builders quotes
By alix@thebuilderette.com Building and renovating • Site stories • • • • • • • 10 Comments

What's the story with builders' quotes?

Congratulations – you’ve decided to renovate! If it’s a decent-size job you’ll have plans drawn up, your DA approved and you’ll probably be getting a couple of builders quotes. Ideally, these will be builders that friends or colleagues or maybe your designer has recommended. As you’re navigating your way through this strange new world you’ll be coming across lots of new words and phrases that you may not of used before. Two that you’ll definitely be hearing are “fixed price” and “cost plus” and they’re to do with how the builder charges for his work.

 

So, what’s the difference?

What's the story with builders' quotes? full post

(636 words, estimated 2:33 mins reading time)

choose the builder
By alix@thebuilderette.com Building and renovating • • • • 5 Comments

How to choose the builder that's right for you

A building project or renovation is no small undertaking – there’s money, time and stress to consider. So you want to make sure you’ve got people around you who are going to get the job for the right price, in a reasonable time frame and to a good standard. So, here are five tips to help you choose the builder that’s right for you.

 

Phone a friend

If a friend or colleague has recently done a renovation, ask them what they thought of their builder and the process. If they had a positive experience, that’s a great place to start.

How to choose the builder that's right for you full post

(632 words, estimated 2:32 mins reading time)

fridges
By alix@thebuilderette.com Building and renovating • • • • 6 Comments

Cool as a (very expensive) cucumber

“How much does a kitchen renovation cost?” is a question that JD hears pretty frequently. And the answer, as with many things in building is, “it depends.” It depends on how much you want to spend – do you want a flat pack kitchen or custom joinery? Do you want a laminate benchtop or natural stone? Do you want European appliances or are you happy with cheaper, Chinese-made varieties? And these days, there’s really no end of things to spend your money on in kitchens – steam ovens, warming drawers, built-in coffee machines and very, very expensive fridges.

 

Cool as a (very expensive) cucumber full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

builders
By alix@thebuilderette.com Building and renovating • Site stories • • • • • • • 2 Comments

Why don't builders like architects?

Do you know about Amelia the Undercover Architect? She’s a totally fab woman who offers really down to earth and very practical design advice – she won my heart the first time I came across her when she wrote a story for Reno Addict about why you shouldn’t use an architect. Coming from an architect this was powerful stuff! She ruffled a few feathers but I thought it was a great piece.

 

Why don't builders like architects? full post

(858 words, estimated 3:26 mins reading time)

renovation budget
By alix@thebuilderette.com Building and renovating • • • 0 Comments

How to stick to your renovation budget

 

I love reading renovating and decorating blogs and am so old that I also enjoy magazines (printed on paper, try them, you’ll love it). They are full of gorgeous renovations and furnishings and many of them mention prices. Some of those prices are realistic and some, not so much.

 

Anyway, when you’re embarking on a building project, price is definitely something you’ll need to consider. You may be disturbed to find that there’s a bit of a difference between how much money you have to spend and how much money it’s going to cost. There can quite often also be a difference between how much the builder estimated it would cost (we very rarely do fixed-price quotes and I’ll explain why in an upcoming post) and what it actually ended up costing.

How to stick to your renovation budget full post

(671 words, estimated 2:41 mins reading time)

renovation
By alix@thebuilderette.com Building and renovating • • • • 2 Comments

How to decide: renovate or relocate?

JD‘s always talking to people about their renovations and whether it’s worth their while to go ahead. “We can’t decide whether to renovate or sell,” they say, juggling home magazines and real estate websites. Recently, he was talking to some customers who wanted to replace a couple of doors. By the time he’d spent an hour with them, it turned out they wanted to change more than a few doors.

 

How to decide: renovate or relocate? full post

(803 words, estimated 3:13 mins reading time)