Thread: Renovations from start to finish Part A

hi - good going! Did you use benchtop joiners for the corner? Also, what kind of knobs/handles are you going to use?

have fun!

What are these bench top joiners you speak of?

The handles will be picked by SWMBO when she returns from O/S, too much responsibility in an important detail like handles!!

This is the kitchen island. The carcase is in the same 2-pac as the rest of the kitchen and is set on castors. Skirting runs around 3 edges of the island and therefore allows me to set the brakes on the castors when needed.

The benchtop is made from the same timber as the main benchtops, but there was such a variation in colour (from the darker golden one to the lighter pink ones) that I decided to create the offset pattern.

Not in the photo, but also now completed is the appliance cupboard - sliding door. Yet to be completed are the servery which goes above the sink, the tile splashback and the bulkheads above the wall cupboards.

Also, we had the floor in the kitchen done. Normally I would do it, but it seemed easier to get someone in whilst we were away for a few weeks. It came up really well - a high gloss finish.

You can see in the photo, the mix of flooring. From the new cypress boards where the fireplace was, to the 7 inch wide board I used where the wall was, the 4 inch boards from the old lounge and the 6 inch boards in the old kitchen.

You can also see the black car bog fill I used to fill up the cracks (I think it becomes a feature ) and the water stain look at the back of the photo. The water stains dominate the original flooring in the old kitchen. We could have ripped up the floor boards right through the kitchen and lounge but we reckon this mix and match set-up actually adds some character to the place.

The floor sanding and finishing cost $1300 for 40 sqm or about $35 per sqm. If I had done it it would cost around $800. But we didn't have to go through the hassle of vacating the house for 4 or 5 days, and I didnt get my nose full of gunk!!

A quick update, we have finally sold our house up North and are gearing up for the renos from around September. It's only been 15 months and not a stone turned in anger, although about 70% of the inside of the house is looking okay

Cheers

I like the center island you made. What are them red marks on the kick board tho?

Originally Posted by PuppyPaw

.... What are them red marks on the kick board tho?

The red marks are the printing on the protective plastic, which will probably stay there for the life of the kickboards

Cheers

Having sold our house up North, we are now ready to get a move along.

Previously we got the Development Consent from the council (with a 2 year sunset clause - expires in 3 months), now we need the Construction Certificate. To get that we need a Structural Engineer to certify our plans. And it seems that whilst this was the practice years ago, Engineers will no longer certify other peoples plans. So for $440 the Engineer will provide us with certified drawings of the sub-floor and roofing pitch/spans. This isn't a bad thing, for whilst I was happy to build off the existing drawings, these drawings will be a lot more specific.

We have altered our subfloor from concrete stumps and hardwood to straight steel (Duragal). We are also using Blueboard for the exterior walls (I am investigating Hebel sheets as a better insulation). The walls will be rendered/painted with one of the paint on Acrylic renders now on the market. The frames are all now to be the low grade treated pine and the roof is going to be pitched rather than trusses. Whilst trusses are inifinitely simpler and cheaper, a pitched roof will give me space in the roof for storage.

We also need to get a soil-test done, by the end of the week ($352) and once the sub-floor is in a surveyor will provide us with a report to show that the sub-floor is 300mm above the 100 year flood level.

I now also have a new costing sheet, which I have attached - any feedback is much appreciated.

I have withdrawn the labour component for the time being and have costed the materials for the job at $79,225 which includes a 25% fail safe. It seems low to me, but I have quotes for around 90% of the materials and have loaded each of the quotes anyway.

That'd be great if you did - when d'ya start the shed anyway ?
Just about everything l'm doing around my place involves a shed /sheds or somem like a shed so l'd love to see the work .

Cheers
MB

Originally Posted by boban

As far as material costings are concerned- go to www.tradeconnect.com.au. This site has material costs which are pretty competitive for owner builders. Even if they do not supply you, all the prices are listed and you can use them to get a good idea of what you should be paying.

Subbies however can be a lot tougher as far a price is concerned. Like your builders, it really is a matter of how busy they are. Remember though, if you dont know the guy (and even if you do) go the the Dept of Fair Trading site and check their history.

Nowadays, even with people you know, get it in writing. It's not only a legal requirement but it protects all parties involved. I could tell you a number of stories about former friends who went to court because they trusted one another to do the right thing.

Good luck with the project. If you need any advice, whether on process or price, then feel free to ask.

Youve impired me, I'm building a shed 21x12m and attached office 9x12. I think I will post the progress on the forum.

Hey Namtrak.
Nothing to do with reno's but can you say why you sold the house in QLD and moved down to Albury is it ?
Just curious , ended up doing the same thing ourselves !
The other thing was what are your thoughts on spending so much on reno's , are you guys just thinking we want this and that is that type of thing , didn't want buy land and build instead for some reason or ?
The reason l ask is that's some serious reno mooler , do you add that to the house's price seeing what you get first or just have the leeway so who cares type of thing , as in bought the house 20 yrs ago for 35,000 or something ?
Tossing up about my own place that's all and just what to spend into it because l don't like digging into the equity too much but rather spend as little as poss' and build onto the equity's my thinking .

Cheers
MB

Originally Posted by masterblaster

Hey Namtrak.
Nothing to do with reno's but can you say why you sold the house in QLD and moved down to Albury is it ?

We moved to Albury, on a small part for work, but largely for family. A large part of SWMBO's family lives in and around Albury and Tallangatta, and once we had kids the choice was to get them near cousins etc.

When we first moved we tried to sell the house, but had no luck at all - so we rented it out. Which was great for the tax benefits and income, however whilst the tenants were all fine the house degrades without the attention of an owner. We finally decided to sell it when the cost of maintaining the house up North became too much and the cost of the potential bank loans was going to be too high.

Originally Posted by masterblaster

The other thing was what are your thoughts on spending so much on reno's , are you guys just thinking we want this and that is that type of thing , didn't want buy land and build instead for some reason or ?

Well, because when we first got here we were very cash strapped - we had the mortgage up North, the only place we could buy was a small, double brick house near town for $88,000. However like most people, we benefitted from the increase in property values through the early 2000's. As such, rather than sell up and buy another house further from the centre of town we felt it wiser to improve the house we were in. Besides we like the neighbourhood.

The cost of the renos (not including labour) is around $900 per sqm or $7000 per square. Not including the labour component, which will add another 30-40%. This is not an unreasonable price, especially given the size of the addition is fairly large.

Originally Posted by masterblaster

The reason l ask is that's some serious reno mooler , do you add that to the house's price seeing what you get first or just have the leeway so who cares type of thing , as in bought the house 20 yrs ago for 35,000 or something ?

We definitely consider the cost of the addition to the original cost as part of the whole picture. All things being equal, once the reno is complete we will have spent $88,000 plus about $25,000 plus say $110,000 ($223,000) on the house to end up with a 4 bedroom house, with ducted heating and cooling, ensuite and new kitchen. Our end mortgage will be around $100,000. And the property will be worth between $350,000 and $400,000. All this in a double brick house in a quiet street, 3 blocks from the main street of Albury.

If we were to sell up now, and buy a new house in the 'burbs, we believe we would have to service a mortgage closer to $200,000 to $250,000. Which isn't really progress as far as we are concerned. I think, for us progress would be a decent house on a few acres with no mortgage - which will probably be our next step - when the time is right.

Originally Posted by masterblaster

Tossing up about my own place that's all and just what to spend into it because l don't like digging into the equity too much but rather spend as little as poss' and build onto the equity's my thinking .

Well that's the $64,000 question isn't it!!! How to increase your property's equity without increasing your debt. There's a myriad of TV shows, magazines, books, hardware stores etc making millions and millions of dollars whilst people try to answer that question. At this point I should point that what we are doing works for us, and may not be relevant to the next person. One thing we did do, which gave us some clarity was to write out every option we had and the fiscal ramifications of each option and then we progressed from there. Figuring out the Dollars was easy, it's lifestyle choices that complicate things.

Cheers

Thanks for that l hope you didn't take it as knocking , l'm always wondering how people manage high reno's .
Must say l didn't realise you could pick up some thing that cheap in a place like Albury central l don't think you'll go far wrong with that one , comming along very nicely too by the way .

Yeah talk about it , don't kids change things , l know all about those lifestyle choices we moved back down for al the same reasons. Even though they won't wanna know their cousins or inlaws in a few yrs anyway.
But , we did pick up one shocker of a property , that few ac's you guys want one day .
Mind you anything being done right now has to be through brawn power or not at all still it's amazing how far that goes but hopefully we'll be able to put a few bucks into it in a yr or two.
Cheers
MB

Originally Posted by namtrak

We moved to Albury, on a small part for work, but largely for family. A large part of SWMBO's family lives in and around Albury and Tallangatta, and once we had kids the choice was to get them near cousins etc.

When we first moved we tried to sell the house, but had no luck at all - so we rented it out. Which was great for the tax benefits and income, however whilst the tenants were all fine the house degrades without the attention of an owner. We finally decided to sell it when the cost of maintaining the house up North became too much and the cost of the potential bank loans was going to be too high.



Well, because when we first got here we were very cash strapped - we had the mortgage up North, the only place we could buy was a small, double brick house near town for $88,000. However like most people, we benefitted from the increase in property values through the early 2000's. As such, rather than sell up and buy another house further from the centre of town we felt it wiser to improve the house we were in. Besides we like the neighbourhood.

The cost of the renos (not including labour) is around $900 per sqm or $7000 per square. Not including the labour component, which will add another 30-40%. This is not an unreasonable price, especially given the size of the addition is fairly large.



We definitely consider the cost of the addition to the original cost as part of the whole picture. All things being equal, once the reno is complete we will have spent $88,000 plus about $25,000 plus say $110,000 ($223,000) on the house to end up with a 4 bedroom house, with ducted heating and cooling, ensuite and new kitchen. Our end mortgage will be around $100,000. And the property will be worth between $350,000 and $400,000. All this in a double brick house in a quiet street, 3 blocks from the main street of Albury.

If we were to sell up now, and buy a new house in the 'burbs, we believe we would have to service a mortgage closer to $200,000 to $250,000. Which isn't really progress as far as we are concerned. I think, for us progress would be a decent house on a few acres with no mortgage - which will probably be our next step - when the time is right.



Well that's the $64,000 question isn't it!!! How to increase your property's equity without increasing your debt. There's a myriad of TV shows, magazines, books, hardware stores etc making millions and millions of dollars whilst people try to answer that question. At this point I should point that what we are doing works for us, and may not be relevant to the next person. One thing we did do, which gave us some clarity was to write out every option we had and the fiscal ramifications of each option and then we progressed from there. Figuring out the Dollars was easy, it's lifestyle choices that complicate things.

Cheers

Only 19 months after I started this thread and we are on the way.

We got the construction certificate from the Council with no dramas, and the soil test found soil, which was a good thing.

I have been busily buying up steel for the subfloor, flooring (thanks Studley), wallframing (T2 treated), trusses (not pitched as I was going to originally), windows and doors, I already have plasterboard for the internal linings, plus Hebel Powerpanel for the external walls, and roofing iron. At this stage, given the budget I prepared we are around $9000 under budget, for which I am confident SWMBO will find other areas to compensate. (we spent around $3,000 more than I budgetted for on the windows and doors - but they are schmicko).

The excavator was here yesterday, and he has made a god almighty mess of the yard! 58 holes and about 20 metres of trenches. I need to now go around and clean the crap out of each of the holes and get the sewer laid, along with the all important water and power for the shed.

In the pics you can see the big pile of dirt :eek: in the back corner. We are going to use that to create a raised garden bed about 7m by 3m square. We wont be able to do that until the trenches are in and the framing timber is moved.

The plumber will be here today to check the trenches for the sewer and water, and the sparky is going to take some measurements for the conduit. We are sticking a sub-panel in the shed.

I will ring the council, once I have cleaned out the holes to have the inspector come around.

I also got the workers comp insurance today $175.

Lastly I threw in a pic of the new apprentice, the old one (avatar) is too smart to follow me around all day.

To be cont......

What a great progress story! Our extension earlier this year was a joy, despite the few frustrations we had. Basically a 10 metre by 6 metre extension, with decked vernadahs 1.8 wide down the two long side, converting a bedroon into a new bathroom and hallway, redecking and reroofing an exisitng verandah that was about 10 metres by 3 metres, and recladding a part of the old house to match the new. Also got them to gut and straighten the walls on another bedroom, plus a few other minor bits and pieces.
Quote was $82,000 for the extension, plus $9,00o to reclad, reroof and redeck the old verandah. Not bad! Then we had to add vanity, fittings, extra electircal work (point and lights not in the quote) carpet, paint, bits and pieces (filler, tools, etc).
Just about to paint the last old bedroom that the builders cleaned up - we stripped the old internal cladding and I have to do all the fitting out. All up cost for a large extensiona and renovation will come to $120,00 neat - we have got exactly what we want, saved a few quid by doing bits and pieces ourselves.

When we started planning the extension, about 2 years ago, we had an idea of what we wanted, used an architect, forked out $1500 for plans that were useless (he charged $500.00 a re-draw, and had no idea of converting our ideas into plans that even looked like what we wanted) and then went to the builder. Within about 3 weeks he had his draughtsman draw up the plans exactly as we wanted, and gave us a heap of really useful and practical advise about the functionality of our ideas - and all this was part of his price!

Look forward to hearing your progress, and I agree that maybe a new forum for renovations would be a great idea!
Jeff