PPOR reno

Discussion in 'Renovation & Home Improvement' started by Vacant, 22nd Jun, 2015.

Join Australia's most dynamic and respected property investment community
  1. Vacant

    Vacant Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    143
    Location:
    Port Stephens
    G'day folks.

    My wife and I have just settled on a new PPOR and would like to create a bit more space and make it less of a rabbit warren.

    It's currently 4 bedroom 2 bathroom but everything is smaller than we would like and the single garage has been walled up to create a rumpus area which has very little purpose other than a junk room.

    The main issue is that the kitchen is terribly small and the living areas are relatively dim and the bright side of the house is wasted on the 'family' room and 'garage/rumpus.' We're hoping to make it much more open plan and make the bathrooms and bedrooms a bit bigger and make better use of natural light.

    We are considering extending the house into the 'paradise room' and making the 'family' room and extension into the main lounge, kitchen and dining. We plan on decking behind that as it catches the afternoon sun and look over the back yard/pool.

    I would rather avoid extending the house as that gets very expensive quickly and I'm not sure how you would alter the roofline to make it work but my wife seems convinced that's the way forward so I'm happy to back her on that.

    Basically I'm trying to get a few ideas on what people would you do if this was your place. We don't want to spend a fortune on it but I'm confident it would be worth putting money into to get it how we want.

    Cheers!

    image.jpg


    image.jpg
     
  2. wylie

    wylie Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    13,932
    Location:
    Brisbane
    Before jumping in with what I would do, a couple of questions -

    1. Do you want four bedrooms? Does the area call for four bedroom houses?
    2. Do you want to park a car in the garage or are you happy to leave the cars outside?

    My first thought is to remove walls between old garage area and living area and kitchen but that is just first glance.

    Or... open up kitchen to the "paradise room" but as it is an add-on, the external walls might be holding the house up and require large beams.

    Kitchen could move to the back family room and still open up other walls and then kitchen overlooks pool, which is a good thing with kids.
     
  3. Vacant

    Vacant Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    143
    Location:
    Port Stephens
    Thanks for the response, Wylie.

    1. Yes, it's essential to hang onto four bedrooms.

    2. No, we have plenty of room to park. There's a couple of places that we could put a carport or even a double garage at the front. Not a high priority at the moment though. However, I forgot about the laundry which is in the garage/rumpus. That doesn't have to stay there but it needs to go somewhere.

    Hadn't thought of moving the kitchen to the family room.

    It's a steel framed house so I'm not sure what effect that would have on building out into the paradise room.

    I was thinking along the same lines, knocking the garage lounge and kitchen walls out and creating a combined open living space. We would then bring the bathroom and bedrooms all in line with the third bedrooms built in so its all in a straight line. That would make the bedrooms and bathrooms slightly bigger.
     
  4. DaveM

    DaveM Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    14th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    3,761
    Location:
    Adelaide & Sydney
    I dont think its a rabbit warren, its actually fairly open.

    The main flow issue is the garage conversion, I would put a stud wall with a door to section of a proper laundry area (for noise/smell seperation) and then put a door into rumpus from lounge. You then have a nice 4br 3 living area house.
     
  5. bob shovel

    bob shovel Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    6,935
    Location:
    Lower Blue Mountains
    it does look like a good sized house just a little disjointed. i xan see how you want to shift the living areas to the rear more.

    first look, id think extend the current kitchen as a galley type into the rumpus. this would split the rumpus in half and create a study/additional room at the front. wuth new kitchen incorporate a bar/servery into the paradise room.
    is the paradise room external walls the plastic half wall half window stuff? whats the ceiling/roof? can you install clear clolourbond sheets for light or look at installing the sun light letter in things . convert it to a modern alfresco area that the new houses have now.

    or, move kitchen to the family room and install new bi fold doors onto the proposed deck. either way, look at bigger doors on the family room side to the deck. you may have a problem of too much living area!

    as for the bathroom extend it out towards the current kitcj, removing that current angled door to the bedroom.

    i might need to get my MS paint hat on and do a sketch for you. hope that makes some sense
    and dont lose sleep over the laundry that should find a home somewhere it doesnt need to big overly big, you'll have room somewhere
     
  6. Vacant

    Vacant Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    143
    Location:
    Port Stephens
    Extending the kitchen into the rumpus was what we first thought to do. I still think that has merit. The rumpus area and the family room catch the most light so I think turning the kitchen lounge and rumpus into a main living area will work well. A servery is a great idea.

    The paradise room is just fly screen walls with plastic covers and a white plasticy roof.

    Extending the bathroom towards the kitchen is on the to do list. I find the wall facing the front door incredibly pointless so that will go to make room for the new bathroom space. Hoping to find room for a walk in robe in the master so I ca take down the current built in.

    Thanks for the ideas so far. I like where this is going.
     
  7. bob shovel

    bob shovel Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    6,935
    Location:
    Lower Blue Mountains
    do you know which walls are load bearing? that pointless wall may have a pointlooking at your roof lines.
    also does the rumpus floor and ceiling heights match?
     
  8. Vacant

    Vacant Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    143
    Location:
    Port Stephens
    Had a builder look through that thought it wouldn't be load bearing but he didn't go into the roof.

    The rumpus floor would need to be raised, it's still at garage height and isn't legally a room yet.
     
  9. bob shovel

    bob shovel Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    6,935
    Location:
    Lower Blue Mountains
    [QUOTE="Vacant, post: 4753, member: 175" it's still at garage height and isn't legally a room yet.[/QUOTE]
    when is it going for the test? :D does the ceiling need to come down?
    are you refering to buildings codes?
    dont go rushing off to council! then you'll have a real headache!
     
  10. Vacant

    Vacant Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    143
    Location:
    Port Stephens
    Haha not going to be tested for a while. Ceiling is fine, floor drops down. Will not be talking to council for a while yet. Don't have the time to deal with them right now.

    We're going to bring a couple of builders through for ideas first of all just want to be able to say what we want to achieve before getting too carried away.
     
  11. bob shovel

    bob shovel Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    6,935
    Location:
    Lower Blue Mountains
    a few things you'll get by council by saying thats how it was when you moved in! best to avoid to much interection with council
     
  12. Vacant

    Vacant Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    143
    Location:
    Port Stephens
    That's my thinking too. That's why I don't want to add another room onto the house. If I can keep it inside the current roofline there's a lot less red tape to go through.
     
  13. wylie

    wylie Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    13,932
    Location:
    Brisbane
    I'd see if you can put a more substantial roof over the "paradise room" and use it for a living room year round. The dining room at 3m wide is more of a hallway. I cannot imagine you can even fit a dining table and chairs there easily. Same goes for the 3m wide family room.

    What about turning the old garage into two bedrooms, removing the back two bedrooms and opening up the whole of the back area to kitchen/living? So many options here, but the bedrooms are small and the old garage gives two larger bedrooms whilst opening up that narrow pinch point (dining room) at the back.

    You could then "square off" the back corner with open decking.
     
  14. Vacant

    Vacant Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    143
    Location:
    Port Stephens
    The dining room actually fits a massive dining table. I think the 3m is the space between the built in wardrobe. We can fit a table and buffet comfortably.

    What's are people's thoughts on 3 way bathrooms? Our bathroom and ensuite need to be sorted before we can take the next step. I might start a new thread on this.

    We've had to change our timeline to accommodate overseas weddings so the plan as it stands is to redo the bathroom and ensuite then leave anything structural for now and see if it grows on us. If we decide we're not happy with it we'll look into combining the kitchen, rumpus and lounge into a big open plan living area. This should create a great, naturally lit space.
     
  15. Jacque

    Jacque Jacque Parker Premium Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    2,652
    Location:
    Sydney
    I'd be looking at engaging a building designer and coming up with a workable plan - in my experience they're well worth the money, cheaper than architects, and present ideas that you may not have thought of in the first place. Best of luck renovating!
     
  16. Vacant

    Vacant Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    143
    Location:
    Port Stephens
    That's a very good idea Jacque.
     
  17. bob shovel

    bob shovel Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    6,935
    Location:
    Lower Blue Mountains
    Have you had any chippys around for quotes?
    They'll be able to do it all for you.
    First, find our what is and isn't load bearing. do you know anyone that could? Climbing in the roof isn't fun and unlikely people won't just do it for free. This step is crucial before going any further.

    Once you know what is load bearing youcan work from there. A chippy will easily knock out walls and put up knew ones as you want. call a few and find someone that you can work with and will provide ideas and suggestions.

    If you have an what your after your half way there.

    Chat around first. knocking out walls shouldn't need plans, however I'll happily whip something up on MS paint and charge you a hundred bucks an hour... 4 hr red pen minimum
     
  18. Vacant

    Vacant Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    143
    Location:
    Port Stephens
    I haven't had any quotes yet but I have a reliable chippy that I will get to do the work for me. He can only do 6 hours a day but does more in those hours than others I've used do in half that time.

    We've got a good idea of what we want to do, just trying to decide if we plan on staying there for more than 5 years.

    In the mean time has anyone got any ideas on landscaping pools and backyards? We need a bit of screening for the pool and some freshening up of the back yard. My wife is determined to put in vege gardens. We don't want to pour too much money into the pool area as it's likely we will remove it at some stage. image.jpg

    image.jpg

    image.jpg

    image.jpg
     
  19. Big Red

    Big Red Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    29th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    111
    Location:
    Melbourne
    Ideas

    1. Deck the area around the pool
    2. Backyard maybe some fencing shrubs - that grow up and provide privacy