Shopping for Renos

Hi Guys, We are about to undertake our 1st reno :confused: (main priorities in this order are bathroom, kitchen, street appeal ie rendering and maybe some landscaping)... Just wondering if anyone would care to share there fav bargain haunts :D Thanks Mel
 
Hi Mel

It depends on the expectation of the market in your area - for examples if most kitchens in the area are laminex, or if it is a more affluent area that demands Caesarstone benchtops.

It also depends on if you are renovating a property that you intend to rent out, or alternatively place on the resale market. If it is resale, you might opt to go for annual plants with lots of floral colour, knowing full well the plants will die after a couple of months, but they have served a purpose of providing colour and prettiness long enough to get the property sold.

I've occasionally seen some half decent curtains in The Reject Shop of all places! They don't have them all the time and the size may not suit your needs, but if you do, suddenly your windows cost you $20 per window to furnish rather than hundreds.
 
Last edited:
Ebay and graysonline!
Find a decent seller and get the lot through one place. If you need to physically see the products before hand ebay can be a bit daunting. We did ours all off ebay and only went into one tile place... got put off by the millions of different tiles, sizes, colurs shapes etc and just stuck to ebay. we knew we wanted white and grey then it was a matter of working out sizes. done!

Graysonline is great for appliances, just takes time to pick out the things you want and wait for them to come up at the right price. we saved thousands on our kitchen appliances!
 
Not exactly answering your question however I think the below is very important.

We are currently 2/3 of the way through a whole house reno on a 4 bed 2 bath property which needed a complete demolition and rebuild of just about every room in the house. From my recent experience the most important things you can do are the following:

* Have a clear vision in your mind as to how you want it to look when you are done BUT be flexible as well.

* Be prepared. Get early access to measure and get quotes. Use the time between exchange and settlement to research and shop.

* Pick up bargains when they come up and as mentioned before be flexible. I knew exactly what tiles I wanted however the tile shop which was closing down didn't have any left. I still got my white tiles but just not in the exact size I wanted. I did save thousands on tiling my whole house though. I have found that although I love Ebay and Grays Online, they were good to get ideas from but I could get cheaper using clearouts, sales, facebook, gumtree and even Bunnings.

* Demolish and clear out and clean before painting, tiling and carpeting.

* Have a rough mudmap of a timeframe and allow time for yourselves to have some downtime. Understand that all the planning and time management, things still go wrong or take longer than you think. Be flexible.

* Realise that your energy levels will be high and you will be very motivated when you first start but after a few weeks your energy levels and motivation can drop. Try to get the bulk of the physical work done early and if you are getting tradies in try to get it done a little down the track if you can so you can have a bit of a recharge yourself at the same time as they are working.

* Whatever you budget for the reno add at least 10% on top.

My husband and I have painted, updated carpet and redid gardens etc in our own house previously but we have never done a complete reno project. Apart from the budget blowing out I think we have done a great job although with a 6 year old son at school and me working 6 days a week we are getting tired. We are 6-7 weeks in on our reno and probably have about 4 weeks left to go.

Good luck and enjoy!
 
For tiles

http://www.tfo.com.au/

Be it that last time I called in they seemed to have changed staff so may have changed hands which could impact their previous good pricing.

For other bathroom things we generally use Osmans. He sells via Ebay but there is a show room in Auburn. I belief they have opened some others.

http://stores.ebay.com.au/OSMANS-HOME-IMPROVEMENTS

For Kitchens we us Payless Kitchens out at Hoxton Park. We manage the whole kitchen install even installing the kitchens ourselves and installing our own granite tops etc. As such you may not find them the best price for your situation.

One thing that is for sure is don't buy anything in the Shire as everything is too damn expensive.


Cheers

PS a previous thread re this same question

http://somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?p=833498#post833498
 
For tiles

http://www.tfo.com.au/

Be it that last time I called in they seemed to have changed staff so may have changed hands which could impact their previous good pricing.

For other bathroom things we generally use Osmans. He sells via Ebay but there is a show room in Auburn. I belief they have opened some others.

http://stores.ebay.com.au/OSMANS-HOME-IMPROVEMENTS

For Kitchens we us Payless Kitchens out at Hoxton Park. We manage the whole kitchen install even installing the kitchens ourselves and installing our own granite tops etc. As such you may not find them the best price for your situation.

One thing that is for sure is don't buy anything in the Shire as everything is too damn expensive.


Cheers

PS a previous thread re this same question

http://somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?p=833498#post833498

I second Osmans i was scratching my head to think of the name! We got everything for our bathroom from them. And a free gernie! Great prices and cant fault the quality. cheapsest we found (unless you want to shop around to save 10 bucks on minor pieces)
 
Thanks everyone!! Some great food for thought and lots of options to check out!

The property is a little cheap 3 bed IP so we arent after anything fancy... Its still daunting though, first time around and the property in 5 hours from us which will make life interesting :eek: None the less Im still keen to get my 1st small reno under my belt! :)
 
Back
Top