A Windaroo couple is proving that taking a DIY approach to renovations can help save big money.
Lily and Luke Lomas bought their Windaroo home in April this year with the vision to renovate it and turn it into their dream home.
“This home was original, but had great foundations and some quirkiness about it,” Mrs Lomas said.
“We were hunting for something a little particular, a pool was a must, a big open plan space and solid foundations and ideally not renovated already.
“We didn’t want to be pulling out someone else’s hard work, especially because our style is quite unique and not something you see in many homes.”
The couple have decided to do a full “Santorini” inspired renovation including new bathrooms and flooring, even going as far as building their own built-in furniture and a pool house to go with the inground pool out back.
“Luke is a carpenter by trade and has incredible skills, so it is handy having him take a lot of the work on himself and it’s a great way to save money,” Mrs Lomas said.
To help out, “I also completed a small Three Birds reno school course, and it really made me think about what I want to feel when I come home every day and when Luke and I reflected on this, we wanted to feel like we were on holidays in Santorini.”
Mrs Lomas said tradespeople and supplies in general are hard to come by these days.
“The current climate for trades and supplies is stretched thin – we have seen this waiting for materials like our front door, skirting boards and flooring,” she said.
“We reached out to some tilers using hire pages and their schedules were booked out until the new year.
“Having to do a lot of the work ourselves has allowed more money for the higher quality finishes.”
The couple are sticking to a strict budget for the renovations and said they are constantly shopping around for the best deals.
“We worked out from the beginning how much we wanted to allocate to each room of the home. This way we could see on paper what the figures were and what would fit into that budget,” Mrs Barker said.
“I always wanted engineered timber flooring so it was a must that we fit that into our spending money and for the rest I shop around, compare prices and do a lot of research.”
“When we moved in our real estate agent said, ‘your $100k is someone else’s $200k’ because we are saving so much on trades.”
Mr and Mrs Lomas are still working on their renovations and hope to finish in the new year.