Renovations from start to finish Part A

[namtrak]

Yep thats it, and a tap is on the way.

I wait until I have a few jobs lined up until I get the plumbers back in!

[Candu]

Almost 2 years since you started this thread. I've read the whole thing and it is so inspiring but I'm feeling really tired right about now. Think I'll start small with a new carport.

[AndrewPatrol]

Candu and others
Great to see an update, been wondering what happened to you
not trying to take any shine off your efforts Namtrak, but have a look at this thread for inspiration ( if you havnt already )

Absolutely spectacular - Read the bit about what they do in between time, tired, more like paralysed
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=25158

[namtrak]

Yeh, Jill's stuff is superb. Already has me thinking about our next reno. For this one we have focussed on clean lines and a minimalist approach. We are only having the odd splash of timber throughout the house, to try and highlight it.

[namtrak]

....Maybe at the end of your project you could post a heap of tips/hints in the relevant section......

Done thanks Mick.

[namtrak]

Now three-quarters of the way through the plastering. Putting the sheets up, is relatively straightforward. Although it is at least a two person job. Even with the sheet lifter, I bought for $400, I still need someone to help me lift the bigger sheets onto the lifter.

One of the harder parts of plastering is getting your basecoat right. If you muck this up, it is much harder to sand off than the top coat. Buying all the right tools helps, but if your worried just get someone into do the finish plastering. A professional is quick and neat.

When you put the top coat on, make sure it over coats the base coat by around 50mm. And then when you sand it, you need to feather the edges of it so it creates a smooth interface between boards and doesn't show up when you paint the place.

The pics here show some of the plastering we have done. I have included the before pic of one of the entries into the kitchen.

[namtrak]

In reference to Number 14 in my list of tips for Owner Builders, make sure you read the instructions.

Eventhough I had correctly put plaster sheets before, I should have refreshed my memory.

I've attached pics of two sheets I put up, one the right way and one the wrong way.

Basically you put the glue everywhere throughout the middle of the sheets and are sparing with it towards the edges. And vice versa with the nails/screws. What I have done in the first photo, may down the track lead to the glue popping the nails out.

[namtrak]

I mentioned earlier that I would try and post some pics to show how well the windows work.

We think they're great, but they definitely need blinds at night.

[namtrak]

Things are moving at pace now!!!

Floors were sanded today. And they look a treat.

The timber is Northern Beech via Studley.

I got in a professional sander for a few reasons.

He uses a twin motor 6hp sander which runs 40 grit over the floor like its butter. But then finishes it with a wide disc sander, and I always think this creates the difference between the punter doing the floor and the professional.

He coats the floor with poly, they reckon water based stuff isn't upto scratch. It takes stains from blu-tac and so on. He also reckons if I clean our existing floor with a mix of water and turps, and hot water and soap - then they can do a clean up to minimise the scratches and other sundry damages.

To get Neil in, will cost $27 per metre (inclusive of everything and GST), which will be a total of close to $2000. For me to do it, will cost about $500 for sander hire for five days ( I would need to sand between coats as well). About $400 for the finish. And another $100 for sundries. So it cost me an extra $1000 to get it done professionally - but we reckon it will be money well spent.

The timber itself is Northern Beech (which I think is a mixture of light coloured hardwoods such as blackbutt, spotted gum, rose gum etc). It cost around $2.90 per lineal metre (about $3.10 delivered) and is feature grade. The floorsanders commented, quite a bit, on how hard the timber was. And this is from guys who spend their time sanding Cypress, Vic Ash and Jarrah.

The floor all looks the same, it is just different light which makes it look darker.

The rooms are a bedroom, TV room/4th bedroom and main living area.

The photos are only after 1 coat, when the other two coats are done I will post up some more pics.

[BDM]

Love the Thread keep it going give us more imfomation on your project

Best Regards

Peter

[namtrak]

Thanks,

I have a few more photos on the way of the finished floor and the new portico.

However in the meantime, I have created an updated budget. I will wait until the whole renovation is completed before I post up a copy of the final budget. The short story though, is that upto this point we have spent $92,692.06 and we budgeted for $85,821.95 For those interested in the cost of extensions, we are looking at 90 sqm of extension, including three new holes in the existing house (lintels etc) plus a 15 sqm portico. The 90 sqm also includes 25 sqm of deck.

In all our renovation worked out at $1029 per sqm. or about $9559 per square.

This is slightly misleading as a budget because I have included some $4,000 on tools I purchased which I didn't budget for. I also haven't included paint or render which I haven't got to yet. We have spent up pretty big in doors, windows and a new fireplace. Those items alone put us about $5,000 over our budget - however we are pretty happy with what we got. Another item that knocked our budget about were all the extra doodads. Battens, glues, screws, nails, tape and so on all add up extraordinarily quickly.

I will post up a couple more tips in the tips for Owner Builder threads shortly.

Cheers

[namtrak]

This is half done at the moment, if I get around it to it I will roof it and line it my self, otherwise it's just another job for the plumber. I am going to set down lights into it right at the front so we can point them down onto the garden.

The pictures are all pretty self explanatory, the roof, fascia and gutter will be the same as the existing house

[namtrak]

This is the ironing centre we installed.

It's a robinhood IC 300 and is wired at the back to a power point. We could have hardwired it, but we felt it gave us a bit more flexibility if we stuck a double power point in the back of the linen press. One word of warning the centre is too narrow to store our existing iron so we still need to stick the iron in a different cupboard. We will just need to make sure that our next iron fits.

Over all though SWMBO is very happy with it, as it has a very small footprint and is very simple to set up.

[namtrak]

This is the almost finished front bedroom, just skirts and wardrobe to go.

I think I got stitched up on the door. Normally I shop around for everything, but I just decided when I saw that one I wanted it. Cost me $760 - which was probably about $300 over priced. The glass is etched, and the door is solid timber but still.....

The rails were too narrow for a mortice lock, and the door handle barely fitted.

The blind on the front window is suede. We think we did alright there, the three blinds cost $560. We were after a contrasting effect in the two bedrooms, and rather than put sills in the windows we actually framed the window completely with architraves - a bit different but I like the look of it.

[namtrak]

This is the fireplace side of the new lounge room.

The room is all but painted and plastered. It's come up all right considering the number of butt joins in the ceiling. And if you are doing butt joins - then do them by the book - it actually works, my only difference was to really spread the top coat out past the flat - just to give me something to work with.

We have used downlights through all the extension because the ceiling is slightly lower than the existing house at 2700mm and we felt hanging lights would crowd us a bit. Sadly we couldn't use the fluoro downlights because they just don't pump out enough light.

The unpainted and uncorniced bit is where we are waiting for the new fireplace. We paid for it some 10 weeks but are still waiting for it to turn up. Because it is new fireplace in Australia it still needs some official approvals which are a bees dick away. Either way I felt it better to wait until I actually had the thing before I tried finishing off the plaster, cornice and paint.

The fireplace is an Escea 850 and is made in NZ