Renovation questions (a lot) and advice and tips

Hey everyone,

I’m new to the forum and also to the world of rennovstions and what not.

So here’s the low down. Partner and I purchased a house a few years ago and wanted to rent it out to help pay down a bit while we lived with parents.

It’s now time to move in. It’s still being rented out and the lease was over long ago so we likely would need to provide 90 days notice to tenants.

Questions:

1) should we not even bother looking into renovations until we have the house back in possession or would there be builders who can go off a floor plan to give quotes without needing access to the place?

2) We don’t actually have anything to go off aside from original photos of the listing of the house when it was on sale and the floor plan that was on domains website as well. And also the periodic inspection report photos. Do we need to somehow get more info to figure out what we can do? If so would the council be the point of call of having that?

3) I’ve attached the floor plan. The back half of the house which includes the kitchen, dining and laundry and bathroom is basically an extension it seems from the original structure. The original structure is really old (90+ years?) is double brick. We don’t think we want to do much structural changes to it, mostly new flooring, lights etc as we are more worried about asbestos and also mindful it’s probably expensive to knock down double brick walls etc.

So that’s leaves us with the “newer” part, this part seems to be just a fibro built extension. This newer part is where we want to focus a bit more rennovstions on. Firstly the kitchen is small for us but given the space it’s pretty much impossible with what we can do, we want a very open and spacious kitchen. But also we need to maintain having a bathroom, laundry, dining area. To throw another spammer to the works is we would like a little walk in pantry area. It’s probably impossible to come up with any kind of layout given the space we have working with.

First thing I thought of was extending the back of the house, where the pergola is, extend the back to take up this pergola.

Would this be a very costly exercise and would it seem like a wise choice to make?

4) For what we want to do I’m guessing we want to find a builder who’s familiar with the local council and their rules and can help with DA on any proposed works.

Are there any good recommendations from anyone for good reliable and good value builders in the Ashfield area in Sydney?

Thanks in advance for anyone who’s reading this post, any pointers or tips are welcome.

if the house is already safe and comfortable enough for tenants i would move in and live in the house for at least a year to see how it feels in all seasons ... my thoughts and questions and suggestion in no particular order include: the real estate plans are rarely accurate and although they can give you an idea of what might be possible i'd expect a builder would need to make a thorough inspection and/or see the original accurate plans before being able to offer any realistic quotes..(ask local council if they have any plans, ie original and later extensions or renovations) ...what is the condition of the fences, driveway and roof, do you have a budget in mind...has the house appreciated in value, what do similar homes in the area sell for in original and improved condition so that you can get a realistic idea of how much you may need to spend...be very careful to obtain fixed quotes for any work as these old house usually have many surprises that can magnify costs, before making any decisions you should talk to your accountant about any essential maintenance or repairs that need to be done while the house is still tenanted (eg fences, driveways, leaks etc) as this can impact your income tax and you will need to continue to keep accurate records of expenses for capital gains if you later decide to sell ...looking at the rough plan i'm wondering how to make the best of the property inside and out but we need direction of north, length and width of the block, distance from existing house (ignoring pergola) to all four boundaries and is there an existing carport and what is the shed built out of...the internal condition of roof, floor, plumbing and wiring is difficult to establish from outside but what are the roof, floors and windows made out of, is the old extension on stumps or a slab on ground and does the block slope in any direction ...you should be able to measure the location of the house to make a site plan that should also include approx location and height of neighbours' homes (maybe a two story extension could make better use of the site?) ... the dimensions of he block are usually shown on your rates or valuation notices and a Google earth photo of the roof is useful and shows compass directions...