WE LEARNED...

WE THOUGHT that it would save us money if we lived in the house during the first phase of construction, but having seen how quickly the builders worked when we eventually did move out, it was probably a false economy.

CHANGING YOUR MIND is okay – and sometimes it’s even inevitable. When the window to our guest bedroom was opened up by the builder, I realised that it would look so much better as a balcony instead, so we had to go back to the planning officers for that. It’s better to spend the money now rather than have it annoy us for years and need to fork out a considerable sum to rectify in the future.

IT COSTS a lot more to build than the makeover shows lead you to believe.