renovating advice

When it comes to building, close enough usually just isn’t good enough. When my neighbour’s builder made a mistake of 100 mm it meant he had to pull down part of the renovation and start all over again.
You might remember from my first Neighbour from hell post that I said the challenge would be making [...]

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This week I was back on 91.1FM. Today’s topic was some advice on creating a design concept.
(The bag-of-a-fag-pack cost assessment is a critical first step though…) You can have a listen here.

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The last instalment on RealEstate radio also went unrecorded - because I forgot to press ‘record’. (Blonde moment!) However it was all about the missing third step from last time. Here’s roughly what we covered.
In the three budgeting steps we looked at before you worked out what you wanted and roughly how much that would [...]

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While building a new project home will usually be cheaper than a renovation, the launch of a new affordable housing prototype sheds some light on the design rules for cost-effective building.
You can’t really compare what your friends paid for their new project home with the quoted cost of your renovation. A new home [...]

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A 5mm mistake meant 5 years of broken dishes. If only there’d been more attention to detail this could have been avoided.
A lot of people believe that Miele appliances are top of the range. You certainly pay enough for them. So when poor installation means you can’t fully open your new Miele dishwasher it’s enough [...]

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Each fortnight I’m joining Sami and the gang on Radio Real Estate on Hot 91.1FM. Sami, Dan from Ray White, Rob from Adenbrook Homes and me, are taking a journey through The Renovator’s Survival Guide - picking out the very top tips.
Listen to this episode where we discuss the top three problems to avoid.

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While rock-star marketer Seth Godin doesn’t usually give renovating advice, a recent post gave some interesting tips for creative selling.
In a recent post called On being proactive, Godin wrote: “In my experience, much of marketing is a game of waiting for the other guy to go first. Well, if nothing is happening, you go [...]

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Or if I say it another way, The (renovating) World According to Me.

When I sat down to write The Renovator’s Survival Guide I was intent on helping people avoid some of the simple mistakes I know it’s so easy to make. I felt that if the book were going to appeal to people just like [...]

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Australian Property Investor magazine continues its Reno Guide series. This month, it’s Part 5 - dealing with the outside room.  The Reno Kings’ Geoff Doidge and Archicentre’s Robert Caulfield are quoted and I gave some advice based on my years marketing bricks and pavers  -  I know a few things about patios, decks and courtyards! [...]

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