Episode One

hey I'm Georgia and I'm Ronnie and we are serial Renovators we are on the Australian TV show the block and so we w a bit of prize money right it was like yeah we're going to renovate our family home so we engaged the most amazing Building Company and Architects and together we worked collaboratively and we we designed our dream home and uh then we got the um the costumes let's just say you know maybe we went a little over the top and we just actually at this point in time can't really justify that we don't really want to stretch ourselves that much and so we thought how can we make this prize money work for us how can we make more money off this money and that's why we decided to we've gone back to basics and we're going back to [Music] renovating so this house has literally been on the market for a day that's it I mean and when you're chasing property you have to be on three times a day morning lunch time and after look oh wow look at the Vibes is that giving you like mid-century think Palm Springs my Palms are getting sweaty that is a lot of work that is a ton of work I mean it's a corner block that's that's a big plus that is a big plus when you're talking subdivision and the house is positioned perfectly on the Block do you know what I mean I like it Rong you like it I like it I mean I theti if the price is right I like it I'm slowly starting to smile I think like the fact that it's a Breck home means it's got good bones I I think the highlight of this property is that it's a corner block so if this is indeed subdividable it's bit of gold mine you know like the subdivision will be really straightforward you're right I mean 85 M on a corner block you don't see that every day hey guys welcome to one Mackenzie way lovely to meet you awesome thank you oh lime grave I wouldn't I actually wouldn't call this lime green I would call it I don't know but it's very like 50s green let's call it 50s green 50s or 60s Bungalow nice little Bungalow okay this is quite small but yeah I love how every floor is different Ronnie oh you're right every floor is different oh and what color would you call this lilac I don't know I mean you're obviously needing to knock some walls out to open it all out it's funny like old school living is like very separate rooms but modern day living is it's not the biggest living room in the world so you're right maybe knocking out a few walls but yeah I mean this is actually quite a good size bedroom I mean it just gets better and better you're right it's probably the best room in the house so it's obviously the master right I think what we could do is punch a hole through there and then maybe borrow a little bit of space from that room and turn it into an on Suite so that's way we're doing a 3X two instead of a 4X one so you're sacrificing a bedroom to make a living dining kitchen space bigger and you get an on Suite for your master yeah I think that's a good idea small that is Tiny bom that is I mean yeah we can do we can work with this yeah we can work with that hey guys so what did you think of the inside yes it's you know it's got potential she's got a lot of potential Simon I like it I'm not going but a goodie this is the real hero of the part so have a look out here this is where the rest of the block is for your subdivision potential so really you could potentially get what like a 350 me block there well Zone uh 25 yeah I think the minimum lot size is 350 so I think there's ample room here I mean but the house George I mean what are you thinking exterior wise I mean I I know that houses of this vintage are riddled with asbest and I feel like that's actually a asbest roof is it so the eaves are probably asbest so you probably might have to watch out for that something to know I got a feeling that the roof actually is also asbest yeah that's um problematic that's definitely asbest that's 100% asbest but it's okay I've got I've got a guy bab I've got a roofing guy he's going to come You' got a guy of course you do always got a guy and plus you've got nothing to worry about man when you say I've got when you say I've got nothing to worry about that's when I [Music] worry there was a good couple of weeks there where we were obsessed we were on ara.com all the time anyway we narrowed it down to maybe four properties and in the end all right we're doing it get it on it congratulations I love this part of it yeah sold look at that boom let's do it how do you feel I feel good I'm excited say yeah come on hold on all right we're still going to love each other in three much I don't know we'll see okay so it's pretty obvious that we need to knock some walls down to open it up and what I love about this is if you're working under the original roof line you don't need Council approval for this stuff and you know these These are M Jrock to to move these walls is pretty easy pretty easy okay so what we're going to do is get rid of that wall get rid of that wall so it'll be kitchen we'll do like an island bench in the middle this will be living dining we'll do a Furniture layout I love the fireplace now are we are we keeping this fireplace yeah we are so do you envision once we knock this wall out right and create the new wall which is about another meter away are we going to extend this brick work I'm going to do some sort of cabinet tree that connects it through I'm actually going to clad this in tiles I think or maybe we just paint it I don't know midcentury Palm Springs that's my ass keep the windows definitely keep the windows and the temperature yeah I like we might do some feature with this paneling down here okay so this is the wall you want to remove right yep okay so then and I also want to remove that there yep and then we're going to borrow a little bit of this room this room is going to be divided into an on Suite for the master master bedroom and then the rest of that space is going to be part of our living room okay so it's a 4x1 as it stays we're turning into a 3x2 so we're sacrificing a bedroom to create an on Suite for the master bed and a bigger living area okay yep yep right she's tiny in the kitchen oh she's a beauty very original not much is staying so we obviously have to move that wall out opening the kitchen up to the living space Bank of cemetry along here I think you know the hallway is so massive that for me I was like that's wasted real estate in a small house so let's reduce the size of the hallway and with the storage that's in there we'll go back into it as our fridge recess and our pantry recess y now the subdivision part we've renovated about 15 houses and out of those 15 I think 7 to8 of those have been duplex blocks now the process in subdividing takes about 6 to 8 months so it's something that yes we've got the renovation but we really need to get the subdivision all the plans in motion and for that we used Monica from Vision surve's Consulting to get that ball roll we've worked with these guys for how long like with every subdivision I'll say 14 years and they are really the experts in this space here we are on I mean look it's basically already done more or less yeah I know I feel like yeah for a block it's pretty you know there's no massive trees not nothing too structural that we can't get rid of no it's perfect you've got a um shed a few sheds that need to need to be removed um demolished you've got some concrete that needs to go so in terms of like a feasible block size what are we talking 350 is perfect 350 is perfect 3 yeah 300 to 350 and I think about like people wanting to build a house now 350 m is actually a size example absolutely but more importantly 350 vacant block that we sell but we get to retain 450 M which is super important you which is a great size as well and what I love the most about this is that that panel and post fencing I can actually reuse as long as I do all the work clear it put the fence line up I can put that put the block on the market but I cannot settle until I get those titles correct you can do a subject to sale subject to the title being issued and then you know we can work with that with your with your offer and acceptance um and also utilize that to expedite subdivision process all right so what I'm really excited about mon is that let's get some paint on the ground let's figure out so it's 3.7 from that wall so let me hold the end of this tape measure and I want you to mark it all right so it's 3.7 from here so just I want to walk it out just so we're coming down we've got the fence line there could be an opportunity for some gorgeous Landscaping absolutely and then we walk around and here we are in our Courtyard yeah I think that works and then that's giving us 350 350 M on this block and you guys are left with the balance I like it well one thanks so much for coming out no worries it's it's it's all perfectly clear I feel like we're going to be talking a lot though this is not this is like an ongoing thing y you and and can I just borrow that can I have that this might come in handy a bit later on what are you going to do with that we draw some lines later on it's so Random you're the most random person all right day one demo the skip finin here that means it's [Music] started oh remote control mate that's a bit special get the um Jackhammer we'll smash one and then we'll just lift them up one by one [Music] oh man this is a lot of work yep so what's going to make it easier what's the plan I reckon I'm going to make a phone call see if I can get some excavators and little digger here cuz that will make my work my life so much easier I feel like you're just doing that to have a good time as well is this not true are you not living out your best dreams a little bit but it's too much work do you know a guy I know a guy you know a guy okay always know a guy mate we'll be out like at the shops or at at a wine bar or out for and Ronnie knows everyone Ronnie how are you buddy good camp how are you good M heard you need a uh oh my God you've come to save youah hand mate yeah I do mate we've been pulling up these papers for last couple of hours and it's been an absolute nightmare look mate he's been my little uh lap dog little lap [Music] dog I love demo day and there was so much work to be done it was I had to clear 350 M all the structures had to go all the concrete the grass and to do that luckily my guy gives me a dingo and an escavator you make it look easy like he makes it look easy but there's actually a lot of work to be done and the fact that Ron can do it himself just means that we are saving money it's all about saving the muler hey Anthony how are you mate yeah good good to see you do you feel like deja vu yes here we go again here we go again I've got the plans we'll put a sewer point at this back corner here and then we'll run a new dra where's that down there down there right in that back corner so how deep is that s do we know uh probably about you're probably looking about a meter deep okay down the bottom so we'll try and keep it a meter deep through here yep um come close up near the fence but just run it all the way through here and that'll be the new drain for the house so are you confident that Ronnie can drink dig this trench using this fine piece of equipment confident might not be the right word all right we'll jump on that escavator and uh who's diing the hole you what's going [Music] on [Music] I knew a guy who gave me a spray gun the the grco gun and uh I had the fences all painted within probably 2 hours that was so good the Block's ready to go so what what did we do we reached out to Mr emilton himself Aaron story he is like the top selling agent in emilton and we got him to list our blog for us because he has a database of people wanting to buy properties and he knew exactly how to price it and where it needs to sit where do you think this is going to sit in ter of price well it's definitely in in the 3es I've sold plenty for about $11,000 a square me street Frontage so 350 would be possible we'll just see in see where the market goes so I think we're keen to get it on the market as soon as possible beautiful and we want to get the sale happening because we need to get this money and put it back into that cuz we are slowly running out of money yeah well so if you need to just you know drop in as a Ronnie and Georgia Project Feel free to do that you know pimp us out as whatever you need to do might be wait do you need to us to be on site when they're looking at the Block I I can just say what's going to happen Georgia rning we've got your off it was 400 but then I found out it was you it's now 300 oh [Music] [Applause] no