Today we had a builder come around to see how much it would cost. He did suggest making the lounge the kitchen the meals a study and the kitchen would become the meals area and family room would stay the same. He also suggested that the carport becomes a theatre room and to come out under the eves for the master bedroom. I do like the flow and we can then see onto our backyard, however I am not sure if I think resale will be easy with the kitchen being the front room that looks onto the street (even though we are 1/4houses in the street) and I just about died when he said ~$140000

Hello, We're Brisbane architects and a lot of our work comes from trying to rectify big design flaws in "cookie-cutter" homes. For example, once the plumbing goes down on a concrete slab, it is very, very expensive to rectify. My advice would be if you think that you'll have the money later, then have a professional look at how to improve the design and extend on your existing house and approach it in stages. The quality of the space really does affect your life (as our clients would attest to!).

While it is a great update on a budget , I'll be the desenting voice haha . Theres a few things I would have done differently . I don't like the polished concrete floors -- a bit too trendy IMO , especially when other items haven't been updated -- a mix of periods looks a bit strange to me . Ironically , the only place I would have considered the polished concrete is the bathroom floor -- the blue tiles look great , the white cabinets and black taps -- and then you keep brown speckled tiles on the floor ? The kitchen is okay -- I'm not a huge fan of the blue doors , personally I would have gone with bright yellow or orange , and gone with oversized stainless handles on all the cabinets , and a stainless wall oven . And fake weatherboard aged vinyl board flooring in light brown and whitewash mix -- it would tie in better with the cupboards and the new stainless oven and handles . I'd suspect my budget would have been within a couple of thousand of yours ? Likewise , I like the overall design of the living and bedroom areas , with the exception of the concrete -- too trendy , too cold IMO . Personally , I would have gone with beige or cream or maize carpet , maybe extending the kitchen 'aged weatherboard' vinyl flooring into the dining area . Then again , everyone has different tastes .

As a former renter, this was the exact property I would usually rent. Good functional condition, not my style but who cares? I never even inspected the all white and engineered benchtop places as a few visits usually revealed the renovations to be somewhat shabby, the places to be incredibly small and not good value for money at all. I always rented outdated properties as I typically got more space and better terms than places where landlords were desperately trying to recoup renovation costs. You're going to demolish the place so why spend any money on it? Changing out the flooring and even painting the cupboards and swapping out appliances will cost you thousands to get done and then what? Are you really going to reap x2 x3 times that expense in one years rent? I doubt it. First of all, I would have the place appraised for rental return in it's current state. And then appraised for rental return if it were tweaked. You will most likely find that any renovation will take years to recover the costs and actually make anymore than renting it out as is. For reference I was a long term tenant in all the places I rented, no I didn't leave rubbish around anywhere or have burnt out cars in my driveway. I left each property scrupulously clean, even having the existing curtains or blinds professionally cleaned and carpets professionally cleaned on exit. I just preferred value for money in rentals because I was saving to own my own home. Good tenants don't necessarily need renovated places to rent. Tenants are always constrained by their income, they can't afford to spend over 30% of it on rent alone no matter how nice. We have lives to live too.