Browse Forums Renovation + Home Improvement 1 Jan 21, 2013 2:28 pm I am planning on renovating/extending my home and would appreciate some honest advice as to whether what I am doing is a sound idea in terms of investment (ie. increasing my properties resale value). After the renovation we plan on living in the property for the rest of our lives but obviously things change and I want to make sure we’re covering our bases. I have a wife and child and we’d ideally like one more child. The property in the inner west of Sydney and is probably valued at the $1m mark. We renovated it when we moved in 4 years ago putting in a new bathroom, windows, floors). The house is double brick and has a single car port out the front. The house is a little over 100sqm and the land is around 450sqm. It is an old 1950’s bungalow with: - three bedrooms, - a family room, - dining room, - kitchen, - laundry - 1.5 bathrooms. Option 1 We originally planned on converting our kitchen/pantry/laundry to an master bedroom and extending at the back for an open plan family/kitchen. The architect/builder company we have had consult with us has given us rough estimates that this extension (adding roughly 48sqm) would cost ~$210-$220k (incl. new kitchen and make good as well as moving a sewer pipe). This would leave the house with: - four bedrooms (now with a proper master/ensuite) - lounge, - dining, - family room, - kitchen/laundry - 2 bathrooms We estimate in current conditions we may be able to sell the house for around the $1.2-1.3m mark with this option. Option 2 They’ve suggested going up instead as a more cost effective option adding around 70sqm upstairs (3 bedrooms, ensuite, WIR, bathroom, living space as well as renovating downstairs our kitchen and opening a room to make it a formal living room) for around ~$260-$270k. This would leave the house with: - four bedrooms (now with a proper master/ensuite), - guest room/study, - laundry room, - lounge, - dining, - family room, - kitchen, - upstairs lounge room, - 3 bathrooms We estimate in current conditions we may be able to sell the house for around the $1.4-1.5m mark with this option. There’s loads of variables involved and am happy to answer any questions, however I’d like to hear your general thoughts on the options and their respected values. We’ve been quoted around $3k per sqm + 20k for kitchen and 20k-30k for make goods to the rooms for each of the two options. Are we getting value for money with this company? Would it be better to knock down rebuild (btw, how much do these generally cost)? What would you do if you were us? The architect/builder firm is quite large, been around for 40+ years and has won several building awards. We think both options will allow us to live in the house for years to come. We’re in our low thirties. Again, let me know if you have any further questions. Re: Renovation/Extend Help - How best to renovate my propert 2Jan 21, 2013 3:07 pm I would go for option 2, however this does provide risks as who knows what you will find when the engineer comes out to access what will be required to put a 2nd storey on top. option 2 does give you more flexible space which is always great with a growing family etc. Are you planning to live in the house while it is done? Maybe difficult if adding a 2nd storey and the roof coming off. Given your inner west is your block quite narrow? Will you be able to get machinery to the back of your block to do site works with option 1? My husband and I have undertaken a super major renovation/new build and our thoughts were if we are going to do this then we need to do it all and if we don't have enough money then maybe not everything will be finished. For example if you were planning to add on 3 rooms plus a bathroom but you don't have enough money to do it all you can only afford to do 2 rooms and a bathroom then we decided we would prefer to stretch and do 3 rooms and bathroom and just not put down floor coverings or paint, or maybe finish the bathroom. After all if you were to just do the 2 rooms and bathroom and then in 5 years try and add 1 room the costs will be much more given it is a much smaller job. In our case found that if you are already pulling off the roof then adding another room doesn't add that much to the cost. I know some won't have had this experience but we certainly did. I hope I am making sense. Ultimately $3k a sqm is alot but from what I've read this isn't unreasonable. I believe in over estimating especially when you are doing a renovation on an older house. I think doing a knock down rebuild could an option for you but I'm not familiar with the prices to build in Sydney For us doing a full knockdown rebuild worked out more expensive due to the land we were working with. Our builder estimated a new build on our land would be almost double what we are paying for the reno Re: Renovation/Extend Help - How best to renovate my propert 3Jan 21, 2013 3:25 pm Pellana, thanks for such a quick informative reply. To answer your questions, we are planning on living in the house while they put up the second floor. We have options though and can move in with either of our parents if we really need to. Did you do a second story and have to move out? If so, for how long? The block is quite narrow, however there is space around one side for a bob cat and the architect/builder didn't mention any issues like that with getting machinery to the back yard. You make good sense in staging some parts of the build we can live without. I think personally I dislike unfinished work, but sacrifices are required to maximise what we want long term. Appreciate the advice and we'll continue to think about the pro's and con's and whether we even need this right now or it can wait. Re: Renovation/Extend Help - How best to renovate my propert 4Jan 21, 2013 4:05 pm That's exactly what we think in regards to making a sacrifice for the future, as luck would have it we are able to finish all the things we planned to finish but there are some parts of the original house that won't be finished or rather updated. For us we bought the house with the plan to do the major reno, so we never moved in and given we knocked down 80% of the house there was/is no way we could move in. A brief rundown on our house is that our house is built into a hill so from the street it is a 2 storey house and then from the backyard it is 3 storey. What we did is knock all the house down at street level and left the bottom level. This was the expensive part of the house as it was all retaining walls and double bricked etc. We also pulled the front of the house out 4-5 metres at the front as the previous house was not very deep and certainly not deep enough for a 2nd storey. All up the build will be about 9-10 months long. But I'm sure you could probably live in the house while it is being renovated it will probably just add a little to the time taken. We were also of the opinion of when we went to our designers for the house we wanted drawings of the fully completed house even if we didn't plan do all the changes. I really dislike seeing a house and being able to see what is the addition and then things not being planned well so having strange little rooms One thing I would say is that it will be easier to do it with 1 child rather than 2 but again that is just my personal opinion, some parents seems to deal with changes much easier and with less stress than we do. ok thanks - yes was wondering if that should have been listed as Option Three! 2 6199 Painting your colorbond roof with a rust inhibitor can definitely help extend its life and prevent rust. It is worth the cost in the long term as it may be cheaper than… 1 737 the step up is 30mm and wanting it to be flat . how much does the concrete have to be lowered .we plan on removing bath and lenghten shower and adding seat. the old bath… 0 8158 |