With renovating, it all tends to be a bit disruptive, but if you have good tradesmen, most jobs arent a pain in the butt, and the end result is worth it. I just thought I'd mention too that my DH, brother and BIL are all tradies so they were able to do alot of the work which didnt cost anything.
HA! Thats my bathroom and kitchen budget too! I KNEW I'd be able to do it all for less than $40k for both...
Will be picking your brains at a later date Hat!
We're doing our kitchen ourselves next week. We have a budget of around $6000.
So far we've spent:
$3000 on the cabinets, benchtops etc. They are a flatpack.
Then we got some massive bargains:
Rangehood from DH's work which was a wrong order $50
Cooktop from Clive Peeters old display kitchen $130
We are using our existing oven which we only bought last year.
I don't know how much the electrician, tiling or flooring will cost yet. But am looking around for some bargains.
We did two bathrooms about 2 1/2 years ago - DH did most of the work himself except plumbing and electrician and we 'bargain-hunted'. Cost approx $6000 for both.
DH also pulled out and replaced our whole kitchen. We got the kitchen at auction (granite benches, 2 pak cupboards, pull-out pantry) for $5000, plus all appliances, a little retiling, and overhead cupboards for around $7000.
We've just had the house painted not long ago - $1800 I think (but get quotes, the first quote was about $3500!) and carpets around $900.
We've got plans to extend our deck and add a rear staircase- will have a double car space underneath too. It'll be huge (6 1/2 x over 7m) and we're looking at around $40 000. Out of our budget at the moment!
My best advice is to get lots of quotes as prices vary a lot! And shop around for appliances, tiles, lights, fans etc as you can get some great bargains!
Sounds like things can vary a lot!
I`d love to do more things ourselves but DH gets moody about even ikea!
Kitchens sound like they have a very big variance.
We did a new deck last christmas, it's fairly large about 12 mtrs long and 3/4 mtrs out from the house. (runs along the back of the house.) We also installed a sort of sun deck which is only 3x4 mtrs off to one side - just somewhere to get some sun as the rest is all under cover.
Ours is'n't high off the ground though, I suppose in a queenslander you would need to 'stilt' it up??
It was $10k from memory. I think the timber cost $3k, and the rest was labour and supplies. My dad installed his own deck which is on an outcrop so therefore on stilts, he was a carpenter though, but I know he thought we got a good price as the timber for his was $4k and apparently when priceing jobs you price the materials and then a third for supplies/costs and then a third for profit.
I'm glad he told me that actually because it has helped when I get quotes for everything else!!
We also did kitchen and bathrooms and ended up with the same costs as the other comments.
Pain in arse jobs??? Removing tiles, especially old ones which have been literally cemented on. My DH said he would never do that again, even though he had a tile removing tool. Also any sort of bricklaying is time consuming, getting every brick level is a 'pain in the arse' (or back!)
We have put up a few fences in our time and I would say that is a fairly easy job, bit of string, one of those fence hole diggers and some cement and you can knock it off in a weekend. I also think tiling can be worth doing yourself. You have to be one of those 'perfecionist' type people and not rush it, but I personally like tiling, with those spacer things its quite simple.
Phoar, what a reply! I'll leave you to it. HAPPY RENOVATING!
oh, good to know about tile removal! SOme of the houses weve been looking at have very 'interesting' tiles. I wonder if there is any thing else that can be done to change tiles without actually changing/removing them?? Some sort of magic paint?
We have had the interesting tiles as well, that took a lot of grunt to remove. Also the many layers of wallpaper, we are pretty sure the one with the brick print was meant to be load bearing
Renos are so hard to budget for, once you start ripping things done you can come across some very scary things. Always be prepared to pay more than what you think for electrical and plumbing, these tend to be the blow out areas.
Also budget in extra on petrol and parking. There is always a lot more driving to be done. Don't forget takeaway food budget, especially if you are ripping out a kitchen.
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