Guest Guest66881 Posted August 30, 2013 Share Posted August 30, 2013 I'd be expecting a bronze statue of myself in the back garden also! Ours of me is in the front garden it serves as a welcome guard.:wink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bibbs Posted August 30, 2013 Share Posted August 30, 2013 Ours of me is in the front garden it serves as a welcome guard.:wink: Homage to Manneken Pis? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 30, 2013 Share Posted August 30, 2013 I am ..!! Well that's good news you should be happier! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoenix16 Posted August 31, 2013 Author Share Posted August 31, 2013 To clarify! We currently have a 3 by 1 on a big block, the rooms are small, it's a 1970's house. We initially bought it with the long term plan being to renovate. Then we got 'cold feet' at the upheaval of it all and impulsively bought a block in the next suburb to build a new house on. it was a massive learning curve, we were being quoted $500k for a 4 x 2 new house , basic spec, 1 plug point and light per room, no air con, no landscaping, essentially $50 to $100k extra to get the finished article with a little pool etc and this was the starting point, every suggestion we made pushed it up by $10k, and to clarify again, were not flash, and we were not asking much! We bailed, we realized we had made a big mistake and it helped us to fall in love all over again with our little house, we decided we should go back to plan A. To convert our 3 by 1 to a 4 x 2 (asked for 3 x 2 but designs came back as a 4 x 2), again standard spec, no landscaping, pretty much working with the original structure with an extension, we were quoted $370k, the guy spent a lot of time on the project, it wasn't a brush off and a we don't really want to do it thing, they're a specialist renovation company, We tentatively mentioned a few tweaks which immediately pushed it to $400k, and rising....hope that explains...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 I think that's quite a major reno adding a bedroom and bathroom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoenix16 Posted August 31, 2013 Author Share Posted August 31, 2013 I think that's quite a major reno adding a bedroom and bathroom. Agree, it is a big Reno and its not just adding, it's replacing, new kitchen, new laundry, replacing and remodeling exiting bathroom, totally remoddeling inside layout, adding a double garage, new roof, new windows, I suppose it is virtually a new build!!! Plus our block has various levels so working round that too and building a new alfresco...you're starting to make me think I've been unrealistic!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoenix16 Posted August 31, 2013 Author Share Posted August 31, 2013 To be honest it's a near to a demolition and rebuild as you can get, extending out front to make exisitng bedrooms larger, complete visual makeover, full house rendering...it's starting to sound not so bad but this threads and the comments have helped me get it straight in my head so thanks to all for contributing. And to add, we've been advised we will need to move out for 6 months, so a biggie... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest66881 Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 Any photos to share yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sammy1 Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 Perhaps you could sell the land if the house is near to demolition. Might be cheaper to do that than a complete rebuild. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest66881 Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 Just how much have you spent so far on old house demolition and removal, landfill is such a cost here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoenix16 Posted August 31, 2013 Author Share Posted August 31, 2013 Perhaps you could sell the land if the house is near to demolition. Might be cheaper to do that than a complete rebuild. To be honest it's a really lovely block, we are not overlooked at all, we have views of the park that will never be lost, we've gone round in so many circles only to realize we actually love where we are!! We are clear though that if/when we do this we will be staying here for the next 10/15 years if not forever! We think of the total investment and get scared and then wonder about just moving but everything comes back to here and where we are so a big learning curve, big dilemmas but were slowly getting to the right decision for us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pablo Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 Seems a hell of a lot of money to add two rooms Jessie,370 K ! i know theres the new roof and render etc,but thats frightening money on the face of it,have you looked into just dropping the lot and building from new on new footings for the extra rooms? Renovation is so time consuming sometimes,ive worked on jobs were the owners would have been better dropping the old hse and building from new when costs were added up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoenix16 Posted August 31, 2013 Author Share Posted August 31, 2013 Just how much have you spent so far on old house demolition and removal, landfill is such a cost here. We haven't demolished, it's what we wanted to avoid as we love the character of the house, we are just going to massively renovate and learning perhaps to demolish and start again would've been cheaper but we just didn't want to do that! We've just sold the block we impulsively bought and are just getting the finances in place to start the Reno, as soon as I have pics to share I will!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoenix16 Posted August 31, 2013 Author Share Posted August 31, 2013 Seems a hell of a lot of money to add two rooms Jessie,370 K ! i know theres the new roof and render etc,but thats frightening money on the face of it,have you looked into just dropping the lot and building from new on new footings for the extra rooms?Renovation is so time consuming sometimes,ive worked on jobs were the owners would have been better dropping the old hse and building from new when costs were added up Hi Pablo! Do actually agree!! I will say the irony of it all that my hubby is in the construction industry albeit commercial! He is very reluctant to get involved, we cannot use any company or contractor he has ever or is working with, we have to completely separate the venture from any connection to his work and he is very adamant he won't do a busmans holiday and what's a turnkey, the only involvement my hubby is willing to do is to inspect the quality of the build, other than that he has to distance himself from it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pablo Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 Hi Pablo! Do actually agree!! I will say the irony of it all that my hubby is in the construction industry albeit commercial! He is very reluctant to get involved, we cannot use any company or contractor he has ever or is working with, we have to completely separate the venture from any connection to his work and he is very adamant he won't do a busmans holiday and what's a turnkey, the only involvement my hubby is willing to do is to inspect the quality of the build, other than that he has to distance himself from it all. Nah,i dont know about build costs over there Jessie,but to give an example of what i mean... Ive spent roughly a week,propping up the first floor of a house,the rear,approx 60 ft of supporting brickwork taken down at ground floor level,so steels can run the full length of the back of the hse,barring one supporting pillar in the middle,so the back of the hse will just be bi fold doors basically,the time it takes to prop it all safely,then patch in over new steels,and beam fill the joists etc is ridiculously time consuming,i could have built a whole new ground floor in the time its taken to do the back,thats all i meant really,i sometimes think its false economy to do it this way,but ive just seen you like the character of the house and want to keep it,so its up to you at the end of the day isnt it,good luck with it Jessie,you have my sympathies lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 I feel your pain Jessie, I have just moved back to the UK from Hammi Hill! Whilst not a bad area, it is not a 'desirable' suburb - I loved living there - a walk to South Beach, a bike ride (or even walk) to Freo but the level of social housing and bad tenants keeps the prices down. The median house price was under $500k so there aren't that many cheaper places to live. We rented in Hammi Hill when we first moved to Perth, our son was in school in Freo and whilst we'd have loved to live in one of the Freo suburbs that was out of the question financially. We wanted a 3/4 bed with two bathrooms but very few exist in Hammi Hill, we saw lots of 1970's 3x1's but simply didn't have the money for the renovation. If yours is on a full block then the price you have paid is for the land - the house itself is probably deemed worthless. Most people buying houses on full blocks demolish them, subdivide and build two! If they can afford it, they might build one and keep the back block vacant as a garden - as one friend put it to me it's their retirement fund. They also do make rental properties where landlords are getting a bit of income from what is really a land investment. If the house has good original features it might be worth preserving but a 1970's house probably isn't. If you have been quoted $400k for renovations then you do have to seriously consider if demolishing and rebuilding would be cheaper. After looking at what was available and the costs involved we bought land for $280k, we believed we could build for about $250-270k based on the show homes we'd been to but found like you the prices soon escalate and the total build cost ended up being $350k - when you build on a 'master planned' estate, the blocks are flat, the utilities are there etc. - our site costs were $30k (& that isn't included in the 'show home' prices. I have to be honest and say we ended up building a bigger house than we needed, 3 bed, 2 bath plus an office and family room AND we had a separate 1-bed studio. We weren't aware of some of the costs when we designed the house so ended up spending more than we intended. This was a two storey house as well which we were told increases the cost by about $50k for the same size house in sqm. That is still less than your $400K though.....and everything was new and to our taste (not high spec - laminate not granite, basic white bathrooms etc.) Whilst some of the lower end builders aimed at first home owners include things like floor tiles in the kitchen, carpets, even light fittings, blinds and curtains none of that was included in ours (we were able to buy our own light fittings, tiles etc. for the builder to fit - although they told us it would be cheaper to get our own trades in) so there was quite a bit of expense after moving in and then there is landscaping..... If you have a full block $100k does not surprise me at all - we had a half block with a large house on it so effectively had a turning car le outside the garage that we wanted paved, a verandah the width of the balcony that we wanted decked, and a small strip down the side of the house we wanted lawn and planted, the back and other side of the house were only 1m wide and we wanted gravel down...we got two quotes - the first was almost $50k, the second nearer $60k.. We lived with dirt and sand for two years because we couldn't afford it! I am sharing this not so much for you, although hopefully you'll know you're not alone, but mainly to support your story and so others know that you probably are not trying to do anything out of the ordinary and that is simply how much it costs if you don't want to live on a master planned estate miles from anywhere. Personally I wouldn't spend that much on a house in Hamilton Hill, I think you would have spent more than it's worth. We were worried that we had but it came good - we got back what we'd spent and some after 2 years but $800k is about max in Hammi Hill however nice from what I've seen. I'd think very carefully about your options before doing any more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 There are also much more affordable parts of Perth too! The median price in Hamilton Hill is under $500k so not many - it is definitely a second class area, I know I lived there for 5 years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest66881 Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 http://reiwa.com.au/real-estate/Hamilton-Hill/ I would just like to add i do so despise the 'this area is ****' brigade, we have lived in a run down area compared to where we are now, and the run down area (not my words i might add) still holds a great period of time for us as a family, just too small a house is all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newjez Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 I used to work at hammy hill red rooster, and there are worse places. Saying that, the op is looking at spending a million on a house there all up, and it sounds very overbuilt for the area. You may be better to look at moving to somewhere better - maybe Melville. Else,you could be trapped. http://m.reiwa.com.au/(S(ad4hczrdmymhe4zuo5dbdeiv))/property.aspx?pid=3364211&flag=1&ty=sr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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