We found out after surviving the upheaval
some possibilities that haven’t been explored.
Plan ahead
Once tradies are on site is no time to announce you want recessed shelving made from recycled rimu, which you have yet to buy. Even new materials are rarely available immediately, so decide on those door handles, vanities, tiles well in advance and order them. It will save time and money.
Be realistic about your living arrangements
We had hired a shipping container to store our furniture. But we wanted to stay in the house as long as possible. Our builder was great about it and, while work commenced at one end of the house, we moved to the other.
Living in one room on a building site was, predictably, cramped and dusty and cold – and we were clearly in the way. We were lucky and our neighbours took us in for a week – that turned into a month. Then we spent another month living in the new garage.
If you can, my advice would be to decamp somewhere nearby.
Decide what you want to keep
Builders work fast and, unless you specify otherwise, things you hadn’t even thought about will go in the skip. I wanted to make sure our old leadlight windows didn’t get binned. Likewise, the internal doors and curtains. And sentimental things like the bit of plasterboard where we had been marking my son’s height.
Renovating is timeconsuming
The professionals on site know what they’re doing. But there will still be decisions you need to make and things you need to handle.
For us, it was dealing with the window supplier and the 4-metre sliding door that didn’t fit. Twice. And decisions about so many small things – from where to put heat pumps to how many ceiling lights to put in each room.
Never take your eye off the costs
Bills come in thick and fast and even the most carefully thoughtout budget can soon blow out. So be frugal where you can – we reused our old kitchen cabinets and countertop, for example. And think about cosmetic things you can postpone – we had blinds installed a year later and the final beams painted this summer.