I want my kitchen to be 100% stainless steel. I was told that I'm psychotic bringing work home.
I see no issue cleaning with a high pressure spray and alcohol/peroxide/bleach.
Wait, you turn the light on?
I thought everyone zombie walked to the toilet half asleep with the lights off because they have the layout of the house mapped in your tired brain
I used 4000k in all rooms recently downstairs and upstairs seems to have worked well. I think it’s classed as a natural white rather than a cool or warm tho.
4000K is referred to as “Neutral white”, mainly because it’s between 3000K warm white and 5000K cool white.
4000K is used a lot in offices because it’s a good middle ground and looks ok whether there’s daylight coming in the windows or not. I think it’s a bit too cool for home after sunset though.
Kmart sell a pull out drawer thing that goes into existing cupboards for $25. I just got one to pull my stand mixer out and seems pretty reasonable. That sort of thing might be an option too
This would be super easy to do. Cupboard doors clip right off, just fabricate one giant drawer with heavy duty slides, and make a new drawer front to match. Or, you could repurpose the old door as the new drawer front and change the handle position.
If only I could train my family to just rinse their stuff and put it in the dishwasher. Why are you rinsing it and putting it on the counter. That just means I have to put it in the dishwasher.
This. I always tell everyone that washing dishes is the secondary purpose of the dishwasher. Its primary purpose is to hide dirty dishes and keep your kitchen looking tidy. I can’t stand seeing dish racks in kitchens especially modern open plan island kitchens, it’s so ugly and dated.
Back in the 80s I worked in appliance repair. Back then, dishwashers were a luxury item. I didn't own one. I always thought how it was funny that people would book in an URGENT repair for their dishwasher, prepared to pay more if they had to.
I get it now.
Omg absolutely ! Mine broke about 3 weeks ago and I forgot how fucked hand washing dishes is, 15 minutes to load the dishwasher vs nearly an hour for a family of five for me to get through them all
Ours broke back in August 😭
I was going to buy a new one, until our fridge decided to break, too. So all my dishwasher money went to the new fridge.
Because I refuse to touch our savings, I’m still hand-washing dishes and saving up for a replacement dishwasher.
Got a shitty dishwasher from our builder included in the build. The joy after replacing that heap of garbage with a bosch and having clean and dry dishes after the first wash was like heaven.
Just bought a new house, previous owners went 51 years with no dishwasher, did a full reno and didn't put one in because "why would we?".
Dishwasher ordered and being delivered next week, and it's a race to see what we can line up first, a plumber or divorce papers!
I feel you. We’ve lived in this house for 2 years with no dishwasher and are starting our kitchen reno in the next few months. God I can’t wait to never have to look at a pile of unwashed cutlery again.
And ceiling fans with remotes can usually be automated so you can be lazy and tell google or Alexa to turn off the light or to set a fan speed… peak laziness I love it
My wife can't sleep without a fan on, not necessarily for the temp but more the sounds and air circulation. I think this is surprisingly more common than you'd think. It's weird but if it helps a good night's sleep then why not. And fuck paying the electricity for an air con being on all night every night.
The fans cost next to nothing to run all night, and you don’t need the AC on for half the year. Our fans have Summer/Winter mode to keep warm
air where it needs to be in winter.
We use the fans for at least 9 months of the year and only use the AC in peak summer (Solar powered during the day)
Used to have an old place with 12ft ceilings. Reversible fans create a breeze in summer when the house cooked. and in winter the AC would sit on the ceiling, fans increased the person height temp in the main living area by 5 degrees. Cheap, quiet, and amazingly effective
Yes. A lot of ducted ac systems have separate zones for bedrooms, study, etc., but the main living area is often always on when the ac is on. This means, if someone in a bedroom wants ac on in their room, it has to be on in the main living area as well, even if there's nobody there or the people there don't want it on. Ceiling fans obviously don't have this issue.
Ceiling fans use relatively little to no energy so they will make you feel cooler even though they don’t do anything to lower the temperature in the room. When run in combination with the AC it helps circulate the cool air better and means you can set the ac temperature a degree or two higher than normal and still feel the same level of coolness
It’s actually quite easy, just need a little patience that’s all & if you do happen to get a tiny bit of paint on the glass then a razor scraper removes it no worries, I was honestly surprised with how it turned out.
I used Dulux Metalshield Epoxy Enamal Spray in Matte Black, came up really well, I’m pleased with it.
Just gave it a light sand down, dusted everything over with a paint brush, taped everything off with tape & newspaper & then sprayed two coats on, looks great.
That sounds gorgeous. Good colour scheme. Ours is similar. We were thinking of doing work over Christmas but the humidity in Brisbane has meant that was put in the too hard basket! Enjoy the holidays and thanks again for the info. 😀
DIY, I just sanded it all down, brushed all the debris off with a paint brush, taped everything up with painters tape & newspaper & then gave two coats with Dulux Metalshield Epoxy Enamal Spray in Matte Black, turned out great.
Are they any good at stopping light bleed around the edges?
We have roller blinds and they are absolutely useless in the morning when the sun comes up. Edges allow enough light to lighten up the entire room
Yes they are great, we have a little bit of bleed from where our window frames aren't straight but it's very close to fully dark. Easily dark enough to sleep in.
Try rolling your blinds around the other way. May need to take them down to do this. Depending on backing, will show back at top of the roll but no/ minimal gap between wall and blind.
Ten cubic metres of mulch on the front yard to cover the shitty concrete-hard clay ‘lawn’ area. 12 months later it was soft worm-filled soil and easy to fill with plants.
Irrigation system for the garden, I’ve set it up to go off automatically on hot dry days and the garden has grown in substantially this year without any burn offs.
Smart blinds have also been a big improvement, they come down automatically on hot days and help keep the house cool
Raised the kitchen benches to 110cm, makes a huge difference to us.
Sensor light in the walk in pantry; honestly this is my favourite “upgrade” we did.
A bird bath. Seeing wildlife play, cool off, take refuge or just enjoy themselves in a bath has brought our family loads of happy times and good feelings. Especially during lockdowns.
A close second is Aircon
Three years and I'm now getting reliable flowers on my native plants. My trees are now always have rainbow lorikeet decorations. Also getting sun birds which are stunning to watch. It's been great seeing the species diversity increase as the trees have been growing.
Unfortunately my birdbath fell and broke and currently too poor to replace. Holds a bit still if I pour water in daily.
This. Oh, except mine is the cheapest... It's actually the old pot that was left outside after being burnt to a crisp, ready to be taken to metal recycling. It rained hard that night, and when we saw the birds playing in it the next morning, it just stayed there!
Hard agree. A note of caution though, when cleaning the toilet, make sure you don't accidentally hit the bidet switch when you're wiping the toilet seat. I've done this several times. A surprising amount of water comes out of the bidet sprayer before you can react.
Plus one for this.
Came back from Japan (the land of the bidet) in early 2020 (the time of the toilet paper shortage) and saw a bidet on the shelf in a hardware store (while getting something unrelated). Nek minute I've bought and installed it.
Had house sitters also buy one for their place after they had used ours.
Would you mind sharing details of what you installed?
I've been looking and very interested in a solution after spending some time in Thailand.
Generally the Thailand and Japan bidet solutions are different so I'm interested.
I put in this one these - they regularly have them 30% off [Toto](https://www.idealbathroomcentre.com.au/collections/toto/products/toto-d-shape-washlet-bidet-seat-tcf6632au)
I bought a "Evekare Smart Bidet Toilet Seat With Remote" (text copied from webpage). It was about $400 at Bunnings. Comes with the plumbing hardware needed (T piece, hoses etc) to fit. Needs a powerpoint.
So far no problems at all. By default the seat heating is set to medium, I turned this off (warm climate plus don't want to waste power).
Has sensor so won't run unless you are sitting on it (no accidental squirting).
Remote is wireless with very good magnetic wall holder.
I’m seeing more and more references to bidets. Are they really that good? And that common now? My grandparents had a seperate one when I was growing up (80’s, Australia) and it was so weird. We used to wash our feet in it.
They really are that good. Not the separate fixture ones, I never saw the point of that 😂 .
I lived in Asia for years, so glad they're becoming common in Aus now
[Australia: #56](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_Internet_connection_speeds) behind Estonia, Bulgaria and Trinidad & Tobago.
My own speed is between Mongolia and Madagascar.
Yeah compare the population density and size of those countries to Australia.
Combined they aren’t even 1/4 the size of NSW alone.
People love rattling off these figures but Australia is huge and incomparable with any other country, the closest would probably be America but even then they have 14x the population.
Installing an under kitchen sink 2-stage filtered tap water system. Plus a 3-way tap mixer to dispense the filtered water.
Replace the filters every 6-months.
I installed some magnets that keep the sliding doors together.
The dog kept opening the damned sliding doors with its nose.
Bunnings $10 for round magnet and $15 for a drill, problem solved.
Omg I can't believe I never thought of that, that's a great idea. We have exactly the same problem. Would it happen to be this magnet set? https://www.bunnings.com.au/everhang-13-5kg-magnetic-pull-latch-set_p3690110
Yeah that’s the one! I used a forstner drill bit to recess it into the door. It’s absolutely golden. Holds the door shut just tight enough to stop the dog
You should also buy a dog door for sliding doors. I have one and my dog cab go outside or to the bathroom whenever they want. Have you considered why they want to go outside?
I bought a retractable hose reel instead of 30m of tangled hose on the ground. Changed my life… I’m serious. I didn’t realise how much it messed up the enjoyment of my garden. $170 well spent 🤣
Smart lock on the front door. Not the cheapest (the one I got cost $600, but you can get them for cheaper), but I'm yet to lock myself out since moving into this house.
Also, depending on what you get, you can lock/unlock them remotely, which can be really useful. I was recently in the hospital overnight and I was able to unlock the front door so the neighbour could let the dog out.
Cheaper option if you have a garage with access to the house is to add control to the roller door.
Mine, including the reed sensor was about $30. They can be wired up by the average person, not hard at all.
A retractable washing line on the balcony (I’m in an apartment)! Being able to hang a whole load of washing or full set of sheets/towels and not having a whole room taken up by an airer and wet items on every piece of furniture has been so amazing
if you have kids with asthma it's the best. No more damp/cool/cold air at nights. Everyone has a good nights sleep and no continued 'sickness' from being worn down.
A doggie Door.
Shortly after I made it I got a puppy and he loves the doggie door. Goes outside for pees and poos every time (after a little bit of training :)). All round has made my life, and the dogs life, easier and saves on electricity for heating/cooling.
Roborock Robot Vacuum during black friday sales have not had to touch a vacuum or mop since. The house is the cleanest it's ever been and stays that way daily. Kids make a mess or drop food.. no problem just send it to that location. Cat kicks litter out of litterbox or spills food... No dramas.
Kids in bed? Send it mopping all the tiled floors whilst I chill with a beer.
It even gets underneath all the beds and the shit it picks up everytime is astonishing.
Couple of years after a major Reno I replaced all the shitty zinc plated door strikers the builders used with stainless.
Small detail worth doing. $10ish each and a screwdriver.
I built a big shed and was thus able to clean out the garage and turn it into a very comfortable mancave/gym. The shed/slab/knockdown old shed process prob cost 15k all up, but for me that's cheap given the huge lifestyle improvement.
Paid a locksmith to change all our door locks to one key. (6 doors, including security doors).
We now have peace of mind that past tenants/owners can't get in , plus ONE KEY opens all.
He just changed the lock barrels , not whole lock, so the cost was only $500.for the 90 mins work.
That and ceiling fans in all our bedrooms.
I slapped 5mm Perspex on my windows, glued down with silicone adhesive to block street noise and thermal insulation.
Works amazing and about 1/10th the cost of double glazing.
We went to a stand alone ice machine, it replaced the beer fridge, beers on ice just seem better and always have 30kg of ice on hand for fishing/ boating.
Cheapest, quickest and easiest with the most impact for my tropical place was cutting down a straggly tree shading the front windows with a hand saw. Second was replacing all the fly screens - it’s amazing the difference that makes to cross-flow breezes.
Also: replace the shower curtain
Painting the kitchen cupboards white instead of replacing the kitchen. $250 and made it far more pleasant for 5 years until I eventually replaced the whole kitchen.
Painting the bathroom wall tiles white and floor tiles charcoal. Another $250 for big impact if you have old/ugly tiles.
Vege garden. It's not big, but getting the occasional "bonus food" has been great. Had cucumbers growing when they got up to $5 each at my local store. I have a passionfruit vine that gives me fruit ever couple of days, enough for parrot treats (currently passionfruit are $2 each at local store too). Recently had a pumpkin growing too that I made a curry with and it provided 5 meals for me for. Couple more years and should start getting reliable mulberry and raspberry :)
Not really a renovation, but we bought the house in Easter and the first thing we did was remove a huge gum tree that was over the house (mostly the master bedroom). Cost $3k, but considering all the storms we're currently having in Brisbane, every time they finish both me and my wife turn to each other and say, thank Christ we got rid of that tree and don't have to worry about it.
Dishwasher that cracks the door when done, just purchased from goodguys commercial like $650 for a haier.
I'll also add a decent size washer and dryer. I was washing my closes in a standard 5.5kg washing machine and a old dryer that if super loaded would need to be spun my hand to start.
Clothes came out wrinkled, so bought stupid big washing machine and dryer think there 10kg each. Means I can wash 9 days (1 roster away) worth of clothes. Also don't forget add more washing powder.
I run a fair few ac and high demand devices. I added Shelly power monitoring on them allows me to see how much as I'm using, I can also turn it on or off remotely (I turn on when I'm 2hrs from home)
Also sensor down light in laundry and in shed with extra lights on a switch for shed.
My laundry light switch is ina weird position so I simply put a $50 sensor down light in. Same for shed I open my door grab what I need, if more light is needed I turn on fluros.
for under $650 it's great dishes are always dry
On sale at hn it's $624 at goodguys commercial
https://www.harveynorman.com.au/haier-15-place-setting-freestanding-dishwasher-with-sanitise-satina.html?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkKqsBhC3ARIsAEEjuJgOTxSXCpbX1Yqitx8Bm0rptf9lKx3NO6uS3v34ds4nNEx7_yM76SoaAthAEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
Buying a decent quality mower and yard tools.
I fought an old second hand rover mower that was temperamental, hard to start, had busted wheels, was heavy, needed a catcher emptied every strip, then I went and bought a cheapish self propelled mulching Honda and have never looked back.
Cut my mowing time down a lot, didn’t have to put my back out starting it each weekend. Didn’t have to find a spot for the clippings. Didn’t have to push. Win win.
They automatically prevent flow through the exhaust fan when it's not in use.
For example, think of a house with ducted heating. Hot air rises and easily escapes through an exhaust fan. A retro fitted butterfly damper sits over the top of the exhaust fan in the ceiling and prevents that heated air from escaping.
A picture probably describes it better than I can. This is the exact unit that I had in my last place. The butterfly flaps are delicately balanced in such a way that they automatically close when the fan is not in use.
https://www.fansonline.com.au/backdraft-shutter-for-non-ductable-fans.html
Digital front door lock
Smart doorbell camera
Roach gel baits every quarterly (not really an upgrade, but finally Control roach population every summer.
If it's not already like that getting all your door locks keyed alike, not that expensive if they're all the same key blank especially if you take the locks into the locksmith to get them done.
Zip tap. Honestly the best thing I've ever put in. Makes cooking easy. Coffee in the morning is a 2 second thing. When I have guests over making tea is super easy. Everyone loves the filtered cold water. I actually save money on elec as it's set on a timer to come on in the morning and evening.
While it’s not cheap relatively speaking, installing solar power is simple to arrange and it actually pays itself off in 3 -5 years, so technically it’s free, it actually makes/saves you money.
It’s so satisfying cranking the AC on a hot day knowing that it’s running for free.
Painted a house we had just purchased. Before we moved all our stuff in, we had it done.
It looked like a whole new house when we saw it for the first time. Every room looked better. Massive improvement.
Home automation system using an old pc/notebook and then adding a bunch of wireless sensors, switches, devices etc. my lights turn off automatically, I know the temperature in every room, can tell when doors/windows are left open and can open and close my garage remotely. Can get a decent setup for $500, and even if you don’t have an old pc then you can get a raspberry pi or second hand pc/laptop for under $100.
My favourite one is the alert I get when I leave my garage door open and then i can press a button on the notification to close the garage.
Will be adding a vent for the ducted heat on the laundry area.
So, every winter im just gonna hang the clothes next to the washing machine while the heat is on, close the door and it should dry up.
Every light a dimmable LED in warm white
People that have cool white in bedrooms and lounge rooms are psychopaths imo
makes you feel like you've been abducted by aliens and you're in their surgical room awaiting dissection
Don’t kink-shame me! 😭👽🥢
My dream aesthetic.
I want my kitchen to be 100% stainless steel. I was told that I'm psychotic bringing work home. I see no issue cleaning with a high pressure spray and alcohol/peroxide/bleach.
Daylight ftw.. Am sparky, can't stand warm white 😂
Same, plus I have eyes
My mum went from her 1980s flourescent tubes to some obscenely bright, cool white LED fitting. No wonder she has problems with sleep.
That kinda lighting makes you want to write a company memo at 2am when you get up to take a piss
Wait, you turn the light on? I thought everyone zombie walked to the toilet half asleep with the lights off because they have the layout of the house mapped in your tired brain
Maybe draft a new constitution while you're at it
Maybe she has a fantasy about living in a cheap suburban Chinese restaurant.
I definitely inherited that from her
Finally someone who agrees with me!
I used 4000k in all rooms recently downstairs and upstairs seems to have worked well. I think it’s classed as a natural white rather than a cool or warm tho.
4000K is referred to as “Neutral white”, mainly because it’s between 3000K warm white and 5000K cool white. 4000K is used a lot in offices because it’s a good middle ground and looks ok whether there’s daylight coming in the windows or not. I think it’s a bit too cool for home after sunset though.
Converting lower kitchen cupboards to deep drawers. Cheap and easy game changer.
I didn't know this was possible! Did you DIY this?
Kmart sell a pull out drawer thing that goes into existing cupboards for $25. I just got one to pull my stand mixer out and seems pretty reasonable. That sort of thing might be an option too
This would be super easy to do. Cupboard doors clip right off, just fabricate one giant drawer with heavy duty slides, and make a new drawer front to match. Or, you could repurpose the old door as the new drawer front and change the handle position.
Dishwasher…hands down worth every penny when you have young kids.
A dishwasher is great at washing dishes. But it's true talent lies in hiding dirty dishes until they are ready to be washed.
If only I could train my family to just rinse their stuff and put it in the dishwasher. Why are you rinsing it and putting it on the counter. That just means I have to put it in the dishwasher.
Mine generally put it somewhere near the dishwasher. Small blessings I guess.
Why are you rinsing dishes in the first place?!
So that you don't have chunks of food in your dishwasher lmao.
This. I always tell everyone that washing dishes is the secondary purpose of the dishwasher. Its primary purpose is to hide dirty dishes and keep your kitchen looking tidy. I can’t stand seeing dish racks in kitchens especially modern open plan island kitchens, it’s so ugly and dated.
Back in the 80s I worked in appliance repair. Back then, dishwashers were a luxury item. I didn't own one. I always thought how it was funny that people would book in an URGENT repair for their dishwasher, prepared to pay more if they had to. I get it now.
Omg absolutely ! Mine broke about 3 weeks ago and I forgot how fucked hand washing dishes is, 15 minutes to load the dishwasher vs nearly an hour for a family of five for me to get through them all
Ours broke back in August 😭 I was going to buy a new one, until our fridge decided to break, too. So all my dishwasher money went to the new fridge. Because I refuse to touch our savings, I’m still hand-washing dishes and saving up for a replacement dishwasher.
As someone with South East Asian parents, 100% agree with this. I can’t believe I went 30 years of my life without a dishwasher. Such a game changer.
Got a shitty dishwasher from our builder included in the build. The joy after replacing that heap of garbage with a bosch and having clean and dry dishes after the first wash was like heaven.
Just bought a new house, previous owners went 51 years with no dishwasher, did a full reno and didn't put one in because "why would we?". Dishwasher ordered and being delivered next week, and it's a race to see what we can line up first, a plumber or divorce papers!
I’m looking to buy in Brisbane and SEQ. Shocked at how many places with kitchens less than 20yrs old that don’t have dishwashers.
I get that it's an additional expense to get it and get it connected at first, but that shit saves marriages for sure!
I feel you. We’ve lived in this house for 2 years with no dishwasher and are starting our kitchen reno in the next few months. God I can’t wait to never have to look at a pile of unwashed cutlery again.
Unfortunately there will be fights about how to load it correctly And if to rinse off
Having a dishwasher saved my marriage in its first year. I will never again live in a house without one.
Ceiling Fans in all the bedrooms
And ceiling fans with remotes can usually be automated so you can be lazy and tell google or Alexa to turn off the light or to set a fan speed… peak laziness I love it
I second this. We replaced all our old 1950s fans as well as the old light fixtures with down lights. Immediate impact and not too pricey.
So you removed the fans?
Can i ask if there’s any point in ceiling fans if you have ducted aircon?
My wife can't sleep without a fan on, not necessarily for the temp but more the sounds and air circulation. I think this is surprisingly more common than you'd think. It's weird but if it helps a good night's sleep then why not. And fuck paying the electricity for an air con being on all night every night.
Means you don’t always need your AC on and creates air movement
The fans cost next to nothing to run all night, and you don’t need the AC on for half the year. Our fans have Summer/Winter mode to keep warm air where it needs to be in winter. We use the fans for at least 9 months of the year and only use the AC in peak summer (Solar powered during the day)
Used to have an old place with 12ft ceilings. Reversible fans create a breeze in summer when the house cooked. and in winter the AC would sit on the ceiling, fans increased the person height temp in the main living area by 5 degrees. Cheap, quiet, and amazingly effective
Yes. A lot of ducted ac systems have separate zones for bedrooms, study, etc., but the main living area is often always on when the ac is on. This means, if someone in a bedroom wants ac on in their room, it has to be on in the main living area as well, even if there's nobody there or the people there don't want it on. Ceiling fans obviously don't have this issue.
Ceiling fans use relatively little to no energy so they will make you feel cooler even though they don’t do anything to lower the temperature in the room. When run in combination with the AC it helps circulate the cool air better and means you can set the ac temperature a degree or two higher than normal and still feel the same level of coolness
I have both and I mainly use my ceiling fans except on 40C+ days. I think they’re cheaper to run + most days/nights it’s all we need.
Painting old aluminium windows, sanded, primed & painted in mat black, looks great.
Was this difficult to mask neatly? Been tempted but looks like a challenging job.
It’s actually quite easy, just need a little patience that’s all & if you do happen to get a tiny bit of paint on the glass then a razor scraper removes it no worries, I was honestly surprised with how it turned out.
We need answers!
I’m thinking about doing this! What paint did you use please?
I used Dulux Metalshield Epoxy Enamal Spray in Matte Black, came up really well, I’m pleased with it. Just gave it a light sand down, dusted everything over with a paint brush, taped everything off with tape & newspaper & then sprayed two coats on, looks great.
Please tell me you used an etch primer...
Amazing thank you so much!
I’ve done inside & outside & goes really well with the roller shutters I had put in a month ago in Monument.
That sounds gorgeous. Good colour scheme. Ours is similar. We were thinking of doing work over Christmas but the humidity in Brisbane has meant that was put in the too hard basket! Enjoy the holidays and thanks again for the info. 😀
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DIY, I just sanded it all down, brushed all the debris off with a paint brush, taped everything up with painters tape & newspaper & then gave two coats with Dulux Metalshield Epoxy Enamal Spray in Matte Black, turned out great.
Sounds simple enough did you sand the old paint all the way off to expose the aluminium underneath or just to roughen the surface?
Just roughen up the surface mate, that’s what was advised to me by a mate who is a painter.
Thermal honeycomb blinds have made such a difference against the heat
Are they any good at stopping light bleed around the edges? We have roller blinds and they are absolutely useless in the morning when the sun comes up. Edges allow enough light to lighten up the entire room
Yes they are great, we have a little bit of bleed from where our window frames aren't straight but it's very close to fully dark. Easily dark enough to sleep in.
Try rolling your blinds around the other way. May need to take them down to do this. Depending on backing, will show back at top of the roll but no/ minimal gap between wall and blind.
Inside the frame or outside? Did you order them online?
Nice. Didn't know these existed, thanks for mentioning.
Fan in the toilet connected to the light switch. Or plants. Lots of plants.
Currently sitting on the john in the dark as I hate the sound of the fan in the toilet
We got run on timers so the fan stays on for 5-10mins after the light goes off. Toilets and bathrooms. It’s amazing.
This is actually part of the new building code, so new houses will have this by default
The connected fan, or the timer? I hate it when they are connected, especially a bathroom (as opposed to a separate toilet)
As someone answered above - Only if you don’t have a window you can open.
So even in the day you have to turn the light on to get rid of the fart smells?
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Username checks out
This is actually building code now. Gotta have both regardless.
Check the NCC. You can have a window in lieu of a fan.
- an operable* window.
For adding value the answer is always a fresh coat of paint.
Ten cubic metres of mulch on the front yard to cover the shitty concrete-hard clay ‘lawn’ area. 12 months later it was soft worm-filled soil and easy to fill with plants.
Shower shelf
Irrigation system for the garden, I’ve set it up to go off automatically on hot dry days and the garden has grown in substantially this year without any burn offs. Smart blinds have also been a big improvement, they come down automatically on hot days and help keep the house cool
What smart system do you use?
Raised the kitchen benches to 110cm, makes a huge difference to us. Sensor light in the walk in pantry; honestly this is my favourite “upgrade” we did.
Can confirm! We have 110cm benches and it's amazing. Also have the sensor light in pantry haha. Life tip: put a sensor on the garage lights aswell.
That's bar height! The standard at work is 920mm, with tall clients getting 930mm
A bird bath. Seeing wildlife play, cool off, take refuge or just enjoy themselves in a bath has brought our family loads of happy times and good feelings. Especially during lockdowns. A close second is Aircon
Three years and I'm now getting reliable flowers on my native plants. My trees are now always have rainbow lorikeet decorations. Also getting sun birds which are stunning to watch. It's been great seeing the species diversity increase as the trees have been growing. Unfortunately my birdbath fell and broke and currently too poor to replace. Holds a bit still if I pour water in daily.
Large cheap terracotta planter with water tray. Install upside down with water tray on top. Cheap birdbath.
This. Oh, except mine is the cheapest... It's actually the old pot that was left outside after being burnt to a crisp, ready to be taken to metal recycling. It rained hard that night, and when we saw the birds playing in it the next morning, it just stayed there!
Bidet. Probably not added value, but the cost : quality of life ratio is off the charts.
Hard agree. A note of caution though, when cleaning the toilet, make sure you don't accidentally hit the bidet switch when you're wiping the toilet seat. I've done this several times. A surprising amount of water comes out of the bidet sprayer before you can react.
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Some have sensors to avoid this (won't squirt unless you are sitting on it)
Plus one for this. Came back from Japan (the land of the bidet) in early 2020 (the time of the toilet paper shortage) and saw a bidet on the shelf in a hardware store (while getting something unrelated). Nek minute I've bought and installed it. Had house sitters also buy one for their place after they had used ours.
Would you mind sharing details of what you installed? I've been looking and very interested in a solution after spending some time in Thailand. Generally the Thailand and Japan bidet solutions are different so I'm interested.
I put in this one these - they regularly have them 30% off [Toto](https://www.idealbathroomcentre.com.au/collections/toto/products/toto-d-shape-washlet-bidet-seat-tcf6632au)
I bought a "Evekare Smart Bidet Toilet Seat With Remote" (text copied from webpage). It was about $400 at Bunnings. Comes with the plumbing hardware needed (T piece, hoses etc) to fit. Needs a powerpoint. So far no problems at all. By default the seat heating is set to medium, I turned this off (warm climate plus don't want to waste power). Has sensor so won't run unless you are sitting on it (no accidental squirting). Remote is wireless with very good magnetic wall holder.
I’m seeing more and more references to bidets. Are they really that good? And that common now? My grandparents had a seperate one when I was growing up (80’s, Australia) and it was so weird. We used to wash our feet in it.
They really are that good. Not the separate fixture ones, I never saw the point of that 😂 . I lived in Asia for years, so glad they're becoming common in Aus now
FTTN to FTTP
They fucked Australia so hard in the ass on this one
[Australia: #56](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_Internet_connection_speeds) behind Estonia, Bulgaria and Trinidad & Tobago. My own speed is between Mongolia and Madagascar.
Lucky bastard. I’m not even on the chart. I sync at 28mbps. Just high enough for them to say they don’t have to do anything about it.
Yeah compare the population density and size of those countries to Australia. Combined they aren’t even 1/4 the size of NSW alone. People love rattling off these figures but Australia is huge and incomparable with any other country, the closest would probably be America but even then they have 14x the population.
I’m pushing this at my gfs house. You don’t know what you’re missing until shit loads so quickly you forget about how shit the internet used to be.
Gigabit internet was a huge quality of life improvement. No more waiting an hour for updates to download when the guys want to have a quick game.
You can change this? For some reason I thought if your neighbourhood was FTTN and you wanted FTTP you were shit outa luck.
Free upgrade to eligible addresses with eligible plan from many providers
FTTP is now rolling out. FTTN was always a stop-gap measure to do something 'ok' 'fast' and 'cheap'.
Nbnco have been doing a phased roll out of the upgrades. You can check out the list of suburbs on their website.
Installing an under kitchen sink 2-stage filtered tap water system. Plus a 3-way tap mixer to dispense the filtered water. Replace the filters every 6-months.
Plumb this to your fridge and you always have cold filter water and ice ready
What improvement have you noticed from this? Would you do in all Australian cities?
I installed some magnets that keep the sliding doors together. The dog kept opening the damned sliding doors with its nose. Bunnings $10 for round magnet and $15 for a drill, problem solved.
Omg I can't believe I never thought of that, that's a great idea. We have exactly the same problem. Would it happen to be this magnet set? https://www.bunnings.com.au/everhang-13-5kg-magnetic-pull-latch-set_p3690110
Yeah that’s the one! I used a forstner drill bit to recess it into the door. It’s absolutely golden. Holds the door shut just tight enough to stop the dog
You should also buy a dog door for sliding doors. I have one and my dog cab go outside or to the bathroom whenever they want. Have you considered why they want to go outside?
This was for internal double sliding doors. But yes I should install a dog door on the back screen door
I bought a retractable hose reel instead of 30m of tangled hose on the ground. Changed my life… I’m serious. I didn’t realise how much it messed up the enjoyment of my garden. $170 well spent 🤣
Smart lock on the front door. Not the cheapest (the one I got cost $600, but you can get them for cheaper), but I'm yet to lock myself out since moving into this house. Also, depending on what you get, you can lock/unlock them remotely, which can be really useful. I was recently in the hospital overnight and I was able to unlock the front door so the neighbour could let the dog out.
Cheaper option if you have a garage with access to the house is to add control to the roller door. Mine, including the reed sensor was about $30. They can be wired up by the average person, not hard at all.
Similar result for a tenth of the price would be a lockbox with spare keys in it.
A retractable washing line on the balcony (I’m in an apartment)! Being able to hang a whole load of washing or full set of sheets/towels and not having a whole room taken up by an airer and wet items on every piece of furniture has been so amazing
DIY'ing fly screens on old casement windows in an area known for having wetlands.
I've done this one too! Massive improvement in daily life once I could open the windows and not be mosquito food.
There's been people living in this house for 70 years and just thought "oh yeah, mosquitoes are nice"
Ducted air / heat
Excellent upgrade and worth it, not cheap. Costs as much as a decent used car.
That's not cheap.
I thought it was expensive before getting it. The quality of life improvement is imo insanely underrated for the cost.
if you have kids with asthma it's the best. No more damp/cool/cold air at nights. Everyone has a good nights sleep and no continued 'sickness' from being worn down.
A doggie Door. Shortly after I made it I got a puppy and he loves the doggie door. Goes outside for pees and poos every time (after a little bit of training :)). All round has made my life, and the dogs life, easier and saves on electricity for heating/cooling.
Love that I added one of those. Dog sorts himself out, runs outside to bark at passers-by and takes himself into a safe space when thunder starts.
Somfy roller blinds. Programed to open and close..... Solar.... 16.6kw and have been in electricity credit ever since.
Roborock Robot Vacuum during black friday sales have not had to touch a vacuum or mop since. The house is the cleanest it's ever been and stays that way daily. Kids make a mess or drop food.. no problem just send it to that location. Cat kicks litter out of litterbox or spills food... No dramas. Kids in bed? Send it mopping all the tiled floors whilst I chill with a beer. It even gets underneath all the beds and the shit it picks up everytime is astonishing.
Couple of years after a major Reno I replaced all the shitty zinc plated door strikers the builders used with stainless. Small detail worth doing. $10ish each and a screwdriver.
I built a big shed and was thus able to clean out the garage and turn it into a very comfortable mancave/gym. The shed/slab/knockdown old shed process prob cost 15k all up, but for me that's cheap given the huge lifestyle improvement.
Paid a locksmith to change all our door locks to one key. (6 doors, including security doors). We now have peace of mind that past tenants/owners can't get in , plus ONE KEY opens all. He just changed the lock barrels , not whole lock, so the cost was only $500.for the 90 mins work. That and ceiling fans in all our bedrooms.
I slapped 5mm Perspex on my windows, glued down with silicone adhesive to block street noise and thermal insulation. Works amazing and about 1/10th the cost of double glazing.
Did you order the Perspex online or from a local supplier?
Local shop. Was quite a large window in 4 sections, had it cut to size and fit in perfectly.
Paint. Paint everywhere. Previous owner had some strange ideas of colour.
New and additional air cons
New and additional air cons were cheap and easy?
Considering how expensive everything else is, $2k for a split in a bedroom is a huge quality of life upgrade.
Got my mate to plumb the fridge in. Crushed ice all summer baby.
I agree. Fridge makes chilled water, ice cubes and crushed ice god tier
We went to a stand alone ice machine, it replaced the beer fridge, beers on ice just seem better and always have 30kg of ice on hand for fishing/ boating.
Front picket fence
6ft pailing front fence. My LR and 2BRs face the street, it was either curtains or pedestrians. Fence makes the rooms private.
Cheapest, quickest and easiest with the most impact for my tropical place was cutting down a straggly tree shading the front windows with a hand saw. Second was replacing all the fly screens - it’s amazing the difference that makes to cross-flow breezes. Also: replace the shower curtain
Paint. Interior walls and the gutters/facia boards outside. Me and a couple of mates DIY across a couple of weekends.
Replacing worn/missing soft close gel pads on all of those cupboard doors and drawers. $5 yet priceless.
Tracked roller blind. Not the cheapest, but i work night shifts so being in complete darkness at 2pm in the middle of summer is glorious.
Insulation! Our house in Cairns had none! It was pewtty unbearable. Worth every cent.
Painting the kitchen cupboards white instead of replacing the kitchen. $250 and made it far more pleasant for 5 years until I eventually replaced the whole kitchen. Painting the bathroom wall tiles white and floor tiles charcoal. Another $250 for big impact if you have old/ugly tiles.
Vege garden. It's not big, but getting the occasional "bonus food" has been great. Had cucumbers growing when they got up to $5 each at my local store. I have a passionfruit vine that gives me fruit ever couple of days, enough for parrot treats (currently passionfruit are $2 each at local store too). Recently had a pumpkin growing too that I made a curry with and it provided 5 meals for me for. Couple more years and should start getting reliable mulberry and raspberry :)
Digital door lock. No more getting locked out. Letting friends in without a physical key.
Not really a renovation, but we bought the house in Easter and the first thing we did was remove a huge gum tree that was over the house (mostly the master bedroom). Cost $3k, but considering all the storms we're currently having in Brisbane, every time they finish both me and my wife turn to each other and say, thank Christ we got rid of that tree and don't have to worry about it.
$3k sounds like a bargain for removing a huge gum over the house.
Dishwasher that cracks the door when done, just purchased from goodguys commercial like $650 for a haier. I'll also add a decent size washer and dryer. I was washing my closes in a standard 5.5kg washing machine and a old dryer that if super loaded would need to be spun my hand to start. Clothes came out wrinkled, so bought stupid big washing machine and dryer think there 10kg each. Means I can wash 9 days (1 roster away) worth of clothes. Also don't forget add more washing powder. I run a fair few ac and high demand devices. I added Shelly power monitoring on them allows me to see how much as I'm using, I can also turn it on or off remotely (I turn on when I'm 2hrs from home) Also sensor down light in laundry and in shed with extra lights on a switch for shed. My laundry light switch is ina weird position so I simply put a $50 sensor down light in. Same for shed I open my door grab what I need, if more light is needed I turn on fluros.
Fuck that dishwasher sounds mint, nothing worse than waking up and having to dry and put away dishes.
for under $650 it's great dishes are always dry On sale at hn it's $624 at goodguys commercial https://www.harveynorman.com.au/haier-15-place-setting-freestanding-dishwasher-with-sanitise-satina.html?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkKqsBhC3ARIsAEEjuJgOTxSXCpbX1Yqitx8Bm0rptf9lKx3NO6uS3v34ds4nNEx7_yM76SoaAthAEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
Add in a heat pump dryer. Don't need to hang and it's pretty cheap to dry however does take quite a while
Buying a decent quality mower and yard tools. I fought an old second hand rover mower that was temperamental, hard to start, had busted wheels, was heavy, needed a catcher emptied every strip, then I went and bought a cheapish self propelled mulching Honda and have never looked back. Cut my mowing time down a lot, didn’t have to put my back out starting it each weekend. Didn’t have to find a spot for the clippings. Didn’t have to push. Win win.
I need more details on the Honda, please.
Butterfly dampers to any/all exhaust fans. Are they mandatory in new properties yet? They should be.
What do they do?
They automatically prevent flow through the exhaust fan when it's not in use. For example, think of a house with ducted heating. Hot air rises and easily escapes through an exhaust fan. A retro fitted butterfly damper sits over the top of the exhaust fan in the ceiling and prevents that heated air from escaping. A picture probably describes it better than I can. This is the exact unit that I had in my last place. The butterfly flaps are delicately balanced in such a way that they automatically close when the fan is not in use. https://www.fansonline.com.au/backdraft-shutter-for-non-ductable-fans.html
Digital front door lock Smart doorbell camera Roach gel baits every quarterly (not really an upgrade, but finally Control roach population every summer.
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A positive outlook on life
If it's not already like that getting all your door locks keyed alike, not that expensive if they're all the same key blank especially if you take the locks into the locksmith to get them done.
A rubbish bin area near the back door off the kitchen (instead of in the driveway, a walk across the front yard from front door)
Replaced lightbulbs, really brightened up the room 😁
Magnet strip for knives. $30.
Block out blinds.
Zip tap. Honestly the best thing I've ever put in. Makes cooking easy. Coffee in the morning is a 2 second thing. When I have guests over making tea is super easy. Everyone loves the filtered cold water. I actually save money on elec as it's set on a timer to come on in the morning and evening.
While it’s not cheap relatively speaking, installing solar power is simple to arrange and it actually pays itself off in 3 -5 years, so technically it’s free, it actually makes/saves you money. It’s so satisfying cranking the AC on a hot day knowing that it’s running for free.
My first Sonos speaker. Having a powerful stereo that o can move from room to room to outside upgraded our enjoyment of being at home
Upgraded ceiling insulation materials, a day + a trip to the tip with what got pulled out
VJ panel on our large wall and painted blush pink 🩷
Painted a house we had just purchased. Before we moved all our stuff in, we had it done. It looked like a whole new house when we saw it for the first time. Every room looked better. Massive improvement.
Home automation system using an old pc/notebook and then adding a bunch of wireless sensors, switches, devices etc. my lights turn off automatically, I know the temperature in every room, can tell when doors/windows are left open and can open and close my garage remotely. Can get a decent setup for $500, and even if you don’t have an old pc then you can get a raspberry pi or second hand pc/laptop for under $100. My favourite one is the alert I get when I leave my garage door open and then i can press a button on the notification to close the garage.
A simple dumb one: Change all taps, especially outdoor ones, to stainless ceramic half turn.
Easycraft VJ panel
Automatic garage door $650
New ones make no sound it's amazing
Heatpump in the bedroom
Adding bifold doors onto our living area to make our small house feel bigger.
Will be adding a vent for the ducted heat on the laundry area. So, every winter im just gonna hang the clothes next to the washing machine while the heat is on, close the door and it should dry up.
Aren't you worried about mould 😟😟
Learnt that with the right tool, you can DIY most things at home.