Long post sorry, I'm trying to pin down a budget and timeline.
I recently bought an old unit built around the late 60s early 70s. Because of the age of the building a lot of things I won't be able to do anything about but I want to ensure the work I can do is cost effective, durable, tidy, safe/up to code and presents a welcoming and contemporary property for when it goes on the market as a rental or for sale in a couple of years time. It's mostly DIY aside from what I definitely need to get trades in for.
I've come across a few things I wasn't anticipating. During the painting prep I uncovered an electrical wire arching across what should have been a blank stretch of wall (like a big electrical fire rainbow waiting to happen). My electrician says there's lots of them all over my building that have simply been plastered directly to the brickwork instead of chased into the wall like they would be in a new build, I'm prohibited from drilling holes until he gets back from holiday. The switchboard and safety switches are up to date though and the building passed both pre-sale and a rental standards inspections.
The composition of the walls ranges from raw diamond, through to sand, through to absolutely nothing at all behind what may at some point have been plasterboard but now appears to be solely comprised of paint. I may or may not have found that out attempting to hang curtains in said wall. In my defence this was before the electrical wire incident, that I found when I had to replace large sections of skim coat and plaster going all the way back into the masonry in places where it had completely come away from the wall in the bathroom and kitchen collapsing wherever it was touched. I had been under the delusion going into it that all I would be doing was putting on a couple of coats of paint. I also filled some large cracks in the brickwork in the usual places (because I half figured why not, I've already bitten off more than I chew what's one more job, and half figured I never want to go through this again so I better fix this now). I ended up with multiple layers of multiple various products to address the issues with the different wall layers wanting to get it done properly because it clearly hadn't been before, it took several weeks of all nighters, made my place unlivable for that time and will need a touch-up next time I paint when I've got a better idea of how what I've used is holding up. It alerted me to the fact that my kitchen is stuffed, my walls are a minefield, and my bathroom needs better ventilation. Thanks paint department guys at Bunnings Collingwood though, it was a very steep learning curve.
Portions of the plumbing have seized so while they work they can't be turned off, there are communal services I have limited control over, and there's been a fair bit of illegal work done as well. It has our body corp handyman's fingerprints all over it so I'd like to keep him away from as much of the work as I can.
How much would it be reasonable to budget for individual projects and what percentage of anticipated costs should I have as an emergency fund in case I find anything else I wasn't expecting? Also what will increase the value of the property vs money down the drain? If anyone has first-hand experience with any of these I'd be grateful for some feedback. The following is a list of what I'm looking at;
It's a mid century studio apartment under $250,000 market value that was a rental (so a dumpster fire) and will likely become a rental or short stay again in the future (put together well enough to avoid once again becoming a dumpster fire). I'm currently living in it so need to consider the practicality and inconvenience factor of the work. I'm currently doing things in stages.
In the bathroom /laundry. Shower refurbishment (either a one piece coating or replacement of the shower pan, all previous attempts at reenameling failed).
Upgrade the shower screen hardware and paint the shower screen frame and probably replace one panel if not the whole thing. Personally I like the three door sliding door set up in that bathroom configuration so I'd like to keep it if it's savable.
Find some way to drain the washing machine into the shower drain or pan (probably just running a pipe into the pan, or alternatively running a pipe directly into the shower drain if the pan gets ripped up).
Upgrade fan/light
Replace light fitting in loo
Ventilation outlet for a dryer (because apparently they don't make condenser dryers in the size that will fit that space).
Fiddly bits like installing a towel rail and shelves in the shower and maybe some mount hanging rails or high shelves to better utilise the small space.
Already taken care of the walls, waterproofing, painting, loo, vanity, sink, windows and tiles/grout.
Kitchen. Nuke from space and start again. Since I can't turn the hot water off it looks like the taps that I have are going to stay unless less body corp comes to the party and fixes the seized valves before the kitchen Reno.
It needs practically all new cabinetry, everything is dollhouse size so it's going to be custom. There's a blind corner that's been blocked off filled with rubble and God knows what else (would be nice to find a hidden treasure in there, maybe an old gangster's secret stash, with my luck though it'll probably be asbestos). I spoke to kaboodle about it and turns out they've already done one of my neighbours kitchens in the same block so they've already got a pretty good idea of what we're looking at. I'll be doing the assembly they'll be doing the installation. On my time line it's looking like it won't be till next year. I did want an induction cook top but I don't have the right electricals for that.
In the lounge
I have old sash wooden windows that the sills have perished on so I'm negotiating with body corporate the moment to get those fixed, our grumbly resident handyman has unfortunately put first dibs on it and he's under the misguided impression that I'm just going to go along with that. I'd like to beat him to the punch to avoid one more thing to add to the list of his disasters I'm currently dealing with (he's already been scheduled to do it for over two years so I don't think beating him to it's going to be an issue). The spiral balances are long gone and so is the paint job, I don't know that is something I can do myself given it would likely involve pulling out the beading on the window frame to get to them, if the paint on that is anything like the "landlord special" paint on the doors (where I couldn't even find the heads of the screws to take them off) I don't like my chances of even being able to do it myself and I shudder to think what might be beneath it.
I'd like to replace the ugly oyster light and the lovely ivory yellow intercom, which if it's anything like the electronics of its vintage I've seen before is celebrating its 50th year as a maternity hospital for cockroaches.
I'd like a proper security door I don't need to take out a second mortgage to pay for. I don't know why but every time I've enquired about them I've immediately been upsold.
When they install the ceiling they installed the plasterboard going in the wrong direction so I have nail pops and seam lines everywhere in my ceiling and far more movement in it that I'm comfortable with, I don't know what they've done to the cornices to make them look the way they do other than painting straight over the top of all the daddy long legs, which knowing this place is quite possible. There's no crawl space in the roof. I've yet to figure out what I'm going to do with all that.
I need more power outlets (who doesn't).
I may or may not replace the carpet depending on whether or not I've gone broke by then or if I've managed to destroy it doing the kitchen.
