WE LEARNED...

WORK WITH LOCAL professionals. Our architects, builders and trades knew each other and the area. We built up a good relationship with them.

BE FLEXIBLE with the budget. If you’re creating your forever home, you’ll want to get it right. It’s all about balancing where to change the spec. We thought the kitchen was going to be more expensive, but we went for an afforable option, however we spent extra on flooring than anticipated. Luckily there wasn’t anything that we had to compromise on.

MOVING OUT during the entire build would have been better, in hindsight. Not having to tidy up at the end of every day would have allowed the builders to get on with things more easily. The dust from a major project like this gets everywhere, too, and living with that wasn’t easy – neither was the lack of natural light when the back of the house was boarded up.