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Renovating and Locksmiths in North Brisbane

Locksmith North Brisbane One can be excused for assuming that the order of my blog posts correlate to the chronological order of events associated with renovating (not sure I am qualified to use that word) my yew-bewt-make-me-a-fortune investment property. Because a normal person would do that. I’m actually blogging (not sure I’m qualified for use of that word either) as the events come to mind. I’ve also got to feel like writing about that particular event at the time too.

Not that the order of blog posts is really that important. Just don’t want anyone thinking my little site here is some well thought out and structured strategy for renovating houses.

So this little story is about locksmiths and in particular Locksmith North Brisbane (you can get their contact details from their website Locksmith North Brisbane). We’ve all heard of the traditional emergency locksmith who is always on call, happy to come help the poor homeowner who unwittingly locked themselves out of their home. And this is one of the services that Locksmith North Brisbane provides, but not the service I required.

Mine was a more managed and planned project. Because as it stood, pretty much anyone over 4 years old could gain access into my most prized investment property. So I had Stephen (owner) come by and give me some advice.

Right now you’d be correct in thinking that I had previously written that my plan was to do everything myself to save money and get this place rented out on the cheap. Well funnily enough, I did spend some time looking at the work I needed done and considering doing it myself. But I have heard that replacing locks, securing windows and other openings can be at times quite tricky – especially when things have to be aligned just as they were to work perfectly. So I opted for the easy way out on this one – call the locksmiths.

Stephen from Locksmith North Brisbane was super helpful. Even though I can imagine this guy is super busy, he still found time to come over for an on-site inspection and give me a written quote. I walked him through the house and discussed my requirements (cheap please!) and being the professional that he is, he was able to sort out a solution quick smart.

We agreed on price and estimated time for completion and all was good. Just had to make sure the rest of the world didn’t know how insecure my house is and decide they could help themselves to what they wanted in the meantime. Actually, I wasn’t too worried about that, there wasn’t too much valuable stuff in the house that would justify a break and enter charge.

Now in my head, I thought I had something a bit more exciting to add to this story but it turns out to be pretty boring. Not sure what I was thinking there except that it’s another step I took to getting this house completed and fit for rental.

Stephen and his team came by and completed the work with out incident, as you would expect from professionals. My investment property was now well secured.

While chatting with Steve, I asked him about some of the services that he provides and have summarized them here for anyone that is interested. I highly recommend Stephen (obviously or this article may have actually been a little bit more interesting with my whining and moaning). If you’re in the North Brisbane area looking for a locksmith then you can get all Stephen’s contact details by going to his website – Locksmith North Brisbane.

In summary, some of the major services offered by Stephen include;

Emergency entry service
Lock repairs and replacements
Deadlock installations
Window locks
Automotive lock service
Barrel changing
Key cutting
Commercial locking solutions
File cabinets lock services

I’m pretty sure though if you have anything related to keys, locks, etc. that Stephen and his team will be more than happy to help. Now that I’ve given them a decent plug I think I’ll need to give him a call and ask for some sort of commission.

Roof Restoration Newcastle

Roof Restoration Just a quick recap on my last (and first/introductory) post; I had bought this yew bewt investment property with some faults that I was totally confident in being able to repair and renovate myself, saving heaps of bucks and in the end once rented out this place would give a decent return.

Not so. First issues were that I couldn’t decide on where to begin repairing and renovating. However, once I got passed my indecision and procrastination, I started looking at the roof. Figuring that the roof is probably one of the most important parts of a building, it made sense to get that sorted first. I was faced with broken tiles, dislodged tiles, dirty and moss ridden tiles – and it just totally looked terrible.

So I grab the ladder, get up on the roof and conquer my fear of heights. Once on the roof I was okay. The height was the least of my problems. I was facing what looked to me like a roof hit by a meteorite, an atom bomb, and a teenage boy with a hatred against roofs.

Yep, as always, things were worse than they first appeared. My first thought was that this roof could not be water tight so I climbed back down the ladder to go inside and check ceilings and walls for water damage. How did I not notice this when I initially inspected the house – yep, water has been pooling on the ceiling, there’s water marks throughout and then my heart sank. Water damage in the roof. Nothing worse. Perhaps time to call in the professionals.

So as you do in these situations, I’ve turned to a mate and asked him if he knew of any decent roofing companies. Straight up, he recommended Roof Restoration Newcastle.

Not ever heard of them before but if it’s a mate’s recommendation you’ve got to run with that.

I called them up, and wow. The owner, Dave Beach, answered the phone and was both sympathetic and professional in his advice. Not once did I get the feeling he was trying to take me for a ride, he never tried to tell me that my problems are going to warrant a re-roof and potentially a rebuild of the whole house as some of these guys try to get you into.

So booked an inspection with Dave, and yet again, blown away as he turned up as expected, on time – another rarity for tradies. Dave took no time to get up on the roof, carried out his analysis and then he got inside the roof to further check out what was happening.

During this time I start getting a bit nervous, particularly because he is taking so long. The longer he takes the more problems I have right? Nah… I learnt that this is just him being very thorough and working on providing me the most accurate report he can. Given that I might not even engage his company, this is an impressive gesture.

After the inspection, he spent time with me discussing his findings. And I wasn’t too surprised. Apart from technical issues that I would never have known about, he didn’t present too much to me that I wasn’t aware of. So, hey, in my mind this guy’s a winner – he’s not trying to sell me a new roof, house and block of land to go with it.

So after his report and quote, which I was quite happy with, I did some research into his company. His website, aptly named Roof Restoration Newcastle, provides useful information about the services Dave provides, and the areas they cover.

Just in case you need some roof work, here’s a list of their services and you’ll find a link to their website somewhere in this post;

roof restorations
roof cleaning and roof painting
roof repairs
roof replacements
new roofs and re-roofs
gutter installations
gutter replacements.

They also will carry work out on all types of roofs including metal roofs, tiled roofs, and colorbond roofs.

Areas serviced include Newcastle, Port Macquarie, and the Hunter Valley.

After being suitably impressed by the professionalism and price, I decided to engage Dave Beach and his team from Roof Restoration Newcastle to carry out the necessary repairs to my roof. Dave assured me his work would be guaranteed and also backed by a 10 year limited warranty.

A short period later and they were into it. Now I can’t explain the details of the work they did, mostly because I don’t know as clearly I’m no roofing expert, however the inspection of the work completed that Dave took me through was more than impressive.

The guys got the work done in an impressive amount of time, which obviously helps me because that’s one more thing off my list of projects that need to be done to my new found investment. Equally impressive was the lack of “hidden surprises” – the bill came to the amount which was quoted. And what’s more, the guys even cleaned up after themselves.

So all in all, I was highly impressed with my mates recommendation and the professionalism of this company.

First step into fixing my poor investment home has been a success, thanks for the help from Dave Beach and his team.

For those interested and/or needing some roof work done, here’s the link to their website – Roof Restoration Newcastle.

What You Learn When You Renovate

What You Learn When You Renovate In case you didn’t read about it on my About Me page, three years ago I decided to purchase an investment property. And what a great decision that was!!! That was sarcasm.

I found this place that was very run down and thus going for a bargain. So cheap. I couldn’t lose on this one, so I thought. I’ve had brain waves before which have not been so successful but this was going to be the start of my entry into property investment.

I consider myself to be a little bit of a handy man. Probably a little bit over confident which is normally the reason I find myself in tricky situations. So I figured with all these problems with this prospective property purchase that I could handle them, fix them myself and in the process saving a fortune and ending up with a decent investment property.

So I make the decision to take the plunge and get into it. Over to the mortgage broker I head and start discussions about an investment loan. I’m going to leave this story for another post but lets just say the hoops I had to jump through for the loan should have been a warning sign (or maybe a stop sign).

Finally the loan was approved and I was able to snap up this bargain. I’m now the proud owner of an investment property – I’ve made it big time – in the big league now. Settlement followed and keys handed over. Time to get to work, I needed tenants in asap to start getting return on this “investment property”.

Now, when I inspected the building I knew there were some problems. There were plumbing problems, roof issues, door lock and window lock issues, and the list continues – no wonder it was a bargain. But nothing too serious that I couldn’t repair myself, it was just going to take some hard work and a bit of time.

In I go with my tool belt and my labour and my knowledge. Not being a professional, it was a struggle to work out the best course of action here. Did I start with the roof, the plumbing or do I go around replacing door & window locks first? I mean it all had to be done, but I just had a moment of hesitation trying to decide where to start. Procrastination kind of got in the way too – big dreams, so much to do.

I eventually got started and with the help from various tradies and services, I finally got the house in a suitable condition to put up for rent. During the process I learnt so much about renovating a house. I learnt about plumbing, roofing, locks, carpets, and even from right at the beginning, investment property finance.

At some point, and I can’t recall when, I came to the realisation that some repairs were beyond my capabilities. I then learnt how to source a tradie or a service and have trust in their abilities and not be worried about being ripped off. Some of these guys got me out of such situations that I felt so thank full for their help and service.

I’ll write about these guys in this blog site, I believe I owe it to them. Stick around for my posts on what I learnt, mistakes I made, tradies that I love and all my other thoughts that I decide to put in writing….