This week we talked with Kate about renovating her Georgian farmhouse. Better known on Instagram as Renovate like Kate. She talks us through her hands-on approach to home renovation from her early projects in London to her family’s big move to Leicestershire. Get yourselves ready for plenty of practical advice and insights into balancing renovation with family life.

Amy: So we’re excited to have you with us today, Kate. You will be well known by many of our listeners as Renovate like Kate, and we’ve been following you for a while, actually, probably since your house renovation in London. I think what I really appreciate about you is your openness about money, about the process, about your property journey, and I guess I wondered if you don’t mind taking us back to the beginning and how it all began.

Kate: Of course. Yeah, how it all began. I, well, I have always lived in like mid renovated houses, which I found incredibly annoying when I was younger.

So Dad used to come home from work and they were both teachers and then dig foundations for an extension in the evening and stuff. So it was just always something that I was used to. And then. We were in London and we got this shared ownership flat, which we were very lucky with. But we were really priced out of Hackney, so we were like, where should we move to? Well, Peckham.

Never heard of that. So we went there and then there were all these houses that were like out of our price range. And then there were like some houses that were on great streets, but just had no work done for a long time. So we, and it was one of them, housing market was like mental, some people put offers in without even seeing houses.

And then this one day, this house came back onto the market and we went to see it and we were the first people to see it. So we were just like, right, we’ll take it off the market. But it was just, I mean, it was, it needed a lot of love. and

We just didn’t know what we were doing at all. And went with these like builders that were like super duper, like schmoozey and they just like full on, screwed us over, left us with a hole in the back of the kitchen. It was so bad. They’re like, so actually subcontracted it out to these lovely Polish builders who actually saved us. so yeah, do not renovate like Kate. Because what happened was didn’t check really in the contract whether it was gonna be subcontracted, and they did sub subcontract it out. They were completely hands off. Then they stopped paying these Polish guys. So we ended up having it out with them. they were with the Federation of Master Builders. But the issue with that is that if have got a dispute with your builder, the Federation of Master Builders helped sort it out. Only if you have to pause the build while it’s sorted and it contain months. And at this point we had a hole where the kitchen was foundations dug, just no kitchen and a bit of wood on the back of the house.

So long story short, we did a deal with these builders, and they just agreed to do it for 10 grand more than we’d originally said, which really saved us ’cause we had no money. So, so yeah. So that was the London build. And then we had COVID and lockdown and everyone realized that you didn’t have to work in the office five days a week. And we were like, oh God, we’re in a terrace house in London, which we were very lucky to have, but we just thought, you know what? We wanna be closer to family, we wanna move out the city.

Jane:

Kate: Yeah, so we were like, right, we’re gonna leave London. Well, my husband was like, are we? He would’ve stayed there forever, but I was like, I’m done. And so yeah, We were just like, Where are we gonna move to, and then a few of our friends were in Leicestershire, so we thought, oh, we’ll just go and look. So we just kept like schlepping up to Leceistershire and we spent like a year trying to find a house that we wanted.

Yeah, one day we were going to wait for three weeks. And as we got on the plane, this house that we’ve been looking at dropped by like a significant amount. And I was like, oh my God, it’s gonna go and So then the whole holiday I was like panicking.

And then I got the estate agents do me a video tour and I was like, can I just put an offer on now? And she was like, no, absolutely not. Not even seeing the house. So we got back from the airport, ditched the kids at my in-laws, and then we scooted up, to Leciestershire went and looked round and Chris was like, what the hell is this house?

What is this village? Look at all the cars. They’re all old people cars. He looked at the notice board, he was like, they’ve got a fish and chip van on a Wednesday and a veg stall. I’m not moving here. We’re in Peckham. Ridiculous. And I was like, this is the one. And so in the end we like drove back to London and I was really deflated ’cause Chris was like, we’re not putting am offer in that house.

And then our friends rang us and they were like, what are you looking for, you can’t afford or it doesn’t exist. So put an offering on this house, stop being ridiculous. Then it gets accepted and you think, oh God, then you know you don’t want it. And if it gets rejected and you’re annoyed, then you know you want it.

And it got rejected and we were like, ah, do not reject us. then in the end we got the house and then here we are, but it was just, we just did not know every single room, even the airing cupboard is rubbish it is just not had any work done for like 40 years. To the extent that the previous owner’s daughter who is like in her forties now, her bedroom still has got the nursery wallpaper and yeah, it’s just been very unloved.

So yes, we moved in the October and then we just basically froze that entire first winter because we had no central heating, that was like really miserable.

Amy: And here we are nearly three years in.

So what did you do? Like you’ve moved in, you’re faced with a ginormous renovation ahead of you. How did you even break it down into what you do first?

just have a mild panic?

Kate: yeah, we did. We definitely did that. We were like, oh my God, we’re freezing. What have we done? So we knew what we had to do first, because we were really cold. But to get central heating, we chose to insulate our house which some people don’t think you should do.

’cause like they were built with solid walls. Anyway, for us, we had loads of different, heating experts come and we looked at all of our different options including you know, more sustainable options, which I don’t think really work personally at the moment for period properties.

So yeah, long story short we wanted to be warm. But to be able to be warm, we had to get the U value in the house up. So we needed to sort the windows out. We needed to get rid of all the damp,

We tried to keep the original plaster. But we had to go back to brick on so many of the rooms downstairs. ’cause it was just sodden we had to sort the outside out. ’cause it was like built up against the house. Like all this soil was against the house making the walls damp and all the guttering was like just, there was no guttering so the water was running down the walls. yeah. So to get central heating, we basically had to all those things like go back to brick, sort out the damp, guttering, windows. And to be honest, we moved in the October, 2022 and then unbeknown to us, we had a whole IVF journey with our other ones, unbeknown to us. We were actually pregnant by the February when we found out in the May.

So then we were like, my God, we’re gonna have a new baby next winter, so we need to be warm. So we had this whole period where I was like heavily pregnant of six months of just doing all that stuff. Yeah, so actually my daughter was what made us just sort ourselves out.

Amy: Yeah, for motivation.

Kate: Yes.

Amy: up there.

Kate: Yeah. Well, my husband and my dad are very like, target driven and they need a deadline. And so that was like a, I was like, if I have this baby, we’ve got no central heating, nobody in this family will be happy. So, so it was a good target for everybody, but it was just really intense.

It’s, literally the plumbers left ’cause I had a plan C-section ’cause my other two were like emergencies. The plumbers left, my daughter was born on the 23rd and the plumbers left at 7:00 PM on the 22nd of November. And the builders had left that morning. And then while I was in hospital, my mum and dad had to like finish, sorting out the living room floor and put the furniture back in. it was like to the wire, so I had no time to relax, but there we are.

Jane: Wow. Oh my gosh.

And then was it a case of you had this blank start again to, work on the rest of the house.

Kate: Basically, yeah. So I mean, some of the, like the hallways still, it’s all got this weird lining paper over the entire house, so you literally have to strip everything off and go back to the beginning. But we basically had some fresh freshly plastered rooms like you can see behind me, still not done this one. And then some of the rooms that were old so then we just started to tackle the different rooms really. And I guess. What we should have probably done is prioritized based on which we use the most. But we didn’t do that. We basically, I got a few Instagram jobs and so we were like, well, we’ll just do that one first. And I had this terrible fish wallpaper in the bathroom, which was really awful. So we were like, let’s get rid of that because I feel like the bad the walls are closing in on me. So yes, it would’ve been sensible to do things like the living room first, which we’ve now finally done. So we, we tackled a few of the rooms first, like my husband’s office the bathroom. And then I literally had a period like over the last six months where I was like, this entire house is driving me absolutely mental. I need to finish the downstairs. So we’re in that phase now of like me just being like really manic and trying to finish rooms, but it just takes so long.

Jane: How, how old is your youngest now?

Kate: 18 months now.

Jane: Oh my gosh. Okay. So that’s a lot isn’t it,

Amy: Yeah.

Kate: Yes.

Jane: juggling that and the renovation. How do you manage the,

flip-flop between the two?

I just don’t ever stop doing stuff. I just never have. I just, I know it sounds like all poor me. I think what you have to do is decide what your target is, because otherwise what has been happening for the last few months is that every moment, every waking moment, we’re either with the kids, working actually like doing stuff. And so I think I think what you actually have to do is decide on what your goal is over a certain time period. So like this year we would like to finish the downstairs, we just need to finish everything, like curtains, everything.

Kate: So let’s just do that. Then we’re gonna pause and then I’m just gonna start one room at a time because we’ve been doing three on the on altogether and it’s just exhausting. So like the next one we’ve prioritized is not downstairs, but it’s my son’s room because my middle son’s why is my room not decorated? ’cause the other twos are done. So then I think you just have to prioritize and set yourself kind of boundaries because otherwise it really just spills over and it takes over your life. And for us as well and for anyone who has like a long term renovation, because we are gonna be in this for like at least the next three years. It just never ends. And houses just have always got something else, haven’t they? So I think you just have to really set those kind of parameters.

Jane: I was just gonna say, you do a lot of like educational stuff to do with renovating both on your Instagram account, but you also do courses. I just wondered what’s your maybe top three tips for people renovating the type of property that you’re doing right now?

Kate: Yes,

my number one tip over and above, above everything is around like trades people and how you find them and then the kind of contracts and the quotes you have in place because firstly always go for recommendations and people go, oh, I don’t know anyone that has had any building work, which I find hard to believe firstly. But secondly, it doesn’t matter ’cause you’ll always know someone because like people want to talk about their houses because they’ll either have spent loads of money and be super proud of it. Or they’ll have spent loads of money and be really annoyed of how it’s turned out.

And either one of those things are gonna wanna either show you the house and this amazing work, or they’re gonna wanna tell you how terrible their builder was. So either way, it’s win-win. So always ask people. If you really don’t even know anyone that’s done any building, then like Google, Instagram, you can find people like local, like notice boards, whatever. Always recommendations. But secondly, people always fall into this trap of not getting a broken down quote and people go, oh God, I can’t do that. Or like, they want me to pay for a quote. And I’m just like, no, sorry. I mean, I used to be a consultant, so as a consultant, and it’s the same in nearly every job.

It is the same. Like even now, like you know, as a content creator, I will pitch to brands and I don’t get paid for that pitching. As a consultant, I didn’t get paid for pitching for work, that’s part and parcel of the job. I think it’s really easy to fall into the trap. Especially British people don’t like to talk about money, but you have to get a broken down quote.

And that’s not because we’re like trying to nickel and dime people. Everyone needs to make a living. That is because if you get to the end of the project and there’s a lack of clarity on either side about who was paying for what, then it’s going to be really difficult So it’s not just to protect you, it is to protect the builder as well.

And often the builder will want to do that. So that is really important to do. And I think like people work with friends and then don’t get those broken down quotes and then that’s even more awkward because they’re your friends. So it’s just really important to do that. And if a builder does not want to give you a broken down quote, we had a carpenter recently. And I asked for a breakdown. I just wanted to know like how many days it was, and I just wanted to know what I was paying for really in the same way as if we went to the supermarket I’d wanna know how much stuff was. And he just was like, I’m really offended. You clearly don’t trust me and I don’t wanna do the work. I was like, well, do you know what? That’s probably a good thing then because I don’t trust you, I don’t not trust you, but I don’t even know you. And if you are really offended by that, then it’s probably best we don’t work together. So yeah, that’s my,

my top tips, I would say.

Jane: Yeah, that’s really great advice. I think that’s so, and it is awkward, isn’t it? Like you said, like people don’t want that awkward situation of that, what happened to you just, but it’s much better to have that without having a relationship or without having a half finished house.

Kate: Exactly.

Amy: Can I ask a question? so when there’s like rooms that aren’t finished or you’re right in the middle of lots of different things, do you feel like it, it’s hard because you have this. visual to-do list wherever you go in the house. And does that feel overwhelming? Or do you have a way of working with that so that it’s to your advantage kind of thing? Like how does it feel? Yeah, I guess my question is actually how does it feel living in a long-term renovation?

Kate: I, so I think it depends on the person. How a house looks and feels really impacts the way that I personally feel. And my husband is not the same. Like he does not like, I don’t know. It sounds like I, I get like energy from my surroundings and um, I find it incredibly stressful actually. I didn’t realize, Because I’ve always done short term renovations before, I didn’t realize how much it would like, almost like weigh on me, which again sounds like I realize that I’m lucky to be able to renovate, so it’s like, I’ll poor you. But so I know it sounds a bit bad, but I find it quite draining because. Like you say, Amy, firstly it’s a visual to-do list, so be like, oh, like I’ve just seen like something out the corner of my eye and I know that I like I need to order those lights or those curtains. I’ve still not done that. And then secondly, I just find it like a bit overwhelming to constantly think this needs to do in this needs do, I think it’s having to go back to. Like what, Chris always says to me is, there’s always going to be something you need to do. There will just always be, and even when this house is finished because it’s a period property, there’ll be something else to do. ’cause something will break. I think for me, I try to, have that bit of a plan in place and try and stay focused and have the goal and the target.

Otherwise I’m like, I need to do that and then I need to do that and I’m just all over the shop which is why I end up having three rooms on the go, which is then even more stressful. yeah. So I think it’s about how you tackle it and try and mentally put things in a box almost.

Especially renovating with kids think there is an element of you can spend all of your time on the house and prioritizing that. Trying to tidy it, trying to finish the rooms. But at the end of the day, like especially if you’re in a long-term renovation, that’s gonna be quite a few years of their childhood. And so I’m having to get to the point where I’m like, the kids do not care what the house looks like. They don’t notice if there’s like bare brick or nice wallpaper, they just want time and attention. So it’s having to reprioritize as well. And just think about that yeah, your house might be a mess, but if the kids are happy, then you know.

Amy: But that’s actually really hard to do, I think

Kate: Mm.

Amy: in, in real terms. ‘Cause you wanna just I dunno, maybe it’s just me, but sometimes you just like, oh, I’ll just get to the end of there and then I’ll relax

Kate: know.

Amy: Down and have a cup of tea kind of thing.

Kate: Yes.

Amy: You’re right, you have to, have to take the time.

Kate: Yeah, because the end never comes.

Amy: Yeah, exactly.

Jane: In terms of that, I guess it’s a similar question, but in terms of the budget, I’m assuming that when you took on the property, you Had a, a bit of money set aside because you knew you were gonna do the renovations and, how do you managed to budget that out over long term?

Kate: So for us what I would always say is like what we did in our old house is think about the ceiling price for the area. So we knew in our old house, for example, that we, I think we bought it for 745K and we knew we could only really spend a 100K on it because we wouldn’t make our money back otherwise or make a profit. Whereas in our house now, our village is, lots of the houses are very individual, so there’s less of a ceiling price. So I suppose don’t necessarily have a cap on what we can spend other than not having much money to spend on it. So there isn’t like a stealing price per se, but when we moved, I think we had something like 90 grand left over from the sale and we knew that central heating would be like 30. And then well, and we knew that the other bits of work were probably about 40. But that was the only immediate budgeting we’d done because everything that else was then within our gift because it was, do we extend, do we not extend, do we change the kitchen? And actually, if it is quite a long-term home and project, I think personally you can have a kind of budget in your mind, but what you end up doing in that house I think will change. So for us, we came in like all guns blazing, raring to go. We’re like, we’re gonna extend, we’re gonna change the kitchen. We got architect plans drawn up and then we were like, actually that doesn’t feel right after we’ve been here for about a year.

So then we got a new set of plans drawn up, and then we were like, actually, do you know what? We are exhausted from this renovation and we don’t need to extend and we can’t really afford it. So we’ve now changed our mind for a third time and decided to just change where the kitchen is and work within the existing space.

So I suppose what I’m saying is we had an initial budget for that critical work and we knew we could afford that, and then we’ve just carried on saving and. we’re now also a bit sick of saving, so we’re gonna get to a point where we finish it downstairs and then just stop for a year and just let the rest of the house crack on and just be a mess.

Amy: Can I ask you, because you mentioned that you were definitely gonna be in this house for at least three years, but is there a possibility of moving and renovating again?

Kate: Oh, well.

well, no, definitely not. If you ask my husband sorry. I mean, will be I mean, we’ll be renovating for at least another three years, I would say. maybe four more years to finish the house, because I think this year will be, maybe the downstairs, next year might be the first floor and the garden, but we probably can’t even afford that.

I’m Saying that year on year, we’ll do more things to the house. But, I also would say that I think we’ll stay here long term, but I would like in the future, if we could ever afford it to, you know, to buy and renovate some houses, you know, on, on on the side.

Amy: ’cause I think that is something that I do enjoy doing and I think I’d enjoy it a lot more if I didn’t live there at the same time. Yeah, Okay. I was gonna say three years wouldn’t give you a long time to enjoy the fruits of your labor, is what I was

Kate: No.

Amy: that, yeah, thanks for the clarification.

Jane: And how you finding village life like in the kind of the idea of moving from London out.

Kate: We love it. And we are in a village, so when we came, we were like. my God. Like we’re in Peckham at the moment and there’s just so much to do. People like, there’s I think there’s 50 houses. There might be more, a few more. We’re like, what are we gonna do in this village? There’s only a pub, but actually we use the pub a lot, so that’s good. But also, we are very lucky because we have got like a real community in our village, so I could just walk into the pub on my own and know most of the people in there. so yeah, we love it. And I personally think it’s what you make of it. We’ve decided to really get stuck in and get involved because I think, well, why would you move to a small community if you don’t want to do that? You want to be additive to the community, it’s just very peaceful. So if I’m having a stressful day at work and can just look at this massive tree that I’m looking at in front of me and think, God that’s been there for 500 years, like this kind of current hour is like a mere blip. So yeah, we really enjoy it and I think it’s been the right thing for us as a growing family to move from like the city, busy life to just, know, take a step back and just have a bit more kind of fresh air and freedom.

Amy:

Jane: That sounds really good.

Amy: Yeah. I feel like I just wanna say well done for what you’ve done so far. Because it feels like, I guess when you’ve got so much more to do, it’s hard to take the moment just to celebrate your wins, but I was looking through what you’ve achieved on Instagram and I was like, wow.

It’s, yeah. It’s looking amazing.

Kate: Oh, that’s really kind.

Jane: And just take the time to share all that knowledge with people. Because it’s so helpful to have somebody who’s just really honest about the process and what you have to do, and that’s really helpful to other people as well.

Kate: Thank you. And yeah, just I think it’s really important to be, because personally I think kind of two things. Firstly, from a renovation perspective, you know, we can’t all afford the houses that we want and I think being able to renovate and DIY actually helps unlock, you know, getting that house, things can seem really overwhelming and it can feel really scary, like talking to builders or, I dunno, paneling a wall.

But actually most people can do most things I think. So I think it’s really important in that sense. And then I also think social media is actually, ironically, I know that I am I am present on social media, but I think it’s just a terrible thing in a lot of senses and it can really make us feel awful about ourselves.

So I just think it’s so important to be like, look at the state of our house and look at the nightmare I’ve had, because otherwise people are gonna be like, God, why is this person like, got their selves together? And I’m just totally all over the place. And why do we wanna make people feel bad about themselves?

Amy: Well, I think it’s really nice that we are talking to you in the middle of it because I think often we talk to people after they’ve finished renovating. And depending on how recent that renovation’s been, like their experience feels very different. So I think to be positive in the middle of it is even more inspiring actually. So, yeah. Thank you.

Jane: it’s been really nice to talk to you.

Kate: Oh, thank you. and thank you for having me.