1BR Furnished Unit

I've mentioned before my little flock of bats- 1BRs- some of which I have let out as furnished.

I've just had some old technology photos back- just as well, because my new technology digital went bust.

It was a bit dark, with tatty carpet, a rather badly scratched wood floor, and the same drab cream on all walls and ceilings.

I've painted the ceilings white, as it did appear a bit dark.

The left and right walls are original colour. I've given a feature wall, to add to the interest, and to contrast with the read & black furniture.

I've ripped up the tatty carpet in the living area, and polished the floor (including the damaged exposed wood which was in the kitchen area).

Furniture supplied (apart from stove/microwave/bar fridge/washing machine already there) was:

.Leather lounge (hopefully longer lasting)
.Table and chairs
.Corner TV/hifi unit
.51 cm TV
.small hifi
.DVD/VCR
.double bed

Total refurbish/furnishing cost- about $2.5K
Extra rent- about $40 pw (low, but this is bottom of the market stuff in the ACT- still a very good return on investment).

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Very neat little unit! Can I ask what this one rents out for in total? Is the feature wall the green one at the back? Um, contrast certainly is the operative word ;)
Being fully furnished, you can collect 6 weeks bond money, instead of four, right?

HG in The Hill
 
Nice work Geoffrey!

Hard to beat the cash on cash return mate....close to 100%

Did you sand the floors yourself?

Glenn
 
Unfurnished 1BRs rent out for $110 to $120 pw. These are rented out at $160.

Hobthrob, the agent does collect 6 weeks bond money. Hopefully the tenants will all be good, and I won't see any of that.

The green is the feature wall. MrsW is the colour schemer around here- I thought it worked rather well.

I did sand and polish the floors. They weren't fantastic, but good enough. I learnt a few things, and I suspect I'll be able to do a little better next time. But they still came up OK. Hire turned out at $175 (including consumables), polyurethane etc at about $75. I used a brush for the first two coats- I wouldn't do that again. The $20 for a labswool applicator for the final coat was money well spent- it applies much faster and much more evenly than a brush.
 
great unit geoff and thanks for showing the costings, the furniture looks great and the feature wall. you have given me some ideas for what to do with one of my 1BR's that needs a bit of work. where do you get your furniture?
 
Corsa,

The furniture is from Fantastic Furniture in Canberra- they do some good looking low cost stuff. Wall unit was $199, leather lounge $600, table & chairs $200, bed $400.

The corner wall unit was a good use of space in a small unit. Not a lot of wall units have space for TV, VCR & hifi.

Electricals are from shopping around a few of the local shops- Harvey Norman (the seconds area) for the hifi ($240), 51cm TV from "The Good Guys" ($229), combined VCR/DVD from a small shop ($299- cost more than buying individually, but it's less wiring and fiddling around). Costs vary, so I check out about six retailers before committing to anything.
 
Hi Geoff.

Nice work

It's amazing what you find under carpet.
We have a smilar one bedder, which had tatty carpet.
Ripped it up to find ridgy didge parquetry - beautiful white gum- needed a bit of work, but came up a treat.

Luckily the paint man told me about the lambs wool rollers (he was a Kiwi. I mean an expert on the subject) - I didn't even bother cleaning them - just put on a new one for the next coat.

Just need to be careful of scratches from furniture being moved.
Put some soft coasters under the lounge legs.

Garry K

Ps What song of the Seekers do Kiwi's hate the most?

A: I'll never find another ewe.:p

Only joking Kiwi friends out there - we love you.
 
I see the Kiwi version of the Love Boat has found a home for its passengers in Eritrea :D

I tend to put brushes, lambswool etc in a plastic bag overnight- and then throw them out when finished with. You can keep them longer for acrylic paint than for polyurethane. There seems to be an awaful lot of time cleaning up otherwise.
 
Originally posted by geoffw
Electricals are from shopping around a few of the local shops- Harvey Norman (the seconds area) for the hifi ($240), 51cm TV from "The Good Guys" ($229), combined VCR/DVD from a small shop ($299- cost more than buying individually, but it's less wiring and fiddling around). Costs vary, so I check out about six retailers before committing to anything.
I'm just in the process of doing this for two more units- and I found a nice little hi fi unit.

It's a micro system at $199 (from DSE), but it packs quite a punch soundwise. It comes with a CD playe and tuner, plus inputs at the back for other sound sources- many cheaper units don't have this.

But the thing which really got me- and I didn't even realise until after I'd bought- is that it even plays DVDs (yes, with a video to TV outlet.

So instead of the $240 hifi & $299 VCR/DVD, I can get the $199 hifi/DVD, and a $99 VCR. Bargain!

Except that daughter wants one of these for her own room :mad:
 
Originally posted by geoffw
I'm just in the process of doing this for two more units- and I found a nice little hi fi unit.

It's a micro system at $199 (from DSE), but it packs quite a punch soundwise. It comes with a CD playe and tuner, plus inputs at the back for other sound sources- many cheaper units don't have this.

But the thing which really got me- and I didn't even realise until after I'd bought- is that it even plays DVDs (yes, with a video to TV outlet.

So instead of the $240 hifi & $299 VCR/DVD, I can get the $199 hifi/DVD, and a $99 VCR. Bargain!

Except that daughter wants one of these for her own room :mad:

Thats fantastic Mr. Geoff, now she won't need a huge room with lots of wasted space, so your autograph on the bottom of this agreement please Mr Geoff and we'll submit this directly to the Vendors and hopefully have an answer by tonight, press firmy Mr. Geoff the third copy is yours.

for those that aint got a clue what this is all about....go to...
http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=88390#post88390

Regards
 
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