The breakup of costs looks like this...
Kitchen (cabinets plus appliances) came in at the $10K budgeted for but we did pay $1500 to have it assembled and installed. That was money well spent because we had run out of time and Tom (Arms) took all the hassle out of it. I hate putting flatpack furniture together, so a whole kitchen was enough to make me shudder.
I think Tom did it with his eyes closed
whereas had we tackled it, there would have been blood on the floor.
We hadn't planned on tiling the kitchen floor, but when we pulled up the vinyl we found half was cement and half pine, so we tiled over the whole floor. The bill for the kitchen and bathroom floor and walls, including waterproofing, came to $5,400 (not including the tiles themselves, which cost $750, and we have some leftovers).
Bathroom fittings came to $2,700. Plumber's bill for bathroom and kitchen rough-in came to $5,100 and we don't have kitchen fit-off bill yet (guessing $1K). There were plumbing issues that needed sorting out due to the regulations having changed and needing to move a DT from under what was once an open porch but is now a bedroom. We also decided to upgrade the copper which was too narrow and meant terrible water pressure, and also moved the HWS outside. We would have to do that when it goes kaput, so better to do it now rather than have to mess about and move it later.
Electrician's bill not yet in - guessing $1K?
Floor sander quote was $3,300 but once sanded the beautiful floors had some issues. There were bad marks all over the main floor that looked like someone had squirted oil in squiggly lines all over the place. He could not get them out with several different methods. He said he had never seen this before except one house where a motorbike had been dismantled on the timber, and thought it was either some sort of ancient pest treatment or some type of oil. To disguise the marks, we paid extra for him to stain the floors very dark. They look fantastic and the stain has hidden the marks, so his total came to $3,700. Great floor sander, highly recommended.
Painting came to about $7,500.
We paid the builder $11,200 but what he did was able to be done by hubby. However, the fallen patio will always be the "elephant in the room" in any future building inspection, so we have paid not only for the work, but for the bit of paper signed off by the builder and his engineer, saying it is fixed and that is worth money to us in any future sale.
So, total came to $48,850 due to the extra scope of work not planned (closing in doors and windows, replace dining room ceiling, new bearers, joists and yellow tongue in bathroom, building out bathroom walls to take sheeting for tiles... lots of other little problems that needed fixing).
The other cost not included was the hardware items, versalux, plasterboard, bags and bags of cement for the new patio external ledge, timber ($5000) needed to do all the closing in, plastering and general maintenance that had not been done for 15 years.
So, all up it went from budgeted at $35K to actual cost $54K. A big jump, but considering we took a very shabby and seemingly unloved old house and have made it shine again, we are happy.
Hubby did a LOT of hours there, and I did a fair bit too, and all of the project managing of the trades, calls, organising and buying. Plus all of the trips to buy lunch and drinks
.
Hubby is not working, so he could spend time making things up to his standard, which a builder would not have done, or the cost would have been higher again. But we do realise that we need to take our hours into account if we look at this in regard to "was it worth doing" and "will the extra value and/or rent cover the cost of the renovation".
I'd say yes, that even if we were paying a tradie to do hubby's portion, we would still be ahead, but we would not have made any profit, only made our wages. But we would not have paid a tradie to do the same level of finish that hubby lavished on it, because that takes time and time is money.
Rent has gone from $350 per week (but should have been $400) to $500. The cost to us for the work is $62 per week, so we are ahead, but I will rein in the spending next time.
And we are jumping straight into another renovation, so it will be good to see if I can manage our costs better. This next renovation is similar... new kitchen and new second bathroom in an attempt to get top rental return. This next house is a 50s brick house, so we don't need to match the same quality and the 1929 stucco we just did.
Unfortunately, with the old houses, especially when they have not been maintained, walls and floors are never straight, and hidden problems seem to be lurking around every corner, so time will tell whether I can manage this next renovation better and keep the costs down.