We have had our latest colonial villa display home open and available
for inspection for a little over 12 months, and the decision to
go back to the past with house design and style is vindication
that at least some of the community prefers to live in the old
style of house, and it's nice to move away from the texture coatings
and brick. As I've commented in the past, very few people aren't
aware of just exactly how much work and money is required to restore
an old house. Not only is the maintenance ongoing but you never
get the benefits of all the modern construction materials.
Of course building new that looks old often tends to satisfy
both in a relationship. One likes the old look of the villas and
homesteads while the other likes the idea of low maintenance,
easy to heat, no draughts and is designed around a modern lifestyle.
It is truly the best of both worlds.
There are two other secrets that I would like to share about
building a successful old style villa house. One, employ a colour
consultant and two, employ a top painter that takes pride and
enjoys his work. A colour coordinator and a top painter should
not be seen as a cost but an investment. I have been surprised
then disappointed by just how many people say they that preparing
the colour scheme for their new old villa is easy and under control.
Then before the house is finished and as the colours are starting
to come together, they have been very disappointed and start asking
me about my opinions on different colour combinations. I say,
"you're asking the wrong person". I, like most of you
can easily give an opinion once the combinations and colours are
there, but making a decision from a couple of 1 inch square samples
forget it.
Replica homes are not the cheapest houses to build and that's
generally because of the fancy bits used on buildings built 100
or more years ago that soak up many hours of carpentry labour.
It's those fancy bits we refer to as adding character. It's at
this point that if the colours are not working in harmony and
the skills of the painter are missing, the end result can be boring
and lacking appeal and interest. So if you want that old new house
to sparkle, and you've not been trained in colour coordination,
think about employing a professional. You might be surprised in
how inexpensive they are, if you are spending $200,000 on the
building of your new house it may cost as little as $500 to $1000.
As for painters, it's so easy for them to rip you off, or you
rip yourself off. Let me explain. It's just too tempting to choose
one painter over another based simply on price. But sadly, that's
how we tend to choose our painters, or any tradesmen for that
matter. So we pay the cheapest price and the end result, you guessed
it, we got what we paid for. So why is it that a painted house
is often labelled as being a high maintenance house? It's because
perception is reality, the paintwork doesn't last long so it's
therefore considered a high maintenance house. Let's go back to
the painter that was chosen for giving the best (cheapest) price.
Perhaps he or she may have cut their price a bit too sharp because
maybe they needed the work because of not having much on at the
time, so what are their options; don't spend the time in preparation
the way they should do, workmanship isn't as neat and tidy as
it could be, thin the paint before it's applied or they simply
haven't been trained in a trade that traditionally take four years
of apprenticeship. I've met unemployed people who have decided
to pick up a paint brush and call themselves painters just because
they think it's easy and anyone can do it. Who would know because
most of us don't have the ability and eye to pick it up. Herein
lies the problem of timber or weatherboard houses having a reputation
of being considered a high maintenance investment. The end result
is you have a paint job that only looks good for five years, not
15 years as it should do. And by the way, where is the painter
that gave you the best (cheapest) price after five years, doing
the same thing to someone else or down the tubes.
I mentioned before about the owner ripping themselves off, and
it's true. If we enjoyed painting, spending weekend after weekend
and spare hours with sand paper, primer and paint in our hand,
we'd do that instead of being with the family, having a barbecue
at the beach with friends or playing golf with colleagues. But
most of us don't enjoy it. Occasionally our clients (the owners)
will take on the job of painting their own house as a cost-saving
exercise, and often with the same results as the best price (cheapest)
painter, (there are exceptions to the rule). But even if the painting
itself doesn't seem too bad, it's the preparation (the most important
bit) that often gets rushed, probably because the dust from the
sanding gets up our nose, in our eyes, in our hair, down our tee
shirt and everywhere else you care to think of.
Owners simply underestimate what's involved in painting a house
inside and out. When the idea is first suggested, "we'll
save money and paint our own home" it seems like a lot of
fun and a great way to make the budget stretch further. The fact
is that because it's a bigger job than they ever anticipated,
corners are cut, your paint work doesn't last as long as it should
do and is therefore labelled as not being a low maintenance finish.
Here's an example, it took three professional painters six weeks
full time to paint and decorate our present showhome, that's with
all the gear, technique and experience. That's 18 weeks for one
person, do you have that much spare time or enjoy it that much?
Doing the job properly, so it lasts 14 plus years means applying
five coats of paint to timber weatherboards, that's one coat of
primer, two undercoats and two finish coats. That's what the showhome
got and that's the finish we give to the weatherboard houses we
build.
This is a first hand experience of what a best price (the cheapest)
painter did for clients of mine a few years ago. We were employed
as designers and builders to put a second storey onto an existing
farm house. That in itself is unusual for us as our firm seldom
gets involved with extensions and renovations. Anyway, although
our painter painted and decorated the building work we were employed
to do, the owner decided to employ their own painting contractor
to paint the balance of the house roof that was separate to our
work, plus repaint other farm buildings. This guy painted the
roof all right, including building debris that he couldn't be
bothered moving and he spray painted straight over the top of
nails and saw dust. You could say, I wouldn't allow that to happen
to my place and make them repaint it, but most people won't or
can't pick up sloppy painting contractors.
Oh PS: More and more inquires and sales are from beyond the toll
free area of our office. Because of this, for your convenience I
have installed an 0800 Free-Help phone line to our office. So if
you have any questions or queries you can contact me (that's Julian
Moss) on:
And PPS: If you have some burning issues that you'd
like answers to, write or phone me, I'll research your subject and
give my reply in the following newsletter so that thousands of others
may benefit from the information.
