Beyond Blue Home Improvement Thread

[geoff]

Hi everyone. I'm Geoff and have been a dedicated Volunteer on the forums for 13 years. I am proud to have stopped some of the stigmas that are associated with mental health as well as doing my best to help others too

Before my health went south I was a builder in all aspects of home construction and renovation. If you don't have a handyman around I hope I can offer you some tips that may be of help. I have had many years of experience in home renovation and will do my best to help you out if you are stuck and need some advice

I hope my experience may be of help to the people on Beyond Blue and make their life a little bit better. Even if you need help with the most basic painting job or putting up a shelf I can help there too with some tips

I will do my best to get back to anyone that has a question when I can as this is social yet important thread

Geoff

[Guest_1584]

Gday Geoff.

Yeah l've seen those , got to stand in front of one on display too , they do pump out the heat those ones on tv for sure for what they are. They say they cost l think it was 40c phr to run. They're bloody $400 though so they aren't cheap.

Anyway , what l've got now will do for this yr, selling the house most likely end of yr so , all good for now.

Cheers

[geoff]

Hello RX, any plans on where you want to move to.

Best wishes.

Geoff.

[ecomama]

Hey Home Improvers lol...

I just run my split system air con whenever we want now that I got Solar Panels installed.
So awesome.

Think I've paid under $300 for elec for the past year.
Yes I AM still paying off the panels at $100 / month, so I'm happy to get SOME return. I have a BIG family, so that's dirt cheap.
The loan for the panels is less than I was paying for elec before then. (Think I have a year to go on that loan - it was interest free btw).
Plus we seldom ran the air con because of the added costs.

Now I run it any time we want to.

I went all out and bought ALL of us (including my family outside the home) an electric blanket each. These have been pure luxury esp this Winter.
It cost me a fortune but I was spending all my savings since the International Borders were shut anyway. Our trips were cancelled.

I've just about decided to purchase a pre-fab cabin (as my brother told me to do all along lol) as I found a Qld mob that have really nice ones for a great price.

The property market has boomed in our area like never before and I'm still trying to get my head around it.
A nearby property went for almost $3 million with no water views - I'm gobsmacked.

Our neighbour's ramshackle sweet little fibro majestic is for sale atm and going to Auction soon.
They lived there 70 years. I'm almost afraid to know what it'll sell for.

Uncle has been unwell and unable to work on our refurbishments.
Hopefully he'll pick up soon.

Onwards and upwards!
Love EM

[Guest_1584]

Gday Geoff .

Well we've been scanning different area's through the yr but nothing set as yet.

Hi em . Yep Australian property prices , aren't they just insanity it's just mind blowing,

Funny about that 70yr couple. We had a couple here , this was back about 15yrs ago at the start of this crazy ongoing boom ever since. They'd bought this little house in Sth Yarra 70 yrs ago. Can't remember what they paid but when they went to sell they got 5million for it. And that was at the start of all this, it'd probably be double that now.

Cheers all.

rx

[geoff]

Hello RX and EM, houses are always going to increase and might be expensive to buy now, but if you can hang onto them for a few years then you'll double, triple your money.

There a house in a suburb in Melb we should have bought years ago, in a posh area that needed a lot of work and on a big block but my parents convinced us not to buy it, only wished we had, it would be worth millions now and our life would have been completely different to how it ended up being.

Hindsight is great, isn't it.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Yeah l don't know what Sth Yarra would've been like back when they bought their little place but yeah of course with the way it wound up being, you could imagine what it'd sell for with today prices in a suburb like that now.

Yeah had a couple of those stories from back when to Geoff , especially from back when we were living in QLD , some of the properties we were offered. Mind blowing now bc QLD was really cheap then they were doing anything to sell you a property. But it caught up with the rest of the east coast when the boom hit. My brother paid 84k for his place in brissy at the time it's now worth over a million, could've been us. Ouch.

rx

[geoff]

Hello RX, yes we can only appreciate the price of a house we once bought or had every intention of doing and see how much it's worth today, we grimace at the thought, but it relates to relativity, our wage was much cheaper back then, compared to what we earn these days which may have doubled or even tripled so we need to take this into comparison.

I know someone going through a divorce and I've told him that in 5,6,10 years time the place will be worth much more than it is now, but what he is getting is in relation to this years economic figures.

I only wish I understood this many years ago, but then I was young.

Ouch, but it's still amazing.

My best.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Hi Geoff.

Yeah l think as per usual over the last 10yrs Aus house prices are some of the dearest in the world , it's all pretty surreal. l heard the other day we are now at 9x the av wage when most countries are at 3 and 4x the av wage , which pretty well says it all.

So it's mind boggling that things are still going even higher , isn't it. For most there would've been at least 1 or 2 crashes in this last 10-15 yrs and corrections , Aus is still waiting and going even crazier . You know you can get quite a nice house in the burbs of LA , La , for 300k , but if we even had an LA , according to our prices lately that would have to be 2 million. l suppose you could say in little old Aus terms , Sth yarra or Bondi, l dunno.

You can get beach houses around Florida , 250 and 300k , even on the beach or a street back but still views. Uk is very dear but nothing compared to Aus . So doesn't the mind just boggle at wth is going on here and where is the value and justification for our prices.My brothers house just a few yrs ago was valued at 400ish , but in just 2 yrs it's now around a million. There's 1000s of examples the same. Where as it use to be if you were lucky a property may double in 10yrs right , but the stuff we've seem this last decade is 5 x that. l really dunno why people pay the city money these days here, it's just insanity. They could go to some nice regional town , coastal even at half or 1/3 the price so the value for money and the quality of life is so much nicer . Even though wages aren't as much as city areas but eh if your paying 3x in rates and mortgages then , ya know.

All the best.

rx

[geoff]

Hello RX and Everyone else, hindsight is a great word, I remember when my ex and I bought a block of land down at Mt. Martha overlooking the ocean, we weren't even engaged at that stage, got the loan from the bank without any trouble, just walked in and asked the bank manager, but we had to sell it to help buy a pub in Bendigo, I've seen the house that has been built on it (google maps) and completely astounded.

If only we weren't persuaded to go into the hotel business, then perhaps none of my demise would have happened.

Besides from that, Olympic races are always breaking the world record, so you wonder when this will ever end and is it possible because every four years someone breaks a record.

Best wishes.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Hi Geoff.

Ooo that'd be worth a nice old packet these days that's for sure. Would've been an incredible place to live especially from back then too. Buy yeah , always easy after the fact isn't it.

Did you like the hotel business ?

All the best. rx