.pl). They arrived on giant pallets about three weeks after I ordered them. If you don’t speak Polish, you will need a Polish friend to order them for you. If your language skills don’t stretch to Polish, but include, say, French, try Castorama (www.castorama.fr), which has stores across Europe and is well worth looking at for sofas, baths and kitchens.

10 Keep it simple Baths are white. Towel rails are shiny and hot. Taps go on and off again. ) will fulfil most hygiene needs. 11 Re-use A local seamstress altered our old bedroom curtains to fit our new windows, then used the remnants to recover a tattered easy chair. We pulled our Roger Oates striped runner off the stairs of our old house and hammered it down on to the stairs in our new one. It won’t work, said the experts, and your carpet will be ruined. Actually, it looks great. 12 Net gains Become au fait with internet bargain sites such as Gumtree or eBay. Freecycle lets you know who is chucking out what in your area. I found six vintage Seventies velour-covered dining chairs on eBay for £10.50, and a G Plan side table for not much more. If you are going to venture into auctions, online or in person, always set yourself a price limit and stick to it. I found four vintage chandeliers from Criterion Auctions in Islington for about £50 each. Meanwhile, our children yearned for a china hen for boiled eggs at breakfast;

a £1.50 bid on eBay solved this problem. 13 Cushion the blow I took all our cushions along to a Cushion Amnesty in a pub, and swapped them for new ones. If you want to hold a Cushion Amnesty, the only rule is that people bring as many cushions as they take away. Simply email your friends, set a date and hold the “swap” in your own home. 14 Shop and save Visit department stores or flick through interiors magazines to get inspiration, then go elsewhere for the kill. We needed 12 lights in the hall and spotted some lovely glass ones at Heal’s for £100 each. Then I visited Sparks on Holloway Road, north London, where I found a job lot of a dozen Heal’s-type lights for £10 each. That was a good day. 15 No flat refusals Be optimistic about flat-pack furniture. I bought a £55 desk from Ikea for my son. Yes, it took me five hours to assemble. Yes, my fingers bled. The flat-pack route may be arduous, but it’s worth it, particularly for children’s furniture that will only be scribbled on.

Make sure you put all the screws and Allen keys on a tray. You might find the confidence to embark on an entire Ikea kitchen. 16 Finishing touches Keep walls clear until the house is finished, so you start with a clean slate. If you don’t have enough pictures to go around, use blown-up photographs or maps. to print your own. 17 Retail therapy You don’t want your whole house to resemble Ikea, a charity shop, or both. ) for classy details, including painted china wardrobe handles, damask table cloths or spicy scented candles. 18 De-clutter Consider everything in your attic or cellar. Can it be used in your new-look house? If not, give it away or sell it. Flogging four pairs of unwanted curtains on eBay paid for a new set of blinds in my study. 19 Sound advice Don’t install expensive wiring for audio or electronics – by the time the paint has dried, the technology will have changed. ) is all you need to access a world of music. 20 Reward yourself Treats should be classy and strictly unnecessary.