First Reno - be gentle with me!

[Allgood]

Hi guys,

So after a having a few IPS and doing a couple of small scale cosmetic renos on PPOR's, I'm doing our first buy, reno, hold and I dare say I'll have some stupid questions that need answering. So rather than starting a thread for each stupid question, I thought I could combine them all in here and sound really stupid

I'm just about to settle on an older place that I plan to do the following on:
- Repaint
- Remove wallpaper in one room
- New kitchen
- New bathroom
- remove carpet & polish floorboards
- general tidy of most rooms, including repair to a ceiling in the lounge room.
- light makeover of laundry and tidy backyard.
- makeover of builtins.
- possibly a deck/pergola type thing in the back yard if budget permits, but probably not feasible.

Oh, did I mention its a tad over 400km from home and I'll be a weekend warrior??

So this weekend I plan to strip the old kitchen, attack the wallpaper and prep some walls for painting. After comparing the 'big guns' I've bought an Ikea kitchen which owes me around $2800 including oven, cooktop and range hood. All things considered this should be going in next weekend for the cost of a few cases of beer and a couple of pizzas.

Please pop in every now and then to calm my nerves, answer questions and tell me what I'm doing wrong! I know this would be a walk in the park for many forumites, but I little daunting for a first timer!

First question... how do I upload photos??

Allgood

 

[jimlenno]

Well done. What's your timeline, budget, where is your Reno located? Is your hired help local?

 

[datto]

Allgood, you are gonna have your hands full for a while by the sounds of it. I don't envy you but you will learn a lot. I personally have installed a kitchen and repainted a house on my own but I am a legend lol. Go advanced to upload photos. Good luck!

 

[Allgood]

Thanks guys,

I want to keep the reno under $20000. Timeline is about 6 weeks, I'll probably take some leave in about a month to knuckle down. The house is in Wagga, it was built in the '50s by the current owners. The husband passed away a while ago and the lady died last week, between exchange and settlement! - Settlement's been delayed a week but solicitors say we'll be good to go now.

 

[wylie]

First question... how do I upload photos??

Loading photos... I probably do this the long way but it is what I'm used to doing.

I open two forum screens. I click "Gallery" and click on "Upload photos". Then "select files for upload" down the bottom of the page. Choose them from my iPhotos and click "upload/submit" and then "process" after typing in a title and/or description if I want to add those things.

Then once it is in my gallery, I click on the photo itself that I want to add to the post I'm making and I choose either Thumbnail or Medium depending on how big I want the photo to appear in the post. Copy the [url=.....etc and paste it straight into the post.

I'm sure there is a quicker and easier way, but this is easy for me because I'm used to doing it.

Hope that helps.

And please do post photos. Many here (including me) love before/after photos.

Good luck with the renovation .

 

[bob shovel]

Sounds like fun!
I've just completed pretty much all the same as you have in your list. It was our ppor which makes it a lot harder. I reckon if you do all the work yourself out very little trades, you should be able to squeeze the deck in. I put two in, front and rear. I think it worked out about $70/sq.m
Actually not beingit while living in it, providing no surprises you should stick to budget.
http://somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96519
Ikea are great kitchens, I'm a fan!
The only thing could be timeframe, only weekend will be hard to meet the 6 weeks, I reckon some sickies will be needed to get you a bit more time out there over weekends plus 2 weeks leave

 

[BLTN]

Will be following this with interest - I'll be doing my first reno in about 5-6 weeks time.

Won't be nearly as extensive as yours though and will be looking at hopefully getting it all sorted in the week after settlement (ready to start looking at prospective tenants on the weekend).

 

[Allgood]

Photos look great Bob! I'm a bit worried about the timeframe, too. But if I go over I go over.

Okay, first silly question. I plan to strip the bathroom and then get a tiler to retile the floor and walls. Do I need to water-proof the walls again after the old tiles have been removed? I'm hoping all the old tiles will come off without too much damage to the walls.

Thanks,

 

[wylie]

I would say you will be better to remove the tiles AND the sheeting. Start with fresh sheeting. You would need to re-waterproof, and I'd guess a tiler would not want to tile over a surface that has dags of old glue either.

 

[Allgood]

thanks Wiley,
Sorry just to clarify, when you say I would have to re-waterproof, do you mean even if I don't re-sheet it?

 

[PropertyExtreme]

Hi, congrats on the reno, sounds like a great first one!

Yep, you will have to waterproof either way once you remove the old tiles.

What are your numbers on this one?

 

[travelbug]

Very exciting.

Thre thing that tends to hold you up is the bathroom so start that first.

Once you strip it the tiler needs to prepare and waterproof then leave it at least a few days. Then they come back and waterproof agaain, then tile. This all takes time. Make sure your tiler is licenced to give you a waterproofing certificate.
If you find a good tiler you can get that done while you are not there, saving time.

$20,000 should be easily achieved as you are doing some stuff yourselves.

Good luck. I love before and after photos.

 

[Allgood]

You guys are awesome! Can't wait to get into it now!

Property Extreme, the rough numbers are as follows:
Purchase price $220,000.
First listed at $269K, and was $255K when I went through. Made a lowball offer of $208 which was laughed at, they said to offer over $240 so I walked. After about a month I noticed the listing was reduced to offers over $235 so I emailed to say my offer of $208K still stood, they came back at $230, I said $215 but we agreed on $220. (shoulda stuck to 215 )
Stamps $6210 + legals etc
Reno $20k max
Total cost around $248 + holding costs say a tad over $250k

Current rental appraisal = $280p/w.
Hopefully new appraisal will be around the $330 mark, although it's not a great time to lease in that market. It may fetch more (or less ) but we'll see.

I'd be disappointed if we didn't increase value to the high 200K mark ($280+). There are a lot of homes in the suburb in the mid 300,000 range with the median price for 3 bedders at $314,000, but this is on the outskirts of the suburb so I'm not sure how it will affect it. I'm not going to make mega bucks but its a good one for someone like myself with the Reno L plates on because I think I bought okay. For my first reno, I'm just preying not be be in negative equity territory

 

[janglesey]

Well done Allgood for taking action. And it sounds like your negotiation skills are already fine tuned!

Have you considered keeping the original bathroom and painting the bath or wall tiles? This could keep costs down and time frames to a minimum.

I'll be watching the before and after photos with interest.

 

[Truly Exotic]

Good luck!! you have planned well

the only advice I have is "I often wake up in cold sweats at night when I dream about removing wallpaper"

 

[Allgood]

Janglesey, I knew being a tight **** would come in handy one day! I did consider painting over the tiles but I decided against it in the bathroom. There is one area near the kitchen/dining that has a wall of tiles up to about 1200 high for no apparent reason - not sure what I'll do here, maybe remove and resheet or possibly tile paint - won't retile these tho.

Unfortunately there's no bath in the house, just shower. I want to put a shower-over bath, which I'm not a big fan of but I think it's better than no bath at all in a 3 bedder. But to fit the bath in I would have to move the toilet over about a metre. I'm meeting with a plumber and tiler this weekend to see if it's feasible or not because it may be a costly exercise.

And yes, Exotic, I've heard many nightmare wallpaper stories so I'm not looking forward to it, which brings me to my next silly question

I've been reading about the differences between removing vinyl wallpaper compared to the paper-backed stuff. Can I tell which one it is by looking at it or do I need to start peeling first? Luckily for me it's only 1 wall.

 

[Allgood]

One weekend down, looks like plenty to go!

Got the following done on the IP over the weekend. Made good progress but also a took a few steps backwards I think.

1. Gutted the kitchen... but the patchwork walls seem to be asbestos so it looks like I'll be getting it removed and resheeted which I wasn't counting on.

2. Used a few tubes of No More Gaps to fill the gaps between the architraves and the walls in most rooms. Hopefully it will do the trick and not move too much. Cleaned bedroom walls, patched a few small marks and put the first coat on 2 bedroom ceilings.

3. Spent heaps of time talking to tradies. Got a solid quote for floors to be sanded and polished. Spoke to a builder about reconfiguring the bathroom but I think it may be too pricey. I really want to add a bath because I want it to be family friendly but it means moving the toilet, basin and shower.
We'll wait and see how much the quote is. Also the tiler came back at $1400 which I thought was dear at around $60/metre. It includes pulling up the floor but I will do everything else in the cleanout. And it doesnt include waterproofing. Thoughts??

4. Spent all saturday night removing wall paper in the bedroom. What were they thinking??? Truly Exotic, I thought you were exaggerating...but that stuff should be banned.

5. Met the neighbours, had several trips to bunnings and masters and spent the first hour or two walking around the house thinking "What have I done?"... but that's normal right

I'll be back out there this weekend for more fun and festivities!

Allgood

 

[coastie]

Thanks for your posts, I am learning heaps. Good luck

 

[bob shovel]

Do you need to pull the sheets off in the kitchen?? Can you just patch and leave as is? Out just sheet over the walls. Best not to touch it if possible

 

[janglesey]

Thanks for the reno updates Allgood. Have you uploaded any photos yet?

Is your target rental market definitely families? If not, don't worry about putting in a bath.