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!!!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
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.
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