Australia

Renovation Rescue – Day 12

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So today I think I have come to the unfortunate realisation that my 2 week time frame for this project is just a bit tight. Not tight like your jeans after Christmas lunch, more like when you’ve just taken them out of the tumble dryer (there’s still some stretching to do and they’ll fit perfectly). That’s what I feel like, stretching it out right to the last minute I can work on it and then review where I’m at. I’m confident that by Sunday the property will be 95% complete but being a bit OCD as I sometimes tend to be, 100% would have been nice. Anyhow, let’s not dwell on what has not happened yet and focus on today’s activities.

I’d been eagerly awaiting the plasterer to come back and finish sanding off all of the work he had done and I was not dissapointed when he turned up at 8:30 and got to work with his fantastic vacuum powered sanding machine. It took him about 30 minutes, to do it by hand would have taken hours and been very messy. Often it pays to pay a professional to do things. Advice to self: don’t think that you have to do everything yourself (or have the skills to do so!). Whilst he was doing this I thought I’d work on some of the last areas to wash down being the bathroom. I really am finding it difficult to describe how filthy the bathroom is. How it got so filthy I’m sure is a combination of many things but check out the pictures below so see a few of the shots from when I was half way through, they speak for themselves. After finishing this and feeling like I needed a good shower myself it was time to get on with the major project for today, the lounge.

With the lounge now plastered to within an inch of it’s life it was on with the paint. Now painting is one of those things that I’m always really excited about doing as you know you’ll usually get a good result. This enthusiasm today lasted for about 15 minutes until I realised the magnitude of today’s task to get two coats on both the ceiling and walls. If they were in a clean condition then it would have been a lot easier but this truly felt like one of the longest days of the entire project. Just getting the cornices to come up well seemed to take forever. But with a few coffees under my belt and the hits of today that we all love from such fine artists as Miley Cyrus playing in the background two coats on the ceiling and walls was completed by the end of the day. A very, very boring and time consuming job to be doing but I’m pleased with the end result.

The day finished up with a visit from my long-time property manager Jamie who has a great eye for detail (knowing almost every property in the area) and the feedback so far was really positive. Thanks Jamie!

With the front half of the property now almost complete tomorrow we head into the kitchen.

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Renovation Rescue – Day 11

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Day 11 of the reno and even though I’m absolutely exhausted at the end of each day, today I couldn’t get back to the property fast enough as I had planned to do what I anticipated to be the most fun activity of the entire project and it certainly didn’t let me down. I actually did the first part of this project yesterday (as it takes 48 hours to complete) but didn’t want to blog about it until I could display the finished product to my trusty followers. It was time to re-surface the benchtops!

Now usually most people probably would not get all that excited about bench re-surfacing but I had discovered this product called Rustoleum Countertop Transformations. It’s so much cheaper than having to get new benchtops and a stack of fun to actually do. The benchtops were a revolting green colour (once again a remnant from the 70’s) and were in fairly ordinary condition. Whilst intact, they were faded and had several nail and screw holes throughout them from various things. There were a number of steps involved including sanding the benchtops, giving them a coat of an adhesive base paint, spraying ‘decorative chips’ over the surface (as well as about half of the kitchen), waiting overnight, scraping and then sanding back, then finally applying a  2-part protective coat over the top. Throw in a visit from my friend Dora as well as a quick lunch with friend and fellow renovator Ryan and it was a hugely successful day. I need to say no more, I’ll let the videos and photos below show you the fun part!

The award winning masterpiece below filmed by the technologically savvy foreman shows the highlight of the process (besides the finished product). The Sir David Attenborough style narration is excellent.

And this is the product instructional video showing some very smiley Americans having a great time with their countertop transformation!

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Renovation Rescue – Day 10

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After a week and a half of going hard at this renovation, I’m really starting to feel for the contestants on The Block. Two weeks of this full-time is going to be pretty exhausting, eight weeks must be crazy but I’m sure I’d be finding it easier if I was being followed around by TV cameras every day. After having a few wet and cold days last week today it was almost 30 degrees so although the other extreme it was a great day to get a heap of things done. Fortunately for me the partner of one of the owners in this block of units is a plasterer, so calling in a favor I was able to get him to really tidy up a lot of the damaged plaster throughout the house as well as cover the brickwork in the kitchen. A lot of these style of units have exposed brickwork and although a hit in the 70’s now it’s not so much of a feature. I decided to go halfway and cover the kitchen brickwork and leave the lounge. It also helps to brighten up the kitchen and make it feel like a truly separate space. Unfortunately the plasterer won’t be back until Friday morning to sand it all down (and there’s a surprising amount to do) so that will delay the rest of my painting by a day but it won’t be a big issue as there are plenty of other jobs for tomorrow.

Whilst the plasterer was inside it put a hold on any work in there so I got back into the front garden. Some advice to gardeners of the 70’s – please don’t cover your garden beds in black plastic sheeting to try and keep the weeds down, it doesn’t work and it’s a nightmare to pull up 40 years later. Moaning over, I dug up the garden bed, made an edging out of the many volcanic rocks that I dug up and started planting out more of my long suffering agapanthus. I got half done before the combination of heat, the plasterer finishing up as well as it being lunchtime and I threw in the garden shovel for the day.

After lunch it was time to start hanging up some curtains that were purchased last week, these were for the bedroom and the lounge area (a venetian blind for the kitchen arrived by courier today but that will go up later). Coupled with a few sturdy but inexpensive curtain rods from Ikea they didn’t take too long to go up. One thing I must say though is although the Ikea rods are great their curtain rings are terrible. They do the job but in a not-quite-right and quirky Ikea way. I was eager to get these up so that the creases have a chance to start falling out of them. They are a touch too long but the rods can be raised up so that they will sit correctly.

Finally today it was time to do something special in the kitchen in order to prep it for my next fun activity that I’ve been busting to do for ages. As you’ll see by the photos it looks like I might be concerned that the oven had a case of ebola, don’t fret though, the oven is perfectly fine (if in need of a good clean). Stay tuned tomorrow to see one of the most fun activities that I’ve been up to so far!

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Renovation Rescue – Day 9

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Today really felt like a major turning point in the renovation. In what is quite a small property it seems that there are hundreds of tiny jobs to do all the time and you get to the end of the day and think what have I achieved? Even though you’ve been flat out since 8am you look back and think, well I spent 3 hours washing down walls or 2 hours digging up old roots out of the front garden…not exactly something to write home about. So after the success of the vinyl installation yesterday I was very excited to be finishing off the floors with the carpet being installed for the lounge and bedroom. I have been looking forward to a big ticket item and this was just the one! Yesterday the vinyl installer arrived right on 8am so I was there ready to go at the same time today. 8am…9am…10am…11am…and then a phone call. Wavering between glass half full and half empty as I sometimes do I was expecting a no-show but fortunately they were just confirming the address and would be there in 5 minutes. As promised they soon arrived and got straight to work.

Having already removed the carpets and underlay was a huge time saver and after a brief inspection (and confirming the carpet was the one I selected) things progressed really quickly. The carpet underlay was amazingly put down in less than 10 minutes. Rolled out, cut to size and stapled down in no time. My glass had suddenly turned to more than half full! The rolls of carpet were soon in and the two guys had it down in just over an hour, they even trimmed up a nice section to finish off the base of the bedroom wardrobe. I couldn’t be happier with the end result and it has made an enormous transformation to the place. I’m really starting to see what the end result is going to look like now.

The other interesting achievement today was something that ‘the foreman’ had been thinking about for a few days. There is a cupboard in the lounge that has 4 shelves in it and on the top shelf gracefully sits the old hot water heater. Now I have no idea how it would have been put in there in the first place but even less of an idea how we could ever get it out (without some sort of helicopter and cable setup) so we needed to cover it whilst still allowing the cupboard door to close. Along comes the foreman with a tailor made piece of plywood with two holes with string through them. Liquid nails goes around the outside and it’s inserted into the cupboard, pulled tight and fastened to a nail either side (see the pictures for this to make sense). Once the liquid nails has dried the string is cut and the holes filled. The end result once painted is a neatly covered up old hot water service that no one will need to ever know about! Very impressed.

Tomorrow I’m going to be in the mood to get plastered!   

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Renovation Rescue – Day 8

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Now that things are on the home stretch and I have a maximum of 6 days left before I have to go back to the delights of my full time job, I’m starting to get a bit nervous about the amount of stuff I have left to do. Probably not so much that there is a lot, more so that what is remaining is fairly time consuming and not necessarily things that I have done before. Whilst I feel pretty confident with a paintbrush, screwdriver or garden shovel in my hand this week will test my skills with some fun activities planned for the remainder of the kitchen and bathroom!

Today though saw two exciting things happen in the property. First was the removal of the hideous brown veneer bench extension that sat between the kitchen and the lounge and secondly, the first of the new floor coverings was delivered and installed…a momentous occasion! From the day I saw the pictures of this place for sale on the internet I immediately disliked the bench extension. Not only was it dated, it looked out of place with the rest of the kitchen being both a different colour and a different height to the other benches (it felt like more of a breakfast table). The other thing was that I felt it made the place feel smaller (it’s small enough as it is) and anything to make it feel larger and more spacious I think is a good thing. So out it came in about 5 minutes. I was so thrilled once it was gone and you can see from the photos below that it instantly made a great difference in the space.

A quick clean of the floor (which was soon rendered pointless anyhow) and Errol the vinyl installer arrived ready to go. Initially it was discussed that when installing the vinyl they would simply go over the top of the old stuff but upon further inspection it was decided that it should go. Most of it was loose-layed anyhow so it was removed pretty easily. The preparation seemed to take the longest amount of time here and Errol was pretty busy for a good hour or two making sure the surface was prepped and ready to lay the new vinyl. The selection of the vinyl is something that I don’t think I’ll be certain about until I see the place completed at the end of this week. Initially I was eager to go for a wood look but was convinced otherwise by the flooring supplier to go for something that would not as clearly show any damage over the years, this design I was told is easier to repair if you have to and not be noticed rather than something with a distinct pattern in it. I took the advice and whilst I’m 90% happy with the end result I’m keeping the other 10% up my sleeve until the end of this week. The great thing was that there was also a lot of large off-cuts so I’ll be putting them to use later in the week. I’ve got to admit though, it mad a HUGE difference in the kitchen and once I paint around the kick-boards under the cupboards that’s pretty much all of the hideous brown skirting gone…hooray!

Tomorrow will be the last day we need to look at the stained floorboards.

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Renovation Rescue – Day 6

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Day 6 of the renovation was shaping up to be a big one from the beginning. I overlooked mentioning yesterday that I decided to put the carpet up for sale online and actually had a bite. Unfortunately I had only pulled up the carpet in the bedroom so still had the lounge carpet to tear up. As an interlude before I continue, it reminded me of this video…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJGksvSzXzs

At 8:30 am I had a call from the purchaser and I still hadn’t torn it up so within about 3 minutes it was pulled up, rolled up and out the front of the house just as the man was walking down the driveway…phew! $20 and 10 minutes later he was driving off with a truck full of 30 year old carpet, there’s obviously a buyer for everything out there.

Today’s other major activity was to have the front windows on the veranda replaced. Although a somewhat unusual arrangement (and probably not original) this glassed in area creates a nice entrance to the house and somewhat of a small sun room at the front. It’s also consistent with all of the other units in the block. Unfortunately although the glass was ok the frame had seen better days and was ready to fall out (check out the photos to see how bad it was). A new window had been measured and ordered a few weeks prior so it was timed to be installed whilst all of the works were being completed. Fortunately the installers were right into it and in no time the old window was out. I gave them a hand to put the new window in (like I know what I’m doing) and they finished it off nicely with some neat flashing around the framework. Whilst I was initially unsure about having this replaced (I thought we’d just get rid of it completely) I’m glad that we did as it looks really good and gives the impression of an additional space attached to the unit. It’s also good as the winters here get pretty cold. I still have a few finishing touches to do here which I’ll complete over the next week and will finish it off nicely.

Finally, it was a really pleasant surprise to get a visit from my long-time friend Ryan who is a much more accomplished renovator than I am (check out he’s work here…yes, I’ve pinched his blogging idea). I greatly appreciated his encouragement and I cannot wait for him to see the finished product next week. The picture of us below shows us highlighting the mystery stains all over the internal brick wall…we have some theories but it may forever remain a mystery.

Tomorrow it’s time to finally put my green thumb to work!

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Renovation Rescue – Day 4

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At the end of yesterday’s post I said that today I would work on getting the carpet to match the curtains…I’d like to forewarn all readers to avoid typing this in to Google and hitting images. It certainly didn’t assist in any way to help me choose colours for new carpets, vinyl or curtains. It was however, quite a learning experience but not anything you’ll see on any home renovation shows any time soon. In all seriousness though, today had a target in mind and that was to order new floor coverings and to get some curtains and drapes for the bedroom and lounge.

I had arranged quotes for carpets and vinyl a few weeks earlier when I was not at the property and I’m glad I did as this was an immediate time saver. Knowing who I was going to get to supply and install the floor coverings all I had to do was select what I wanted. The criteria was simple – new, hard wearing, inexpensive (for carpet) and a more modern look than what was already there. About 45 minutes after walking in the store I walked out having selected ‘Pebble Bay’ carpet for the lounge and bedroom (I don’t think it describes the colour but see the pics) and a complementing vinyl which I’m sure will hide a lot of sins over the coming years. Installation is occurring next week so stay tuned.

In the car I then go to Spotlight as I’ve got a meeting booked with my other renovation consultant (my mum) to look at curtains and drapes. If I thought the speed of choosing the carpets was going to reflect this stage I was wrong. After the two of us rummaged through the entire store I had undergone a crash course in sheer, blockout, drops, pencil pleat, pinch pleat, overhangs etc, etc. Thanks goodness mum was there to guide me through (and to pester the very patient sales staff). After quite some time and holding on to about 10 different pairs of curtains (just in case someone else picked them up and we decided they were the ones we wanted), we settled on 2 sets in different colours (this is me taking a risk here people, I live on the edge) as well as some simple sheer curtain to go behind the blockout drapes…phew, I need a drink.

Back to the property, a quick paint around the cornices in the bedroom to finish them off, another window sill painted out in the bathroom, hanging the sheer over the bedroom and lounge windows (I’ll leave the drapes until after the carpets are in) and it was amazingly another day done.

Tomorrow I’m expecting a visit from someone who will hopefully brighten up my day!

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Renovation Rescue – Day 2

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Day one of the project has been and gone with what seems like not a lot to show for it. Most of it was spent getting supplies and once I get in to Bunnings or Masters it’s difficult to get me out the front door so an hour or two quickly disappeared. Returning to the property laden with supplies such as paint, rollers, cleaning products and the “must do’ for every new property purchase (a new toilet seat) it was time to get cracking. The day flew past getting the place in order to make a solid start and the rubbish bin was soon full. For a vacant property it’s amazing the stuff you can get out of it that you don’t want. Down came old window furnishings, 30 year old lamp shades, cupboard linings, the old toilet seat and a surprising amount of wall hooks, nails and other fasteners that does make you wonder how much stuff (and what) people hang on their walls. The final focus was on the bedroom which is going to be the first quick win with a wash down of the ceiling and walls in readiness for painting which brings us to day two, today!

Ceiling white can work absolute miracles…as far as paint can work miracles. Although I’d washed down the ceiling and walls, the first coat of paint on the ceiling made an amazing difference. Even after just painting about a metre of the cornice I had to stand back and admire the difference. it was all the encouragement I needed to get the first coat on and what a difference! The photos below speak for themselves. Two coats were achieved on the ceiling and then an idea struck. The bedroom wardrobes have sure seen better days and have certainly seen numerous people’s clothes in them over the years. A quick coat of ceiling white (one coat did the trick) and you’ve got a fresh and clean spot to store as may Gucci handbags as you like!

The other great improvement for the day ably completed by my hard working foreman on the job (my father) was to start painting out the window frames. Formerly completed in a colour that can only be achieved by eating some 3 day old takeaway curry that you’ve left out in the sun, a fresh coat of gloss paint that matches the lighter wall colour brought it into this century kicking and screaming. Before you knew it the day was done and it was time to wash out the brushes and plan for day 3 which will involve an ebay purchase that I’m very proud of!

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Renovation Rescue – Getting a head-start

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So after settlement of this property I had a few busy weeks prior to being able to take some solid time off to really sink my teeth into this renovation project and I wasn’t going to be able to spend more than a day at the property. I knew that at the most I could allocate two weeks off from work to get this project done so I was eager to still utilise any time that I had in the lead up to the two weeks in order to make things progress along. The first thing I was going to do was spend the one day that I did have at the property to do some fairly dramatic work in the front garden to prepare it for re-planing with some leafy and low maintenance plants. Getting rid of the un-loved plants that were there and revitalising the soil was my goal for the day, unfortunately 30 years worth of plants didn’t all come out as easy as I first thought. The end result after a lot of hard work provides the blank canvas that I was after however. See below.

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The other thing I wanted to do was to renew the kitchen and bedroom cupboards and drawers with a fresh coat of paint and some new hardware. This was a great job to do on the move so I removed all of the doors and drawers and took them home with me. Even though I was not at the property I was still able to renew all of the doors and drawers which has saved a lot of time since being back at the property. A fresh paint, some modern new handles and a trick I learnt from YouTube to remove paint from old hinges and they are ready to go! I’m pretty chuffed with the before and afters!

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Tomorrow out come the paint brushes!

Property investor expo

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So the home buyer and property investor show has been doing the rounds in Australia this year and heads to Melbourne from August 29-31. Whilst it may not be everyone’s idea of an amazing weekend activity, if you’re eager to learn more about property investment and hear from a range of experts it’s a great opportunity. There are a variety of seminars over the three days that cover topics from mortgages and finance through to depreciation and renovations. And at $18 for an online ticket it just might be some of the best money that you can invest!

http://youtu.be/Dr_orLUQKn8