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...
Friday, May 20, 2011
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)