Replacing the Upstairs Windows

We are replacing four older windows upstairs windows with new ones. One of the windows that we are replacing is an old timber double casement window that doesn’t quite work right anymore.

Old Double Casement Lounge Room Window

We are replacing that one with a single casement window that will match the double casement that the previous owners installed next to it.

New Double Casement Lounge Room Window

The other three windows that we are replacing are old sash or double hung windows that we are replacing with new double hung aluminium windows.

Old Double Hung Bed Room Window

I actually agonized over what kind of windows to get to replace the timber double hung. I even considered repairing and restoring the old windows, but I was too worried they would be unsafe for the kids. In the end we chose to go with what looked good and was in line with the period the home was built, but that was more economical and practical with the aluminium framed windows instead of timber.

2500 New Homes Built This Year in Townsville

This year Townsville has seen about 2500 new homes built and has a population growth forcast at around 3500 people.

In the next 20 years the Townsville & Thuringowa population is expected to double from the current 140,000 to aroun 280,000 residence.

With a growth that fast I can only expect it to get even more difficult to find tradespeople to work on renovations as they will almost always prefer to work on new homes and developements over renovations…

Source: Townsville Bulletin – Houses mushroom on skyline

Renovation Budget

Tamara and I have been trying to work out a budget for our renovation. With the house lifting we have so far got 4 different quotes. They have a variation of about 35% and they all seem to cover the exact same things!

Raising and Restumping our house will, we hope, be the largest expense for our renovation. After that expense the next biggest will most likely be our deck and actually enclosing and building under the lifted house.

I have found that there is no company that will give us an exact price for lifting the house. They will usually give us some estimates but it’s normally accompanied with the statement “There could be some variation in that depending on …”.

Because of that it is quite hard to budget for the steps that we need to take in our renovation after lifting. We need to start booking people now as the contractors are so busy in Townsville, but it’s hard to know how many steps ahead to book since we don’t actually know how much money we will have to work with.

I read a good article about budgeting finances and time for renovations. You can read about it here:

Housebuilder’s Update: On time, on budget

Renovation Planning Hitch

I just got off the phone with the house lifting people today and the plan that I had drawn up for under our house has to go through some pretty major revisions.

In the original plan I had pushed the lower level out by about a metre to accommodate a slightly larger garage. Well it turns out that if we want to do that we will be adding about four months to the approval process because we will need to not only apply to the Townsville City Council, but also to Townsville Planning, which processes it seperate from the Townsville City Council.

My original plan brought the left side of the house closer to the boundary line, and also changed the facade of the house, which is why it would require the additional approval. So I have had to modify the plans to keep it all under the original roof line, which pretty much removes all of the storage from the sides of the garage.