Renovating in stages and on a budget

When we purchased our first home, it was a huge old art deco apartment with amazing features, but literally falling apart. The bathroom was in a state, the kitchen was even worse. Not even mentioning the yellow stained walls and dirty old blue carpet. We really had to use our imagination for the final outcome. It wasn’t really liveable, pretty much everything needed redoing, yet like most first home buyers, our budget was stretched and there wasn’t much left over to renovate.

The first thing we did was make a list of what we ‘must do’, would be ‘nice to have’ and what could ‘definitely wait’.

Must do

This was where we could create as big of an impact as possible to make the overall appearance look as nice as possible. Without hesitation ripping up the carpet, polishing the floors and a paint job achieved this.

In addition, the cupboards in the kitchen were in such a bad state that we ended up ripping them all out, keeping only the kitchen sink and the oven. We then bought a portable kitchen island from Ikea to prepare food on and used a bookshelf to store our crockery and classes.

At this point, we were able to move in and the majority of the rooms were complete. If you were in our living room or bedrooms, you would never guess that other parts of the home needed serious attention. It also made us feel comfortable.

Nice to have

Knowing that had to wait some time for the kitchen and bathroom, these were the items that we could add to bit-by-bit as finances allowed.

We had gas installed along with continuous hot water a few months after moving in. From there this led the way to purchase a freestanding industrial style oven that required gas, and then a new dishwasher. These were all still in our ‘temporary’ style kitchen, which made it more functional.

Definitely wait

These were the major and costly renovations and we did it in three stages.

About a year after moving in, we installed a new bathroom.  We chose to do this first because it was in the worst condition. While the kitchen needed redoing, it was functional and clean.

We then knocked the wall out between the kitchen and the hallway about a year after that, which gave us space to put in a dining table. Interestingly, if we had the money to redo the entire apartment in the beginning, we would have knocked out a completely different wall, which would have increased the size of the already large living room. By waiting and living in the home, we were able to truly know what our needs were, and be a bit more strategic.

The last major renovation was installing a new kitchen. We purchased the kitchen direct from a reputable company and hired our own handyman to install it.

How we saved money

• We ripped up the carpet ourselves. Note that we hired a machine to sand the floors despite everybody’s advice to not do it. We soon realised after starting that we would have ruined the floors, so we brought in a professional.
• We prepped and painted the walls and ceilings ourselves with the help of family and friends.
• My husband and a friend ripped out the kitchen cabinets.
• He also ripped out the old bathroom tiles.
• We acted as a project manager and hired tradespeople to do various jobs. Note that this comes with risks and at the time, the cost of the renovations we were undertaking at each stage was small enough for us to legally do this without having an Owner Builder licence. Building rules change all of the time so always do your due diligence and check your rights and liabilities.  A good place to start if you are in NSW is Fair Trading.
• We hired the plumber and tilers ourselves.
• The tiles and fittings for both the bathroom and kitchen were sourced and bought ourselves, using our tiler or plumber’s trade discount.
• We acquired a certificate from a structural engineer to knock out the wall and hired a builder to do this.
• Our kitchen was purchased direct and we hired a handyman to install.

The end result was that we created an apartment with a wow factor with quality designer fittings that cost a fraction of the price.

Written by Mel Chesneau of Styled Canvas

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