[Q&A ]

What did you learn from this project? We learned patience above all else and that a project of this magnitude takes time, huge amounts of stamina and a good sense of humour. It’s a team effort: both parties have to pull their weight – even if it just means doing the cleaning up afterwards. Planning is also crucial to keep the process going; for example, our cabinets arrived way ahead of schedule but we had a spare room in which to store them until they were needed. And there will be dust no matter what precautions you take! It lingers for months after the project has been completed – deal with it with a smile! Any cost-cutting tips? • We saved by doing almost everything ourselves; getting a contractor in to do the ceiling would have cost double, for example. • We shopped around to find the best deals on building supplies. If you have a vision of what you want the finished product to look like, you can shop in advance and pick up bargains along the way. • Budget! We created an Excel spreadsheet and included every item from the cabinets to the screws for the ceilings. We were very happy that we only went over budget by about R2 000! The Van Zyls’ collection of cookery books is accommodated by a small bookshelf in the kitchen island. “We made it to fit the space we had left over on the end of the cabinets facing the lounge and built it from pine shelving,” Sonja explains.