Browse Forums Renovation + Home Improvement 1 Nov 16, 2012 8:59 am Hi all, My wife and I are looking at the possibility of purchasing a relative's property to live in probably long term. It is on an excellent block of land and is a lovely old home built in 1973. I think we would get it at a good price. My question is, I'm going to go look it over this weekend, and am curious: what would you look at to get a good idea of its potential for renovation? By potential I mean can it be modernised and made beautiful without excruciatingly high cost! I'm thinking: -rough measure of existing bedrooms. see which have structural walls between -bathrooms; how big are they? Where it the existing plumbing and drainage? -kitchen; how big is it? Where is the plumbing? -any evidence of major shifting ie. cracks and gaps. Does anything look out of square? -looking for asbestos - but how do I identify what might be asbestos? Does it look different to regular plasterboard? A few details: - 1973 single level cavity brick house on slab. never renovated. - tiled roof - architect designed at the time - farmhouse cottage (bit of french colonial) sort of style ie. single roof shape with wraparound verandahs - almost perfectly north facing - 4 bed + study, 2 bath (main + ensuite) - double lockup garage - large kitchen (for the times!) - 1 acre block Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 3Nov 17, 2012 7:13 am SIZE matters. If it's small iot is expensive to add on. Some older houses are boxy. If you want to go more open plan how easy will that be? Look at which walls you'd remove and envision how it would look. Even if they are load bearing you can do it. It just costs a bit more. Check for good "bones". Is it a well built solid house? If so that's a great start. I always look at the windows because I hate fixing them. Again you can replace them but more cost. Bathrooms, kitchens CAN be expensive but if you go to the right places it's not as expensive as you think. Don't worry to much about where plumbing is unless you want to change the kitchen to a dfifferent room. Moving it around the room is not that bad. Don't worry about asbestos. Most houses of that era have it. It just costs a little more to remove. With the kitchen you can just sheet over it if you want. Easier. Depending where you live you can remove it yourself and wrap it in plastic. Just wear a mask etc. There's plenty of info on the net. Good kluck. I'd like to see sdome photos. Sounds great. Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 4Nov 22, 2012 9:54 am I haven't disappeared! I think the place has lots and lots of potential. It seems very well built and is great condition especially considering it's really never had any renovation work done in 40 years! I should mention my renovation budget is decent (up to say 250k) and I would consider hiring an architect or building designer. I would possibly do some stuff myself but limit that probably to demolition, gardening and landscaping. I'm gathering my photos and doing up a rough floor plan of the existing place which I'll share in the next day or two. Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 5Feb 12, 2013 12:34 pm for various reasons I held off on posting photos, but here they are. This is where we'd be starting from. Please throw some ideas at me!!!!!!!! North east aspect: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ North west aspect: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ South east: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ South west: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 6Feb 12, 2013 12:40 pm My current ideas are: 1. Change external colour scheme. Render brickwork in a light colour; cream or grey. 2. Green trimmings changed; maybe brown gutter work and stained wood finish to green poles. 3. Red quarry tiles on verandah changed to some sort of stone tile; grey sandstone or something. 4. Enclosed Outdoor area at back completely redone. Made larger with big patio, get rid of fixed screens and open up. Re: Renovation potential - what would you look for? 7Feb 14, 2013 3:11 pm Apart from the terrible colour of the verandah posts I think your home blends in perfectly with its environment, and no Im not a Greenie I guess the fixed screens you want to rip out protected the previous owners against everything flying and biting. I'll probably get jumped on here but with what you are planning I think you bought the WRONG house Arfur 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 8213 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 8772 Thanks mate. Yeah good points! Leaning towards Option 3 to get a bit extra space in the cabinets but not going too crazy high (and expensive). Would require a mini… 13 39703 |