WHOA! When we put a shout out on our socials this week for any burning questions about House 12, we were inundated! We’d be here for weeks if we answered them all, so we’ve picked the top 12.

Here are your Top 12 fROM House 12:

1. Where did YOU BUY THE CUSHIONS/POTS/ARTWORK?

When styling a home we get our furniture and accessories from many different places. We love to include budget friendly pieces and some splurge items too. Some of our faves from House 12 are:

Cushions - Bonnie and Neil, Grace Garrett

Artwork - Vynka Hallam, Ash Holmes, Rikki Day

Coffee tables - Lounge Lovers, Freedom, Uniqwa

Pots - The Balcony Garden

Ceramics & accessories - Harr East, Rikki Day, Oz Design

Seen something else you love? You can always find the details of the products we use in our renovations on the Get the Look pages on our website. Happy shopping!

2. Where’s the TV???

Don’t worry, they won’t go without Netflix binges! We don’t style our homes with TVs but we installed sockets in the logical places in the living room, so that the family can choose where to put their own big screen. We’ve visited Sarah and Cath since they moved in and can tell you they’ve placed their TV here, above the sideboard.

3. WHEN YOU DO A CLIENT RENO, DO THEY GET TO KEEP THE FURNITURE?

Yes, they do! The furniture, appliances and styling items were all included in the budget for this renovation, so it really was like they were walking into a new home, not a showroom, when they saw the house for the first time.

When we create a client budget it includes labour, materials, landscaping, furnishings and styling pieces, just as it would for your own renovation.

4. HOW MUCH WOULD A RENO LIKE THIS COST ME?

Our lovely homeowners trusted us with their entire budget and with that we agreed we wouldn’t share this figure with the world. But, what we can tell you is that currently, from our real reno experience, combined with the numbers from the Australian construction industry, an average good quality home reno costs between AUD$2000-$3000 per square metre, including the outdoor entertaining area.

This number can drop to A$1500 per sqm for a high-volume builder who constructs lots of the same type of basic homes with standard specifications/finishes. In fact, we were able to push that even lower, to well under A$1000 per sqm for our first two flipping projects. That’s because we chose flat-packed kitchens and low-end items wherever possible, which is what you do when ‘renovating for profit’. But some of those choices may not be what you would want in your forever home.

The cost per sqm can also increase to A$4,000+ for high-end homes with high-end finishes and the sky is really the limit at this end of the spectrum.

Costs can also vary greatly depending on many factors including block of land, accessibility, structural condition of home, level of fixtures and only real way to determine cost is get a detailed quote from a builder.

5. HOW DO YOU FIND INSPIRATION FOR EACH HOUSE?

We always begin by doing a bit of research to understand the original architectural style of the home we’re renovating, as this is usually a good guide to what look or style may be easiest to achieve. For example, if we were renovating a 1920s Californian bungalow, it’d be best renovating to a look or style that works with some of the original features of that home, rather than trying to create something completely different.

House 12 was a cute little workers’ cottage in an historic town, so we wanted to pay homage to its roots, while creating a more contemporary home for our modern family.

Collecting inspiration is essential for any renovation and it’s the starting point to creating a vision board. Here’s where we find our inspo.

6. CAN YOU SHARE THE FLOOR PLAN OF HOUSE 12?

Sorry, we only share our floor plans with our Reno School students. It’s part of what they pay for - access to all our plans!

7. WILL YOU EVER DO A RENOVATION OUT OF SYDNEY?

House 10, in Northern New South Wales was our first out-of-Sydney project and even though we loved the experience, it’s safe to say it will be our last for a while. We have 9 kids between us and, at their ages and stages, it’s just not realistic to be travelling that far to be on-site all the time to project manage and film. Enjoying our lifestyle is very important to us. This was one of the main drivers for us to create our online course, The Reno School (and now Three Birds Styling School) - so we can help as many people as possible, anywhere in the world.

8. WHERE ARE YOUR OUTFITS FROM?

Where do we start? We shop at so many different places, some of our faves being: Sheike, Zimmermann, Decjuba, Witchery, Anine Bing, Glassons, Bec & Bridge, Spell, Mister Zimi.

If you ever see something you love on our socials, feel free to send us a DM and we’ll do our best to reply.

10. CAN YOU RENOVATE MY HOUSE FOR ME?

If you live in Sydney, you might just be in luck! We take submissions on our website, so pop on, fill in your details, send us some pics and we’ll be in touch if we can help you. We only do a couple of projects each year so, if you’re desperate to get started, this might not be the option for you! You’ll find all the details here.

If you’re in London, Paris, New York… or Tasmania, don’t worry! We can teach you how to renovate like we do from from afar.

11. HOW DID YOU START OUT RENOVATING HOUSES?

We’ve been best friends for almost 20 years and, in 2014, we took a leap of faith together, quit our jobs and created Three Birds Renovations in pursuit of a more fulfilling life - working for ourselves, doing something we loved, and with more family time. Bonnie was the only one who actually had any experience in this field, coming from a family of renovators, but Erin and I were up for the ride and brought with us different skill sets from our past careers in Event Management and Marketing.

Within a few short months of starting out we had successfully bought, renovated and sold our first property. Fast-forward to today and we have transformed loads of properties, amassed a gorgeous group of followers and Reno School students who make it all worthwhile and we continue to love and learn with every new project.

If you’re looking for a career change, at whatever stage of life, our best advice would be to “be a doer, not a dreamer”! It may be a slow burn, changing industry and setting yourself up for a new career path and you can’t expect it to happen overnight.

We get lots of questions from aspiring renovators asking how we started out and we always recommend that whatever career you’re in to do the very best you can and learn as much as you can. You might be flipping burgers at McDonalds or working in aged care but there are so many learnings that you can take from any job that are transferrable to renovating or any business pursuit!

We took a leap of faith into something we’d never done before, mid-career. There’s really no age barrier to following your dreams.

“Don’t fear failure, but be terrified of regret.”