00:03I like to do DIY tasks and this just happened to be the biggest DIY task that I've ever done.
00:10My dad has been renovating my family home for 30 plus years and is still ongoing. The years of
00:18helping him renovate created in me I guess a hunger to want to complete a renovation project.
00:24I want him to see that actually. The design of the apartment or the renovation I would
00:34probably describe as an attempt at introducing natural materials, maybe trying to bring some
00:41warmth and like softer tones and edges into the space. I'm Sean, I work as a sustainable building
00:49officer at local government. This is my apartment, which I renovated myself.
01:04We're in Brunswick West. This building was constructed in the 60s and when you look at the old area
01:12footage from back then there's a tip and the pub which is about 100 metres away. The pub is still
01:18there. The tips now turned into a park which is great. I purchased this apartment in 2022 I think.
01:30I was attracted to this apartment because of the simplicity of it. It had good bones and the
01:35interiors are pretty like simple to work with. Also the cost of it as well allowed me to have a
01:42bit of
01:42a vision for the renovation that I wanted to do. Being on the top level with single glazing no external
01:51shading unfortunately it was a bit of a hot box so the insulation aspect was really important to me
01:56particularly from what I do as my job which is try and make buildings more sustainable.
02:03It had a really big kitchen island which kind of broke the living in the kitchen area up and it
02:09didn't
02:10have much storage. The main change in the end was really just the removal of the kitchen island.
02:17I had this grand idea at the very beginning to knock out the wall in between the living room and
02:22the
02:22bedroom but there was implications in terms of structural and then extra cost.
02:29My budget for the renovation was $20,000 mainly because I only had $20,000
02:34left so I had to make that work and we pretty much got everything done in that budget.
02:41I was very fortunate to have friends help me with free labour and a place to live while I was
02:48doing
02:49the renovation. I only really paid for the essential trades like an electrician and a plumber.
02:55I would drag as many of my friends over as I could particularly during the demolition I think they
03:00enjoyed that we would drink a few beers and they'd bring hammers. When it got to doing the renovation
03:05I could feel my uncertainty about what I was doing let alone them so I think then they transitioned to
03:11more of a drinking beers and just watching like roll but I needed the emotional support.
03:20When you walk into the apartment I guess the first thing you see is the window and a great view
03:25of the pub.
03:35I've painted the frame around it to kind of create a bit of separation and tie it back to the
03:41other
03:41timber elements that are in the apartment now. On the left we've turned that into the pantry for the
03:50kitchen and then turned one on the right to a bit of a linen closet. The kitchen itself is pretty
03:59simple
03:59Ikea cabinets and then we've had custom cut plywood fronts stained a pistachio green and then covered
04:07with a sealer. We've got a recycled spotted gum bench top which has been sanded and oiled on top of
04:15that.
04:18I've replaced a standalone electric oven with a matching oven and induction cooktop.
04:29There's no dishwasher so I went for a bit of an oversized square basin. Sometimes I regret not
04:36having a dishwasher but ultimately it seems to work.
04:42Do everything DIY is great until you realize that you don't know how to like do edging on tiles so
04:51the timber edging was another last minute thing it's ended up being perfect because it matches
04:55with the rest of the timber in the apartment and the bench top. The railing that holds a few of
05:02the
05:02utensils was actually the shower curtain rod from the original shower.
05:08Originally there was no extraction fan in the kitchen and I haven't installed one because the
05:13apartment has really good cross ventilation. The dining room table is a simple white tulip table
05:22from Marketplace but I believe it's an old Ikea version. The chairs were also purchased from Marketplace.
05:30I've reupholstered them myself. I think I got them for $10 each.
05:37The lounge room is pretty simple. I ordered a couch through Monday. I like the flexibility and
05:43the functionality of it as opposed to having a static sofa unit I guess. I opted not to have a
05:50television
05:50and instead went for a projector which I've like mounted on the ceiling. I have no regrets it's really
05:57good. It feels like every night's a movie night and I don't have the black square of having a TV.
06:03It's not turned on constantly.
06:10When you walk into the bedroom I guess the first thing is the door which is a lovely fluted glass
06:17hardwood timber door which I picked up second hand. It was getting pulled out of a really old art deco
06:24apartment. The wardrobe I just used Ikea packs units which are obviously just a standardized size
06:31so they don't go all the way to the ceiling so to overcome that it was to oversize the doors
06:36and so when it's all closed it looks like one seamless unit that goes up to the ceiling and then
06:41when you open them you actually get an extra shelf on top of the wardrobe itself.
06:48The desk in the office is the odd door between the living room and the bedroom so I chopped that
06:54in
06:55half and then just using some off cuts was able to build a stand for my computer as well. My
07:01friend
07:02and architect Marcus in Sydney he was able to draw up the shelving unit for me that wasn't as like
07:08bulky
07:09and overhead of my office area. The bed frame is a low Japanese base. The mattress is a futon as
07:20well
07:20just to keep it low to the ground. The bedside tables were again a lovely marketplace find for $50 each.
07:34There's a few art pieces on the wall. The one closest to the window is just a print I got
07:40from Etsy.
07:41The one in the middle is a painting by a friend of mine Ara Cho and then on the right
07:47is a print from
07:48another friend of mine Octo who's a tattooist and an artist in Melbourne.
07:55The bathroom I kept the original tiling on the floors which is an old green and white check and
08:02the toilet has remained the same everything else has changed. We replaced the basin with more of a
08:11simple modern square design. Again using off cuts I was able to build a bit of a mirror box
08:19and underneath a floating shelf it hides the plumbing. I don't mind having it all exposed I
08:26guess some people it might not be their aesthetic. The door of the shower is a custom cut fluted glass
08:35and was one of the few things where I paid experts to do that. I don't want to be held
08:39responsible for
08:40holding a $1200 piece of glass. The ceiling is excess hardwood flooring that was installed into an
08:49apartment in South Melbourne. It was painted in like a mould resistant paint trying to bring a
08:54little bit of that Scandinavian like sauna vibe into the bathroom. The excess tiles from the shower and
09:03the splash back were used to create a bit of a skirting board along the bottom as well.
09:10This apartment block has six apartments in it and there are shared laundries in between each of the levels.
09:20There is no heating or cooling in this apartment there's no air conditioner. The two main insulation
09:25things is the ceiling we put 3.5 like pink bats and on the north and west internal walls installed
09:33Cooltherm K17 board. I've gone for cork flooring. Cork is a great acoustic insulator it also adds additional
09:43thermal kind of insulation to the floor as well. When I wake up in the morning and I look around
09:51it's still a bit like pinching myself that I was able to do it that the vision came together.
09:59I guess my advice is to actually think about how you're going to execute either a design or the
10:05process of installing something. Making sure that you measure twice cut ones but to know that you can
10:11overthink it as much as you want and you'll probably still miss something. So to be easy on yourself if
10:16you do make a mistake. It's just a part of the DIY process. Get experts in obviously for like the
10:22any of
10:22electrical only the plumbing and probably make sure you treat your friends nicely so they can help you
10:29when you want to do something as grand as this.
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