planning ahead

I’ve started looking into more specific stuff that we need to organise for our unit (apartment) renovation.  Our tenant leaves on 22 March, and we have given ourselves four weeks’ leave from work to get it done.

We already have the majority of the furniture, as we will be renting it furnished.  All we need now is a mattress for the bed frame, and a dining table.  But we need most of the hard-core reno stuff – things like a new toilet, kitchen cabinets, etc.  (That said, we do have the new handles for the kitchen – I got 25 of them for $80, including postage, from eBay.  Bargain!  Now we just need the cupboards to put them on.)

I spent this morning driving around Osborne Park, a nearby suburb which has a lot of warehouses, looking at (and pricing) vinyl and carpet flooring.  The range in prices never fails to amaze me.  Budget priced vinyl costs from $23/metre to $40/metre.  This is for essentially the same product, both in appearance and quality.  Carpet also varied a lot.  Anyhow, I now know where we’ll be getting our floor coverings, which is a good thing.

I’m not really looking forward to doing the kit kitchen thing.  Much as I appreciate the cost saving aspect, I’m worried my lack of spatial ability will result in a royal screwup.  We also haven’t got the actual measurements of the unit yet, as our tenant is still in there.  Although that may not be for much longer – we received another letter in the mail today, complaining of more noisy music and throwing stuff off the balcony.  Self-managing a rental property teaches you many things, including the vagaries of human nature.  Plus, I can now quote sections of the Residential Tenancies’ Act on demand.  It’s a great party trick.