How we’re renovating a neglected house without blowing the budget

When we moved into our new home, it had been tenanted for over 10 years and the owners had done almost no maintenance in that time. Two months later we’ve made huge progress, but most of it has happened after 7:30pm once the kids are in bed, in a random lunch hour, or on weekends. Renovating with two kids under 3 is not for the faint-hearted. Here’s what I’ve learned so far.

Where we’re up to

We’ve done a huge amount of painting, inside and out. We’ve had new carpet laid and new cabinets installed, and worked through a long list of small fixes like shower screens and door handles that, in a practical sense, simply didn’t work.

The biggest project has been the garden studio, which we’ve completely transformed to be Airbnb-ready. We’re finishing the air conditioning install now and the listing goes live in a couple of weeks.

We’re by no means done, but here are the five biggest lessons so far.

Some before shots from when we inspected the property

1. Fix what makes everyday life harder first

A house can look fine and still not work for a family. There were so many things in ours that just didn’t suit how we live. Two small kids come with an enormous amount of stuff, so storage was the first priority. We added built-in wardrobes and extra kitchen cupboards so everything actually has a home.

The bathroom was another one. It had an open shower screen, which meant every shower flooded the whole room. We replaced it with a proper screen with a door that closes. It’s not glamorous, but simple fixes like that make a real difference to how easy everyday life feels.

2. Look secondhand before you buy new

Whatever your budget, so much of what you need can be found secondhand, free or very cheap. Early on I made a list of the things I wanted to source and set up alerts on Facebook Marketplace and a few other sites. That way, when something came up, we were notified straight away and could jump on it.

We’ve picked up so many things at a fraction of the price of buying new. Two of my best finds were an outdoor roller blind on clearance at Bunnings for $15 and an outdoor water feature for our garden wall for $10. For paint, I can’t recommend Circles Paint in St Peters enough. It’s a secondhand paint shop selling paint for a fraction of what you’d pay at Bunnings.

It works the other way too. We sold the furniture we’d bought to style our old house for sale, which we didn’t really want or need, and put that cash back into the new place.

3. 80% done beats perfect

With a long list of jobs, done and functioning is far better than perfect. If we’d had all the time in the world and weren’t living in the house, we would have painted the entire interior. That wasn’t an option. So we painted the rooms that were really bad first and left the areas that are passable.

Would those rooms look better painted? Definitely. Would the house look more polished? Of course. But for now they’re fine, and we’ll get to them when we have more headspace and time. Trying to do everything at once is the fastest way to burn out.

4. Save custom work for where it counts

This is the big one for cost. Wherever we could, we used standard cabinetry from IKEA and Bunnings rather than custom builds, and kept custom work to the specific places where it really mattered.

Our kitchen cupboards were custom made because they’re highly visible and we wanted to squeeze every bit of storage out of the kitchen. In the bedrooms that needed extra storage, we used IKEA flat-pack furniture and built-in wardrobes, which do the job perfectly well for a fraction of the price.

5. Bunnings bay numbers are on the top shelf

I posted about this on social media recently and it turns out most people already know this! I’ve spent so much time looking up products on the Bunnings website, seeing “Aisle 23, Bay 4”, then walking up and down Aisle 23 for five minutes trying to find it.

I had no idea the bay number is always displayed on the top shelf. I genuinely thought bay numbers were some sort of secret system only the staff understood. In hindsight, of course Bunnings labels them. They do organisation really well. Knowing that two months ago would have saved me hours.

With some cosmetic love…

Looking at a home that needs some love?

Long-tenanted homes often look tired, and that can put buyers off. But a lot of what makes a house feel run down is cosmetic and very fixable with some time, a sensible budget and a bit of patience. The key is knowing the difference between cosmetic work and the bigger issues that cost serious money.

If you’re weighing up a property that needs some TLC and want help working out what you’d really be taking on, book a 15 minute call with me here