We have finally finished everything: the fencing, the sliding gate, tenants... almost. We're still waiting for the owner of the front house, the other cross-lease owner to sign off on the new title. Having problems there.
Meanwhile, we have found house number 2 - right next door. To get that, we've had to get a Registered Valuation on our do-up.... drum roll.... YES! We've squeaked in just over what we've actually outlayed. Once the bill comes in for the lawyers and land titles office registration for the new title, well that'll probably blow the cream off the top of our hot chocolate.
It's very exciting to have a run at getting the place next door. We can't believe we're getting to buy a house on the same size section, for little more than what we bought the first section for! We've gone unconditional and sign the mortgage docs tomorrow. Just waiting then for settlement to go through smoothly on Friday.
It may not be a smooth settlement, because it's a contemporaneous settlement. We have bought from a woman, who secured the house with a sale and purchase agreement but she doesn't have to settle until she sells it to someone else. She's a kind of trader, middle-gal. It was thus a 'private sale'.
The bank has really seemed to struggle with the whole deal. It nearly fell over when we informed our lawyer, naively, that the footprint of the house did not match up with what's on the title. It's "defective" she said. We looked up on the internet what a 'defective title' means and found that it can't be 'conveyed' so we thought that was all-over-rover. But, turns out you still can buy 'as is where is'. We just needed to give the bank our assurance that we would undertake to resurvey and fix the title, once we've done the renovations we're planning to do. And that's another story....
Monday, November 14, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Home maintenance and renovation costs
An article in the New Zealand Herald today outlines a couples' renovation. They've bared their soal in terms of the budget and that they'll be selling the place - in a national paper. So, you'd have to conclude that they're going to pay capital gains on this project, or will they? It looks like a classic do-up to sell project, but they don't say that. They sold their previous family home to buy this one and they spent $200,000 to renovate it. In the article, Rachel talks about the figures having to stack up - she talks about the resale value. I'd conclude, they always intended to flip it for gain. But, it's the family home - and under Labour's proposed Capital Gains Tax, the family home will be exempt. They've lived in it for more than a few months - yep, they're exempt. But, she's virtually advertising the place for sale by the end of the article.
Now, if they were asked to pay Capital Gains Tax, it would be only fair that the cost of renovations counts towards the expense of gaining any capital to be made at sale - thus the capital gain should be calculated to be only the profit (the amount left over after the expenses: purchase price, maintenance costs, lawyers and real estate agents fees, bank interest on the mortgage, rates, insurance and renovation and repair costs are all deducted.) That's only fair - maintaining a home and improving a home costs.
Now, if they were asked to pay Capital Gains Tax, it would be only fair that the cost of renovations counts towards the expense of gaining any capital to be made at sale - thus the capital gain should be calculated to be only the profit (the amount left over after the expenses: purchase price, maintenance costs, lawyers and real estate agents fees, bank interest on the mortgage, rates, insurance and renovation and repair costs are all deducted.) That's only fair - maintaining a home and improving a home costs.
Friday, July 15, 2011
The Truth Behind Labour's Capital Gains Tax Grab
Labour's Capital Gains Tax proposal is, as they admit, a tax grab. It's pitched as if it's a tax that will only affect a small percentage of rich people. It's pitched in a way, that implies there is no CGT now, which is not true. So who are they targeting? People harbouring resentment towards the 'rich'? People feeling hard done by and ripped off by the rich? They are also relying on people being fairly financially illiterate - well that's a lot of people. Even some 'rich' people are financially illiterate - they think they know what to do with their money, but look at how many people invest in managed funds and Kiwisaver.
How we pay CGT now
Let's say I work and work and climb the employment ladder until one day, lucky me, I start earning more money a week than I need to spend. Finally, I have some disposable income. Choices are: spend it on having fun or crap for the house, move up to a nicer lifestyle thus increasing my weekly outgoings so I have no disposable income each week; or, I could save it in the bank, where, after bank fees, tax on interest and inflation, I'll be lucky if it holds it's value. (Note: interest earned on money in the bank is taxed at the highest tax rate possible, your personal income tax rate).
The best thing to do with my disposable income is to buy assets - things that will actually appreciate in value (capital gain) or better yet earn money somehow (that's cashflow). There are a range of assets: property, shares, bonds, collectables like art or antiques, businesses...
Let's say I buy some shares in Air NZ. At the moment, I have to decide whether the shares are for my long-term savings portfolio (i.e. for retirement) or for trading. Trading means I'm going to watch the market and sell the shares when they increase in value - i.e. I'm going for capital gain.
The Air NZ shares in my long-term savings portfolio are not taxed. They just sit there long-term. Every now and then though, to balance my portfolio, I may sell some. Other things could happen, like a company gets taken over and the shareholders are paid out. I wouldn't pay tax on any capital gain, because that was not why I bought the shares in the first place. Labour is, if I've read it right, planning to tax any capital gains inadvertently earned via these occasional or unwelcome sales of shares.
The shares I bought for trading, for example, Genesis Research and Development at $2.60 are a purely speculative bet. Yep, it's like gambling. They looked good, were on track to develop a treatment for psoriasis. If they had, then they might have done well and the share value might have increased, at which point I'd sell. Any gains would be factored in to my annual income and taxed at the highest rate, i.e. personal tax rate (less the costs of buying and selling the shares).
Take home message: We already pay tax on capital gains from assets bought and sold for the purpose of making money. I don't like that, but that's the way it was.
We don't pay tax on money we convert into an asset of some kind that we then hold on to, that one day in the long distant future, we may have to sell to turn the asset back into money.
Labour says personal assets, like gold jewellery, will not be taxed. What about gold bars? Silver ignots? What about my Robyn Kahukiwa painting? And, the family home? The family home is going to be exempt. That might be because for many many people, the family home is not an asset, it's a liability! More on that next post.
How we pay CGT now
Let's say I work and work and climb the employment ladder until one day, lucky me, I start earning more money a week than I need to spend. Finally, I have some disposable income. Choices are: spend it on having fun or crap for the house, move up to a nicer lifestyle thus increasing my weekly outgoings so I have no disposable income each week; or, I could save it in the bank, where, after bank fees, tax on interest and inflation, I'll be lucky if it holds it's value. (Note: interest earned on money in the bank is taxed at the highest tax rate possible, your personal income tax rate).
The best thing to do with my disposable income is to buy assets - things that will actually appreciate in value (capital gain) or better yet earn money somehow (that's cashflow). There are a range of assets: property, shares, bonds, collectables like art or antiques, businesses...
Let's say I buy some shares in Air NZ. At the moment, I have to decide whether the shares are for my long-term savings portfolio (i.e. for retirement) or for trading. Trading means I'm going to watch the market and sell the shares when they increase in value - i.e. I'm going for capital gain.
The Air NZ shares in my long-term savings portfolio are not taxed. They just sit there long-term. Every now and then though, to balance my portfolio, I may sell some. Other things could happen, like a company gets taken over and the shareholders are paid out. I wouldn't pay tax on any capital gain, because that was not why I bought the shares in the first place. Labour is, if I've read it right, planning to tax any capital gains inadvertently earned via these occasional or unwelcome sales of shares.
The shares I bought for trading, for example, Genesis Research and Development at $2.60 are a purely speculative bet. Yep, it's like gambling. They looked good, were on track to develop a treatment for psoriasis. If they had, then they might have done well and the share value might have increased, at which point I'd sell. Any gains would be factored in to my annual income and taxed at the highest rate, i.e. personal tax rate (less the costs of buying and selling the shares).
Take home message: We already pay tax on capital gains from assets bought and sold for the purpose of making money. I don't like that, but that's the way it was.
We don't pay tax on money we convert into an asset of some kind that we then hold on to, that one day in the long distant future, we may have to sell to turn the asset back into money.
Labour says personal assets, like gold jewellery, will not be taxed. What about gold bars? Silver ignots? What about my Robyn Kahukiwa painting? And, the family home? The family home is going to be exempt. That might be because for many many people, the family home is not an asset, it's a liability! More on that next post.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
The Ripped-off Rollercoaster
Jake's got us dangling at the end of a line like a hooked fish. It was a beautiful day today, perfect for starting on the driveway. After the rain rain rain, day after day, you could say it was time. But where is he? His delaying tactics are clearly well-practiced: say you've got another job finishing today, blame the weather, say the soil has to dry out, demand money upfront for materials, give an incomplete bank account number so the money can't be transferred for another day - oops before you know it, it'll be raining again.
It's very hard to contemplate doing another project like this one. The house was advertised for rent at the beginning of May. It'll be the end of June next week and still we haven't finished the driveway, which we need to do to get final sign-off. We'll have to pull the ad and relist when the driveway is finally done. With the next fine day not forecast to occur for another 8 days.... aaaargh!!!
It's very hard to contemplate doing another project like this one. The house was advertised for rent at the beginning of May. It'll be the end of June next week and still we haven't finished the driveway, which we need to do to get final sign-off. We'll have to pull the ad and relist when the driveway is finally done. With the next fine day not forecast to occur for another 8 days.... aaaargh!!!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Weathering the delays
Heavy heavy rain no doubt going to give the driveway contractor another excuse to not start the work.
We finally got the building consent amendment approved and then had to wait a few days for the resource consent for the engineering plans to be approved. It pays to ring up and ask. We were dutifully waiting for the engineer to ring us, but the council guy posted the approval - by snail mail!! It was approved on the Monday, I rang on the Wednesday and found out he'd approved it, the letter didn't arrive in the mail box until Thursday. Three days of fine weather gone.
So, I immediately rang Jake. Jake - oh boy, now this is a whole 'nother story on it's own. Anyway, Jake's like - can we meet on Friday to get the plans. Two more days of fine weather pass!
So, now it's Saturday and it's been pouring down for almost 24 hours. No word from Jake.
We finally got the building consent amendment approved and then had to wait a few days for the resource consent for the engineering plans to be approved. It pays to ring up and ask. We were dutifully waiting for the engineer to ring us, but the council guy posted the approval - by snail mail!! It was approved on the Monday, I rang on the Wednesday and found out he'd approved it, the letter didn't arrive in the mail box until Thursday. Three days of fine weather gone.
So, I immediately rang Jake. Jake - oh boy, now this is a whole 'nother story on it's own. Anyway, Jake's like - can we meet on Friday to get the plans. Two more days of fine weather pass!
So, now it's Saturday and it's been pouring down for almost 24 hours. No word from Jake.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Council delays hold up progression to next project
We're still waiting for Council to approve the amendment to the Building Consent which will allow us to get the cesspit in and the new drive done.
Several lots of tenants are waiting to view or rent the house (click to view). We only advertised on Trade & Exchange online and http://www.sella.co.nz/ both of which are free. To list on Trademe would have cost $99! It's frustrating that we can't tell people a definate move in date. Most of them are saying they're keen to wait, since the house is worth it. None of the prospective tenants have baulked at the $390 pr wk rent plus having to pay for the water.
It's hard not to start looking for the next project. There's a house for sale on the same street for $300,000. The tenants are keen to stay. More attractive are the sections adjoining it. We find ourselves running away with ideas on what we could build there. How could we think of doing that after the gruelling year that it's been? It's the challenge. An empty site has it's own peculiar limitations: like the outlook, where the sun will be, the odd shape, the small size, the proximity to neighbours. There's the challenge of aiming to provide an honest comfortable home without over-capitalising, whilst remaining realistic about the area and the demographic of the community. There's no point building a $450,000 house in a street of houses worth only $280,000 that will only ever attract tenants able to pay $350 a week without over-crowding the place.
We're looking at kitsets. $145,000 for a section, $117,000 for a kitset to lock-up, $25,000 Council new dwelling fee, $5000 to WaterCare... $2700 building consent fees, plumbing, decorating - you do the sums. It just doesn't add up. It's up to $300,000 in no time without hidden extras. Can't do it. May as well buy the existing house and be earning from day one. Plus we wouldn't have to spend a year of weekends and holidays working on it.
Tim Ferris, in an interview on YouTube, said "income without time is no value." It's a good thing to remember: we're doing this to set up cashflow, to set up an income stream that will buy us out of having to sell our time to someone else and in the process make them rich. We've laboured very hard for a year to set up this rental property. The payback will be the passive income. Oh and the doodad:
The boat. That's just our small reward, our way of switching out of work-work-work back to a pattern of having some leisure (with a few snapper thrown in).
Several lots of tenants are waiting to view or rent the house (click to view). We only advertised on Trade & Exchange online and http://www.sella.co.nz/ both of which are free. To list on Trademe would have cost $99! It's frustrating that we can't tell people a definate move in date. Most of them are saying they're keen to wait, since the house is worth it. None of the prospective tenants have baulked at the $390 pr wk rent plus having to pay for the water.
It's hard not to start looking for the next project. There's a house for sale on the same street for $300,000. The tenants are keen to stay. More attractive are the sections adjoining it. We find ourselves running away with ideas on what we could build there. How could we think of doing that after the gruelling year that it's been? It's the challenge. An empty site has it's own peculiar limitations: like the outlook, where the sun will be, the odd shape, the small size, the proximity to neighbours. There's the challenge of aiming to provide an honest comfortable home without over-capitalising, whilst remaining realistic about the area and the demographic of the community. There's no point building a $450,000 house in a street of houses worth only $280,000 that will only ever attract tenants able to pay $350 a week without over-crowding the place.
We're looking at kitsets. $145,000 for a section, $117,000 for a kitset to lock-up, $25,000 Council new dwelling fee, $5000 to WaterCare... $2700 building consent fees, plumbing, decorating - you do the sums. It just doesn't add up. It's up to $300,000 in no time without hidden extras. Can't do it. May as well buy the existing house and be earning from day one. Plus we wouldn't have to spend a year of weekends and holidays working on it.
Tim Ferris, in an interview on YouTube, said "income without time is no value." It's a good thing to remember: we're doing this to set up cashflow, to set up an income stream that will buy us out of having to sell our time to someone else and in the process make them rich. We've laboured very hard for a year to set up this rental property. The payback will be the passive income. Oh and the doodad:
The boat. That's just our small reward, our way of switching out of work-work-work back to a pattern of having some leisure (with a few snapper thrown in).
Friday, May 20, 2011
Picking the dust off waiting for the Council
We just sit in our finished house amazed at the finish. We say to ourselves "we've done a good job given what we had to start with." We look around and think about how little some things cost: the curtain material $20, the kauri fire surround $32, the house itself $5,000! And yet, we're nearing the $300,000 mark in outlay. And, it's a year since we took possession of the section.
Minor touch up jobs remain. We're just waiting for the Council to approve an amendment to our Building Consent - for a cesspit at the street end of the new to-be-laid driveway. The Council made it a condition of getting title: that we had to rip up and rebuild the common right-of-way in steel enforced conrete. The house is ready for tenants, but we can't let anyone move in without Code. We could, but if the tenants burned the house down, likely insurance would not pay out. Gotta get Code!
We have a tenant keen to move in. She said it's the cleanest house she's looked at.
This week, hopefully, we'll hear from Council and can go ahead with booking the Council inspector to come and, hopefully, sign off. Lots of hoping going on...
Minor touch up jobs remain. We're just waiting for the Council to approve an amendment to our Building Consent - for a cesspit at the street end of the new to-be-laid driveway. The Council made it a condition of getting title: that we had to rip up and rebuild the common right-of-way in steel enforced conrete. The house is ready for tenants, but we can't let anyone move in without Code. We could, but if the tenants burned the house down, likely insurance would not pay out. Gotta get Code!
We have a tenant keen to move in. She said it's the cleanest house she's looked at.
This week, hopefully, we'll hear from Council and can go ahead with booking the Council inspector to come and, hopefully, sign off. Lots of hoping going on...
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Last ditch effort
The Council inspector put us on to a retired inspector to get a heads up on what we need to do to get Code (of Compliance). They both said the cost would be minimal. That's a Tui billboard for sure. $300 is not minimal! Oh well - another lesson learned. But, we have a long list of things we need to complete.
So we're ploughing through those, literally. Here's the progress on the front yard - most of which the Council want us to pave! It's a shame to lose the front yard to parking space.
We also have to extend the driveway down beside the house to make sure the buried electrics are buried - under concrete. This is also turning area.
That's the hired Bobcat, which is easy to use; though our great wooden fence is going to need some repair. A lot of hand work with a spade to shape up the edging ready for boxing.
Am in two minds about the front yard: pave it using a cold mix, or just lay base course and gravel, sprinkled with a bit of white shell and let the grass eventually take over? Cost is a factor - we're up to about $260,000 in total! Could we have bought a ready made house for this? Yes - with a garage even. But how much would we have had to spend fixing it up?
Here's another picture of the completed main bedroom.
Really fabulous!
We need some help deciding whether to install the antique kauri fire surround that we finished stripping and sanding. We were going to put it in to the lounge room, as shown in this picture.
It's a beautiful piece of furniture - but does it go? What do you think?
So we're ploughing through those, literally. Here's the progress on the front yard - most of which the Council want us to pave! It's a shame to lose the front yard to parking space.
Am in two minds about the front yard: pave it using a cold mix, or just lay base course and gravel, sprinkled with a bit of white shell and let the grass eventually take over? Cost is a factor - we're up to about $260,000 in total! Could we have bought a ready made house for this? Yes - with a garage even. But how much would we have had to spend fixing it up?
Here's another picture of the completed main bedroom.
Really fabulous!
We need some help deciding whether to install the antique kauri fire surround that we finished stripping and sanding. We were going to put it in to the lounge room, as shown in this picture.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Floored by the transformation
The interior painting is finished and the floors have been sanded and polished. We're amazed at the transformation provided by Brent Morris of Floor Enhances whose quote and ready availability beat out others on http://www.builderscrack.co.nz/. Here is the entrance hall, kitchen, main bedroom and lounge:
Friday, March 4, 2011
Painted out
The exterior is painted and the interior is almost complete. New photos show the amazing transformation, even we can hardly believe our eyes. It's been great going away from it and coming back to a done job.
The months are ticking by though and still it feels like there's so much to be done before we will qualify for the Code of Compliance, which we believe we need to rent the house.
Where we're at now - we don't think we'd do this again. It's too hard to do on top of fulltime jobs.
The months are ticking by though and still it feels like there's so much to be done before we will qualify for the Code of Compliance, which we believe we need to rent the house.
Where we're at now - we don't think we'd do this again. It's too hard to do on top of fulltime jobs.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Getting plastered
Our friendly neighbourhood painter has scraped and filled, plastered and applied undercoat to the lounge, main bedroom, kitchen ceiling and is progressing through the house as fast as we can rebuild in front of him.
Main bedroom plastered and undercoated.
Kitchen ceiling: scotia redone, lighting, batons, undercoated
Back room scraped, new gib lining under window, plastered
A room ahead of the painter, the hallway ceiling finally gets closed in.
Hall to bathroom undercoated (our job not the painters).
Laundry outside wall had to have builder's paper to meet Council requirements. We have to show them a photo, so this is it. It also has to have insulation, which is kind of useless because this would be the only section of the house walls that will have insulation rendering any insulating properties useless. Oh well the powers that be require it, so be it.
Monday, February 14, 2011
The Fastest Paintbrush in the West
Our painter is unbelievably fast. He's finished painting the exterior of the house in just over one week!
He was so fast and he did such a good job for a great price, that we've engaged him to progress the inside: stripping off the painted wallpaper, scraping sanding and plastering, and sanding and plastering again, undercoating and filling; then finally painting the ceilings, walls, window sills and frames, door frames - you name it, he'll do it. We just need to finish all the fiddly building bits, like skirting boards etc.
In 2 days, nearly the whole house inside has been scraped back. This photo shows the wall bared of it's old covering. It's stripped back to the gib.
We found this to be such a gruelling job. We tried the chemical wash that's supposed to dissolve the glue and scraping; we tried the Tiger scratchy thing and hired a steamer and you still have to scrape and pull, scrape and pull... a ghastly monotonous, seemingly never-ending job. And this family swoop in and like magic it's done. How? Well, they didn't use the scratchy thing or the steamer. They used a painter's spray gun to spray water on to the wall and peeled and scraped: spray, peel, scrape. The biggest difference, is probably the attitude. They seem almost chuffed and at the end of the day satiated by the work, as if they've just finished a grand feast.
No sooner have the painters' assistants stripped a room and the painter is filling gaps and plastering. This photo shows the lounge room in the process of receiving a first plastering. This is only Day 2 on the interior.
Make-over a tired tin fence
But wait there's more. On the weekend we had sis helping and she painted the old-falling-down-rusty tin fence. This is a simple cheap treatment for a boundary fence that's an eyesore. We looked on the mistint shelf at Placemakers and luckily for us we found 10 litres of pale yellow gloss exterior acrylic (for only $37). It doesn't really matter what colour it is. In this instance we were extremely lucky as the paint is almost the same colour as the house in front, so there's a kind of flow down the drive to the deepest corner of the property.
Turning old tongue & groove flooring into beautiful polished timber floors
We've completed lifting the old lino in the kitchen and entrance way. Underneath was old-tempered hardboard in the hall and thinline through the kitchen. That's all been pulled up and the staples and nails painstakingly removed with hammer and nail-puller. The treasure beneath: 100 x 20 untreated matai. There's a few boards with rot in the hall, but these can be swapped out with pieces pinched from the back bedroom which is going to receive carpet. The following photo shows the view from what was once the front door, through the entrance hallway, kitchen and into the dining room beyond. Once polished, this will give a sense of depth to the house when entering from here.
Readying the bathroom for vinyl
The race is on to completely finish a room. Will the painter beat us to it? Our room to finish is the bathroom/laundry. The vinyl (lino) floor covering has been chosen and the layers are waiting for the nod, but we thought it would be best to finish painting first. This photo shows the entrance hall to the bathroom and toilet sanded and scraped with it's first skimcoat of plaster on. Another light sand, wipe and then the paint goes on. But, it's Monday and we're back to our day jobs.
He was so fast and he did such a good job for a great price, that we've engaged him to progress the inside: stripping off the painted wallpaper, scraping sanding and plastering, and sanding and plastering again, undercoating and filling; then finally painting the ceilings, walls, window sills and frames, door frames - you name it, he'll do it. We just need to finish all the fiddly building bits, like skirting boards etc.
In 2 days, nearly the whole house inside has been scraped back. This photo shows the wall bared of it's old covering. It's stripped back to the gib.
We found this to be such a gruelling job. We tried the chemical wash that's supposed to dissolve the glue and scraping; we tried the Tiger scratchy thing and hired a steamer and you still have to scrape and pull, scrape and pull... a ghastly monotonous, seemingly never-ending job. And this family swoop in and like magic it's done. How? Well, they didn't use the scratchy thing or the steamer. They used a painter's spray gun to spray water on to the wall and peeled and scraped: spray, peel, scrape. The biggest difference, is probably the attitude. They seem almost chuffed and at the end of the day satiated by the work, as if they've just finished a grand feast.
No sooner have the painters' assistants stripped a room and the painter is filling gaps and plastering. This photo shows the lounge room in the process of receiving a first plastering. This is only Day 2 on the interior.
Make-over a tired tin fence
But wait there's more. On the weekend we had sis helping and she painted the old-falling-down-rusty tin fence. This is a simple cheap treatment for a boundary fence that's an eyesore. We looked on the mistint shelf at Placemakers and luckily for us we found 10 litres of pale yellow gloss exterior acrylic (for only $37). It doesn't really matter what colour it is. In this instance we were extremely lucky as the paint is almost the same colour as the house in front, so there's a kind of flow down the drive to the deepest corner of the property.
Turning old tongue & groove flooring into beautiful polished timber floors
We've completed lifting the old lino in the kitchen and entrance way. Underneath was old-tempered hardboard in the hall and thinline through the kitchen. That's all been pulled up and the staples and nails painstakingly removed with hammer and nail-puller. The treasure beneath: 100 x 20 untreated matai. There's a few boards with rot in the hall, but these can be swapped out with pieces pinched from the back bedroom which is going to receive carpet. The following photo shows the view from what was once the front door, through the entrance hallway, kitchen and into the dining room beyond. Once polished, this will give a sense of depth to the house when entering from here.
Readying the bathroom for vinyl
The race is on to completely finish a room. Will the painter beat us to it? Our room to finish is the bathroom/laundry. The vinyl (lino) floor covering has been chosen and the layers are waiting for the nod, but we thought it would be best to finish painting first. This photo shows the entrance hall to the bathroom and toilet sanded and scraped with it's first skimcoat of plaster on. Another light sand, wipe and then the paint goes on. But, it's Monday and we're back to our day jobs.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Exterior Painted Gives Morale Boost
After so many months the house is at least starting to look almost finished. We got a Pink Bin in last week and piled it full of the building rubbish; the lights are wired and most of them seem to work. Having finished the wiring, we were able to finish the insulation in the ceiling.
This photo shows the house with only it's first coat of paint complete. The WC (water closet) has got it's first coat on also and the wardrobes in the main bedroom have been bogged and undercoated.
We advertised the exterior painting job on Builderscrack but in the end gave the job to a painter who was working on the house next door. He has swooped in with 2 helpers and in one week, sanded, bogged and painted to this stage. They've been very fast.
There's still a lot of fiddly building inside to complete, like building a door frame to give the third bedroom a new door, finishing scotia replacement and ceiling batons, figuring out where to put the dishwasher.
Once the new laundry has been painted, the vinyl layers will come in and do their thing and soon, very soon, one room will be completely finished.
The struggle for us is to drag ourselves their after work and spend more time there on weekends - we've just not been very good at doing that. It's hard to put a date on when we'll be finished because of our being almost burnt out energy and motivation-wise. Looks like we will not get the house rented before the end of the financial year, which means no tax return can be filed and nothing we've spent on it can be claimed back as tax deductible. Capital expenditure, which most of it has been, could not have been claimed anyway.
The overdraft is mounting and we're over budget on the renovations (which we'd only set at $40,000). Friends of ours recently had their bathroom redone and that cost $18,000, so our measly budget of $40,000 was unrealistic to start with. Still, we're sliding fast towards a total spend that may very well exceed the registered valuation we'll get as soon as we're done.
Has it been a good investment? We're yet to calculate that. One advantage of this project is that it's sucked up every spare cent we've earned over the last 8 months. We sold our other house and got rid of the mortgage, which has saved us money. We've learnt that we can rent a house in a nicer area than where we could afford to buy, and hence are enjoying a nicer safer lifestyle. At the end of the project we will have only a small mortgage and great borrowing power, so we'll be able to borrow and buy another rental property straight away. So, whilst we've invested everything in developing this one rental property - actually it will result in us owning 2 rental properties. Sounds unbelievable even to us. Stay posted to see if we can pull it off.
This photo shows the house with only it's first coat of paint complete. The WC (water closet) has got it's first coat on also and the wardrobes in the main bedroom have been bogged and undercoated.
We advertised the exterior painting job on Builderscrack but in the end gave the job to a painter who was working on the house next door. He has swooped in with 2 helpers and in one week, sanded, bogged and painted to this stage. They've been very fast.
There's still a lot of fiddly building inside to complete, like building a door frame to give the third bedroom a new door, finishing scotia replacement and ceiling batons, figuring out where to put the dishwasher.
Once the new laundry has been painted, the vinyl layers will come in and do their thing and soon, very soon, one room will be completely finished.
The struggle for us is to drag ourselves their after work and spend more time there on weekends - we've just not been very good at doing that. It's hard to put a date on when we'll be finished because of our being almost burnt out energy and motivation-wise. Looks like we will not get the house rented before the end of the financial year, which means no tax return can be filed and nothing we've spent on it can be claimed back as tax deductible. Capital expenditure, which most of it has been, could not have been claimed anyway.
The overdraft is mounting and we're over budget on the renovations (which we'd only set at $40,000). Friends of ours recently had their bathroom redone and that cost $18,000, so our measly budget of $40,000 was unrealistic to start with. Still, we're sliding fast towards a total spend that may very well exceed the registered valuation we'll get as soon as we're done.
Has it been a good investment? We're yet to calculate that. One advantage of this project is that it's sucked up every spare cent we've earned over the last 8 months. We sold our other house and got rid of the mortgage, which has saved us money. We've learnt that we can rent a house in a nicer area than where we could afford to buy, and hence are enjoying a nicer safer lifestyle. At the end of the project we will have only a small mortgage and great borrowing power, so we'll be able to borrow and buy another rental property straight away. So, whilst we've invested everything in developing this one rental property - actually it will result in us owning 2 rental properties. Sounds unbelievable even to us. Stay posted to see if we can pull it off.
Shoddy work by house movers
We've just passed a pre-line inspection by the City Council building inspectors. They needed to sign off the new laundry framing, electrics and wall-lining before we could insulate and wall in and finish the laundry. That was the good news.
The bad news was the building inspector looked around and informed us that the house is not sitting on the piles correctly! The house movers used packers where the pile didn't quite reach up to the house, and they incorrectly packed with custom board! Duh! Ok we can get under the house, jack it up in places and replace the shoddy packers with slices of actual pile wood. But, worse, some of the bearers are not sitting correctly on some piles. They're off to one side or the other and this is not allowed. We will not get Code of Compliance with it like that.
We need Code of Compliance to get the new title for the land issued and to be able to refinance. So, this is crucial to the successful completion of our project.
Not quite sure yet how we fix the problem. No doubt there'll be more unexpected un-budgetted-for expense.
The bad news was the building inspector looked around and informed us that the house is not sitting on the piles correctly! The house movers used packers where the pile didn't quite reach up to the house, and they incorrectly packed with custom board! Duh! Ok we can get under the house, jack it up in places and replace the shoddy packers with slices of actual pile wood. But, worse, some of the bearers are not sitting correctly on some piles. They're off to one side or the other and this is not allowed. We will not get Code of Compliance with it like that.
We need Code of Compliance to get the new title for the land issued and to be able to refinance. So, this is crucial to the successful completion of our project.
Not quite sure yet how we fix the problem. No doubt there'll be more unexpected un-budgetted-for expense.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Our summer building
Nearly every day over the christmas/new year holidays we've done some work on the house. We had xmas day off. Then we had to move from our temporary rented accommodation after only 3 months, so that took out 2 more days.
New photos are up on Flicker showing the baseboards completed, the front steps built, the soffits done. Lots of small fiddly bits have progressed. We decided to replace the rotten floor under the bath because it didn't feel right to leave a gaping hole under there for the rats to get in.
The laundry is progressing. The water is finally on. Watercare however, hit us with a huge bill, some of which was development costs!
The exterior just needs holes bogged up and it's on to sanding in preparation for painting.
Council need to come do a pre-line inspection of the laundry before that can be insulated and finished off.
Back to our fulltime jobs tomorrow, so progress will slow down. We've decided we're just going to have to pay others to come in and do the plastering, quite possibly all the painting, lay the lino and polish the floors. It's a shame to run out of steam at the end, but we just want to get it finished so we can rent it out and move on with our lives.
We've been looking at buying a boat - dreaming of a life of leisure. It's probably something to force us to take the weekend off.
New photos are up on Flicker showing the baseboards completed, the front steps built, the soffits done. Lots of small fiddly bits have progressed. We decided to replace the rotten floor under the bath because it didn't feel right to leave a gaping hole under there for the rats to get in.
The laundry is progressing. The water is finally on. Watercare however, hit us with a huge bill, some of which was development costs!
The exterior just needs holes bogged up and it's on to sanding in preparation for painting.
Council need to come do a pre-line inspection of the laundry before that can be insulated and finished off.
Back to our fulltime jobs tomorrow, so progress will slow down. We've decided we're just going to have to pay others to come in and do the plastering, quite possibly all the painting, lay the lino and polish the floors. It's a shame to run out of steam at the end, but we just want to get it finished so we can rent it out and move on with our lives.
We've been looking at buying a boat - dreaming of a life of leisure. It's probably something to force us to take the weekend off.
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