Another reno coming up

Next month our long term tenants will move out and it will be time to update the 15 year old Henley Home in Pleasantville North Lakes.

What has to go -
The mustard yellow benchtops in the bathrooms (laminate paint will probably do)
The floor tiles inside the front door as they will be replaced with some other tiles straight down the hallway. The newest version of the 2002 tiles don't quite match the other tiles in the house.
The entire 90 m2 of carpet
Some rotten fence palings
All the weeds in the front garden. I have overlooked the weed collection due to the high rent my tenants have been paying religiously on time for 4 years.
Taps, shower heads and door handles in the kitchen and bathrooms - they were still ok 4 years ago but they are awfully tarnished now

What is coming -
New carpet,
New floor tiles in the front sunroom (study) and hallway.
More mulch and shrubs in the gardens
Some new fence palings on the southern side
New fittings in the kitchen, bathrooms and anywhere else
Light oysters and modern energy efficient bulbs
Modern ceramic tap washers
New range hood in the kitchen ( I bought it a few years ago for Mum's house then she decided she didn't want it)
Finish painting inside - last time we got half way through the job so we still have some rooms to finish. When my local Masters closed down last year I got 40 ltrs of their best interior paint for $160 which is what 10 ltrs usually costs.

Now the bad news - we had thought they would vacate about time for the next school holidays, but alas it will be during term time and during a 3 month contract Hubby is working. Neither of us can just ask for a week or two off work. We have 2 unemployed adult sons who, if they were your kids, would work on site for us. But these guys didn't inherit any of our building genes. Number 1 son's Woodwork projects have mostly snapped in two, and Number 2 son never did any Woodwork. He mastered Drama, Art and Cooking.

Child labour - I should be able to get them to roll paint onto the walls if I do the fine cutting. They were both good at art at school and have both repainted their bedrooms. They also have experience getting mulch into backyards using a wheelbarrow, although one of them failed a job test at the local toy shop when he was unable to assemble a toy wheelbarrow correctly.

 

They say what doesn't kill you will make you stronger

 

I wish your kids could/would do more to help in the situation.
Renos and house transforming is fun, at least, that's how I feel. Love to do it and see the before and after results.

I can only give an empathic/sympathetic ear to your situation.

On another note, I wish to come up to Brisbane again in the near future. Yay!

 

@Gockie Free board for a day's labouring?

 

We can always have a little holiday in Sept once Mark's contract job is finished

 

Bathroom vanity.

 

I'll help out!

 

Looking forward to seeing the befores and afters.
As for the slave labour, good luck. Perhaps pizza, chocolate, Macdonalds(?) good music and the spirit of Mum/son fun and silliness might get them off their butts? Worth a try.

 

You have to let them make some mistakes. I was completely useless until I got my own place and realised expensive trades are.

 

Agree sometimes the labour cost is in excess of the product

 

Now for a style question:
The bathroom in the ensuite has a blue top which is a ver3y nice colour and is made from the same material as the kitchen benches. The ensuite is both built-in and in very good condition so we will leave it alone.

The kids' bathroom has the spew yellow vanity top. We are going to remove the entire vanity as it needs replacing.

Do we get a standard vanity with a full sized top, all white, because that is the normal thing to do, or match the style of the one in the ensuite - a recessed vanity with the basin sticking out. Pricewise doesn't matter.

 

Day 1, yesterday. We went to Bunnings and spent nearly $1800. Didn't do anything at the house
Day 2, today, six hours. The weeds growing in the front yard should survive the Apocalypse. They took me three times as long to remove as I had expected. I didn't get to attack any along the back fence. Mark has removed the offensive vanity from the main bathroom and installed one new toilet in the ensuite even though I have a plumber coming on Thursday. He didn't do any paint prep that he was supposed to do ready for the kids during the week. He didn't buy me a trailer load of mulch either. Nor did he clean the underside of the patio roof so we can repaint it on Thursday.

And he reckons I'm useless.........

I want to keep the old toilet to install at home here for his man cave but he reckons it's all yuckie (The plastic top is discoloured) What a woose - I'll hit it tomorrow with the garden hose and a bottle of disinfectant to save another $250.

 

My kids want to live there.

One of them is currently hitting up everyone he knows to make up the fourth person to share the rent. The other one has already set up his bedroom over there and is currently at the local tavern making himself at home in his nirvana location.

My handyman spent two hours last night raving about how great the house is and how great the location is. He is a retired plumber who owns a big Queenslander on at least 1000m2 in Manly overlooking the boat harbour. He reckons North Lakes is an even better place to live than Manly.

I'm going to bed now...........

 

You still up for this?

 

I haven't booked any flights to Brisbane as yet..... not sure when I will come....

 

We have been so busy that I didn't get to take many photos.

First open today and they say we are getting two applications - I'll believe it when I see it. Our other place was vacant for six weeks at the start of this year, so I was sick with stress about that.

 

Two things I learned was that everything takes twice as long as it should and nothing is quite the size that the packet says it should be.

Last year we replaced the dead venetian blinds (seven large windows worth) with thick eyelet curtains purchased online and delivered directly to the house. I had no idea how heavy they would be when we thought we would "save money" buying slender white curtain rods to hang them.

Our tenants didn't say anything (that I can remember) until just before they moved out, so being the cheerful money-spending couple we are, we chose to get all new rods. Of course the larger, heavier rods required different brackets to hold them because the other ones were way too small and flimsy. Mark came back from Bunnings late one afternoon with all these black brackets to support the chrome rods that were going to hold up ecru white curtains against a huge expanse of antique white walls.

Next morning I returned the brackets and set off to replace them with chrome or white ones. No good, the only brackets that would hold the new rods were the black ones I had just returned. For the rest of that day we spray painted all the brackets and their screws the same colour as the walls - two coats each side.

The following day I discovered Curtain Wonderland, which was only half the distance away than what Bunnings is.

 

I took more photos this weekend. I'll try to get them off the iPad and you can see them later.

 

Here are some final photos. We have a lovely children's park right across the road.