DIY

[Navy Maven]

Re laminate flooring, whatever you buy, make sure it's at least 12mm thick.  The 8mm stuff is like walking on cheap plywood.  If you can find the dough, spend a little extra and get 14mm bamboo - best thing I ever did, much tougher and looks better.  Also, 6ft boards look much better than the 4ft ones.  If you are going to do it yourself, you need a good table saw and a multi-tool to cut out the door jambs (there will be lots of cutting....). If you are mad keen, you could remove the skirts and put the flooring underneath, but most people just use the pre-finished quad and leave a gap between flooring and skirts.

Do you really need carpets?  Floorboards with rugs in appropriate spots can be a better result.  But if you carpet, that is something for someone who knows what they are doing.

Painting - piece of cake.  And if it doesn't look good the first time, you can always just go over it.  Make sure you do the appropriate prep work. And do the painting work before you do any of the flooring!  And, the difference between a $20 brush and a $5 brush is worth every cent.

Best of luck

Thanks tonyo. I would prefer bamboo too, but it's a bit out of the budget now. Originally we were looking at bamboo and getting all 3 things done by professionals, but spent a bit more on furniture than we expected.

As for the carpet, completely agree, but my partner wants carpet in the bedrooms and lounge and I'm not willing to spend the next decade hearing her whinge about it (she'll inevitably find something to whinge about) haha.

Thanks again, will need to look into the costs for the tools needed as well