Jane: So another series comes to an end 69 episodes. Can you believe it?

I know it’s a lot, a lot of renovations, isn’t it?

Amy: It’s and I

Jane: I think

Amy: I was gonna say, what has occurred to me this is

Jane: just how

Amy: varied they

Jane: still

Amy: And

Jane: up. Mm.

Amy: think that’s remarkable, isn’t it?

Jane: Yeah. It doesn’t get boring talking to people about their renovations.

Amy: I think what I thought was particularly cool about this series was just how much the, individual personalities of each homeowner really came across in each of their homes. So we had Robin with the purple house and

I think she said in her

How

looked like they’ve been kind of spat out of her house ’cause they

outfits and

Jane: and

Amy: But I was also thinking about Natalia and Matts and just how their kind of ethos behind life was really personified by their house and just the, the kind of warmth and openness and this kind of flexibility of the spaces doing different things at different times. And yeah, I just feel like if you had to. build a space that represented them, it would be that space. Do you know what I mean?

Jane: Yeah, absolutely.

Amy: looking back through all the episodes and listening to them. What really struck me was, obviously we all know the pressure to pay for a renovation is really hard, and you know, that has increased massively. And just as you said, those different personality types, how everybody had a different angle on how they were going to.

Jane: Get the renovation over the line and, and get what they wanted. So obviously with that purple house, like she really needed office s and m to facilitate that. For her, that was like the value that went into working out what she could afford, what she couldn’t afford, and really making sure that the design choices were as affordable as they could be to create the house that she wanted.

And I think that’s the same for, Karen, because, she, she couldn’t put her own time or effort or DIY into the project, but what she did do is hire somebody that could make some really effective design decisions for her.

Like just keep thinking about that like corner window. That was really effective and quite. Kind of powerful to creating the space yet, yet probably wasn’t that expensive. And it was more of a design decision than it was a cost decision and the impact, you know, getting the most for your money that you can from the design.

But then we’ve got so many other methods like Natalia and Matt, like it was their materiality, wasn’t it? They chose to get the cheapest materials they possibly could. To really keep the cost of their extension and renovation down. And then we’ve got Kate doing, you know, separate trades and DIY to just make sure that she’s totally on top of each price that comes in.

And then Vita, who her method is Getting the million quotes, like just not, not stopping this like dogged search for what is the cheapest way of getting the, in her case, like quite high spec items that she wanted. But the way that she managed that was just to be like, right, I’m just gonna ask, you know, so many people that I make sure I get the best deal.

And I thought that they were all so different, but in a way they were an approach, to the pressure of keeping things on budget.

Amy: On that point, Which one is the most effective?

Jane: I think it’s what we say, isn’t it? Like there’s just so many ways to renovate and that really depends. Not only on. The type of projects that you want to create.

but then also it’s matched with that. It’s your personality type, like how, what can you draw on from yourself, from your circumstances to get the best out of that process.

So it’s always gonna be a totally unique process because of those two things.

Amy: I guess I’m just thinking for someone who’s just listening and, and who’s just thinking about their own renovation in some ways, for us, it is quite a freeing concept. It’s like there isn’t just one, one way to do it. There’s freedom in that. But then I guess as someone who’s coming to it the first time, that might just feel unhelpful because it’s like, well, which one do I choose?

What’s right for

Jane: Yeah.

Amy: me? And yeah, what would you advise?

Jane: Well, I think the, the most obvious one is are you able to do anything yourself or would you want to? And people will probably quite, that’s like a really decisive one that people will know. Yes, I can. Even if they want to, maybe they can’t. And that, in that case, it’s finding the right architects who can help you meet a budget. I think there are people out there who can really facilitate you saving money and getting something that you want instead of imagining that an architect is just gonna make everything more expensive.

I don’t think that’s the case anymore. I think there’s lots of people who can work really cleverly on small budgets. So if that’s you, like really you wanna put your time and effort into finding that the right person that’s gonna facilitate that. And then if you are on the other side where you’re like, you know what, I’m game, I’m up for the challenge, then, maybe it’s not beyond you to start thinking about whether you could do bit by bit or to learn some things of how to do yourself, or, you know, even doing the finishing yourself or the decorating yourself. You know, you don’t wanna underestimate how difficult it is to, to do a contractor’s job because it really is, and it’s a, it’s a specialism.

So I wouldn’t say if you’ve never done anything like that before. Go out there and start digging your foundations. But I feel like it opens a door that says you are allowed to do stuff to your own house.

Amy: I mean,one of my favorite highlights of the series is probably Matt and Natalia talking about how they started digging a hole and then they were like, oh, we’ll just do a bit more. Oh, we’ll

Jane: Yeah.

Amy: more. You know, it’s just like,

Jane: Yeah.

Amy: you know it, they, they build the foundations, you know, it’s, it’s I can imagine in some ways it’s starting, that feels the biggest barrier.

Jane: Yeah.

Amy: just the concept of like, oh, I, I am able to do

Jane: Mm-hmm.

Amy: But I guess also Matt had subliminally got that support from his dad of just seeing it being done and you just absorbed that, that confidence

Jane: But then if you don’t feel that confident, it’s okay to ask to go through your scope of works and say, okay, well what if we took the decoration out? What if we took the tiling out? What if we took, you know. Laying a floor out. There are things that you can do that are, as we’ve said before, you know, jumping into the middle of site, the site is a contractor’s responsibility.

So if you have a main contractor and they’re doing stuff, you can’t just pop in and be like, oh, can I put these this in here? You know, that’s not gonna work.

But if you, if you choose things either before they start. Like digging out ground that might take you much longer than them, but that you can do.

Or the finishing side at the other end. They just get you to a certain point and they leave and they hand the site over to you and you finish it off, you know? Yes, it’s gonna take longer.

But yeah, if you have the appetite for it, then that’s available, isn’t it?

Amy: Yeah, I think there was a time on Instagram where it was definitely, you know, the instant room transformations and it seemed, you know, renovation so easy. Click of a finger and then it’s like, check me out, check me out. But I think, I think actually online now, there’s a lot more reality that comes with the renovation that people are sharing more of the slog, which is just really helpful generally because it is really frustrating. It does take dedication. It does mean that your evenings are gonna be taken up with doing stuff and I don’t know, I like the fact that that’s been revealed now. And there isn’t so much pretense, I guess.

Jane: Yeah.

Amy: I think that’s helpful for the whole, whether like deciding about your appetite for DIY, I think that’s quite helpful.

Jane: I think the other thing that really spanned all of them is just the ability to reduce material costs where you can, so, if it’s Natalia and Matt, then it’s, you know, using. Actually off the shelf construction materials that are cheap to make as a building product, to do furniture, to do finishing having your beams exposed, but them not being like fancy, but it, it doing that well in terms of going to select the p you know, there’s a bit of work in going to the place and checking that you like the look of the materials that are being suggested.

So I think there is. Work to go into getting that kind of industrial aesthetic with cheaper materials working, but it definitely is an option. And I, as we’ve said on previous series, that is where some thought can save money in terms of the placement of a roof light in a certain place. The roof light can be cheap, but how you put that in and where it is and the effect it has is all to play for, isn’t it?

But then you know, when we were talking with

Izzy about hers and how she had really gone for the IKEA kitchen and the special doors, like there’s ways to just. Don’t sleep, walk into it. I guess it’s like, how, how can I bring the cost of all of this down so that it is more affordable?

Amy: I was gonna say the same. I think what really struck me about Izzy’s is just, it was this really careful curation

Jane: Mm-hmm.

Amy: was just thoughtfully put together, and actually the sum of all those bits. Just elevates the whole space and the whole home, you know? And yeah I think it was a really successful renovation.

Jane: really was.

Have we got any more thoughts?

Amy: On a different note I quite liked the multi-generational thing that kind of emerged. So I guess with Natalia and Matt, had help with grandparents, you know, on. On hand, but also their kids were helping. I, I quite liked that they were almost bringing the family into the project instead of it kind of, again, being this great reveal like,

Jane: Yeah.

Amy: I think children can often, it’s like they’re in the way of a renovation and I’m worried about our kids thinking about us renovating. Like how are they gonna cope with it? You know,

Jane: Things are hard, like when you’re trying to find time alone with, you know, your partner or whoever it is to do, or with your designer to talk about what the hell’s gonna happen. And they’re always there, like demanding your attention at the same time because obviously that’s, that’s family life. It was just so interesting hearing her talking that she had the same worries, but then actually when they started it, it wasn’t what she thought.

It turned into something different that they were occupied in the sense of everyone’s doing something, which is different from having a person over and having a chat. That’s more, we’re all getting on and we’re all busy, and they really picked up on that. I, I wonder, I wonder how it will be with like a more.

I don’t know. I’m trying to envisage it for myself and I can’t right now, but I’d love that.

Amy: give your kids a a building project at the same time.

Jane: Well, I know, but that sounds stressful. I mean, I can’t even watch them make a cake without being like, oh my God, But I definitely remember helping my dad, at home, like sawing bits of pipe and generally just being the tool hander. Like

Amy: Yeah.

Jane: and I, but I still like doing that.

I just get my dad over, but I wonder whether my kids would like that too.

Amy: I think so. I don’t think we’re, as a generation, I don’t think we’re as good at showing, like enabling them to do the thing

Jane: Yeah.

Amy: side by side. I, I

Jane: Yeah,

Amy: it’s quite a skill to have and

Jane: we have to be doing it yourself. You have to be doing it yourself, don’t you? And they follow your, your cue.

Amy: Yeah.

Jane: but yeah.

Amy: feeling about your project in terms of DIY? Has this series made you feel up for it?

Jane: Well, I think you could. I think you could hear it when I was like, and when do you decide to just suddenly start digging the foundation’s? Like genuine question. Like I literally can’t imagine doing it. And I think it’s not decided yet, but I think we’re probably gonna get a main contractor now, um, just for the fact that we need to be realistic about what we can handle and what we can manage to do while we’re both working and looking after the kids. And, um, but potentially that we. Early. So whether the finishing we can handle ourselves mainly because I don’t think there’s a budget to cover everything. Um, So I think rather than it being at the beginning, it might be at the end. I would love to like rip some stuff out though. Give me a chance. I would, I would love to do the strip out.

Amy: I think series has really shown that that different people had different capacities and they were able to kind of acknowledge that and get the support that was necessary. So, you know, Karen was saying like, that’s not, Our thing. So we’re going to

need someone who

Jane: Yeah.

Amy: is gonna help us through the whole of the, the process. and even even Robin, the architects were on board basically the whole time, and then just at the end they maybe did a bit of decoration and, and the first floor because that, that was cut out of their budget. But I think. In some ways, just really having that honest conversation really key.

It’s like, don’t, don’t, make the decision on what you kind of feel like you should. Or know, like in a fantasy world, what you are, you think you’re gonna be like, it’s like, what is

your actual capacity

Jane: Yeah.

Amy: You know?

And that’s really key

Jane: Yeah.

Amy: I, I guess also with Natalia, like a lot of it happened. During COVID, right? Like it’s,

in that

Jane: Yeah.

Amy: I think there are you know, there might be shifts or seasons for different people having full-time jobs or part-time jobs or no, no jobs. You know, like you have to be working with what you have

you

Jane: Yeah.

Amy: both have, like you say, full-time jobs, kids like other responsibilities.

It, that’s really like, there’s not a lot of time,

Jane: It’s funny how the fantasy is though, that you would be doing it yourself rather than the fantasy is that you get someone to do it all for you. But I feel like it is a little bit like camping. Like I always think that I want to go camping. That’s like the dream and that I’ll go camping at some point in my life, but maybe I’m not a camper.

Amy: You do sleep badly. I always forget how badly everybody sleeps.

Jane: But I think it’s the same kind of ideal where it’s just like, yeah, I’m going to do this thing. But it’s like that feeling of waiting to get started, of just getting itchy feet, just like, I don’t know when. It doesn’t make sense to shoot yourself in a foot and start like ripping things out before you know how they’re gonna be put back together.

But at the same time, I, I don’t wanna like be waiting forever. So it’s that idea of ripping off the plaster. Like maybe you just need to start. I mean, thankfully um, our son’s ceiling fell in the other day, so that was kind of, that was good. Well, the house is telling us it’s ready to to go, isn’t it?It’s just, um, bits of it are falling off. So that’s gonna push, that’s gonna start it.

Yeah.

Amy: lot

preparation work to do, ’cause you’re gonna be staying in there.

Jane: Yeah. a

Amy: fair old amount of moving things

Jane: Well, I think that’s something that I was thinking about getting this idea of just making things how you want ’em to be them and getting involved in doing it yourself. In a way. I’m thinking about that in terms of we’ll have just like a couple of rooms that we’re living in. Whilst the works are happening, but I really wanna make those rooms function as well as they possibly can, like put some really care and attention and thought into that, because that’s gonna really pay dividends because it’s going to, we’re gonna be here for a while.

So I’d rather, I’d rather really put some attention on that and make the best setup that we can get. Which may be, Where we put the temporary kitchen, where the kids are sleeping, how we do it. I’d like to put probably a little bit more time and maybe a bit more of building and making things just so that that will work for us.

And is there anything that you would take away from this series Yeah, I guess that thing that I want to dig the foundations, but I’m probably not going to, I might dig our garden up a bit. That means digging up. We could do that. But just the reality of that, And then I guess the other thing would be the quotes.

I guess we’ve done it. Already quite a bit, but don’t just take the first thing that you’ve seen. You’ve got to really dig down into where it’s coming from, who’s providing it, and there’s so much work in getting all the little adjacent costs worked out so that you can really compare like one option with another.

So My effort is probably best spent doing that because that’s what I’m good at and I can kind of sit up and do that after the kids have gone to bed and just hammer away at getting the quotes together and get, get things cheaper. So I think,that’s where my effort is going. I’m probably more of a Vita in in if I was gonna align myself

Amy: Who would you be? If you were a renovator from our series?

I think I would want to align myself with Natallia and matt, but

It just feels like a barrier. I mean, we are struggling at the moment to literally fix our dripping tap in our kitchen, which has been dripping and both of us kind of half a circling closer

but I

just, I’ve got such a mental

block about it and I, I think it’s because, I think I’m waiting for Martin to do it

And he’s probably waiting for me.

Jane: Maybe you can like set a date, like a tap date

Yeah, I

Amy: would like to fix the tap, though. It’s bugging me.

Jane: so you’d like to be an Natallia and matt, but,

Amy: I would love to build stuff. Uh, So the, the thing that I’m thinking is that our shed uh, in our allotment has basically is nearly falling in. Again, we’ve talked about what we need to do. We’ve now agreed on the plan. And it’s like, I wish I had the confidence just to go

it,

cause I

know I could do it.

Jane: Hmm.

Amy: But I

feel

like again,

Jane: Hmm.

Amy: is that

dunno who from, or like,

why,

Jane: Yeah.

Amy: I mean, there is also a wasp nest in there and I think I’m a bit scared of other wasps, but, I, think I need to, um,face my fears

really.

Jane: Yeah.

Amy: it also got broken into, but they didn’t take anything. Obviously my spade is not, not uh, high enough caliber to be tempting. But anyway,

yeah.

Jane: That’s funny. Well, nice series

Amy: And it’s so great because I just feel like we end up

making lots and lots of friends, really.

Jane: I love

speaking to all the people.

Amy: So we will be back. what’s exciting is that we are going to do another, home Truths series.

And what’s

great

is if you are about to go on site or you are thinking about it or it’s in your near future, it is gonna be about sites. And, we are gonna be sharing our tips. We’re gonna be, really diving deep.

Jane: how to prepare, how to

Amy: Yes.

Jane: site.

Yeah,

gonna cover it all.

Amy: it doesn’t have to be super, super stressful. Um, So tune in for that and yeah, thanks for being with us.

Jane: Yeah.

and we’ll see you then.

Amy: Take care, everybody.