Suggestions please - our first reno

We bought an unrenovated 3-1-1 late ’60s house in Stafford Heights (8km north of Brisbane), in April 2014. After the original tenants left, we had to drop the rent $20 to $360 p.w. to get new tenants. They’re not renewing their lease either, so it’s time to renovate to still appeal to tenants.

As it’s interstate, we won’t be doing any of the work ourselves (limited DIY skills, costs of flying up for the weekend and trying to limit the time it’s not earning rent). We plan to just do a cosmetic reno as it’s an old (but solid) house, with most work done in the kitchen and bathroom. Walls are fibro Masonite, so we’re avoiding disturbing asbestos. We’ve not renovated before, so would appreciate your ideas and suggestions, as well as tradie recommendations, please. Planned renos are:

Kitchen:

• Previous (wonderful!) tenant painted kitchen cupboard doors cream before leaving (see first two photos). Too much cream, so paint cupboard frames a contrasting colour.
• Replace cupboard door handles with modern handles
• Cupboards are in good condition – paint inside of cupboards white to look larger
• Retile sink splashback (we replaced the taps a year ago)
• Remove lino and Masonite on floor and polish floorboards
• Only one double plug point (on LHS); install one or two additional plug points on RHS
• Remove existing glass-door cupboard and install a deeper, taller cupboard
• Replace pin board on LHS with a small cupboard
• Add a matching single stand-alone cupboard next to existing double stand-alone cupboard
• Add a dishwasher at the expense of some kitchen cupboard space
• Paint/resurface/replace benchtop? (width is a little narrow, but manageable)
• Old blinds work okay, though a knob is missing from one pull cord – leave as is?
• Replace old and corroded window handles

Bathroom:

• Replace shower curtain and rail with shower screen along bath
• Replace taps to modernise them (we replaced the shower head a year ago)
• Resurface bath to remove stains
• Tile outside of bath and bathroom wall
• Replace tiled splashback area above washbasin and behind bath with modern tiles
• Replace washbasin with vanity and mixer tap
• Replace cupboard above washbasin with mirror to the left of cupboard
• Polish terrazzo floor (and in separate toilet too)
• Paint untiled area white or cream to make room appear larger

Entrance:

• Replace cracked glass windowpane on bottom RHS (hidden when door is open)
• Window frame on LHS needs repair (missing beading?) as it looks ugly
• Add light fitting
• Repaint inside of entrance door as paint is peeling and door is dirty

Continued below due to 10 photo upload limit...

 

Bedrooms:

• Add BIRs to main bedroom (currently has a brown wooden wardrobe for storage)
• Polish floorboards and remove remaining old lino glued to floor in main bedroom by window
• Install better curtains
• Replace cracked window pane in main bedroom
• Repair/replace flyscreens
• For BIRs in 2nd and 3rd bedrooms, seal and paint drawers and shelves, remove lino and replace door runners as they’re slightly warped so BIR doors stick
• Remove old wallpaper in 2nd bedroom and paint it
• If possible with light/fan combo, install dual light fitting in main and 2nd bedrooms as rooms are dark (agent photos make them look brighter than they are)

Sunroom:

• Patch and paint bi-fold doors, window frames and metal frames above bi-fold doors
• Repair broken plug point
• Repaint flaking ceiling

Lounge/Dining room:

• Polish floorboards
• Touch up ceiling around smoke alarm where some paint has been peeled off

Continued below due to 10 photo upload limit...

 

Under house laundry/storage area/garage:

• Area is fairly shallow due to sloping land - dirt base which gets excess rain runoff in heavy downpours and is just used for storage. Previous tenant has removed all the stuff in the 2nd and 3rd photos.
  
• Replace ancient concrete laundry tubs with new laundry vanity (we replaced the taps a year ago)
• Laundry door is old and has a hole at the bottom – replace with exterior door
• Remove DIY lighting and electrical extension leads installed by previous tenant due to potential electrical risk to tenants?
• Install new lighting and plug points?

Exterior:

• Replace rotting rails and a few missing palings on side fence
• Replace wooden gate posts and reattach gate leading to back garden
• Pull loose cable by kitchen windows up into roof and replace brown wooden slat under eaves with matching white slat
• Repaint window frames, gutters, front and rear stairs and railings
• Any need for landscaping?

Thanks in advance for ideas, suggestions and tradie recommendations,
GG

 

Super long post but the first thing I thought was to not paint the kitchen cupboards frames a contrasting colour. Add colour a different way of you have to - splash back or bench top for eg.

 

Aaaghh!, Please leave the kitchen cupboards alone - they look beautiful. Cream is always IN. Only the last few years it had a break because it was done to death for millenia. Do Not Touch.
You'll be amazed at the difference the polished floorboards will make.
Also, don't remove the concrete tub in laundry. Like, why??? Work around it. Paint the outside of it if you must.
Doesn't look like need for landscaping. Only if there's water going somewhere it shouldn't.
All else sounds good as it's mostly repairs and painting.

 

I agree with adding a glass shower screen over the bath to modernise it instead of the shower curtain. Painting inside the cupboards white (I usually use the cheapest gloss acrylic for this so it is tough and doesn't stain is a great idea too.

I would get advice from the PM as to what is needed to a) maintain the property and b) what will increase rent.

Toggle for blind is very inexpensive. Time taken for tradie to buy it, maybe not so cheap!
If the wallpaper is not peeling, maybe paint over it?

Definitely get an itemised quote.

 

Thanks, Jess. We can tile the splash back a different colour. Any suggestions for the bench tops - leave as is/repaint/replace?

 

Thanks, WattleIdo. The laundry tub has a slight crack and is just resting on its supports, not physically fixed to them - I suppose it could be attached. I hadn't thought of painting the concrete tub - the crack could be sealed with silicone (?) and then painted over...

 

Thanks, Joynz. That reminded me I'd posed the question around a year ago, sparking a good discussion. The general feeling was to paint over the wallpaper given it was in reasonable condition.
Paint over wallpaper?

 

Just be aware that once you paint over wallpaper it is extremely difficult if you change your mind and want to remove the paper.
Marg

 

Let me. Give you some good advice here.

If by selling you will not cover the interest and stamp duty and all other outgoings you have paid then do this:

Install the dishwasher, install a proper full size double sink, send an electrician through to make sure it's safe, send a plumber to check everything, I mean everything, and do nothing, absolutely nothing else.

If you have money to do the following without a mortgage, demolish it, put up a really nice 4x2 with big bedrooms and big kitchen and big bathrooms and a storage plus a double garage after doing some proper retaining and sell for a tidy profit.

Otherwise if you can sell it and cover everything you have spent on it or can come very close to that figure, then sell it to somebody who is not an investor, but loves diy, or somebody who will demolish it.

Your property isn't great and throwing money at it is not going to help. Be glad you are getting the rent you are and look at selling it if you can.

If you were not interstate and you knew about DIY and could do it then everything you suggested could be done. But I still would not do it.

The proper destiny for that house is to demolish and rebuild with something that will last 100 years.

 

I would like to suggest that you go onto the money smart webpage of the gov and put the value of 1 dollar compounded at 12% over 20 years into the calculator. See the potential value and power of a dollar placed in a good low fee fund? Investment property makes sense when you can beat those returns. It's your time that you must factor in. It's easier to check a vanguard funds performance 3 times a day to sell at high and buy at low then to renovate old houses for marginal rent returns.

Basically if you are able to raise the rent $50 by doing the Reno, that's optimistic, over a year it's still only about $2250 extra, so your Reno needs to cost less then that. If you put the money you would have spent on Reno into a vanguard fund tou would have made more

 

Yeh I agree with wylie, plenty of ways to skin the cat old Aldi chap. Besides doing a diy reno could be more interesting/personally rewarding, not to mention good experience. As per wylies example, you never know. One day it might make you more dosh then checking VAS three times a day.

Oh and I probably wouldn't worry about doing any landscaping, it looks ok. Just make sure it's well kept and no clutter, like lawnmower bits and bobs next to the fence. (Although at a guess I'd say it's your mower haha)

 

Just reread and realising your not doing any work yourself, please disregard what I said there about it being personally rewarding and all that. haha woops!

 

@wylie Thanks for your feedback and tips. I'll reread your post a few times - there's some great advice in there! I'll also PM you for your contact's details and arrange a quote with him once we've finalised what repairs/renos we're doing.

@Ald I'm a lousy sharemarket investor; while I know shares/EFTs/LICs can provide better returns for less work, I've made a small loss on these over the years. I'll stick with buy and hold for now, but appreciate your suggestions.

@MichaelMik I'm sure it will be rewarding for the tradies we get in to do the work - hopefully not too rewarding for them!

 

I'd leave it, unless it's damaged/in bad condition.

 

That bench looks great! Nice fix for crappy laminate