This project got us outside our comfort zone, and we learnt that a caravan renovation is very different from a home renovation. In this blog, we showcase the project reveal images and provide you with all the details of the products and materials we used and where we got them from.
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This colourful, playful room was inspired by our little girls. It is a sugar and spice (and everything nice) kind of space, with soft pastel tones throughout the interior design. Find out all the details of how we renovated this kids room and (more importantly) the reality of much it all cost.
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Identical in look and layout, our guest bedrooms have been transformed from a tonal beige nightmare to dreamy, peaceful spaces. Everything is in our blog, from our room reveal video, images of the space, to the breakdown of the budget with links to the products we used.
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My favourite definition for renovating - to reinvigorate; refresh; revive. That is exactly what we did within our front yard and hallway renovation, we worked with what we had and gave it a fresh new look. Discover the whole makeover process on our latest reno recap.
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Our original laundry inspired thoughts like “dingy, dark, damp, mould, cold” - not exactly the greatest motivation to do laundry on any given day! There was plenty of space to create something pretty special, and with some careful and creative planning, we have renovated our best laundry yet!
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Our Diamond in Richmond. She might not be a diamond just yet, but we can sure see her potential. We didn’t seek out another old character home, but she definitely stood out. Another 1910’s beauty, a flat faced villa with a central hallway, high studs, and the lean-to extensions added over her 100 year life. Another big outside area, screaming for some attention and the chance to create some great outside living spaces.
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Our hallway renovation was all about enhancing the character of this 1900s mudbrick house while adding some modern influence. What was once dark and dated, is now trendy, light, bright and breath-taking!
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Alexandra. Known as the hottest, driest and coldest town in New Zealand. Have we been here before? We drove through it on our honeymoon 9 years ago. But we didn’t stop. Now we have moved our lives down here. Good move? We sure hope so - and about to find out.
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Our Reno Race project has been all about keeping costs down and renovating on a tight schedule. With the kitchen, we were pretty limited by what we could do, but what surprised us was how much of an improvement you can make without much money at all.
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For our Reno Race project, the experts Alice and Caleb had a clear idea of how they were going to approach this renovation, it was a budget cosmetic makeover. The priority was to do it as effectively as possible - both in spending as little as possible and doing it as quickly as possible. In short our goal was to do the full project, interior and exterior in 3-4 weeks with a budget of $33K.
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Our master bedroom may not be much to look at in its original state. But it had my heart from the very start, thanks to its position in the house - mainly because of its distance from the kids bedrooms! This new master bedroom will be a retreat in our own home and therefore deserves our time and attention. Unfortunately, those are two things we don’t have in abundant supply.
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Renovating the exterior of a house holds a lot of value and importance. Simply put, the exterior is the only space in your house that every single visitor will see, when it comes to high traffic areas the exterior will always rank #1. With exterior renovations you have the opportunity to make a strong first impression in terms of design and create additional living areas to relax and entertain in. It would be safe to say, most New Zealanders place a high value on outdoor living. In fact, as we searched for our relocatable house for our section, we only considered houses that had a layout that would allow for indoor/outdoor flow.
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Our Relocatable Reno requires a full transformation when it comes to the exterior colour. The project list includes a new roof, repainting the house’s exterior, new baseboards, new front entrance, new fence and new deck. This means we can decide on every colour for every exterior surface! Here is share our colour picks and how we got there.
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The beginning of this project was a new experience for us. One that took longer than we planned for and provided plenty of learning opportunities along the way. While we have completed a subdivision before in our Hidden Treasure Renovation, we were stepping it up this time around. The simplest form of a subdivision is to create an empty section, like we had done before. The next option is to add a house on the new site – either building new or relocating. Our decision to relocate a house came quickly, we are renovators at heart and in experience (and the feasibility looked better).
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We purchased this property in September 2016 after seriously searching for a property for the previous 6 months. We were pretty keen do our next project but careful not to rush into anything, seeing as we had just added another child to the mix. We found this property through a local agent we know who had just put the house on the market. The property that was not going to auction, it had an owner that needed to sell, there was potential to renovate and add value – it seemed like a great option. What really stood out was the opportunity to subdivide and add an additional house on the section without having to move the existing house. The prospect of getting a 2-for-1 project was very appealing to us, so our next renovation journey begun…
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Within our renovation blogs we hope to provide others with advice, information and inspiration that they can apply to their own homes. And while we normally focus on a project, there seems to be a question that often pops up “How do you manage to have fun renovating?”. I do understand why we get asked that – and to be honest sometimes I have wondered if we are completely sane!
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The story of buying our first house together is best shared as a tale of “she said, he said”. Because to say we had a difference in experiences and expectations - would be an understatement. We didn’t begin our property story as a united force, though there was a lot of forceful emotions involved! So as unconventional as our story about Caleb buying a first house is, the way we started ours “together” may be just as surprising...
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Caleb and I have always had a different story to most when it comes to owning a family home. The concept of buying a house that caters for all our needs in an area to settle down is a normal aspiration for most house hunters but not yet been a priority for us. While most have a personalised and detailed wish list of what they are looking for in a house, our focus is on just one - a good buy. I had no idea 6 years ago when picking a colour scheme for the first time that we were on a journey to become seasoned renovators and neither was it our intention. However 6 projects later, we have learnt, grown and gained in our renovation and project experience, our property portfolio and our passion for doing this.
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When your builder calls you to let you know he has 1.5 days free next week (when he is fully booked for months), and you are due to have your second child in a few weeks, there is only one answer to give – (or at least that was Alice’s thought) – let’s renovate the bathroom.
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It is well known that kitchen’s are the heart of the home and we think windows are the eyes. In an understated way, windows draw visitors inside your home, framing and connecting your outlook, create the perception of space and bring light into your home.
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