Our recent reno

Have been a bit quiet of late - consolidation. But we have decided to reno and sell the house that my wife bought before we were married. Thought I'd share a few before-and-afters, since we pretty much wrapped it up yesterday.

Not listed for sale yet, but should only be a couple of weeks away.

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Yard_After.JPG


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Pergola_after.JPG


Bathroom_after1.JPG


Amazing what a coat of paint and some mowing can do to the place!
 
Most of the big ticket items we had done, as we aren't close to the property. eg, all the painting, the kitchen and the flooring, as well as electrical and plumbing. We did the gardening, replaced door handles, tile paint in the bathroom and ensuite, all demo work and clean up.

We used Good Guys kitchens (as per another thread) but not entirely satisfied. Quality is fine. It wasn't so bad that I would bag them publicly, but if anyone wants details, PM me.

Also happy to share figures, but not publicly, except to say I expect to get 150%-200% back of what we spent.

Almost don't want to sell it now... :p
 
That green carpet room...oh man...:p Did stuff like that ever really look good? I just cant get my head around it.

Nice job! Put some figures up and let us know what it sells for.
 
I wasn't going to do this... :eek:

Purchased in 1999 for $120k. Estimated sale price pre-reno: ~$300k (or less)

Reno costs: ~$30k. Estimated sale price post-reno: Mid-high $300's ($360-380k) Will advise result.
 
Unfortunately, that IS me in the picture. I tried to leave out any people, but it was the only photo from that perspective.

I have PM'd the location.
 
Could do with some over bench cupboards for extra storage other wise money well spent in my eyes.

What you can't see in that photo is the fridge cavity/pantry (~1200mm from memory?) just to the left of the kitchen. We thought the open wall with the rangehood looked nice and clean, and any purchaser can always throw up a couple of overheads if they are really lacking space.

Here's the other angle of the kitchen.

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Good idea to get rid of the wall oven and replace with under bench. I think someone had a poll on here recently about wall oven vs under bench and most people voted for wall ovens :eek::confused:

Funnily enough, my preference is for a wall oven. :D But it really opened up the whole kitchen by removing that vertical section. And it allowed us to make the pantry wider without compromising the access.
 
What you can't see in that photo is the fridge cavity/pantry (~1200mm from memory?) just to the left of the kitchen. We thought the open wall with the rangehood looked nice and clean, and any purchaser can always throw up a couple of overheads if they are really lacking space.

Here's the other angle of the kitchen.

Kitchen_other_angle.JPG

I agree. Overhead cupboards can look cluttered.
I would've done away with them in the flat if there'd been more space elsewhere - but there wasn't.
 
That green carpet room...oh man...:p Did stuff like that ever really look good? I just cant get my head around it.

Haha - you should have seen the orange shag pile carpet in our PPOR when we moved in. It was the original carpet from the early 60's - just looking at it made me feel queasy. I ripped it up and there were nice floor boards underneath.

Nice job with the renos!

Cheers

Jamie
 
Interested in your thoughts regarding the good guys. I pinched 3 kitchens from them this month. All 3 customers pretty much said the same thing - over priced and don't think they will do a good enough job.
 
Interested in your thoughts regarding the good guys. I pinched 3 kitchens from them this month. All 3 customers pretty much said the same thing - over priced and don't think they will do a good enough job.

Yeah, I think we overpaid (maybe 10%), but it is - to my eye - a reasonable quality, so that part's not an issue. The things that annoyed me:
- they contract out the install ++$, which we had to co-ordinate directly with the builder
- the builder included mandatory "rubbish removal" charge (he dumped a few scraps on the heap outside) and "co-ordinate trades" charge (we did this)
- didn't align pantry with existing skirting cutout. When they subsequently moved it, they left marks all over the wall (pencil and scratches), which I had to touch up. Not a biggie, but annoying and somewhat unprofessional.
- marketing stickers on all the hinges; I couldn't be bother removing them
- they delivered the wrong benchtop (literally someone else's). Said it would be fixed on Saturday; was the Tuesday before it was sorted. Luckily our tiler, plumber and leccy were flexible!
- didn't install the rangehood. Looking back at their pro-forma sheet, there is a separate charge for that, which we didn't tick.

I think the install quality will depend on the installer you get; which could be hit and miss, IMO. At least with a local kitchen builder, you will (generally) get the guy who builds it to install it, so they will do everything. We were fortunate we had a clue about what to do, but for a novice, it would be quite daunting, I reckon.

The only reason we went with them was purely convenience. We didn't want to faff about, and didn't have any recommendations for a local crowd. In hindsight, (yeah, I know! 20/20 and all that!) we should have phoned a couple or gone to their showrooms. Only thing was that the property is 1?hrs from us, so we'd have lost half a day just in travel.

Would I recommend them? No
Would I use them again? No

But, they would be OK for some people.
 
Funnily enough, my preference is for a wall oven. :D But it really opened up the whole kitchen by removing that vertical section. And it allowed us to make the pantry wider without compromising the access.

Good job Rob and agree a wall oven clutters things plus blocks light and access to the benchtops. Do you have a microwave cavity under the bench or it goes on top of the fridge or sits on the benchtops?
 
Hi
Great job! Are the floors laminate? I notice in the first kitchen pic the board pattern is horizontal and in the new kitchen its vertical.
 
Good job Rob and agree a wall oven clutters things plus blocks light and access to the benchtops. Do you have a microwave cavity under the bench or it goes on top of the fridge or sits on the benchtops?

No microwave cavity, but there are 3 powerpoints, one in each "corner" of the bench. And the fridge point is a double.

Hi
Great job! Are the floors laminate? I notice in the first kitchen pic the board pattern is horizontal and in the new kitchen its vertical.

Yep, timber laminate. We didn't even talk to the installer about which way they would run. I don't think it would have made a lot of difference to the flow either way.
 
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