Quail Reno....

Hi guys, I'm fairly new here, and what a great site.

I have recently had tenants move out of one of our rentals and in the process of renovating.

The problem was the enclosed sunroom at the back of the house, so its being converted back to an open patio area.
The kitchen , bathroom, laundry and toilet were in desperate need of an update (ply panelling in the kitchen laundry and pine paneling in the toilet and bathroom).

I am going to attach a link to the photos on facebook, as I'm not having much luck uploading pics onto forums, and will be updating them regularly.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50361&id=1653277318&ref=mf

I have tried to number the photos so we can keep a track of the progress.
 
Inside the robes got finished off today....

Also noted someone had tried to break in, but unsucessfully so. We have fixed that up and gone out and bought the rest of the window/sliding door locks to be fitted tomorrow.
Also rang the handyman to come and get his compressor etc which he had sitting in that room, more than likely what the theives were after.

Fingers crossed everything is still there tomorrow....and still no word from the plumber....bugger.
 
My partner is supposed to be setting them up on a site for me (thats more his thing).

So hope to get that happening soon.

The plasterer came on Wednesday, so we now have all new walls, and I even got 1st coat of colour on the walls of two rooms today, things are moving along nicely
 
Ok, trying out uploading pics, so this was the kitchen after I'd already attacked it for a day or so.......and where its at now....a few things still to do, but nearly done.
 

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Bathroom before......and now. Still a vanity and toilet to go in after it gets grouted Monday, its slowly coming together.
 

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The sunroom that caused all the problems........now makes a lovely outdoor undercover area..... a few more touches of paint, a bit of scoria in the garden bed, and a good sweep, all will be done.
 

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Got second coat on the patio and wall outside today, and then spent part of the day clearing all the non essentials out of there and then a big shop up at spotlight for curtain rods and curtains for all the window......whew....that was a bit of a shock to the c/c
 
Yeh thats what we thought, and it was a lot cheaper to turn it into a patio (and more practical), than trying to fix the leaking sunroom roof. Now as a patio, I doesn't really matter if it leaks a bit (leaks are to be fixed this week). Once the plumbing is hooked up out there this week, will put red scoria down and some pavers for pot plants and it can be a nice undercover garden
 
good work.

had you planned the reno very long in advance?

it must be easier if you have the skills and time to do things yourself.

will you get more rent now or will you be selling?
 
Had planned to do the kitchen back 18months ago, but the tenants wouldn't facilitate it (had to book a time with the kitchen company). And we had looked at replacing the sunroom roof, again tenants took it to vcat, even though they knew the plan had been to convert back to patio. In the end, I had two weeks notice that the tenants were moving out. Day 0 had the hire a hubby handyman come along and go over a lot of things. I do the sourcing and painting, plan the colours and designs etc and get the professionals to do their jobs (not confident in my handyladyness...lol).

I did however have my dad and brother visiting for a few days, so extra hands made light work of ripping all the bits out that needed removing. From there its more been putting everything back in the right order, new and improved.

Final total will be between 25-30k, but as it was all muchly needed, money well spent.

We will rent it out for a couple of years and then plan is to move into it ourselves while we get the block subdivided and another house built on the back. Then plans to move to another of our rentals and do the subdividing thing again.
 
sounds very good.

we would like to reno one of our properties it has a lot of potential.

know what is nice but no real ideas where to start!! not sure but we will work it out eventually. its one we would like to move into as its in an ideal position. although in good condition, it needs some work to be more comfortable.

of course there is also the thought that we may spend a lot and the place looks lovely but we decide its not quite right for us? we might have been better off buying another place to live in that has all the things on our list?

nice problems to have. good luck.
 
I did a previous reno on my partners house in mulgrave and we sold it for a very nice profit (he had owned it for 10yrs). With that one, I went 'upmarket' look, but sourced all my supplies from wholesalers and ebay etc. Came up looking great, cost me a packet, but we made it back and more when it sold within 2 weeks at our asking price. Litterally the market dropped within months of our sale, very good timing.

I've kept this one more middle of the range, want it to look good, but as it will still be a rental, it has to be more practical. It also needs all my wants, as I will be living in it in the future.

We chose to put in the ducted heating and cooling now (had planned on doing it a lot earlier like the kitchen), as we can at least claim the deduction for the next couple of years and then benefit from them ourselves whilst there. I will just wait for the dishwasher until I go in, haven't had to deal with one in a rental before and weary.
 
great that you had a positive outcome from your upmarket reno.

quality does cost but if planning to live in it then its better to do that rather than just tarting it up, so to speak.

some of the new homes look cheap and nasty, built fast and to a price. wonder what they will look like in 5-10 yrs?

where as some places built many years ago seem to age well. but in time its nice to have ducted heating and cooling etc that was not available years ago.
 
I always say, save your renovating until you need to, or are ready to sell, then your renovation will reflect the modern trends to get best dollars.

The problem was, this place really needed to be updated/kitchen replaced etc, it was falling apart before our eyes, and the longer the tenants gave our tradies the run around, the further away everything got from being fixed. I have now brought this house 'up to date', but nothing overly flash (costly). As we plan on sitting on it for at least another 4yrs (minimal), it needs to last at least that long.....lol.

If your wanting to renovate one of your IP's, maybe its and idea to work out what rooms need doing in priority and as each tenant vacates, get another room done, thus cutting down your non rented time, smaller jobs, you can line up the tradies during the vacating period. I have twice used handymen to do the carpentry/tiling and other jobs, they are also usually well networked and in a way will work as a project manager with your other tradies (co- ordinate as needed). Or you can do this yourself, depending on how big the job may be.
 
From this to that.....
 

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