Browse Forums Renovation + Home Improvement Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 8Feb 15, 2013 9:17 pm How lucky are you? I love the look of the house except for the green trim. You say the house is on 1.5 acres, is this semi rural? if so a couple of points to consider, we rendered a house we renovated a few years back and I was suprised with the amount of maintenence invloved in keeping the render clean. Dirt is attracted to render and I was having to hose down the walls & wash window sills all the time. As for the screened area dont write it off without considering flies. We lived in a country area for a while and I wished we had a screen area as the flies were horrendous as the neighbouring properties has sheep & cattle. Good luck with your plans. Gandj Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 9Feb 19, 2013 10:17 am Guys I haven't bought the place yet - I'm just considering it at this stage. It's a 1 acre block and is just 15km as the crow flies to the centre of Brisbane CBD, or ~20 mins by car. That's the most appealing aspect of it as both my wife and I work close to the CBD. Room for the kids to ride bikes, build forts, and so on but a reasonable work commute. There's not really many flying bugs around, so I don't think removing the screens would present an issue. There probably were when the place was originally built as it was surrounded by farmland. Now all the farms are disappearing sadly to be replaced with crappy 400sqm estates. I mainly want to make the colour and feel of the place lighter. It is very dark; dark roof, dark brick walls, dark outdoor area. Gandj: I'm surprised you found render difficult to keep clean. My current place is rendered and it has been virtually maintenance free. I would think dirt would be just as attracted to brick as render! Nothing the gurney can't fix anyway Oh, also I thought the place was cavity brick, but it's not, turns out it is brick veneer and a slash pine frame. Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 11Feb 26, 2013 7:13 pm Think colour and opening the house up a bit, seems to have few windows on some of the walls, looks like a lovely property but needs to open to light a bit more. Good luck Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 13Feb 28, 2013 11:47 am Yes - GermanWindows that's exactly what it needs. More natural light. It's a dark house both inside and out. A lighter colour palette will certainly help with that, plus opening it up more somehow. AdamIrons: also yes - I'd definitely be looking at lots of solar panels and hot water. Here are some pictures of the inside. The outdoor screened area: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The kitchen and informal dining/rumpus looking out on the outdoor area: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ A dark hallway where the bedrooms and study are: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Looking from entry foyer to formal lounge: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Looking the other way from the formal lounge towards formal dining, kitchen, entry foyer: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 14Feb 28, 2013 11:56 am Man that house would look sweet done up and renovated.. hell whats the address, you dont buy it i will.. RLOL I would replace that sliding door "The outdoor screened area:" with bi folding doors, renovate the kitchen. Also if possible open up the lounge and kitchen to make it a more open plan living area. replace the carpets maybe put in floating floors or tiles... Your also right about the lighting, it is a bit of a dark house and needs more lighting or natural light.. The best thing is that there isnt anything you really have to do to move straight in, it is stuff that you can do over time... Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 15Feb 28, 2013 12:58 pm Looks like it would be great to renovate! It will lighten up once the trims are glossy white and you have plasterboard over the internal brick walls. We're currently renovating a 1970s house in Brisbane. There was a lot of Mission Brown and the kitchen was bright green. Bifolds from the kitchen would great. I'd probably rip down that little outdoor room and make it a big entertaining area - larger slab or decking and and a flyover roof. I don't think removing the screens is an issue. Yes maybe have screens on windows and doors but a true outdoor area should be open! I don't have screens on my deck! Renovating our 1970s home Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 16Feb 28, 2013 1:43 pm AdamIrons Man that house would look sweet done up and renovated.. hell whats the address, you dont buy it i will.. RLOL I would replace that sliding door "The outdoor screened area:" with bi folding doors, renovate the kitchen. Also if possible open up the lounge and kitchen to make it a more open plan living area. replace the carpets maybe put in floating floors or tiles... Your also right about the lighting, it is a bit of a dark house and needs more lighting or natural light.. The best thing is that there isnt anything you really have to do to move straight in, it is stuff that you can do over time... That's right, there's nothing horrid or stuffed that has to be replaced right away, so you can move right in and live in it. When it was built in 1973 I suspect it was all the highest quality and most up to date stuff. That said, we would want to do a fair bit of renovation at once when the time comes; we have a young family so don't want to live in a perpetual building site. Next step is going to be doing a thorough building inspection to check everything is indeed structurally well, and then recruit an architect. But we want some good ideas to bring to the architect. I love the idea of opening the outdoor area right up, and having bifolds opening to it. Our current house has bifolds onto a big deck and it's awesome. Also thinking of making foldout windows from the sink area to the outdoor area as a servery. As for flooring we're thinking of going floating wooden floors throughout the kitchen, rumpus and hallway. Probably stick with carpet in the formal lounge and dining, though this stuff might get reconfigured a bit to open it up somehow. Also considering raked ceilings through the kitchen and rumpus, but that might come down to practicalities and cost. Oh, here's a floorplan! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 17Mar 01, 2013 11:44 am It is going to look good when you renovate it, considering you have a floor plan with the dimensions on it, i would also suggest running it though a program called "My Virtual Home". It would allow you to remove walls and add doors and give you an example of what it looks like when you renovate... Where did you get the floor plans from? Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 18Mar 03, 2013 7:47 pm Shame it's on a concrete slab, (although there are pro's to that) as it might have already had boards you could have sanded and polished. It's a great floorplan layout as is. We renovated a 1950's cottage in South East Melbourne recently, and renovations are very fun! Personally I love it... I'd move in first, and just sit on it for a while. See how it goes and what you like/don't like. ALl open plan may not be the way to go, it's very noisy especially with boards. I Like that the rooms are somewhat closed off, but the dining, sitting and entry needs to be opened up. I'd leave the wall in the common room between the bedrooms... Good luck and let us know how you go. The interior is dated because of the furniture, paint job and flooring. once these are changed, you'd be surprised how modern it could look. Personally if you are keen to paint, I'd do that first before you move in. Way easier than when yoou've got furniture everywhere, especially for ceilings... But the floorboards are harder, as if you want to move walls around you'd have to do this once the wall layout is in place. Shame you can't go real wood, personally I would pay the extra and get real boards put on top. Then get them sanded and polished. We had floating floors in our last place (high quality boral sydney blue gum), but nothing beats real polished boards. They have a quality about them that is unparalelled. Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 19Mar 04, 2013 2:27 pm The plans are from the current owner (my wife's relative) We're definitely just going to live in it for a while to get a real feel for what we'd like to do. Opening up the area around the kitchen somehow is definitely on the cards Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 20Mar 04, 2013 3:55 pm From the looks, do you think you'd use the terrace or the garden room more for entertaining? That would decide on which way to open it all up. Good luck! All 3 items listed are defects and are of concern. Please seek qualified independent inspector and/or legal advice for your state. 1 8263 Just removed 40 liters of water in the span of 2 hours. Water fills up the hole just above the seepage point and doesn't overflow. 1 965 Bought in Nov 21 at the height of the market (classic). Good area, atrocious floor plan. BUT has land out to the left-hand side that we can extend out on (see second… 0 8806 |