What is my PPOR worth in today's market (according to www.realestate.com.au)?

Purely out of boredom (and the need to kill some time before my next iRacing race), I decided to go on www.realestate.com.au and perform the obligatory search for suburb, house, bedroom, that fits the description of my house. Looking past the outliers (i.e. busy road or weatherboard mainly these days), the cheapest one is $289,000. It does look a little nicer than ours, AND it's in a cul-de-sac, but is it possible that I have just made a quick $30,000 at the purchase of our house? I know, I know, I'm jumping the gun a bit, but the suburb has an aweful lot of potential and the prices, as far as I can see, are on the increase right now. Is it possible that finally we have stumbled onto a winner? Our last one was way back in 2005 when we bought our Miles property, which made a beautiful quick little profit, but it's been a dry patch since. I think though there is one important thing to keep in mind here; we like this place, it suits us nicely and as I had predicted, the smaller block size, while keeping me busy, is easily manageable. After the reno is finished (yes, it's still going), I think it's a place where my little family can put down some roots, a place to call our own, a place for my kids to grow up. Toowoomba is slowly growing on me day by day, I am loving the convenience, the drive to work is quite enjoyable and the climate is currently cool, but bearable.

So, it's a keeper is what I am saying. I'm toying with the idea of rendering the place, but how would that work when all other houses in the street are brick. The cheapest rendered house on the market is $342,000 and for the effort and minimal cost, it could be added to my list of things to do. Anyone with thoughts? I will post this dilemma on Sumersoft, see what responses I get.

Ciao for now. 

Renovation Update No. 02

Well it's been almost two weeks since the last update, and to be honest, there has been some positive progress, but still, a lot of work to complete. I have finally finished tiling around the bath, and just today I started the floor of the shower. It's looking good; the tiles Melinda picked work well together, it's a classic black and white with a bit of bling. Still, it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when a small shower stopped me from working. Why it stopped me is a bit of a mystery, but my motivation is just not quite up there at the moment. 

Renovation Update

I'm a bit tired as I sit here, ready to write a short piece, just to let you know how things have progressed since the great up-root and demolishment of the bathroom and toilet in my last post. 

The good news is, we have a functioning toilet. The room is almost finished with a bit more grouting to do, but overall, very happy with the crap room.

The not so good news is, there is still plenty to do in the bathroom. The bath in particular is throwing up all sort of weird and wonderful issues for me to solve, but for some unfortunate reason, I am going to have to cut both the top and bottom of the back of the bath under the window. I know, I know, somewhere along the line it just wasn't to be, but one part of the room had to bite the bullet and this was it; it kind of defeats the purpose of having larger tiles, but this is how it's going to have to be. I will post some pore pics when everything is getting a bit closer to completion.

Ciao 

Renovating our home; fraught with danger.

So finally all the paperwork has finished. Phew, a sigh of relief and then it's time to take another breath and realise that just around the corner, two days after settlement in fact, the renovating started. 

In the past, my first and second home, I quite enjoyed the odd round of renovating. Doing a kitchen, a dash of paint here and there, tiling and making a few changes, I never minded the often innovative work that is required to solve reno dilemmas. Two weeks ago, it was a different story.

The missus and I (well, me mainly) have decided that this house of ours in Toowoomba will be our home for a few years. No longer will I chase the dollar, but settle in, plant some seeds and relax for a while. This of course has meant.....serious renovating. I have been painting walls, looking at door frames for days on end and recently discovered the joys of using a 'chisel drill' to rip up tiles faster than you can say "put on some knee pads." 

It's been fun, but two weeks of go-go-go is starting to weigh on me, so I'm having an afternoon off and hence here I am blogging. And just to set the record straight, I'm not talking about "The Block" bullcrap renovating with contractors and $13,000 bathrooms, I'm talking about getting the job done myself.

I've attached some photos of the joy I have had over the last few days in particular, along with a small injury and plenty of good old fashioned hard work. I have a fair bit to go yet, but the quick progress I've made has given me encouragement to push on through, with a two week deadline before the removal truck comes, looming. 

Before 

During. Surprisingly a lot of blood for such a small cut. 

 Almost there.

 3 hours later; from go to finish. Now the fun bit.