A little PSA on renovating your home

[serena23]

We’ve just made cosmetic renovations new carpet, new flooring, polishing old floors, new storm water plumbing, down lights throughout, 3 x BIRs, painting, replastering, caulking, kitchen respraying and landscaping front and rear - plus a heap of smaller things you’d hardly notice.

Spent around $100,000 and real happy with the results:

A few things I’ve learned I’d like to share:

• demo costs a heap, as do skips, tree removal and asbestos removal. Stuff that adds close to no visible value esta budget. In our case a heap of concrete drive, a few large trees and a heap of paving/garden needed removing.
• you will spend approx 20-30% more than you budget. You’re going to blow your budget - accept that. Things will come up you never realised you’d have to do.
• one job completed creates a few more eg. New floors go in, now you gotta repaint skirting plus hire caulking.
• it takes a shit load of mental energy, time & inconvenience on your life (even if you do zero of the actual work). Researching materials/designs, getting samples, sourcing and deciding on tradies/quotes etc. plus making sure everything has been done right and fixing defects. Also actually agreeing with your partner, luckily in our case we share similar tastes.
• it’s very distracting for your business in our case (or career) and family life.
• the jobs is never done, just less incomplete.
• Hipages was handy as is knowing good trades or getting referred by friends. Having friends do work though can be great but also challenging if there are problem with the work. I prefer to break balls of someone I’m not having a beer with next week.
• see a paint color or garden you like? Knock on a door. We found the best landscaper doing this.

 

[diannna]

@serena23 Add to this. If you are planning to renovate yourself, what you think will take a month will actually take a year.

 

[sadd]

@diannna And when the guy renovating your kitchen says something will take one day, he's lying

 

[1astrokiid1]

@sadd Half a day in September. Half a a day in December. One day.

 

[sadd]

@1astrokiid1 Tradie maths

 

[luke631]

@diannna And costs 10x more lol

 

[serena23]

@luke631 And ruin your life

(I’ve seen someone do a bathroom & take 3 years )

 

[roberta53]

@serena23 We repainted our house and it took 8 full days of labour for the two of us. Every muscle and bone in our body ached for days after. It really is hard work!

 

[serena23]

@roberta53 Be honest, we’re yiu happy with the outcome and would you do it again?

 

[roberta53]

@serena23 Absolutely happy with the outcome. Can’t see anything wrong. No way would I put my body through that again haha

 

[sandwichboy]

@roberta53 Yes! You almost need to train/workout before attempting renos so you've got enough strength and flexibility.

 

[luke631]

@serena23 Worse than that i cant accept less than perfection from my own work.
So expect to do some stuff twice for defects no one else can even see

 

[freethinker711]

@luke631 Amen to that. i do a fair amount of DIY and spend a long time making something no one will notice perfect. neighbour just watched me set fence posts all to within 1mm height variance with the dumpy for no valid reason - his fence has 20mm variance in some spots and still looks good

 

[jackieortiz1002]

@serena23 Ouch, I feel attacked. I'm on year two of a 1.5x3m ensuite reno. One weekend day a month to tile floor to ceiling for a complete beginner makes it drag out significantly.

 

[diannna]

@luke631 It certainly adds up.

 

[ladodgers6]

@luke631 Exactly like if you hired someone else to do it.

 

[luke631]

@ladodgers6 Yeah i still prefer doing it my self but its not easy cheap or fast

 

[resjudicata]

@diannna Lol Owner builder.. 19 years later, my adult kids mention this too often .
I found - I took 6 times longer but I learnt a lot and was proud of my skills . Lol although this new place isn’t getting my attention ! I’m too old

 

[enfeoffment75]

@diannna We hired a builder to manage ours

She did a full gut of 3 bed and 1 bath and extension (extra master bedroom, ensuite, walk in, study nook and dining area) in 5 months and we are soo happy.

She offered me to get quotes for certain things, example kitchen cabinets, and she would use them if they were cheaper. I could never get a cheaper quote even after her added 20%

I know we lucked out on the timeline but she was a star, no way we could achieve what she did even in a couple of years, I have mates that took 6 months to do a bathroom themselves. Maybe you save a grand or two here and there but if we factored in the cost of living elsewhere or opportunity cost of living life, hiring her was the best decision we could have made.

 

[gary1993]

@diannna Am currently 6-months in to adding under-floor insulation.

Hard agree