I purchased a house with two enormous gumtrees out the front. Approx 20mts high and huge branches out into the street. I was worried about branches dropping onto neighbours car roof. Rang the council and to my amazement they couldnt of cared less (in one of the stricter councils too) Said if they were on my property and particularly gumtrees…[Read more]

Read somwhere heat wll melt these glues and you could scape off. Try a hairdryer on a small piece and see what happens. Maybe you could hire some sort of bigger heatgun

Fern

Recovering benchtops with laminate is a cow of a job, perhaps thats why no-one will tackle it. The laminate rips very easily and then you would expect him to replace it – profit gone for tradie. A much better idea is to have new benchtops made and just pull off old ones and put on new. Measure very carefully and make a template of any L shaped…[Read more]

Depending on how fast you want it, planting fast growing creepers such as star jasmine will cover your chain mesh fence pretty quick and looks really great. Also Lillypilly are very fast growing and can be clipped into a square hedge just behind the fence looks really good. Should get quite good coverage with one Spring.
Lots awaters the trick

Fern

Wylie is right. It took me 3 years to get approval so I took a breather for about 6 months & didnt even think about it. After that surprise surprise I was interested again. Course that meant I ran out of time to complete the project but it only costs about $300 to extend the Building approval if you don’t finish in time and is worth it for…[Read more]

Do you have to put roads, sewerage & lighting through the property to each block. Assume you have included this in your costing. It sounds a very big project to me. Do you have experience in building roads. Not to rain on your parade, I envy a project of this size and am interested in what experience you have to tackle it. There is one I am…[Read more]

I would be checking with council to see whats planned for the area, rerouting of any roads, new kindy being built across street etc.
Class P slabs are for “Problem” heavy clay etc.
Check what fall on the block. One I bought looked level but actually had a 1200mm drop to back corner. Just takes more concrete for level slab towards back that…[Read more]

I would ask the neighbours on either side and even 2-3 down, you would be surprised which neighbours strike up friendships with & keep in contact with

Fern

The bank who owns you (& your mortgage or building society, etc.) unless you’re filthy rich and own the property outright. (LOL) They charge $400/600 just to release it for viewing and courier it over to the titles office (who have the original anyway) There is a huge amount of info on the Somersoft Forums website at the moment about the whole…[Read more]

I know buying at auction you are stuck with what you buy, but I would have thought a private sale you could expect them to have permits or reduce price to compensate. I bought a house at auction once only to find out that the stormwater was hooked up to the sewer which was highly illegal but I didnt know. Sold it at auction as………. I’m…[Read more]

I think 2% of purchase price is pretty good and you can bargain down further. In my case I believe people work better with a bit of financial incentive, rather than screwing them down to the inth degree. I would put more effort into selling something for 1.8% rather than 1.5%. I also believe in paying for deluxe package advertising too as I…[Read more]

To subdivide a normal block into two wasn’t that expensive. You can do it yourself & save solicitors fees (& faster) A lot of the expense you have to go through anyway to build. Approx $2000 for surveyor originally, approx $1800 to water for another line, meter etc. $1000 to bring gas across road as it wasn’t on our side.
To subdivide, a…[Read more]

I didnt know council will allow more density for over 55s, it certainly didn’t hurry up our council with approving it – took them 2.5 years. I will certainly look into it. I cant believe they could enforce who you rent to, how could they monitor it, wouldn’t that be descrimination.
I designed two on a block specifically for over 50s downsizing,…[Read more]

One thing I have learned is – just because you are a woman and the tradie lifts and eyebrow and says he knows how to do it. Don’t believe him, describe how you want it done, check its being done how you want, check its finished. If you have a suspicion they are just saying they have done this particular thing before, stay and look how its going…[Read more]

Depending on how big the block is and what your financial position is. The council will tell you how many you could fit, but if you want to start off small with your feet on firm ground with each step like I did, heres how I did it. Rent out the house while you design your own townhouses, or if you dont have any expertise in that area, suss out…[Read more]

You dont have to have a whole houseful of furniture. Just an impression. I used a double bed base a friend was throwing out once. The room looked very spacious as it was so low and it looked good with a dooner thrown over. You can buy furniture very cheaply at places like Furniture Galore. I bought a very good looking two seater for $399,…[Read more]

I designed a half hob for my kitchen as it is visible from the lounge room and it works fantastic. Comes out from the wall about 1100 x 1200H. All the toaster, kettle, coffee making stayes behind it and the rest of the bench is free for stools, Love being part of everything when guests come over and I am making coffee for them. Wouldnt design…[Read more]

I designed a half hob for my open plan living area and it works fantastic. Comes out from the wall 1100 x 1200 and I can put the toaster, kettle coffee making behind it and it leave the rest o fthe bench free for stools if you want. Incidentally as open plan it works fabtastic. My girlfriend poopoohed(?) the idea and said she wanted a “proper”…[Read more]

They are not cheap. Semi frameless are better value and look nearly as good. Compare different companies until you find the cheapest that looks the best. They do allow a lot of splashing around the door though. We actually put one in ourselves and because its toughened glass you shouldn’t have any trouble with breakage but ithey are very big…[Read more]

I would be wanting some sort of guarantee up front that the land is subdividable and rezonable. So many councils wont budge on downsizing their subdivide requirements. But unless the developers are complete shonkies I’m sure they have some sort of preapproval.

Fern