MEET TALIA! FROM RENO NOVICE TO RENO QUEEN!
BY LANA
We’re often so amazed and quite frankly damn proud of how our Reno School students turn their reno dreams into reality. Step inside the reno of our gorgeous graduate, Talia Nicholson, from Queensland, who embarked on her very first reno last year and turned a run down home into a stylish abode fit for the pages of a magazine. She started in October 2018 and is on to her second project already!
Here's what TALIA had to say about THE RENO SCHOOL.
Reno School is a must for anyone who’s never reno’d before. It was so good, I bought the course for my sister as well.
Tell us about yourself.
I was a complete novice when I signed up. We were in the process of planning our first renovation when I started the Reno School and our reno started when I was at about Week 4 of the course.
Our first project took 5.5 months to complete and we started our next one a few weeks later. I’m definitely hooked now!
How did the Reno School help you?
I don’t think I would have had the confidence I did without what I’d learnt from The Reno School. We employed all our own trades and I managed them all through the process. The Three Birds had taught me all about how to do this so I didn’t feel totally out of my depth.
I love that you can download or print the whole course so I have all the information at my fingertips and can go back and check things at any stage. I did this a lot during the reno process!
What is the BEST thing you learnt?
One of my fave things was the hacks the girls shared! Like the cheap doors from Bunnings that look way more expensive than they actually are. And how Bonnie created the barn door in her laundry – I’m doing that in our next reno!
The other thing that was great was all the detail they go into about things like choosing the right sink and benchtop. I never knew about undermount vs overmount sinks or noticed that benchtops come in so many different thicknesses. All this knowledge and easy to understand explanations made it much easier when making decisions for my own home.
Any gold nuggets you’d pass on to other budding renovators?
Prepare for things to go wrong. I think we all know it’s a possibility when you start out but factoring this into your schedule and adding a contingency budget will mean you won’t freak out as much when it does happen. We had piping and drainage problems that cost time and money in our reno, but we had contingency set aside so it wasn’t a massive shock.
What about the exclusive Reno School Facebook group?
It’s such an amazing group. I didn’t post for ages but loved reading about everyone else’s renos and learning from their questions. When I finally built up the courage to share my finished photos with the group, they were so supportive and I loved hearing such great feedback about my house.
Did you use THE RENO SCHOOL TEMPLATES
Yes! I filled in the templates, printed them out and followed them to the letter. Everyone was so impressed with how organised I was!
Erin says: #modelstudent #gototheheadoftheclass
did you save SOME CASH?
I saved thousands across the different supplier discounts, so the course well and truly paid itself off, multiple times! I bought my tiles from Tile Cloud, vanities from The Blue Space and lots of furniture from Zanui.
Check out this clever chick’s work on Instagram:
