Real Estate Junkies
Balmoral
Welcome to the Balmoral transformation project - turning an ugly entry level duckling into a swan.
In 2014, I was living in California and perusing the listings back in South Africa for amusement.
A particular listing caught my eye in a complex right next door to the brick townhome I had sold in 2006.
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I recognized the complex instantly – it was a cracked, old, flat-roofed complex that was finally being renovated and updated after years of appearing run down.
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The seller was listing their property mid-renovation however the expectation was, that once the renovations and painting in the complex were complete, the properties would all appraise for about 30% more.
On a whim, I offered the seller who was relocating for their job, 10% less than asking and to my surprise, the offer was accepted immediately. Thus, I became the owner of an investment apartment of 74sqm (~800sqft), 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, with a patio and a little garden and I intended to rent it out and over time, fix it up.
Immediately after the sale went through, within days I received news that the geyser (water heater) had burst and needed replacing. After replacing that, I then set about renting out the property at a sub-market lease rate in order to have someone live through the renovations in the complex, which were extensive.
The entire complex was undergoing crack repairs, walls being fixed, tiling being redone, as well as the common areas being beautified and everything entirely repainted.
This is a view from our garden of the renovations as they were underway.
I rented it to a pair of sisters who lived there for 2 years after which I came to visit South Africa and saw the property in person for the first time.
Although the painting and repairs project had been finished 18 months earlier, no one had replanted the gardens the painters had destroyed. This was the sorry sight that met me when I first arrived.
So, I decided to design a Californian inspired, water-wise garden that would require little maintenance and with an irrigation system, survive the next set of tenants.
First, we dug up the flower beds, turned the soil which hadn’t seen plants in 2 years and fertilizer, maybe ever.
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Then we dug in topsoil and had a simple but automated irrigation system installed.
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Next, we planted a water-wise Californian inspired succulent garden with rocks, green bushes which have flowers that attract bees and butterflies that would grow to 6 feet high and provide some much-needed privacy whilst seated on the patio.
Lastly, we filled in between the plants with wood chips and this video shows the result right after we finished followed by the end result after a year or two.
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We added a bench for seating and filled the open areas with gravel hardscaping to prevent having to maintain a lawn.
Interior
Then we rented the apartment out again for another 2 years and in 2018 when those tenants moved out, we finally had the entire apartment freshly painted with a pale neutral linen colour which needed several coats to cover the previous rather bold wall colours.
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The colour choice really helped modernize the apartment and tied the existing porcelain tile floors in with the overall scheme making the apartment feel larger and more airy.
We also had the original condition bathroom totally renovated but we kept the plumbing where it was to save costs and replaced the shower doors, tiles, fixtures.
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We also replaced the bath hardware, toilet and wall tiles, bathroom vanity and mirror – basically everything got a total gut job including the floor and wall tiles.
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The result afterwards was stunning, clean and fresh looking.
The primary bedroom and guest room / home office received a similar makeover in terms of neutral linen paint colour to replace the old wall colours lightening and freshening the apartment up.
