Renovating comes with all sorts of challenges but we want to know what YOUR biggest, meatiest challenges are when it comes to YOUR renovation. Recently, we put a shout out on our social pages to ask you this very question, in the hope that we might be able to help you overcome some of them.

Although we’re up for tackling most challenges a renovation might throw your way, we’re so sorry to say that “we’re renting” and "the husband says no” are a little beyond the power of our magic wands.

We’ve done our best to answer the other most-asked questions. Here goes…

“BUDGET, BUDGET, BUDGET!”

We hear you! It’s true, you can’t renovate without money, honey. Whether you’re looking at $10k budget for a new bathroom or a $1,000,000 for an entire new home, your budget is no doubt going to be top of mind.

If you don’t already have money saved up for your reno, start by reviewing your monthly household budget to determine how much you can afford to spend on a renovation. If you don’t have savings, it’s important to consider your funding options early so you know which one is best for you. You may want to increase your mortgage or take out a new loan. Either way, you’ll need to be clear on where you stand before you can determine the best way to pay for your renovation.

When it comes to working out exactly how much you’ll need to spend to complete your desired renovation, the ONLY way to draw up an accurate budget is to go through the quoting process which will require a fair deal of work and planning on your part. But, in the meantime, you can try and determine what your ballpark spend might be. One of the most common ways of estimating a ballpark building cost is by calculating the cost ‘per square metre’. This refers to the square metres of floor space which you’re planning to renovate (inside and/or out). Across the industry, this number is always given as a range because of the difference in the cost of finishes and design specs. Talking to a local builder or enquiring within your local networks/social groups is a great place to start to determine this figure for where you live. Multiplying the current per sqm cost by your total floor space should give you your ballpark budget.

From there it’s time to add contingency (10-25%) depending on the scope of your project and then edit your wishlist accordingly!

Once confirmed, we populate our Three Birds budget template and track this with a fine-toothed comb throughout the project.

“The FIRST step. Where do you start?!”

First up, we always spend quality time carefully creating a master plan and we start this process by defining your reno vision. If you are clear on your intentions from the start, your reno will run so much smoother and quicker than if you rush into starting it before you’ve completed the planning. We spend a significant amount of time planning every one of our renos. This planning time should include defining what you want the reno to look like and, more importantly, how you want to feel in your newly renovated space. We like to capture both of these things on a vision board. Creating a vision board for your reno is an awesome thing to do because it helps you get super-clear about what the end-game is. When the going gets tough, it will also keep you feeling positive and focused.

Once we’ve nailed our vision, we create a ballpark budget for the project. As sad as it is, most people don’t own a money tree so you’ll need a rough idea early in the process of how much you can afford (or want) to spend on improving your home. Is your ballpark $5k, $50k or $500k? There’s a good chance you’re not sure how much that money will buy you, and that’s totally fine but it’s still good to start with a ballpark figure in mind. See the question above for our quickest way to calculate your ballpark budget. ☝️

Once you have a ballpark figure to work with, it’s time to write up your wish list! Sounds fun, doesn’t it? We will ask you to list (in order of priority, if you can) which things you want to change about your home. If you can separate these into ‘must-haves’ vs. ‘nice to-haves’, that will be helpful too. This list will become your draft ‘Scope of Work’. We say ‘draft’ because we can almost guarantee that – as you move through the rest of the planning stages – you’ll realise you can’t afford to do everything on your list. Once you get over the shock and horror of this revelation, you’ll be forced to revisit your wish list to cross a few things off. But hey, it’s not that bad. This is just the reality of renovating!

Once you’ve done that, it’s time to get your Scope of Work costed up. This is when things get real. This can be done via a third party, such as an architect, interior designer, builder or kitchen company. Or, you can do it yourself by briefing tradies and cabinet makers to get quotes and compare prices on all the work. This is how we do it for our projects and how we teach our students in Reno School. Whether you do this step yourself or employ a trade to do the grunt work for you, it’s good to understand the process.

We’re gonna go out on a limb here and make a bold prediction that your costings will come in above your ballpark budget. If this is the case, you’ll need to revisit the amount you want/are able to spend. Either increase your budget or decrease the scope of work.

“How do i CHOOSe MY STYLE?”

The beauty of renovating your own house is that you can choose whatever style you love… or you might choose to merge a few #coastalhamptons #hamptonsfarmhouse… or maybe you have no idea what style you like at all, in which case identifying the architectural style of your home will be a great place to start.

Defining this style will make life much easier for you down the track because houses are like people: they are who they are. It might be quite a challenge to transform a humble bungalow into an Art Deco masterpiece or an Arts & Crafts home into a mid-century modern pad. That said, there are always exceptions to the rule! There are some styles, such as Hamptons, which are more transferable and work well with other exterior styles. We've seen Federation Bungalows styled fabulously with Hamptons interiors.

Our students are becoming experts at identifying architectural styles. If you’re a Styling School or Reno School student, pop a pic of your house in the Facebook group and your fellow students will be sure to help you out!

Make sure you’re signed up to Pinterest, it’s jam-packed with beautiful inspiration pics that you can ‘pin’ (save) as you scroll. This is a great place to start collecting images for your vision board and you can start out pinning anything and everything you love and then cull your image selection later when your style becomes more clear and you’re ready to vision board. And don’t say we didn’t warn you… pinning is addictive!

“I DON’T KNOW HOW TO CREATE A VISION BOARD”

That’s ok, we can teach you! This blog is a great starting point. It’s a summary of what we teach our students in Three Birds Reno School.

“How do i fINd AVAILABLE TRADIes?'“

Finding your tradie dream team is a crucial part of the renovation process. We’ve all heard our fair share of reno horror stories, but don’t go thinking there are no good tradies out there because there are heaps! You just need to find them! And how easy that is can depend on things like the time of year you are looking; make calls in the winter and you’ll probably get more responses, but wait until spring to start looking and all the good people will likely be booked solid on other jobs. If you give people enough notice, that always helps. Anyone needing a tradie to start work ‘tomorrow’ is going to struggle. If you provide the right amount of notice, the next thing you need to do to is look in the right places for your dream team right from the start. We recommend:

Asking your friends and family

Word of mouth from people you know and trust is always a good way to get names and references.

Online

Try websites like Service Seeking (you can easily see reviews and get a sense of the overall feedback); Hi Pages or Yellow Pages (an oldie but a goodie). If you find a tradie using this method, you still need to do your due diligence to work out if they are worthy of becoming part of your dream team. This means meeting them in person as your first step.

Local knowledge

To find a local tradie, check out tradie vans in your street and the ads in the local paper. Keep an eye out for yours in your letterbox (I often get these for tree loppers and plumbers) and look on the notice boards of shops and community centres. You can also search online for your area.

Once you’ve got a shortlist, it’s time to sort out the shockers from the rockers. Make sure you do your due diligence and check their license, insurance and references.

So, that’s how we’d suggest finding your tradies… it’s the available part that’s tricky! We’re experiencing the shortage of trades and long timelines ourselves and hearing it loud and clear in our Facebook communities too. COVID has taken its toll in many ways across the industry and patience is a virtue at the moment!

“MAKING DECISIONS & NOT SECOND-GUESSING MYSELF”

That’s the role of your vision board, baby! Do not pass go, do not collect $200 before you’ve got your vision board set in stone. Once you’ve nailed that, every time you go to make a decision you’ll whip it out and the answer will be on the board.

Light or dark floorboards - the answer’s on the board, Miss Ford! Pink or blue tiles? Check your vision and that answer should be there too. Then you’ve got no reason to second-guess yourself.

“THE FLOORPLAN”

A fabulous floorplan can make the biggest difference to the way a house looks and feels, and it can also be an expensive thing to fix if you don’t get it right the first time. We think that getting your floorplan just right for the way you and your family like to live is one of the most important parts of your renovation. Therefore, improving the floorplan of a house is the FIRST thing we look at when we’re renovating and we spend a fair amount of time evaluating different options and perfecting our plans.

If you ask Lana, a clever floorplan has the ability to change your life! No jokes. When we renoed her Forever Home, we did very little to the external walls but completely redesigned the floorplan. The result proved life-changing for Lana and her family and she’s not even exaggerating! We turned her master suite into a void and that was a game-changer because it connected all three levels of the house and allowed the northerly sunlight to penetrate the (previously dungeon-like) lowest level of our house. That level is now the most-used of the house with the kitchen. living, dining and entertaining areas all located there.

“KEEPING THE PROJECT ON TRACK”

If only we could clone Erin! She’s our secret weapon in keeping all of our Three Birds projects on track. Erin says that the single question she gets asked most often is ‘How do you complete your renos so quickly?’ And she’ll tell you that it all comes down to time management:

1) Spend the time upfront to find the right tradies who are on the same page as you in regards to the process, desired outcome and timeline of your reno. It’s better to delay a build’s start time and get the right people than it is to jump into a build with the wrong team.

2) Lock in your Scope of Work. Being able to stay on track is one of the many reasons why you need a robust brief, quote and contract that locks in the jobs to be done and the agreed timeframes for those jobs.

3) Track your progress. We share the Excel sheet we use in Reno School but you can also use project management software if you’d prefer an app. Decide upfront who is the guardian of the tracker and they need to keep everyone accountable for keeping the project on track.

Recently, events such as COVID and floods have wreaked havoc with project timelines but it’s still important to keep amending your timeline to ensure there’s an end date in sight and that it doesn’t just blow out so much that it never gets finished.

“CAN YOU HELP ME, PLEASE?”

We’d love to! Because of our own projects and our busy families we don’t have the capacity to take on personal consultations so that’s why we created Three Birds Reno School. Reno School is for anyone who wants to improve their home, no matter their experience or the project scope. Whether you’re a complete rookie when it comes to renos, or have a bit of experience under your toolbelt, our course will take your property renovation and building skills to the next level. Our Reno School is relevant for anyone doing a renovation, extension, new build, backyard or even just updating one room in the house. And hey, if you’re already in the middle of your reno, you can still learn loads about how to get it finished (which is often the hardest part)!

Join the waitlist now if you might be interested in joining our next intake. There’s no commitment now but we’ll send you our best discount offer when enrolments open.

WAITLIST ME!