Drowning in paint

The back house is all painted. Despite the accident - when the painter slapped the roof paint on the house exterior - it's come out okay. The roof colour is looking a little lighter than the same colour on the house.

We're still trying to get rid of the eye-sore blue shed at the back. Have sold it twice on Trademe but the people didn't go through with the buy. That seems to be happening alot on Trademe lately.

The front house has just got it's first coat of paint on the roof. French doors bought from a demolition trader via Trademe have gone in to the driveway side of the house (that's North, sun-facing) and allow alot more light inside.

Inside is almost just the skeleton. We've had to rip up some of the laundry floor because of poor repairs to rotten subfloor timbers. Some joists run across to nothing - no support. Some are propped on timber which is standing on another piece of timber sitting on the ground!

New beams have to be put in where the dining room walls are coming out. This requires new supports and new piles, hence the holes in the floor through which we had to manually dig down into the dirt underneath to install new tanalised timber piles and concrete. We're held up on that while we wait for the Council Permit. They've got some questions on heights, thickness and materials... as they usually do. 

Roof paint on the walls solves colour problem

Our painter friend finds us way too slow. Since the only paint we supplied was the roof paint and he was waiting for the exterior weatherboard paint, he just decided to go ahead and paint the weatherboards with it.

Meanwhile, I was agonising over a colour and buying a test pot. Nekminut!

Before shot

One coat of Solarguard Roof paint "Lichen"

Freshened up and rented

Four weeks hard out from possession date and tenants are moving in to House No.3. Here's the before and after pics at flickr.

The house is under-priced at $350 including water. We advertised it before we'd finished and based the rent on what the house was like before the new carpet and replaced kitchen went in. Plus, we've put in a microwave and washing machine. Saving grace is the first term is only for 6 months and all prospective tenants were told the rent would be going up $10-$20 after that time reflecting the work we expected to have done on the property over 6 months.

The rent is cheaper than it could be also, because we'll be around and want access to paint the exterior, paint the roof, fence and landscape.

New Year New Property

We're seeing in the new year (2012) slogging our guts out to get house no.3 ready for tenants to move in by the end of the first week in January. House 3? What happened to House 2? My last post, we were excited to be buying the house next door to House 1. We got stuck in to ripping the guts out of it as soon as it was ours and have been working flat-out. Too busy or exhausted to post updates. Within one week of taking possession of House 2, Fae had secured the house on the back half of the crosslease section and she offered it to us.

Her starting price was $250,000. Way too high. We said we'd go no higher than $220,000. A week later she sent a text offering it to us at $210,000. This is for a 3 bedroom 1986 Keith Hay home - your basic box with Hardiplank cladding, tin roof - nothing flash. We talked to our ANZ mobile mortgage manager who helped us get the mortgage on House 2. Because it was the same deal: private sale, contemporaneous settlement, ANZ required a registered valuation.

Mike the valuer didn't like this place at all. He gave it a really low valuation of only $216,000. Fair enough - the previous owners had built an unpermitted carport and extended it all the way down one side of the house. The north side cutting off the sun and much light to the lounge room and 2 bedrooms. They had then built in an enclosed conservatory off the lounge - using whatever wood and wood-like materials they could gather. This included using mdf and chipboard flooring, materials not for use outdoors. The wonky extended deck was quite bouncy. There was a horrid looking shed also clad in chipboard flooring material that was swollen with wet. The shed was badly lined and carpeted and make-do wiring had been run from in the house to provide light for some poor person whose bedroom it would have been.

The fencing on all sides is tin and ugly bad. There was a lot of rubbish around the property. Outside and in had been painted a bright lemon yellow! The carpet had been unprofessionally laid making the place feel destitute. The kitchen was rough - the stainless steel benchtop had numerous dents and cut marks. The stove had been home to mice and cockroaches. The toilet... well you get the picture.

We bought it anyway at a final negotiated price of $212,500. Poor House 2 has been sitting with her guts ripped out of her for 3 weeks while we've been diverted on to fixing up House 3. But, it's a new year and we're waiting for chosen tenants to get the bond over to us and confirm their move in date for hopefully end of next week.

From yucky yellow to

Cool cream, chocolate brown wool carpet and new curtains