{Renovation Junkies} It's all action

Since my last post about getting the construction certificate we hit a bit of a lull in the reno. We had gotten out ahead and had about three months to wait until the build actually started.

It has started - 6 weeks ago to be exact.....and BANG! We are neck deep in the renovation.

We packed up the house in one weekend and on the Sunday evening hit the road to a unit around the corner, where we would be calling home for the next 11 weeks.

The following Wednesday the builders moved in and starting demolition. Since then they have cut slabs, laid slabs, framed up, put the roof on, roughed in the plumbing and electrical, laid storm water bits and bobs and a whole bunch of other stuff I don't understand.

Now you are all caught up.....our place looks like this......

The soon to be kitchen / dining area

The lounge / light well

The noise cancelling black insulation!

Sadly, it hasn't all been smooth sailing.

The first kink came in the form of our light-well. The Engineer thought the floor was bearers and joists- it wasn't, it is a concrete slab. Discussion ensued about glass roofing, skylights or underpinning the slab to get the light-well we wanted. We decided to underpin the slab.

The second kink came when the kitchen suppliers told me that they couldn't install until February next year - UNACCEPTABLE! Super Dave (our builder) to the rescue and he got his kitchen guy, Mighty Jo, to quote and also fit in with our timeline. No brainer, we went with Jo. Serious crisis averted.

The third kink came in the form of the air conditioning. The guy who was meant to move pipes and re-wire did a no-show, so the gyprockers turned around and left. Super Dave to the rescue again, he got his air con guy to come and do it so the walls and ceiling could be sheeted - even though it was day late.

And that is where we are at.....and just to let you know RENOVATING IS STRESSFUL.

Have you renovated? Stressful?

{Renovation Junkies} Getting the Construction Certificate

The next step in our renovation adventure is to get the Construction Certificate (CC).

No CC means no renovation means no new kitchen means heartbreak.

Basically a CC is a list of a stack of items and you need to supply and/or pay to the local council. Once supplied and paid, the council checks them.

Things on this list include;

• detailed architectural plans
• Basix certificate
• detailed stormwater plans
• landscaping plans
• dilapidation report of Council's assets, e.g. footpath
• Sydney Water approvals
• pay levies, rates, damage deposits (thanks Council)
• details of planned erosion

If they are happy, they give you the CC. If not, you go around in circles trying to make them happy so they will eventually give you the CC.

Cause like I said no CC, no renovation.

We have been fortunate our architect, Stuart, has helped us out with getting a lot of things, like engineer reports and Sydney Water approvals.

Our builders have also been great in going through the list with us and telling us explicitly what is our responsibility, leaving no doubt who has to do what and by when. 

Now I just need to get organised and tick my things off the list!

Had any issues getting a Construction Certificate?

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{Renovation Junkies} Our Builders, Steve & Dave

After much back and forth and lots of messages and un-returned phone calls with several builders over the past couple of months - we have chosen our builder!

Steve and Dave at Sydney Select Constructions (SSC) will be guys building our renovation and we are super excited.

Steve and Dave came recommended to us by James (over at Renovation Junkies) as he had worked with then both in the past. 

We met with Steve at our house to go through the plans and what we wanted and he told us that he would have a tender offer to us by the end of the following week - he did!

He told us he would then give us a few days to look at it before meeting with us again to go through the tender and the rest of the SSC process - he did! and  had booked a time to meet us near our work to take us through it all and answer any questions. 

We met for coffee and went through the tender offer answering any questions that we had. 

He also introduced us to the SSC process and the binder!

I have to admit by this stage I was pretty much sold to the fact that SSC would be doing the renovation - but as soon as Steve showed us that binder, with it's dividers and organisation I knew Steve and Dave were the guys for us. 

Steve went through the binder explaining to us about the Home Warranty's Insurance, Construction Certificate, the pre-construction checklists, site meetings with minutes, certified pest control barriers, lock-ups and handovers. We were amazed. 

Compared to the other builders we had asked for quotes, none of them came close to SSC in regard to the beginning quotation stage. For first-time renovators it was really great to have the time taken to explain all this to us. 

Got any stories on picking a builder?

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{Renovation Junkies} Kitchens = Overwhelmed!

Recently Hubby and I have been hitting every kitchen showroom across Sydney in an attempt to decide on our ultimate kitchen. One word. Overwhelmed!

In some showrooms, the sales people wouldn't leave us alone, at others they wouldn't even talk to us! Then of course there were the ones that were just right.

There is absolutely so much choice and so many showrooms. Heads are spinning, feet are sore and we are quite seriously overwhelmed by it all.

Traditional French, modern, contemporary, laminate, polyurethane, marble, stone, cupboards, drawers, appliance nooks, kick-board drawers, bin drawers, handles, no handles, integrated appliances.....

So many ideas and concepts for kitchens. Who knew! And of course all priced from not-too-bad to seriously out-of-the-park expensive.

In the end, we made a list of things we liked and sat down with two kitchen designers, Impala Kitchens and Sydney Kitchens to create quotes based on this list.

Our ultimate list is:

• no services in the island and seating for 4 people, 
• all services to be on the wall against the window with no over-head cupboards,
• lots of pantry space with room for the coffee machine and thermie to be tucked away,
• floor to ceiling cupboards 
• kick-board drawers to hold platters! (seriously awesome idea)
• a double bin drawer near the sink and dishwasher

Each kitchen designer will now create a quote and a 3-D "demo" of the kitchen design.

And then of course we have to decide!! ARRHH.

What would be on your list for your perfect kitchen?

{Renovation Junkies} Finding a builder

As we wait for the outcome of our DA application, we have been on the hunt for a builder to do the actual work.

What a minefield! There are an abundance of builders in Sydney - don't believe me, just google Builders in Sydney.

But how do you know who is good, well priced and not a pack of arse-hats?

You ask around, that's how.

Our neighbours have just completed renovations and we have lived and breathed it with them and their builders Larry and Brian, plus the various labourers that came and went.

Their work was good, they were well priced and weren't arse-hats - so we are getting them to quote for our reno as well.

Our super friend at Renovation Junkies, James, also sent us the names of several builders that he had worked with in the past. I gave them all a call - two were too busy to fit us in this year...arh, yep this is a consideration - the builder you want may not be available! eekk! One was available to start in May/June this year, so I asked him to give us a quote too.

Other friends renovated a couple of years ago, they had nothing but issues.  Abusive, threatening phone messages, incompleted work, badly finished work and a complete budget and timeline blow out. We won't be getting a quote from their builder.

So, what do builders need when giving you a quote...as much information as possible, that's what.

Hubby and I have decided to get the kitchen done ourselves so that is out of the quote. But everything else will be done by our builder of choice. We have sent the builders all the plans that the architect has drawn up for us and we also created our own plan of where we want power points, light fittings, data connections, air con vents and TV connections.

If you want to be super organised and want a super tight quote, you can also give them a list of everything else you have in mind, like vanities, toilets, tiles, shower screens, taps, doors, door handles - otherwise this will just be an estimate.

James has written a good blog post on things you need to select when renovating - http://www.renovationjunkies.com.au/selections-process/

What do you look for in a builder?

Got any recommendations?

{Renovation Junkies} The council waiting game...

Once all the relevant papers are lodged with the council comes the agonisingly long wait to see if you get approval.

I get the impression that our DA (Development Application) is fairly straightforward. But who ever really knows what is straightforward to the local council.

According to Luke, the guy at council assigned to our case, we have to go through a check with the Heritage department and a neighbour notification period of one month. All going well with those two things we should get approval.

If there are any major roadblocks to approval it will more than likely be the heritage department, because everything we are requesting to do must be inline with their rules and regulations.

Also, the length of time it takes to get approval will come down the heritage department too - the lady whose job this is only works two days per week and she deals with all heritage issues in the council's area.

Our neighbours recently completed a renovation, and their DA took six months to be approved....four of those months it was sitting in the heritage department.

I am not even sure of the average time to get DA approval - I guess every council varies and every DA varies....it is all a big fat unknown and the wait is killing us. I check up the website every day to see if there has been a change in our application status - there hasn't been!

Have you ever submitted a DA? How long did it take to get approval?

{Renovation Junkies} Our architect Stuart

Our architects name is Stuart. He has been fantastic to deal with and has helped us out immensely - and in fact, continues to do so.

After getting his details from James (at Renovation Junkies) I contacted him to arrange a meeting. He was able to accommodate our work schedule and the kids and came on a Saturday morning.

We talked through what we wanted to achieve from renovating and showed him some of our scribbled drawings about how we thought it might all work....or not work, whatever the case may have been.

(We also learnt that we needed to get some surveying plans of our property done, so I enlisted a surveyor who drew them up for us and forwarded them on to Stuart.)

Stuart walked around the place, asked a stack of questions, measured this and that, and took some photos.

Once he was done, he headed off to do some initial sketches of a couple of ideas to show how we could achieve the dream renovation. He told us that this stage of the process should take the longest. Working with the sketches is the easiest and cheapest time to change your mind on the design of your renovation. Once the plans start and ultimately the construction, you want your design to be set in stone.

Stuart returned a couple of weeks later with two sketch ideas, the one above and the one we didn't choose. Both were great ideas and incorporated things that Hubby and I hadn't thought about. As soon as I saw the light well/courtyard I was pretty much sold on the above design. We did tweak the kitchen a bit, but everything else was a slam dunk.

The next step was for Stuart to create all the DA paperwork and plans that were required to submit to the council to get our renovation underway. These documents consisted of....

• Survey
• Site Plan
• Floor Plans
• Elevations
• Sections
• Statement of Environment Effects
• Waste Management Plan
• Soil and Water Management Plan
• A4 Notification Plans
• Basix report
• Schedule of Materials
• Cost Summary Report
• Heritage Impact Statement

We met with Stuart again to view all the plans, read the reports and sign everything. Then Stuart was able to submit our DA to the council!! Now the waiting game....

Have you been through the DA process? 

{Renovation Junkies} All the ideas

As soon as you decide to renovate the amount of ideas that run through your head is unbelievable! My new addictions are Pinterest and any kind of home show - thank goodness Hubby got Foxtel for the Formula 1 racing.

Over several days, Hubby and I sat down together to mull over all these ideas, what were the main things we wanted to achieve with this renovation and how on earth did we think we could pull it off for a reasonable amount of money.

We both agreed that the two main things were a new kitchen and an extra bathroom. The thing that had us stumped was how on earth to shuffle our house puzzle pieces to accommodate our dream.

Oh and I should mention, also thrown into our renovation adventure is the fact that our house is heritage listed with council, which adds some complications - everything we do to the house needs council approval and must meet heritage standards, colours etc, etc.

The heritage part of our house is limited to the front, and thankfully we don't want to change that at all - but it does throw spanners if we want to add another level to the house, as that would change the look from the front.

The kitchen puzzle piece shuffle was easy, it would just move from the middle of the house to the edge, a bi-fold door would turn into a wall with a window...but how could it all fit in? I need a bigger kitchen! We didn't want to just move the teeny tiny kitchen from one place to another.

The extra bathroom, which would be an ensuite to the main bedroom was not so easy. Countless sleepless nights where our heads shifted puzzle pieces here and there, only to discover there would be no windows in the bedroom (we are a semi-detached dwelling).

Arh, crazy times!

So we did what any sensible person would do...asked James from Renovation Junkies if he could recommend an architect and he did...Stuart Formosa from Formosa Designs.

Have you used an architect before? Got any hints, tips to share?

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{Renovation Junkies} Making the decision to renovate...

Hubby and I bought our house three years and seven months ago. During this time we have really settled in and got to know the bones of this old place (it was built in the late 1800's)....isn't she a beauty!

We have done bits and pieces in the three plus years that we have lived here - storm water, under floor ventilation, landscaping, new deck, painting and down lights....

And now the time has come to make it a little more "live-able".....aka RENOVATE!

A builder friend, James, once told me, "You need time to settle in to a place and decide exactly how you want things". He was spot on.

Since moving in, we have realised, that we don't like the kitchen, it just isn't big enough, nowhere near big enough actually and it's location in the middle of the house, outside the bathroom really doesn't work out for anyone.

And as the kids grow we really would like another bathroom/toilet facility as we currently only have one.

So, where to next?

We have made the decision but, arh, how do you renovate?

Hubby and I have zero handy-person skills so would never dream of being owner builders, so we have started the journey to figure out what to do and how to do it....so stay tuned as I link up with James Mason over at Renovation Junkies to blog about our renovation adventure.

Have you renovated recently? Got any tips to share?