Follow along - small renovation of a charming 1970s brick house Sydney

My partner and I purchased a single storey brick house built in the 1960/70s. It has a weird layout given the previous family had built the original and extended the house when it got a bit too small for a big family.

It has 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and 1 car, with an external laundry with toilet.

Initially the plan was to live in its current condition until the time comes to do a second storey extension down the line. But one thing led to another, we’re now planning a small renovation (no walls moved or added) just to make the space more liveable.

Current scope includes:
- polishing concrete floors
- new kitchen
- new lighting fixtures
- new built in wardrobe in master bedroom
- new toilet, vanity and bathroom fixtures but keeping the tiles

Considering:
- double glazing windows and doors?
- adding shower in the laundry? A bit more tricky as the laundry has asbestos sheets

Week 1. Carpet removed. The whole house was covered in carpet (even the hallway) except for a small room at the front and the kitchen which is tiled. Even though it was a new installation for the sale, we felt it was not very practical with a dog. We removed the carpet and underlay in strips and rolled it up, put it up on Facebook marketplace and will be reused in someone else’s home. Saved probably $25psm for removal and tip fees. Same with the smaller room floor planks, someone has taken it to be reused in their campervan. Feels good to recycle instead of it going to landfill. The rubber underlay underneath has truly been glued to the concrete and was a pain in the bum to get rid of.

During the week we also got some quotes for polishing the concrete floors which is under the carpet. We were going to lay some vinyl ourselves but the polishing quote came back quite reasonable, so we will go with this option. The contractor that came out even did a little sample in the corner for us, which was super nice! (See photo)

We also wanted to remove the wall sheeting in the front section of the house which we thought were asbestos (they have the weird joints in between). Got an asbestos specialist to come out and quote and they found that they were all timber…yay! That probably saved us $10k alone. Still will get the sheets removed and re-sheeted as the ‘timber’ walls have a weird texture currently.

Next week: Kitchen removal, sheeting removal / general removal of old built in wardrobes and drawers and starting the concrete polishing work.

 

Demo pretty much done yesterday - all the old Masonite walls ripped out, built in wardrobe, walk in wardrobe, built in drawer unit, 60s kitchen and pantry that could only fit the size of a 150cm tall fridge.

Large amount of rubbish generated and we only ordered a 4 Marrel skip bin which was definitely not enough and was on a tight schedule since I locked in the concrete polishing guys to come today. Got the guys to help me load everything in an empty garage and managed to get a large rubbish removal truck this morning to pack it all out. Tip: always order a size up from what you think you need.

Concrete polishing currently in progress and very keen to see some updates tomorrow. The aggregate of the new extension of the house (from 1985) is very different to the original 70s build, so the concrete will transition from old to new which will be interesting.

since the walls sheets are out, need to get an electrician to map out new power outlets, down lights and wire Ethernet/connect NBN in the house. I think the demo guys may have cut the phone cords a little short so will need to figure that out..