Renovating a home is exciting, but it’s also complicated, expensive, and occasionally chaotic, something I know first-hand after several years of doing exactly that to our own house.
In this category, I share practical, honest advice covering every stage of a renovation project, from budgeting and finding the right tradespeople to the details of plumbing, electrics and structural work. My aim is to help you avoid the costly mistakes we’ve made along the way, so you can get through your renovation with your sanity (and your budget) intact.
Renovations rarely go entirely to plan, and mine certainly haven’t, but with the right preparation, you can avoid a lot of the common pitfalls. I’ve covered everything from kitchen and bathroom renovations to protecting your home during building work and choosing the right contractors, and I’ll keep adding to this category as our own renovation journey continues.
If you’re just starting to plan a project, it’s worth reading through a few posts on budgeting and contractors first, as they’ll save you time (and probably money) before you get stuck into the more hands-on posts.
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I was really excited to get the wallpaper off the walls, partly because it was all patterned and pink. The wallpaper in this room wasn’t too bad, and I could have lived with it, but that carpet! You can’t tell from the photo but it was all worn through in several places, especially around the…
The biggest job of this house renovation is removing and replacing the kitchen. When we bought our house, we knew it needed work. The decor was very dated, and probably hadn’t been changed for at least 30 years. Our mistake was thinking that we could simply strip some wallpaper and repaint, and replace the carpets….
Spoiler alert: Our house offer was accepted. Buying a house wasn’t something either me or Jay had done before, so we were thrilled when our house offer was accepted. We’re only 22 and 23-years old, and the house we bought needs a lot of work. Despite there being no chain on either side, the process…