Our first reno project

Hi nicole
The render is going to cost me about $1540 for 2 base coats and 1 top coat which is coloured already so I don't need to paint over it. I am not sure how many square metres is being rendered so I can't tell you the per metre rate, but it is the front of house right around to the edge of the porch. I will try to work out the metres this week – if I remember that is!!

Wed 15th Aug
-painted 2nd coat on the handrails around deck
-tried out my new Wagner Paint Crew (spray painter) and sprayed 2 coats onto the rafters etc of the deck
-started repair work on the gutters
-did a bit of patching holes in the ceilings
-inspected another house

Hi crashy
The wagner seems great. It does say "Not for Professional Use!" on the instructions but I am not really a pro painter and will only use it for one house every couple of months, so should last me a while.
It is made as a very good DIY tool, works almost as well as a $2k+ machine, but doesn't have any pressure adjustment. Just fixed pressure, so can't turn it down for doing small intricate work etc.
Today it took me an hour to read instructions and assemble, then at least half hour to clean it out at end of day. Once I am used to it, probly a total of half hour down time each day that I use it, so not good for just little bits of painting.
Tomorrow I hope to spray 2 full coats on the ceiling. I still have to do some prep to the ceiling, and mask up a few places like wardrobes so they don't get sprayed. I reckon it will take only 1-2hours to spray whole ceiling, each coat. I will let you know tomorrow.
One good thing, is that you can leave paint in the machine for a few hours. So I can spray 1st coat in morning, then wait 3-4 hours and spray 2nd coat, then clean out machine at end of day. That is the plan anyway.
I also got a roller attachment for it so I can roll on paint without having to re-fill the roller all the time. Just start the machine and roll roll roll. I will probly do this on walls.

I shopped around a bit, and everyone was the same price – $695. I found a Syndey shop selling online for same price but they had about $250 of extras included, so I got it from them and bought some more accessories as well. Total spend was $869.35. The cheapest professional model is about $1500+. The place I got it from is here: http://www.airless.com.au/
Not sure if they still have the same deal, but they were quite helpful. I called them to place the order, and they talked me through the product and helped me select extras like different size tips. Then I got the package next day, which was very fast service. It was free postage too (for orders over $250 I think). So I would use that shop again if I need anything.

Not sure what else to tell you. I guess after I use it more I will have a better idea.
The rafters were quite easy because the existing fibre glass roof sheets are still in place, so I could just spray all rafters from standing on the deck, and any overspray hit the roof sheets. We are changing the roofing anyway, so it is a useful "dropsheet".
It did waste a bit of paint doing it this way, but I sprayed the whole roof structure in less than 30 min each coat. It would have taken probly at least 2 hours per coat by hand.
I will get a photo tomorrow if I remember.
Cheers

Thurs 16th Aug
-put top coat on all plaster patches inside
-installed 2 bits of cornice
-sanded all the cornices
-sanded some ceilings
-bought all the materials to texture coat blueboard

Didn't get a chance to spray ceilings. Much more prep still to be done than I thought.

Funny story. While entering some receipts onto computer last night I noticed that a large order of timber from last week had one item that cost $717.13. Problem is the item was 2 bits of 70x45mm treated pine, 5.4m long each. Seemed a little expensive. I had not noticed it at the time of ordering material because it was a fairly big order for the carport and all the timber for the deck handrail and blueboard framing etc. Total order was $1944, seemed a little expensive, but I just thought that's what it was.
So I went back to the timber yard and showed them the receipt. The very embarassed salesman explained that it should have been 3.75 per metre, but had been typed in at $75 per metre. So I got a refund of $684, and my budget is looking much better.

Speaking of budget, for everyone's interest the reno cost is so far $11,689.99. And we have done a total of 321hours work, excluding subcontractors.
I think we are about halfway there on the time, and running pretty close to budget overall.

Fri 17th Aug
-replaced all the dodgy architraves that I had taken off earlier
-did some more plaster patching
-a roof restorer came and did all the repointing. ( I was going to DIY, buy decided to get some help to speed up the process. I found a quote that is still under what I had budgeted for to DIY, so that's great. I had allowed $1500 for roof re-paint, and this guy quoted me $950. Awsome. I have already pressure washed the roof, so saved him some time. But I had 2 other quotes that were $2250 and $1200 even though I already washed it, so this guy is very cheap. And he was recommended by the paint store that sells roof paint as "the only guy I would trust on my roof", so I think he will be ok quality.
-had a visit from another fellow investor. Hi Troy, good luck with that unit.

Sat 18th Aug
Another productive working bee. Together me and all the helpers:
-finished staining front fence
-nailed balusters onto deck handrail
-troweled base coat onto blueboard joints
-did 'no more gaps' over whole house
-2nd coat of render on front wall
-undercoat to the remainder of arcs and skirts
-took off the balustrade from front porch
-started sanding all the plaster patches

I have put a few more photos up here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9273576@N06/?saved=1

Hi Don. The market in our area is quite strong. When we started this deal we had a best case, worst case, and likely case sales price in mind. It now seems that we have a great chance to get the best case or better. This is partly due to the market, and partly that the reno is going to be a bit nicer than we originally thought. Because this is our first attempt, we were not confident of the quality that we could produce, and so based our predictions on a good but not great final product. Now that we are halfway through the job, we can see the end product more clearly (in our heads that is), and it is looking lovely. Can't wait to make the vision reality and show you all the photos!
However, we are doing what we can to get the house finished and sold ASAP so that we don't miss out on the current strong market.