Browse Forums Increasing Home Value 1 Oct 07, 2010 3:52 pm I'd really appreciate any suggestions, critiques, opinions on our plans and assumptions Home is a modest 1950's 100sqm 3 bedroom house on sloped 700sqm block. We have really good views out of the living area/kitchen windows which stretch along the almost-north-facing side of the house. As we're planning to live in the house for at least 5 years, probably 10 we'd like to do some fairly major renovations. We have been concerned about over capitalising however we reckon that given the area is developing fast, that there would definately be market for these sorts of improvements in 5 years at least. Suburb-wise most of the larger houses are up high on the hill where they have better views. They're almost all that 80's style of large house with lots of brick. Lots of 4+ bedrooms. Whereas our end of the street is a lot closer to the shops but tends to be older smaller houses built mostly in the 50's and 60's. What I want to do is add some more rooms downstairs, replace the deck (which is huge but is ******* and was not council approved), put in a new kitchen and bathroom, and build a 2-car garage against the street integrated with a fence/wall. Here's pics of the block and house. The house box I've put there is actually the envelope of the roof area so it's considerably smaller in actual size but I figured that would be a good point to cover. This shows the block which faces about 60 degrees East Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ These two show where I've placed the house envelope. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I've tried to estimate as best as I can the slope of the block. It's quite steep and as you can see the drive way bends around the house down to the back. We hate this drive way due to the slope hence the interest in a street-level garage, possibly joined to the main house structure? Currently under the main floor there is a garage on the North end, and storage/laundry areas under the other end. A builder friend of ours said it could definitely be dug out more to have room height areas put in. The question is how do you access it? One idea was to sacrifice the smallest room upstairs and make it into a stairwell and library shelf. At the bottom would be a corridor that goes out to the back that has laundry facilities on one side and built-ins on the other, and access to 3 bedrooms. Thoughts? Hello Josh, This is Irving from PRIMA, we are a manufacturer of the staircase, railings, kitchen cabinets, windows, doors from China. If you have requirement to purchase… 0 3550 Coming back to your old stomping grounds, huh? Renovations on a budget can be quite the journey. It's like giving your house a new lease on life. The twist of not knowing… 1 2795 Assuming the structure of your cabinetry is good then I would DIY everything as follows: - replace your counter tops entirely, - replace all drawer runners with soft close… 1 3426 |