Renovation - swapping kitchen and bathroom and other fix ups

Alkaline3053 · Feb 06, 2024 9:31 pm

Hey team,

Been living in our house for about three years now.

It's an old 1920s cottage with a 90s extension out the back.

In year one, we made a lot of structural improvements - mostly urgent things like gutters and fixing bad DIY work. Since then we've just been building up the offset and doing bits and pieces ourselves.

Now we are considering a bigger internal reno which we've been thinking about since we moved in, but I don't know what it would cost or if we can split up some of the jobs we want to do.

Here's the current floorplan:

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All the bedrooms and the front lounge are fine, apart from needing a coat of paint and having some small issues that old houses do - minor cracks etc.

The kitchen was DIYed, has a lot of charm but is not very practical. I love the rustic look but there's barely any storage, the oven is bad, not much room for a decent fridge and so on.

The big bathroom was DIYed and is quite useless since using it causes moisture problems, and it's a poor use of space. It's very dark with a tiny window too.

We've put a lot of effort outside, so the courtyards are repaved and fixed up nicely. It's a really nice area to eat and chill.

We want to redo the layout a bit. We practically live in the kitchen and cooking is our big thing, so it's a big priority. Here's our thinking:

Push the kitchen up to the wall against the main courtyard, where the bathroom and laundry currently are.
Have a window along the length of the kitchen out to the main courtyard - maybe one that opens up although just a view is fine too.
Build either a walk in pantry or nicely practical storage in the kitchen.
Put the bathroom where the kitchen currently is. Possibly integrate the laundry into that too. It's a nice big space with some character features like an old fireplace and that wall against the lounge should all be brick under the paint. We'd want a bath tub, maybe a skylight if we're getting fancy.
We'd need an exit to the outside which is currently via the laundry. Potentially that could go between the kitchen and laundry area, or on an edge of the kitchen instead.

We bought in a good area quite a bit below the average value (somehow), so I am not too worried about overcapitalizing as I think it would add a lot of value to the house in general.

Below is a picture of the current kitchen space, and the current laundry behind it. That shadowed door is the bathroom entrance. The kitchen is spacious - actually much wider than it needs to be, but the storage is not so well planned.

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Here is the main bathroom. As you can see the shower is just used for storage, the rest is mostly dead space with a little window.

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If I had to guess:

New kitchen: $50k?
New bathroom: 30k? (we renovated the small one for $19k after we moved in)
Swapping their locations / moving services: no idea?!
Total: maybe $100k?

There's also a lot of smaller jobs we'd like to do around the house.
We've been tempted to tackle these first or in pieces, but I feel there's some overlap in trades so it might make sense to do it all at once if we can afford it.

It's hard to tell in the photos, but a lot of the house DIY has been rushed, poorly maintained, and lots of little issues throughout. They're easy to live with, but it would be good to bring it up to scratch.

Change flooring in the lowered section of the dining area. The current tiles are poorly done, all out of alignment and drummy to step on. 20 - 30 sqm. Estimate: $3k?
Get joinery done up for the dining area wall. There was some very retro version of this in the distant past, but it could be a great spot for books, putting the record player, and maybe a little reading nook if there's room. If the kitchen gets moved, it could be nice to match the finishes. Estimate: 2 or 3k?
General fixing up around the place - lots of cracked joints in the roof, some old windows cracking around the edges, mix and match fittings everywhere. There's an old gas heater that barely warms the space which we could remove. Estimate: no idea.
Replace or fix the big glass windows / walkway area. The doors are rotted out and don't open properly for half the year, the windows are paper thin and totally uninsulated. I got some quotes for redoing all of thise with double glazing early on, but if we moved the kitchen it would meet that windowed area so I guess should all be done together. Quotes: $15k and $25k.
Paint the house. Inside and out needs a refresh. Lots of bad work, peeling paint, etc. Had a quote for $16k but think we could get it done for $10 - 15k.

Here's the dining area. We would like to redo the tiled floor here, and do the joinery / shelving on that wall where the chairs and stuff is up against now to make the space a bit more functional. The new kitchen would flow into this area.

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Here's the dining room looking towards the courtyard. The outdoor space and light is really nice.

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I guess to summarise my questions and thoughts:

Are my estimates way off?
Is there much to save by keeping the layout as is and just improving those areas? The bathroom would likely need to be gutted anyway, for example.
Should we try and do it all at once, or are some of those extra jobs doable beforehand without being inefficient?
What's your experience renovating in Adelaide in the last 5 years?
Am I missing anything with the layout?

Thanks for any advice and thoughts!

oklouise · Feb 27, 2024 3:38 pm

Alkaline3053

Hey team,

Been living in our house for about three years now.

It's an old 1920s cottage with a 90s extension out the back.

In year one, we made a lot of structural improvements - mostly urgent things like gutters and fixing bad DIY work. Since then we've just been building up the offset and doing bits and pieces ourselves.

Now we are considering a bigger internal reno which we've been thinking about since we moved in, but I don't know what it would cost or if we can split up some of the jobs we want to do.

Here's the current floorplan:

All the bedrooms and the front lounge are fine, apart from needing a coat of paint and having some small issues that old houses do - minor cracks etc.

The kitchen was DIYed, has a lot of charm but is not very practical. I love the rustic look but there's barely any storage, the oven is bad, not much room for a decent fridge and so on.

The big bathroom was DIYed and is quite useless since using it causes moisture problems, and it's a poor use of space. It's very dark with a tiny window too.

We've put a lot of effort outside, so the courtyards are repaved and fixed up nicely. It's a really nice area to eat and chill.

We want to redo the layout a bit. We practically live in the kitchen and cooking is our big thing, so it's a big priority. Here's our thinking:

Push the kitchen up to the wall against the main courtyard, where the bathroom and laundry currently are.
Have a window along the length of the kitchen out to the main courtyard - maybe one that opens up although just a view is fine too.
Build either a walk in pantry or nicely practical storage in the kitchen.
Put the bathroom where the kitchen currently is. Possibly integrate the laundry into that too. It's a nice big space with some character features like an old fireplace and that wall against the lounge should all be brick under the paint. We'd want a bath tub, maybe a skylight if we're getting fancy.
We'd need an exit to the outside which is currently via the laundry. Potentially that could go between the kitchen and laundry area, or on an edge of the kitchen instead.

We bought in a good area quite a bit below the average value (somehow), so I am not too worried about overcapitalizing as I think it would add a lot of value to the house in general.

Below is a picture of the current kitchen space, and the current laundry behind it. That shadowed door is the bathroom entrance. The kitchen is spacious - actually much wider than it needs to be, but the storage is not so well planned.

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

Here is the main bathroom. As you can see the shower is just used for storage, the rest is mostly dead space with a little window.

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

If I had to guess:

New kitchen: $50k?
New bathroom: 30k? (we renovated the small one for $19k after we moved in)
Swapping their locations / moving services: no idea?!
Total: maybe $100k?

There's also a lot of smaller jobs we'd like to do around the house.
We've been tempted to tackle these first or in pieces, but I feel there's some overlap in trades so it might make sense to do it all at once if we can afford it.

It's hard to tell in the photos, but a lot of the house DIY has been rushed, poorly maintained, and lots of little issues throughout. They're easy to live with, but it would be good to bring it up to scratch.

Change flooring in the lowered section of the dining area. The current tiles are poorly done, all out of alignment and drummy to step on. 20 - 30 sqm. Estimate: $3k?
Get joinery done up for the dining area wall. There was some very retro version of this in the distant past, but it could be a great spot for books, putting the record player, and maybe a little reading nook if there's room. If the kitchen gets moved, it could be nice to match the finishes. Estimate: 2 or 3k?
General fixing up around the place - lots of cracked joints in the roof, some old windows cracking around the edges, mix and match fittings everywhere. There's an old gas heater that barely warms the space which we could remove. Estimate: no idea.
Replace or fix the big glass windows / walkway area. The doors are rotted out and don't open properly for half the year, the windows are paper thin and totally uninsulated. I got some quotes for redoing all of thise with double glazing early on, but if we moved the kitchen it would meet that windowed area so I guess should all be done together. Quotes: $15k and $25k.
Paint the house. Inside and out needs a refresh. Lots of bad work, peeling paint, etc. Had a quote for $16k but think we could get it done for $10 - 15k.

Here's the dining area. We would like to redo the tiled floor here, and do the joinery / shelving on that wall where the chairs and stuff is up against now to make the space a bit more functional. The new kitchen would flow into this area.

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

Here's the dining room looking towards the courtyard. The outdoor space and light is really nice.

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

I guess to summarise my questions and thoughts:

Are my estimates way off?
Is there much to save by keeping the layout as is and just improving those areas? The bathroom would likely need to be gutted anyway, for example.
Should we try and do it all at once, or are some of those extra jobs doable beforehand without being inefficient?
What's your experience renovating in Adelaide in the last 5 years?
Am I missing anything with the layout?

Thanks for any advice and thoughts!

without any big surprises a new kitchen, bathroom and laundry might be achieved for $100,000 depending on your choice of finishes and appliances but biggest unknown is cost of rearranging walls and floors but i would plan to do all the structural work, plumbing and electrical and finish the kitchen and laundry but with your other bathroom you may be able to save completion of the new bathroom (fixtures, fitting and tiles etc) until funds recover ..you need to precisely measure the available space and there are so many options but something like this might suit but all depends on what is most important for you Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

jagberg · Mar 11, 2024 10:41 pm

I recently went through a similar renovation and move scenario when updating our family home. We also swapped some rooms around and tackled a major kitchen overhaul, which involved moving a lot of heavy appliances and fixtures. The costs can definitely vary, but for the moving part, we used a moving company that was really helpful in handling the heavy lifting and ensuring everything arrived safely at our new layout. It was quite an undertaking, but planning ahead and getting estimates early really helped us budget for it. For the moving part alone, considering distance and the weight of the items, we spent around $3,500, which aligned with the average costs I found on a helpful guide at https://threemovers.com/interstate-movi ... ies-costs/. This guide broke down the potential costs and factors affecting them, making it easier to anticipate our expenses.