Strathfield South Reno

So around about this time year, my sister and her fiance were looking for a house. Started off in Merrylands, then to Northmead, then to Baulkham Hills, then back to Northmead.

Those of you familiar with the Sydney market will know that everything has just gone nuts.

Anyway, long story short, I was able to secure them a place in Strathfield South.

House: Vinyl Clad. 2 Bed, 1 Ensuite, 1 Bathroom/Laundry (but outside). 500sqm
Picked up for $1.1m, most likely due to weird configuration.

Budget: $30k

Renos:
- Open up some walls to create an open plan living / kitchen
- Put up a wall to create a 3rd bedroom
- Relocating kitchen position and putting in new kitchen

Planned but now disregarded
- Enclosing of deck to bring outdoor bathroom inside
Disregarded as the roof of the deck was no good. Got a quote to replace the deck roof, $9k. So we aren't going to proceed. The place is a PPR and they don't intend of having anyone else stay.

Unplanned renovations
- No tiles under the existing kitchen
- No spare matching tiles.
- Realised the previous owner tiled over tiles <sigh>
- Now we are also have to remove the tiles... don't want to tile over tiles for a 3rd time.
- outdoor bathroom floor is water damaged too

Will post some pics up shortly.

 

Did you get a building report done before purchase.

 

Got one done during the cooling off period.
Unfortunately building report did not pick up the water damaged floor in the outside bathroom.

It appears it may not have been properly waterproofed and occured over time.
Furthermore, the bathroom also was tiled over tiles.

 

Are you planning to do the work yourself or hire some people? We need a new bathroom so I'm always on the lookout for some recs

Strathfield south is a nice area, close to cooks river cycleway

 

Any plans to get the bath/ldy inside? Floor plan too please

 

@tess_ , We're getting a trade to do it. No way we have the skill set to do it on our own.

The house is actually 50m to the cooks park cycle way. Surprisingly quiet for its location.

 

@bob shovel

 

We had plans to enclose the deck area, but the roof would need to be replaced at a cost of $9k first. So we decided against it.

 

I like the 3rd bedroom add! works well. and adding that depth to include the closet near the front door

do you plan to do any work on the bathroom? how bad is the floor??
Id think that door outside could be a pain and i've drawn up a couple ideas for you to get the door into the house. You should be able to get atleast a 700x700 shower in now worries, even go further towards the toilet and get 700x900. While you have someone come around to price up the 3rd bedroom and take out the other wall see what they can do with the bathroom. I did a similar thing "stealing" area from the laundry behind our bathroom to make a deeper shower, 700x700 became 700x1200ish

Any reason for no counter in the kitchen (sketch1) ? I understand you want the open plan but the lounge will become the "lounge and dining" now that the 3rd bedroom is going in. Id personally like a bench to break up the areas a bit more. the dining table will feel like its in the kitchen being open. personal preference though.

i know you set your budget but if going hard watching costs you could at a rough glance I think could split it 3 x 10k,
kitchen
bathroom (incl walls and floor work)
add/remove internal walls plus new flooring, painting and misc!

 

Ha! I actually came up with the same sketches beforehand
1. The U Shape, my sister didn't like it. I then analysed the usefulness of the cupboards and determined the U shape didn't really give much extra in terms of usable cupboard space. The max bench on the other side was going to be 1.4m, otherwise it would cramp the walkway up too much.

2. I showed my sister my version of your #2 (it was pretty much spot on, however after looking at the roof i don't think it will work (not without opening another structural wall). And also because they didn't want to spend any extra money redoing the wall tiling.

 

Thats the outside bathroom floor after we started ripping it up

 

Then we realised the previous owner tiled on top of tiles and must have assumed it was already waterproofed. Hence the rot on the wood.

After removing the floor we saw how shoddy the plumbing was.

 

Yeah i was thinking it might make it a bit cramped with the extra bench.

Even though it is "structural" it isnt holding up a great dael of weight, just the colourbond roofing. hard to tell not being there but i'd say there would be something you could do to open up the wall as per drawing 2

Your into it already!! thats the go! While you have the floor up its easy to move plumbing if you want to move anything.

where does the washing machine outlet drain to?? doesnt seem to tee into the other plumbing? *Edit ... JUust saw the elbow running with the sink/floor waste. it does the job, **** runs downhill!

 

Some before and after pics

 

The laundry waste seems to share the same pipe as the basin and shower. My sister also told me that pipe then drains outside onto the floor... Don't worry, we're fixing that now.

 

I spoke to my sister and her fiance about it... they don't want to as it means the bathroom has to be redone. At the moment, its just the floor and the walls tiles are being preserved.

Either way, the house is only meant to be a temporary... 5-10 years temporary.

The aim is to convert this from a 2 bed to 3 bed, get it revalued, pull some equity and invest. Then hopefully in 5-10 years, whatever they invest has gone up enough for them to fund the build of a brand new 2 storey house (and hopefully their income and savings have increased too).

The positive of having an outside toilet is that there is a good reason for NO ONE to crash at their house.... especially in winter. LOL

 

Ah yep, I was thinking there may have been a plan to leave the bathroom as is, as it didnt make the original list. Good plan!
seeings your busy throwing up other walls why not add 1 more!

 

The original plan was actually to enclose the entire deck.... Then we would end up with a separate dining area too.

But we didn't think it was worthwhile unless the roof was also fixed up, mainly because the height was too low. I think it was 2.1m and we would need to fix the deck up too as they previous owner didnt use the right timbers to support the deck, which caused the deck to slant a little.

To replace the roof with one from the patio guys, would have cost $9k or so. They didn't want to spend the extra.

 

what is wrong with the roof? leaks i assume
If its only short term why not just throw some new sheets over the old ones and some flashing a few tubes of silicone and then close it in. the ceiling is already done by the looks just needs 2 walls and an opening. would be better for the val too, you'd get back the "dining" room you lost to bed3

 

No, it doesn't leak... yet. It just poorly constructed.
I'm thinking if the back is enclosed, then the decking floor also needs to needs to be fixed.