How do I pick a builder?

Picking a builder is a decision on par with picking an architect or building designer - it's an expensive and potentially project-altering choice. Pick well, and you could have a smooth build process with minimal headaches, good communication, and a great outcome. Pick poorly, and the consequences could range from an out-of-control budget, to a dodgy build.

So our process was as follows:


1) Get your design as detailed as possible, including a schedule of finishes.

We spent lots of time on this, which I struggled with. I knew I wanted a grey bathroom tile for example, so why did I have to pick exactly which one, 6 months out from starting the build? Even if it's not your final pick, having something on your schedule of finishes against each item (flooring, tiles, paint, lighting, benchtops etc.) means that when you're comparing the quotes from each builder, you are at least comparing 'like with like'. Otherwise? Builder A allows for tiles at $20/square metre. Builder B allows for tiles at $80/square metre. You think you're getting a bargain with Builder A, or a rip-off with Builder B. But the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

The other unexpected bonus of picking things early is actually being forced to make decisions. And you can always change your mind once your negotiations begin - but having something picked means you know exactly what you're getting when it comes to price!

A page from our finishes schedule

2) Ask for recommendations!

I went to Facebook as a starting point for recommendations, but we also had our building designer and our engineer recommend someone. It's best if the person who is doing the recommending has actually done a project with their recommended builder, and if you know them well enough, you can go and see the finished product! In addition, it's important to know if the project your friend/colleague/acquaintance had done is a similar size and scope to what your project is. Their recommended builder may be excellent at tacking on a pergola, but not so flash at a complete renovation.

If only every builder was like Bob the Builder!

3) Meet them. Yes, all of them.

It's quite possible you're going to be spending a lot of time and energy with whoever you choose, so probably best pick someone you actually get along with. It's imperative to meet all the builders you're getting quotes from, preferably at the site, so you can get a feel for each other. Everyone has a different style of communication and a different way they like to work, and while you can't guarantee that the initial meeting will continue on in the same vein, it helps to get a vibe!

Happy builders!

4) Obtain detailed quotes, and compare them. (not easy)

So as you get quotes trickling in, you'll likely notice some variation in how they are set out and the level of detail which has gone into them. The guy that's just scrawled a figure on a scrap of paper? You probably don't want him. The trick lies in how to compare such voluminous amounts of information. Not everything is easy to compare. You're building a deck as part of your reno for example - builder A quotes an item 'deck' (including roofing, carpentry etc.). Builder B quotes the balustrading in 'carpentry' and 'roof' as a separate item. And this goes on and on.

How did we do it? A massive spreadsheet (and I hate spreadsheets with a passion). We created a Google 'sheet' (like an online, interactive Excel document) and tried as best we could to compare like with like. Some items were easy - house raising, plumbing, electrical to name a few. This is invaluable information as you can really see what different builders are charging for which component.

Apart from price comparisons, the invaluable outcome of putting everything in a spreadsheet was inclusions, and some specifications which may not have been put anywhere in your plans. Builder A includes building certification, and Builder B does not. Builder A includes a higher-rated insulation than Builder B. Is there a builder's final clean included? We picked up several items which had been missed during this process, and it's better to know now than be hit up with a variation bill later on.

Electrical	$27,800	$34,991.40	$23,026.50	$34,416.06	$20,806.50
				includes air con
Inclusions:	- lighting, power, data and kitchen equipment - PC sum for lights and fans as per below			$29,938.96
- electrical general	$20,650	$22,766.80
- lights/fans	$3,500	$4,977.60		$600
- Provisional sum for kitchen appliances	$3,650	$7,247.00	A
- security alarm system				$3,877.10

An example line from our quote comparison spreadsheet (yes, I know how nerdy this looks!)

5) Begin negotiations!

So, you've done your massive nerdy spreadsheet and picked someone that you not only like, but think is providing a fair price. Now to negotiate! Everything is up for negotiation. We are on a tight budget with our renovation and we need to save where we can. Some of the things we have done are:

- noted that the price for one item seemed disproportionate compared to other quotes, the builder managed to cut a couple of grand off that item
- taken things out that we can add at a later stage, like the water tank
- taken things out that we can organise or do ourselves, like carpet (our builder has been great about this)

Ultimately, renovating is an expensive exercise. If, like us, you want to know exactly what you're getting for your money, it's worth the time spent in the initial planning stages. Hopefully this will make for a smooth building process - but we shall wait and see!

As for a start date for the West End Renovation? Our tenants' lease comes up on July 1st, so we're aiming to start on Monday July 3rd!

Stay tuned and please comment! :-) K

Why West End?

Hey everyone, sorry for the delay in posting our next blog entry! The lull in posts has been because we have been working with builders to obtain quotes which we are now reviewing and trying to assess them on on their various merits. We will be writing a blog post breaking down this process shortly.

In the meantime, one question that Kate and I get a lot is why we chose West End as the suburb to buy our home and renovate. It is obviously a big investment we are making in our future and we plan to hang around for a while. My best mate Jeff, and many others, think we're crazy for living here, what with West End being a highly populated and busy suburb, close to the city, and with a diverse population. Different strokes for different blokes, I suppose. Today I'd like to share a brief history of the suburb, some of the great places to check out, and ultimately why we decided to live here.

Aerial view of West End from 1933. Hardgrave Rd and Montague St are the main two streets in view
Credit: State Library of Queensland 

Who comes up with these suburb boundaries?! 
Credit: Google Maps

The suburb got its name in the late 19th century from English settlers who likened it to the trendy West End of London. The Aboriginal name for the area is Kurilpa, which means place of the water rat, so the first impressions of the actual first settlers compared to the ones that call themselves that was clearly quite different!

The West End of London itself is not a suburb but a region of the city, the exact boundaries of which are continue to be contested. Comparatively, West End in Brisbane has a defined and very odd boundary, the history of which could probably be a story in itself.

There has been talk of changing the name of Boundary St for some time. 
Credit: ABC News

Running along the Eastern limit of the suburb is the renowned Boundary St. The street gets its name as the boundary that was enforced to keep Indigenous Australians out of the city centre. I discovered a bit more information here, and was surprised to find that this street served as the western boundary. There has been talk of changing the street name, but until then it serves as a reminder of the harsh and terrible treatment the indigenous community has been subjected to.

The suburb developed a strong Vietnamese and Greek community in the mid-20th century, no doubt initially drawn in by the low house prices and jobs nearby. The suburb consisted largely of the working class that toiled in the various industry that was co-located within suburb. While some of this industry still exists in the area today, such as the Hansons concrete plant and the Parmalat milk factory, most have moved on as the city has expanded. Some newer developments carry the history of the sites as a badge of honour. The Peters Ice Cream factory on Boundary Street is being converted to into apartments as part of the controversial West Village development; the old glass factory on Vulture Street has been converted to apartments and boutique retail, and has imaginatively been named The Glass Factory.

Today the suburb is highly regarded with one of the best state high schools nearby, while also being less then 2km from the city. The Boundary Street remains the the vibrant hub of West End with great cafes, plenty of unique shops and tonnes of bars, along with a thriving services sector.  Some of my favourites along this strip are:

West End Library. Since 1928.
Credit: The West End Magazine

• Rio Rhythmics Latin Dance Studio. The dance studio that very indirectly resulted in Kate and I meeting is also one of the premier latin dance schools in Australia. They run the annual West End Carnaval street festival which apparently started when one of their parties got carried away and ended up on the street! 
• The West End Library. Okay we're nerds, but the West End library is a pretty cool landmark with its clock tower . It was the first purposely built public library in Queensland and it also reflects the local community in its large selection of Greek and Vietnamese books. 
• Avid Reader, and its kids companion store, Where the Wild Things Are! (Kate here - nerding again). I love to support independent stores, and I love books. Winning! A great spot to pick up kids books for my friends' kids.

While Boundary Street is the key area that people associate with the suburb, there has been surge in great places popping up on the perpendicular Vulture Street and in other parts of West End that are worthy of checking out. Some of my favourites include: 

The End. Credit: mustdobrisbane.com

• The End. A tiny, industrial style bar on Vulture St that is easy to walk past if you don't know about it. The only identification being a small rainbow sign on the otherwise black facade. The bar is often filled with live music and heaps of bearded people, so it must be cool. They seem to always have something new on tap and they have a range of fancy cocktails worth trying out. 
• Morning After. A chic cafe that serves great coffee. Perfect for a morning after a night at the End. 
• Blackstar Coffee Roasters. Great coffee and well known for their cold press coffee which they supply to various venues in the Brisbane. 
• Jet Black Cat Records. Dope ass record store that, apparently will lend you out a frisbee to use at the park across the road. Note: I have no direct confirmation that this is the case. I'd love it if they don't actually do this but are now inundated with people asking to borrow a frisbee.




Lokal & Co. Credit: The Weekend Edition

• Lokal & Co. Off the main strip, on an otherwise residential street, Lokal & Co combines Scandinavian style with a Queensland feel (and a Pilates studio next door!). 
• Kombi Koffien. Restored VW Kombi van that parks on Jane St near the river and serves coffees and beats in the morning.
• The Boundary. I'm usually not a big fan of this pub, but the open mic nights on Wednesday nights are worthy of dropping into to, especially if you have any musical talent. You may get called up to play drums while a bunch of others play instruments and sing! I was asked to contribute in any form.
• Davies Park Market. A Saturday morning staple that draws in half of Brisbane and turns Montague Road into a carpark. Once you're in the markets however, all sorts of unique produce is available from live crabs to vietnamese herbs. Stay for the morning and have brekky under the oak trees by the river while local bands play nearby. There are worse ways to start the weekend. 
• Street art. West End is teaming with street art. Some are commissioned, such as the infamous lizard on the corner of Boundary and Russell Streets. Some not so much. 

Credit: blog.queensland.com

With all these wonderful and unique places in our little suburb, we're hopeful that it will remain a great place to live. What are your thoughts? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below!

West End renovation floor plans!

So what are we actually doing to our place? We've written about design concepts and strategies here and here. Today I will share some floor plans with you!

We're starting with a small worker's cottage, on a small block, which has been beautifully 'updated' in the 1970s with some asbestos and vinyl cladding, and besser blocks around the bottom of the house. Here is the existing floor plan:

As you can see, we're starting with a pretty typical layout for a 1920s worker's cottage. The original front patio has been built in as a sunroom, with the kitchen and bathroom at the back of the house (and - an outhouse!!).

We're raising the house, building in a level underneath, and putting a deck on at the back. Because the block has dual street access, the deck is also functioning as a carport, with the driveway from the back of the block.

1st floor plan

Ground floor plan

On the first floor, the biggest existing bedroom is becoming a kitchen, with bedroom 3 becoming a dining room. The kitchen becomes the stairs, and the bathroom knocked out to make an open plan living room. The only new walls will be made to form a new bathroom upstairs. Oh, and we knock out the sunroom to reinstate the old patio and make the front of the house look beautiful again (hopefully!).

The ground floor plan is to form 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, with a small laundry. We have storage under the staircase, and the area behind the front battens will have a gate for bicycle storage and possibly the hot water unit.

As for progress, quotes are coming in from the builders, so then we have some serious spreadsheet-ing and decision making to do!

Thanks go to Jamin Building Design, who we enjoyed working alongside to come up with a plan we are really excited to go ahead with. Any design, particularly for a small footprint, has compromises, but we are stoked that we have gotten most things that we want in a functional design.

Would love to hear what you think of our plans, what you would have done differently, and for you to share your own plans!
Always excited to get comments :-)

Kitchen cabinets - the good, the bad and the ugly!

The kitchen is a focal point in most homes, as well as one of the most expensive rooms during any build or renovation. I discussed benchtops in this post, Michael covered the pros and cons of pre-fabbed kitchens in this post, and now I'll share what I've learnt about cabinetry.

Kitchen carcasses themselves (basically the wooden boxes that have a door or drawer front on them) are generally made of an engineered timber product such as particleboard or medium density fibreboard (MDF), but could be plywood or even solid timber. For anyone who's ever put together Ikea furniture, you would be familiar with particleboard. Plywood is a step up in terms of density and strength, and then it's a step up again to timber.

But it's the front of the cabinets that you'll see, and the part that most people are interested in. I'll admit I've been looking at kitchens for some time without appreciating the nuances of kitchen cabinetry finishes, and I'm really glad I looked into it.

So what are your options?

Thermolaminate

Thermolaminate is a very thin sheet of vinyl, which is heated and wrapped over the cabinet front (door or drawer) covered in glue to help it stick on. The big advantage is cost - it's the cheapest option. It can be used on profiled or routered doors (see below) and because it comes in one piece, it wraps around the whole door/drawer front including the sides, so it looks nice and continuous. However it's very sensitive to steam and heat, and many people find that in these areas (such as kitchens!) it can bubble and start to separate from the cabinet front itself. When I rang a well regarded kitchen company in Brisbane, they won't even offer thermolaminate as an option given its poor performance. Like everything though, there would be thousands of people with thermolaminate in their kitchens who are happy with the finish.

Lots of mitred edges in this kitchen, courtesy of Pinterest

Laminate vs melamine

These terms are confusing because lamination is simply 'the technique of manufacturing a material in multiple layers' (Wikipedia). Melamine is a low pressure laminate. 'Laminate' itself, sometimes known as Formica, is a high pressure laminate. The materials used to make both are similar (a tough plastic resin bonding layers of paper), but 'laminate' has more layers, is more durable, and tends to be used for benchtops. Melamine is still a durable material, perfect for cupboard or drawer fronts, comes in a wide range of colours and is reasonably cost-effective. The downside? You can't have a routered or profiled finish on cupboards because it only comes in flat pieces. Also if you look closely, the joins (say where the front of a door meets the top) will be visible.

Check out Polytec's melamine range here.

2 Pac

Not to be confused with this guy...

Originally used in the automotive industry, 2 Pac/2 Pack/Two Pack is essentially a super-hard and durable painted finish, and is the premium finish for cabinet fronts. It's available in a huge range of colours and finishes from matt through to gloss. Because it's applied directly to the cupboards or drawers themselves, a routered finish is possible, as are curved cupboards, curved edges or continuous coating over edges. 2 Pac also has its detractors who feel that it chips easily, but an equal number of people report heavy use and are happy with it. On average, it will cost 30% more than a standard melamine finish.

Profiled cabinet 2 Pac finish from contourcabinets.com.au

A note on Ikea cabinetry...

Because we are strongly considering an Ikea kitchen, I've been taking a harder look at their website. All Ikea cabinets are not created equal! Take the first example below, the 'Kallarp' cabinet door. Look at the bottom right 'product description'. What's foil do you ask? Foil, or thermofoil, is another term for thermolaminate.

The bottom is the 'Bobdyn' door, and you'll note it's significantly more expensive. Looking at the product description, 'acrylic paint, polyester paint'... that's 2 Pac.

Lastly, cool Ikea stuff to look out for...

Several companies are capitalising on Ikea's popularity and relatively low cost by providing cool cabinet fronts for Ikea carcasses. Check out Superfront - a Sweden-based company with some very stylish alternatives to Ikea's standard range. Currently they only ship their handles and smaller items to Australia, but expect that to change in the future.

Scandi style! Courtesy of superfront.com

Well that's it for now, thanks for reading, and please comment! We'd love to hear about your own kitchen renos or builds.
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Kitchen benchtops, oh the confusion...

Following on from Michael's kitchen post last week, we're going to do a little 'benchtop chat'! This is a topic that's super-confusing because of the amount of choices and conflicting information out there, so here's a little of what I've learnt.

There are many options for kitchen benchtops out there - timber, stone (either engineered or natural), stainless steel, laminate, acrylic, polished concrete... and within each category, seemingly endless choices. Keep in mind that pretty much anything can look lovely if it's combined with the right cupboard finishes, flooring and styling. Here is an example of an inspiration piccie from Laminex:

Not bad!

 The points to consider are:

1) what you like the look of
2) how you want it to function
3) cost!
(in no particular order ;-) )

For us, we like the look of, and the functionality, of engineered stone. So what is engineered stone?

Thanks Wikipedia!

Effectively, engineered stone tends to be harder and less porous than natural stones such as marble or granite, which can make them more user-friendly. We had granite in my family kitchen and I still have memories of mum struggling to get oil stains out of it. Traditionally, engineered stone has also been more cost-effective, although its rising popularity means that it may not always be significantly cheaper than natural stone. On reno forums, some people are reporting granite to sometimes be the same price as engineered stone or even a little cheaper. Marble however, a gorgeous natural stone option, will come in far more expensive.

There are stacks of choices in the engineered stone category: Caeasarstone, Essa Stone, Quantum Quartz to name but a few. The price between companies seems pretty competitive by all reports, so it comes down to the colour range available, and the customer service offered by the particular company you are purchasing from.

We're aiming for Caesarstone, budget allowing... (more on that later). At the moment, the Calacatta Nuvo, from the 'Supernatural Ultra' category, is my preferred option BUT as we found out on the weekend at Freedom Kitchens, there is a huge price variation between the different Caesarstone ranges.

Calacatta Nuvo courtesy of Caesarstone. Effectively a copy of 'real' Calacutta marble,
which looks gorgeous but costs a packet. And I would likely spill something on it
on the first day anyway...

So how much does Caesarstone cost? Like many finishes in the building industry, this information can be difficult to come by. Caesarstone is priced by the slab, which is 3060mm x 1040mm, in various thicknesses. So you will need to know how many slabs you require, but also how many cuts you need (to make room for cooktops, sink, tap etc.) and then what sort of edging you want. If you want a waterfall end, this will add to the cost again.

Today I attempted to contact a couple of kitchen benchtop and stone companies, and none of them would give me a straight up 'per slab' price, without edging, cuts or installation. All of them wanted the measurements/plan of our kitchen, and the initial quote that's come in has not provided a price breakdown at all. I'll be able to post more information when the other quotes come in. I must say the lack of transparency in many facets of the building industry about the raw cost of materials is a little frustrating.

Another thing that you can't rely on someone else to do for you - tweak your design. Michael has calculated that we may be able to fulfil all our benchtop requirements out of one slab of Caesarstone, which would dramatically cut our costs. How? By reducing our overhang on the return bench by 7cm. We have measured it all out and it would still be functional. This would save us thousands and still get the outcome we want.

Depending on discussions with stone masons, we may have to adjust our expectations. We're still in the planning stage, but our thoughts are that if we can't afford one of the 'better' ranges in Caesarstone, then we might go to timber. It can look gorgeous and modern, and personally, I prefer it to one of the less 'natural' engineered stone finishes.

Sleek and modern timber benchtop, gorgeous.
Image courtesy of choicetimber.com.au

Stay tuned for updates, and more posts as we gather more information. As for progress on the build itself, we are hoping to get some full building quotes back in a week or two. Comments are always welcome :-) And thanks for reading!

K
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