Welcome to Stories from Site, the podcast for renovation enthusiasts. I’m Amy Dohnalek and together with my co host Jane Middlehurst, we chat with home renovators about the roller coaster that is renovation.

In this episode, we chat with Katharine about her ambitious renovation of a derelict 1930s house in Salisbury.

From budgeting struggles to unexpected setbacks. She shares the highs and lows of turning a neglected property into a family home.

Catherine dives into tax incentives, builder relationships, and the emotional toll of renovations, all while making creative choices that reflect her family’s lifestyle.

So welcome to stories from site, Katharine. Great to have you with us. I wondered if you could start by telling us what your renovation was.

Katharine: So we moved to Salisbury for my work and for the children’s school. We couldn’t afford to buy what we wanted to. And then this derelict house came up. It was a 1930s house and had been derelict for four years and I think not updated since the fifties. So it was a massive project and I was excited and really terrified at the same time, but it was within our budget.

Plus we then had budget for a renovation.

Amy: And had you renovated before? Was this your first one?

Katharine: This was our first one. So we’d had a 1930s terrace house before. We’d put in a new kitchen and got our fingers burnt with that. So I suppose that was a good learning curve. and just done us, you know, done it ourselves a bit, but nothing major.

So this was a big step for us.

Amy:Was everyone involved kind of equally excited? what was the general feeling in the camp.

Katharine: Well, I think our families were like, you’re doing what? Because we are not risk takers. We’re both first born, So our families were really shocked. I was a bit shocked when my husband actually said yes to it because I thought I’d have to persuade him.

Um, but he was excited and terrified, ultimately thebulk of the work fell to me because, I’m part-time. and he’s the money earner. And so his job is full on and he’s often away during the week.

Amy: Okay. So what exactly did you do?

Katharine: I think what didn’t we do really?

So it was a typical 1930s detached house, pebble dash, the windows at the front had been changed to double glazing and, plastic, but nothing else had been done. So we had rotten wooden windows. And then one evening I was going down a rabbit warren online when I probably should have been going to sleep.

And I discovered that because it had been empty for more than two years, there’s a tax break.

Amy: Yeah.

Katharine: So we were able to take advantage of, a government led, tax incentive to, rejuvenate these old buildings, where we paid 5% VAT on all building work and building material instead of the 20%.

Katharine: It was an unbelievably big savings, so we were kind of pushed to do more than we had thought we would in the first place. We thought we’d do it in stages, so we thought we’d extend, and then the children would share a bedroom and that would be fine. But when we realized this tax break was there, it actually meant that we decided to go up into the attic at the same time.

So we came out at the back, we went out to the side and we went up into the attic.

And I guess, you were living offsite during the works or did you try to do it okay.

Katharine: So I think the, the biggest stressor we couldn’t have lived

Amy: No,

Katharine: I mean, for the purposes of the mortgage, there was a working bathroom, but it really wasn’t livable there was a nice avocado suite, which, you know, some people love,

Katharine: and there was no central heating. The electrics were so lethal that our poor electrician got shot from them, when he was turning it all off. They were still lead lined. There was still a lead pipe with the water to the house. So it really wasn’t livable in, and actually it turned out that they took the entire top ceiling off to change the attic because the joists went the wrong way.

So we’d go up the stairs and you’d see the sky. It was really weird. So there’s no way we could have lived here. So we rented a tiny annex from, a friend’s parents who happened to live in Salisbury. but the major dress came when they sold that property after about 30 years. It was supposed to coincide with our building work, finishing in August.

But it didn’t because our building work overran, which I think was probably predictable really. But our builder, who was amazing throughout, was an optimist, so he kept saying, no, no, no, definitely. You’ll definitely be able to move in. It’ll be fine. It’ll be fine. And so, we’d made plans for the summer to accommodate this sale of the annex.

but come September, we had nowhere to live for the children to go to school, for me to go to work. And it was really stressful.

Amy: What did you do?

Katharine: Well, some very kind friends helped us out ’causethey let us use their house, which they weren’t using. So, if we hadn’t been able to do that, I’m not sure what we’d have done because, renting on the open market was beyond our budget and we’d have had to not have a kitchen or something.

So yeah, that, that was a very stressful moment.

Amy: So, going back a little bit, you’ve decided to take on this, large renovation. You haven’t done it before. What, what kind of process did you go through?

Can you explain a little bit about that?

Katharine: I obviously signed up to your course

Amy: good. Oh, good.

Katharine: to think, ha, tell me what to do. We met about eight different architects, and in the end we went with one who. he had children the same age as our two, so he knew the chaos. He knew that, you know, while it would be in my mind, the finished product was lovely and clutter free.

You know, he knew that actually in reality it is, it is now full of toys and, pieces of paper, of half colored pictures everywhere. And, you know, it’s not the Instagrammable picture I had in my mind, but, he knew what we were looking for. In terms of a space that accommodated young children.

So we went with him and that was great. And then he was able to sort of guide us through, the planning permission process, which I think was the quickest planning permission he’d ever seen, which we were really lucky with. Um, it’s not a beautiful house and it’s not in a conservation area, so we’re really lucky.

And we paid extra for him to sort of manage the project as well. ’cause while I could have probably got my head around that and spent time doing that, it would’ve taken away my time. From my work,which, you know, is a bit of a toss up.

Amy: So, did he run it onsite and oversee, the extension, so to speak, and then you were in charge of the internal stuff?

Katharine: Yeah, so I made all the decisions, and, you know, spent a lot of time online researching all the different things He was more the kind of, seeing that the beams they were using were the right ones and that, nothing untoward was happening because I don’t know about the building works.

He also recommended, three builders who gave us quotes. We liked all three builders, but the one we chose was the one where we went back and said, this is outside our budget. We can’t afford this. And he said, I’ll get myself a coffee and I’ll spend a day going through it and seeing how I can cut it down for you.

Amy: Wow, that’s amazing.

Katharine: And we thought, if he’s gonna do that before we’ve even said, we’ll go with him then. Yeah, he’s obviously a good egg.

Amy: Yeah, absolutely.

Katharine: And he’s been brilliant. I think the other sort of biggest stress we had was after we’d moved in, which was when the build wasn’t quite finished.

So we moved onto a building site, two days after Christmas. the drains backed up.

So that was lovely, and we had to move out for a week, but he drove all the way from Cornwall from his family holiday to make sure the right person was on site, fixing it and then drove back to Cornwall again.

Amy: Wow, that’s amazing.

Katharine: it was amazing. He’s been brilliant as sort of taking responsibility for the snags, even the minor ones, right through to the major ones. So while it was an unfortunate snag to have had, he did at least sort it out as quick as he could.

Amy: And once you were back on site? Did work kind of slow down a little bit or, how did it work then?

Katharine: I mean, we definitely slowed things down by moving in when we did, but we had to move in then because it fitted with work and with school holidays. And we really wanted the children to be involved in the move ’cause it was quite a big and traumatic time for them.

Amy: Okay.

Katharine: And we kind of, we just needed to offload some bills, that. Having two accommodations, comes with. So yeah, we moved in before all the flooring was down, so there was just dust everywhere, and one out of the three loos was in. So we, we could have a shower, go to the loo, which was nice.

So, you know, it felt very invasive suddenly because you’ve had all these workmen coming on and offsite and it hasn’t really felt like your house. ’cause we’ve never lived here. So all the advice about people saying, live in a house before you do any renovation, we were not those people.

It felt very impersonal. It was just a site. and while it was our site with our vision, I didn’t mind the builders being all over it, but as soon as you move all your stuff in and you know, we, of course we prioritize the children’s bedrooms, so they were sort of painted and were theirs, and we had carpets in the bedrooms, but no other flooring.

So it then feels, you feel a bit more precious about it. It’s like, Ooh, these people are actually in my house now with all my things there.

Amy: Yeah, and the boundaries just become a bit more blurred, don’t they?

Katharine: Yeah, and I think it was weird because to them it was their site.

And so they’d been used to being just on site and wandering on and off and doing their thing here for months, you know, and they probably knew it better than we did. So yeah, It worked fine because actually every single person on site has been really lovely I felt quite intimidated, coming onto the site and being like, I dunno what you’re doing.

I dunno anything about building, and I can paint a room, but that’s about it. But none of them made me feel intimidated or, that I shouldn’t really be there and didn’t know what I was doing. So we did a lot of the wallpaper stripping that I’m quite an expert at that now.

And now we’re doing all the painting. So we got the big bits decorated.and actually one of your, interviews with Emily from, is it Swish color, isn’t it?

Amy: yeah..

Katharine: A you did a workshop with her and so I contacted her and got her advice on the colors. ’cause we’ve got this big, lovely open plan extension, but I was so intimidated by all the off whites and I just, I didn’t know what to do and I thought if I get it wrong, it’s gonna cost a lot to

Amy: Yeah, absolutely.

Katharine: So she was brilliant. and I went back to her subsequently for three more rooms.

Amy: I think that color is one of those things where, um. It can feel really overwhelming.

Katharine: It really does, and I think, the stage where you jump from your imagination and what you’ve predicted your build is gonna look like into a reality. Like when the windows went in, for instance, we’ve got crittal style windows in the back, which I love. Before when it was just an empty hole in my mind, it was gonna look amazing.

And so when they actually arrive and you come for the first time after they’ve been put in, you think, oh God, I hope it’s gonna match my imagination. Because if my imagination’s wrong, I’m gonna be really disappointed.

Amy: And what did you think?

Katharine: I loved them.

And I think, what I didn’t realize before doing this project is that so many people have come in and said, how did you visualize this when it wasn’t here? But actually I just did

and I just had this image in my mind of what it was gonna look like.

And thankfully most of it has matched up.

Amy: I mean, that is a real skill. For some especially when it’s a big renovation like yours, to have all the different zones and hold them all in your head, that is quite tricky.

Katharine: Yeah, it’s been a lot of headspace, which I underestimated how exhausting that was. and having sort of come through the other side and freed up, you know, there are still decisions to make and things to sort out. I freed up so much Headspace, that, I mean, it’s moved on to other stuff, like, do the children need new shoes and things like that.

But, I feel like I’m much more present with them now. I think that’s the biggest thing that I regret for this renovation was that it took me away from being mum being able to have that head space and time to be with them more.

Amy: Absolutely.

Katharine: nice coming out the other side and we’ve got a lovely open plan space where we can all just hang out and that’s exactly what I wanted.

So I could be cooking supper and I can see what they’re watching on TV or they can be doing their homework, you know, when that happens. Sitting at the kitchen island while I’m prepping supper and we’re, we’re all just not necessarily interacting with each other all the time, but in the same space and happily pottering along together.

Amy: Does this still feel like there’s bits left to do, or like, how are you feeling about it?

Katharine: There’s lots left to do in terms of the cosmetics, so we’re doing the rest of the decorating ourselves, Our bedroom and the front room and the spare room they’re not decorated yet. And all the doors and new doorways ’cause we had to have every single door replaced ’cause of fire regs.

And luckily found replacements of 1930 doors that look identical, which is great. But they’re not painted, so that needs all, you know, they’re primed. So we can’t have just bare wood. But, you know, it’s just little things like that, constantly playing on your mind, oh, I’ve got a free moment.

Oh, just paint that, or I’ll just poly filler that, or, you know, so it’s, we’re not there yet, and we’ve had some. We’ve had quite a lot of leaks in the house, so at least we do now have a waterproof house when it rains. Cause that was a bit of a weird one. We didn’t know where the leak was coming from, but the builders sorted that out now.

and in the top bathroom, which is the children’s floor, somebody had put a screw through a pipe but hadn’t told anyone that they’d done it. And then we’d had it all tiled and then discovered that it leaked.

Amy: Oh.

Katharine: So they’ve just been back this week, before Christmas. I said I can’t cope with you doing anything with that at the moment ’cause it’s all just finished and nice and I just need it to look nice for a minute.

So, We could use the overhead shower, but not the handheld shower, so it was still functional. But anyway, they’ve come and fixed that now, but they had to take some tiles off and it looks a bit of a mess now. So it is a bit of a backward step. So that’s still to sort out

and we’ve just had the drive done. so it now no longer looks like a building site at front, which is really nice and that’s made a big psychological difference. But the back garden is still very much a building site.

Amy: It’s difficult, isn’t it? ’cause it’s usually the thing that gets cut from budgets. Because, it’s a nice to have, not a must have. But it is tricky ’cause you, you want to enjoy that connection that you’ve just made with the garden and look out onto something nice.But, um, it will come.

Katharine: Yeah, it’s been so lovely. I think because. When we are renovating, it’s just so all encompassing. We didn’t see our friends as much as we had done. We were just head down, keeping going, just about keeping our heads above the water really to mix the analogies. But,

It’s now so lovely that we have this finished space and we have the entertaining space that we always imagined we’d have, and suddenly we’re seeing everyone again, but my son did say last Monday. Can you not invite people over on both weekend days, please. It’s too exhausting. So we, you know, and it’s so lovely being able to show all our friends what we’ve been doing and why we’ve been off the social scene.

And everyone comes in and says, wow, I could understand why we haven’t seen you. And, they’ve been amazingly supportive, and it’s a bit like the lockdowns, isn’t it? You suddenly realize who your really close friends are who you miss, and who’s gonna support you through really quite tricky times.

Amy: Yeah. Well I guess in the moment you’re just kind of, like you say, put your head down and get through it.

Katharine: Yeah.

Amy: It doesn’t sound like that should be so challenging, but if you haven’t got the time or the head space anyway, which I feel like most people in, in today’s, world, we’re all quite maxed out already. So I think that extra thing on top just can tip you really.

Katharine: And you think you are stretched as far as you can possibly go. And then something happens, like, my daughter broke her wrist, for instance, falling off some monkey bars. So, and then you think, oh no, I can stretch a little bit further. It’s all right. You know, I haven’t snapped yet. But you know, some of the days you think, ah, this must be my limit.

But I dunno, it’s a bit like giving birth, isn’t it? You forget about all the bad bits once you’ve got the end result.

Um.

And I think I probably would do it again actually, my husband, after our first baby, he was like, you want another one? What? You know, I’m not, I’m not ready to, to flip it just yet, it was always designed to be our family home, but I can see why people get hooked,

Amy: Yeah.

Katharine: because it’s a really creative process as well. And I think I’ve really enjoyed Just letting my creativity flow in it a bit. We’ve come from houses that are not our own and are generally painted in a nice shiny magnolia color.

So it’s really nice to be able to choose colors and the children have gone mad in their rooms you see all these beautiful, especially the little girls’ rooms in pastel colors looking pristine. And that is not what my daughter went for.

Amy: What did she go for?

Katharine: She’s gone for a bright pink and a pale pink. So it’s all three different colors.

And she dictated to me where they were going and I thought, right, I’m just gonna go with it ’cause. It’s her room and my son’s room, his favorite color is orange, so there was a risk, his room was gonna look like an easy jet lounge. So we’ve, we sort of, you know, dropped the seed in that actually a dark blue might look quite good.

And we went with that. And he’s got orange and blue stripes along one wall and a blue and blue, sort of bottom half and an orange, stripe around the top, which we’ve unwittingly made it now look like an RNLI executive lounge. Just needs a red stripe in it. It’s really cool.

And they’ve really gone with it and it’s definitely not on trend or, you know, doesn’t, it’s not gonna go in any magazines, but, you know,

Amy: that they’ll remember, you know? It’s such gift to them.

Katharine: yeah. They

Amy: Um. Can I ask you, one question, One, can you talk a little bit about the budgeting side? Was that something that you had to manage yourself?

Katharine: Oh gosh. Well, the budget, I tried really hard to use your, spreadsheets. I really tried hard, but I found it so intimidating. So we had the big numbers from the builder, and he was really good at sticking to those. Even when, they had to take all the joists off the top floor and we ended up with the sky, he didn’t pass that cost on directly to us. I mean, he may well have added it onto other bits, but nothing changed in his quote.

Amy: That’s amazing.

Katharine: It was amazing. but what I found really hard to budget was all the little bits. We are using curtains from our old house, which don’t quite fit, and I’m not quite in keeping with my vision. But because I hadn’t.

I just hadn’t got my head around the budget for window dressings, we did have to borrow extra money onto the mortgage. We sort of knew at the beginning we were gonna have to do that because we decided to do it all in one rather than staggering it. And we spoke to the bank before we started the project and said, look, how plausible is it that we can borrow X amount more?

And they were really happy for us to borrow that. And they said, not a problem. Which is weird because we thought we’d maxed out the mortgage. But they were happy with that. They made it sound very easy to borrow more money. they said, it’s not a problem, you just need to do this and this, and then it’s all sorted. But when it actually came to it, we got, and this, I think this is a lesson I wish I’d known before. We were borrowing the money to put the bathrooms in we had enough money for the bulk of the building works, and the extra money we were borrowing was for the finishing niceties, like the bathrooms.

We didn’t go mad on the bathrooms. We went to, mainstream websites and got it. On a budget. They were not high-end bathrooms, but the mortgage company said, the house isn’t habitable so you can’t borrow any more money because it didn’t have a working bathroom. And we said, no, but we’re borrowing the money to make it habitable.

They’re like, no, it has to be habitable before you borrow the money. And then we couldn’t borrow anything on the credit cards or put it on credit because they were looking at all our accounts. So we had this real ridiculous dance around, getting a loo in one bathroom and a bath in another bathroom and taking pictures so that, we never said they were in the same room, but we didn’t say they weren’t, to make it look.

So we squeezed out a bit more money to get a bath and a loo so that it was habitable. And it took a lot longer than they said it would. So our builder was really good and was like, I really need this money now. And we were like, yes, we know it’s coming. It’s coming.

That was really stressful because I think the, the bank had been a bit misleading and how easy it was gonna be to top up the mortgage. so that was frustrating. we definitely spent more on it than we wanted to. I wish I’d been that person who could use the spreadsheet and

Amy: So don’t worry. To be honest, that’s why we’ve made, the app because I think spreadsheets aren’t for everybody and it is quite, like you say, intimidating. it’s a shame you’re not doing it now ’cause well, for your next renovation you can use the,

Katharine: I think I’ll have a bit more of a clue if we did it again about the sort of extras. I find light fittings unbelievably hard to choose and it was really stressing me out. And so in the end we’d just gone spots, which, is probably not the most beautiful design choice we could have gone with, but I think it would’ve tipped me over the edge. And light fittings are incredibly expensive.

Amy: They add up really quickly,

Katharine: Yeah, if you want nice ones. Then they’re really expensive. And it was that sort of thing. I was like, oh, I don’t know what light switch. I dunno how much a light switch is. So we, we did it a bit more ad hoc, which was probably a bit irresponsible.

So we definitely did use the spreadsheet as much as we could have, but it wasn’t complete. And we’re still,we’re, just going a bit slow now. If we can’t afford something we save up for it and do it the old fashioned way.

Amy: Yeah, but also it’s quite nice because I guess, the house kind of moves into being a home the more you settle into it and the more layers you add to it. Do you know what I mean? So,

yeah, it’s good to enjoy that process, I guess.

Katharine: Yeah. And it’s things like, we’ve just got hanging rails for our clothes at the moment. ’cause we didn’t, we couldn’t, I, I just couldn’t in my mind, get straight what we wanted in terms of wardrobes and we didn’t own any, ’cause we come from a house with fitted wardrobes. And actually it’s working quite nicely and I think it will probably be years before we really decide on what we actually want, because it’s quite nice being able to see all your clothes actually, even though it’s a bit messy. Um, if we’d rushed in and put in fitted wardrobes, we would’ve chosen the wrong thing. So I’m glad we didn’t.

Amy: Yeah. forcing yourself to make decisions when you are already overloaded with decisions. I think you made the wise choice.

Katharine: I hope so.

Amy: Can I ask, any kind of top tip that you would share with others?

Katharine: I think in my moments of real stress, when I was thinking, I don’t know if I can make all these decisions and I, I’m a bit overwhelmed by it all. I think I had to keep reminding myself that nothing was irreversible.

You know, the big build stuff. Yes. That’s irreversible. And we did make a snap decision.

To cut costs. We took out a couple of skylights and I then made a snap decision on site to put them back in and be like, we’ll just sort the money out. It’ll be fine. And I’m so glad I made that ’cause that is irreversible. But the majority of things I was stressing about, like light fittings or light switches or even carpets, you know, they’re not gonna be there forever.

All these decisions that seem so major at the time, actually, you don’t notice. I don’t notice that I’ve got a plastic white light switch in my bedroom instead of a nice shiny one.

‘Cause it’s just, you know, you’re getting on with life, aren’t you?

Amy: You are right that you kind of get laser focus, in on an item, and it’s almost like you’re taking it out of its context. So it’s suddenly things like, oh, well I don’t want a plastic, switch or whatever. But actually when it’s in the context and in amongst everything else, it’s more like a collage of all those things.

Katharine: Yeah. And also when you’ve got young children, nothing is sacred. So, you know, we’ve done a lot of color matching, which I’m so pleased now because in their playroom there’s a sofa and, behind the sofa, bearing in mind. Where are we now in Marchwe moved in, it was newly painted, freshly painted in November.

It is already unbelievably grubby behind the sofa, and I was like, why is this? What have you been doing? They were like, oh, yeah, when we watch tv, we like to be upside down, so we put our feet on the wall.

Amy: It’s like a tide mark

Katharine: I was like. Okay. Yeah, glad that paint’s cheap. So, you know, once I’m in mourning ’cause they’ve left home and gone off to do their own thing, then I’ll paint it a beautiful Farrow and Ball color, but nothing is sacred.

And the light switches get grubby fingerprints on them and somehow there’s a shoe mark halfway up the wall and, you know, all those decisions I, stressed over actually are just all grubby and children marked now.

Amy: Well, I think you, you raised an interesting point, which is you have created a home that feels really good to live in, not a museum, or a gallery. So I think it’s testimony to what you’ve

Katharine: Yeah, absolutely. You can see some nice pictures behind me

now, but actually

I’ve got pop-up pirates on one side. I’ve got the Beano the other side. Well, you know, there’s, it is just stuff everywhere.

And actually, you know, we have got chips on the kitchen island already, and I just have to be like, well, it’s lived in and the children are happy. And it, you know, it’s not perfect and it’s certainly not going on Instagram anytime soon.

But, um, yeah, it’s, it is home and that’s what we were making.

Amy: Oh, well thank you so much for your time,

Katharine: Well, no, thank you.