Really cheap 3 bed reno

[Firsthomelooker]

As the name suggests, my partner and I are looking for our first home. We were looking to buy an already renovated home but prices seem to have been bumped up just out of our reach in the 6 months we have been looking

So we have found a 'fixer upper' being sold at auction. It needs an entire new kitchen and bathroom, but has potential. Its a standard 3bed 100m2 house.

If we got this house for the right price we would have $20k to renovate. The catch is that the OH's only stipulation about buying a house is he must have a large shed (2-4 car metal garage). This will eat up about 12k of the budget. I have broken the rest of the money down into a rough budget:
-$4000 for kitset/Ikea type kitchen cupboards and benchtops. Install ourselves.
-$1500 for new stainless steel oven, cooktop, rangehood
-$500 for tradies. Kitchen is being moved into a different room but backs onto the bathroom... I have no idea how much plumbing for something like this should cost. I also have no idea how much it will cost to get gas connected to the oven. $500 seems to be convenient so thats what I ran with
-$500 for shower, use existing bath, $400 for new vanity, $200 floor tiles and $400 for wall tiles (bathroom is smallish, about 5'5" x 10'). Everything done diy except plumbing. $500 allowed for plumbing (new shower plumbing, connecting vanity in same spot as old, connecting drain in floor).

There are also other costs like those involved in moving around (mostly removing) walls (the house has truss roofing so this should cost materials only), built ins etc which we will cover out of our wages. So from the eyes of renovation veteran's is my budget impossible? I know it's pretty tight, and doesn't allow for quality materials, but given this house is right at the bottom of the market I think using expensive materials could quickly lead to overcapitalisation. In terms of an investment I know the 4 car garage won't exactly pay for itself but it's something we (apparently) can't live without

After doing the reno's I plan on our 20k, I would estimate the house will be worth at least 10-20k more than we spent on it. It is in a great location, not exactly a 'hot' suburb but a respectable one, and one that won't loose value. We do plan on living in the property for around 5 years though so I wouldn't expect to loose out come sale time.

We will also be living in the house through the entire renovation. From someone who has never done this before, it *seems* like we will be able to keep our sanity. We are relocating the kitchen so can keep the old fully functional whilst we install the new, and remove it once it's done. The shower/bath is not being moved so except the initial waterproofing (we plan to extend the bathroom into a small, under utilised space which will involve removing one wall) and tile setting time etc. we should still be able to shower! I'd be interested to hear the experiences/opinions from people who have lived in while renovating.

The auction is at the end of the month and I would appreciate any help in gauging if this reno is achievable and what I should set my walk away price at. At this stage it is 20k (our budget) below the absolute minimum price I would expect to get if we sold a day after finishing the reno.

 

[GIDDO]

Hi FHLooker,
You are one energetic person - I trust your OH is the same.....

1. Your indispensible four car shed-
A lotta people seem to be looking for sheds with houses now so my guess is that in 5 years time you will get your 12k back at the least.

2. Your DIY renovatiobns -
You seem experienced in this and have some idea of the amount of energy you will expend doing this. As for me, I am tired just reading about it.

3. Your costs of doing reno - you are probably a better budgeter than me, but every time I do a reno (and yours is a major one) I always spend about 20% more thasn budget.

4. Your Plumbing budget sounds a little skinny to me too.

5. If you cannot really extend to a ready renovated place and have experience in reno -ing I reckon just go for it. What other choices do you have?? Have you got a strong relationship with OH ?! ?

 

[willair]

We are relocating the kitchen so can keep the old fully functional whilst we install the new, and remove it once it's done. The shower/bath is not being moved so except the initial waterproofing (we plan to extend the bathroom into a small, under utilised space which will involve removing one wall) and tile setting time etc. we should still be able to shower!

FHL,
i would think you will have to add more $ to the plumbing price
imho $500 will not even cover the materials if you intend to reset
the plumbing in that way, new sink new dishwasher that will require
new lines,plumbers in Brisbane charge a $80.00 call out fee,and
anything from $100.oo to $180 per hour the work you will need
done will take several hours..
good luck
willair

4
4

 

[Bushlander]

Hi there Firsthomelooker and welcome to the new and exciting world of renovating. Mr B and I are halfway through renovating our PPOR and (I speak for myself here) I am thoroughly enjoying myself. It is so rewarding when one room is completed and you look back over your 'before and after' photos and think to yourself 'we did that'. We have all but gutted our house, eg. replaced all architrave/skirting boards, hung new doors, installed security screens, painted every room, laid new carpet, tiled the toilet and we're all but ready to begin tiling our bathroom after moving both the vanity and bath around, installing a new window and waterproofing. Mr B has just acquired his Owner Builders permit and the next job is to extend our loungeroom and add a front and side deck. With us having to work full time we are only able to renovate on the weekends, so patience is definitely a virtue when it comes to renovating. If there is a Mrs Firsthomelooker, be prepared for your only weekly outing to be to grab some groceries and, if you're lucky, a trip to the hardware shop. Our days of having a session at the local watering hole or going to the movies are well and truly over. But, it's all very exciting and I'm sure it will be worth every drop of blood, sweat and tears I've put into this house when it's finished - and the same with yours. All the best.

 

[meg]

Good luck Mr Firsthomelooker!

I think that you can get away with the prices you have sketched together for the materials, but unfortunately the plumbing and stove intilation are very unlikely. We did our bathroom 1 year ago and hubby is a chippy and very handy. We kept most plumbing in the same place and included and inside loo -$1500. Just have done the kitchen, same deal, tried to keep plumbing in same sort of location - plumbing $1000, gas connected to stove -$400, plus electrician to connect hotplate, exhaust, new power point-$600.

It's amazing what you manage to afford though when you're living through a renovation, so just do it! You'll make it through.

regards

Meg

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

Hi FHL,

Just had a quick read through your post and my initial thought was 'why spend 60% of your reno budget on a garage?' Does the OH REALLY need a garage of that size? Does he own four cars? Does he need a second house in case you get annoyed with him and he needs somewhere to live? Is it absoluely essential for his business or something?

Personally, I'd try and convince him to pull his head in a bit and be a bit more reasonable about what you can realistically achieve within your budget. But that's just me. I'm looking to buy my own place soon and it's going to be a 2 bed unit that I can do up a bit before I move out to rent it out.

Sometimes we need to make sacrifices to best deal with reality. Gotta start somewhere! That's what delayed gratification is all about.

Mark

 

[Firsthomelooker]

First up, I'm the Mrs Firsthomelooker.

Neither of us have renovating experience. It sounds like job experience, no one thinks you are capable without experience but you cant get experience if you dont jump into the deep end at some stage. I am hoping my planning,budgeting and liasing skills combined with Mr Firsthomelooker practical skills will pull us through. He has never done renovating but does all his own work on his performance car (rebuilding gearbox, LPG gas conversion, rebuilt engine with turbo you name it) and can do higher level building and repair of electronics so I am confident renovating will be a piece of cake for him. We also know alot of handy people including a builder, a tiler, a bobcat driver/excavator and OH's grandfather who is 65years young and in his own house has created an ensuite from scratch, renovated the bathroom, built a deck wrapping around 3 sides of the house and laid timber flooring all DIY, and all to a standard that I had no idea they were DIY until I was told.

In regards to plumbing, what can I say other than bummer! It seems like we might be scraping out of our living budget to get some of it done but it doesnt sound impossible. Im also comforted by the fact we can take as long as we need to be able to afford these things because we should never loose use of the original kitchen and bath. Special mention of thanks to everyone who has given me an estimate of costs which I will use in my budget estimate .

Bushlander it really comforts me to know you are renovating whilst working full time. My OH works full time and I am at uni full time + two jobs which equals a bit more than full time work but neither of us minds working on a house through the weekends (at the moment its working on the cars that uses all our weekend time, and we dont go out very often anyway).

Mark... I got a good giggle out of the second house comment. The main reason I can't reduce the garage budget is because we could afford a nice new house on a postage stamp sized block out in the stix, which is what OH wanted to buy, but I just cant bring myself to live that far out, and the garage was my compromise.

Thanks for your comments guys if anyone has any more suggestions/comments please keep them coming!

 

[lizzie]

fhl - go for it. when you're living in the house you can take as long as you need, just don't lose heart halfway thru

sounds like you've bought yourselves a large block ... any chance of subdivision down the track and either sell, or build to sell, the second block? might pay to think of think of this when placing the garage as wouldn't want to have to move it. i can understand why hubby wants a good garage with his cars - maybe if he's spending time working on the house instead of the cars there will be some extra money diverted to the reno's.

plumbers are very expensive and if you are going to move where things are located then the cost will really add up to several thousand. flatpak kitchens are a wonderful invention if you're a little handy, but remember to just take your time and don't forget to leave room for the garbage bin and fridge (amazing how many people forget them) - drawers are more expensive than cupboards. do you have anywhere local that sells 2nd hand kitchens? the carcases are the expensive bit and if you can save money buying them second hand you may only have to purchase some nice doors and knobs. try to do some courses down at your local bunnings (tiling, floor sanding etc) as they always come in handy.

anyhow - good luch, enjoy and there is nothing quite like that beer and hot shower at the end of the hard day.

 

[tondon]

Hello Mrs FHL
Its always good to have a little extra money set aside for unforseen blowouts, that cause STRESS. Could you somehow use delaying tactics on the 4 car garage. Maybe do the house renos and if they eat into the garage money, have the house revalued when renovated and beautiful, and draw on that extra money for the must have garage.
Good Luck

 

[luckstah]

You're plumbing budget is definetly too low. It will almost certainly be more than $500 to do the work you are saying.

 

[arungounder]

HI,
All I can say is watch out for the plumbing. When we got a Plumber to install the gas stove, Outlet point for a gas heater and a instantanious gas water heater my wife did not sleep for 2 days after hearing how much it cost us for this job.
I had already cut the kitchen bench from 600CM to 900CM to fit a bigger gas stove and installed the stove in place and all the plumber had to do was get the connection to the stove and connect it. It was not a very hard work as he ran the gas pipe along side the house and 4 mts under the house for the gas heater outlet point.
I would be very worried with any plumbing job as they always tend to be on the expensive side. ....

 

[arriety]

Looking for a reno is a good start - However you can overcapitalise so make sure the house is in an area of good growth, then if you do end up spending more than you expect on the reno (and I'm afraid your figures reflect you will) - it will be money well spent. It doesn't really take long to get the knack of it and as you say your OH a mechanical person. It's fun and a bit like camping at times but at the end you know you've increased your wealth while saving on rent money.

Word of advice about auctions - stick to your 'right price'. I know you are probably sick of looking at properties and dying to get started. Renos come up all the time but they take a bit of research. If you don't get this one, others will come on the market. Good luck.