Episode 28 - Avoid These Renovation Mistakes

 In this episode, Kate and Jenny discuss  the main renovation mistakes that we have either made ourselves or that we have seen our clients making. We want to save you time and money by learning from our mistakes, so be sure to listen to the whole episode!

Chapters

• 0:00 Episode 28 - Avoid These Renovation Mistakes
• 0:06 Podcast Intro
• 0:25 Episode Intro
• 0:39 Episode
• 38:21 Outro

Transcript

 [00:00:00] 

Jen: Welcome to Rip It Up, the renovations podcast. I'm Jenny. I'm Kate. And between us, we've renovated a lot of houses and it hasn't scared us off. In fact, we loved it so much that we can't stop talking about it. So in this podcast, we will give you all the tools and info that you need to tackle your own renovation like a pro. 

In this episode, we are talking about the main renovation mistakes that we have either made ourselves or that we have seen our clients making. We want to save you time and money by avoiding these mistakes, so be sure to listen to the whole episode. 

 Welcome back to the podcast. Hi Kate.

Kate: Hi Jen.

Jen: How are you?

Kate: I'm good. I'm busy this week, but good. I feel like after a bank holiday, do you feel like after a bank holiday you're just squeezing five days of work into four? Like it's lovely to have the bank holiday off.

Jen: I feel like I squeeze about eight days of work into three,

Kate: I just,

Jen: Like, am I just bad at time [00:01:00] management? I don't know what it is.

Kate: I don't know. I think there's just, we both have a laugh going on.

Jen: Yeah, let's, uh, let's say that. Let's call

Kate: Yeah.

Jen: It's not our fault.

Kate: It's not our fault, it's for sure. Mm

Jen: on, what we're talking about today for episode 28, I believe, is, um, the biggest renovation mistakes. So these are things that we wish we talked about in our own homes, even though I love my house. And I think it went great overall.

But all the things we wish we had done in advance and some of the things that we see people doing as they go through their own renovations now. So listener, if you're thinking about a renovation, if you're planning a renovation, if you're mid renovation, learn from us. Don't

Kate: from our mistakes. We're here to teach you and learn from our mistakes, cause some of them

Jen: The elders of the renovation

Kate: Yeah. You'll make these mistakes once.

Jen: Yeah, exactly. These are expensive mistakes, so. So, definitely, um, definitely don't read them again. Okay, I'm going to come straight out with number one because I think it's a big one. And it's, [00:02:00] and I've cracked on about this a lot, so people might be sick of listening to me talk about this, but it's not budgeting properly.

And I mean down to the last tile that you're installing in your house. I always say it, I budgeted in my toilet roll holders, like I went that detailed. Because things crop up and you need to know how much money you have now. Maybe you don't. Maybe you're a millionaire. Best of luck to you. I, maybe, hit me up.

D'you know?

Kate: Hit me up for sure, cause I am running dry on mine.

Jen: If my boyfriend's listening, block your ears. But, um, Maybe you don't. But, 

budget. It's so huge.

Kate: Yeah, I'm, I'm, I will say I'm really bad at underestimating and I'll particularly underestimate if I really want something. I'll be like, well, that doesn't look that cheap or that doesn't look that expensive. That looks pretty good deal, I would say, but then I forget. sometimes just to look at the kind of all encompassing picture and like the install and any additions that you need you know so like sometimes I'll see a tile or a wood floor or something I'm like well that's not bad per square meter but then you [00:03:00] forget about it's got really specialist fitting or it's got a specialist kind of mats underneath it or whatever and that I never look at that overall price until it's a bit too late I'm like shit now I need to cut somewhere else

Jen: Yeah. I'm also unbelievable at justifying things to myself. Like I'll do it for anything. But you were talking about per square metre and I'm like okay it's expensive per square metre but my house is tiny so overall it's totally worth it. I'll do it for anything, I'll do it for clothes, I'll do it for anything and I'm like okay that dress is a few hundred euro but I'm going to wear it to this wedding, this wedding, this wedding, this wedding so actually it's only this much money like I'm ridiculous.

Kate: do you apply cost per wear to house though? Because you walk across at the same amount of times no matter what this floor is. You just have to be like, you have to value the joy I think.

Jen: Well, this is the thing, because one thing with budget is I always hear people saying, is that going to affect the resale value? And I think that's a bit of a misnomer or a bit of a strange mindset to get into, because then I think you might end up buying something or spending money on something or pulling [00:04:00] back on something, um, and maybe not spending enough on it because you're like, oh, but it's not worth it for resale.

But sure, you could be living in that house for 20 years. I think people always think like, what about the resale? What about the resale? I'm like, are you selling it? Are you selling it in the next five years? Also, have you seen the property market? Like, you could sell a shed, it doesn't matter, do you know?

Kate: Yeah, yeah, it does, and I honestly think the market we're in at the moment, I wouldn't say it'll stay like this forever, but the differences in finishes doesn't really feature in the pricing, I think. It just doesn't really, people are looking at the house, they're looking at the square meter, they're looking at the location, and then everyone else kind of underestimates, I think, the cost to get it to where they want it to be, so I don't think it massively affects the sale of your house.

And I mean, if you wanted to, like, go super, super neutral, maybe you'll, Um, I guess, appeal to a big wider market, but I don't think it will necessarily cause your house not to sell.

Jen: I don't think so either. Not in this market. Not in the current market.

Kate: No. Like you said, they'll be, like, they'll sell a shed at the [00:05:00] moment. I think, I think I saw one, was it Crazy House Prices had one up two weeks ago, and it was like, no roof in it or anything?

Jen: It's a great watch, Crazy House Prices. I'm just constantly outraged and

Kate: I.

Jen: what? Are they charging?

Kate: Although like, I mean, your palace now wasn't a palace when you got it.

Jen: No, it

Kate: you saw the value though.

Jen: it. And I got my house for

Kate: worth it. Yeah, okay.

Jen: I, uh, things are, things are a lot madder now than they were in 20, I think it was November 2018 when I bid on this house, yeah, um, but anyway, failing to budget, and I know it can be really hard because it's very difficult to understand how much something is going to cost, so getting estimates for an accurate budget are difficult, but you gave me a great piece of advice when I was starting to do it this house, and that was for anything big get three quotes.

Like, just get a minimum of three because at least you'll have an idea of what the range is, what the average is, what the most you might be expected to pay is. Um, and any more than that you could drive yourself a bit [00:06:00] mad but a minimum of three I just thought was a good,

Kate: And then you'll end up picking the one you want anyway. But I, I always feel, I always feel it gives me a little sense of peace or security that I haven't been absolutely ripped off as well. You know, when I have a gauge from kind of different suppliers. Whereas sometimes you can get one quote and you'll be like, Well, that was more than I expected it to be, or less than I expected it to be.

But, unless you've gotten a few of similar kind of comparison, it's hard to

Jen: totally agree.

Kate: Yeah. Yeah, so you have a great budget tracker for this too.

Jen: I do, yeah, somebody,

Kate: about this in our early episodes.

Jen: and asked me for this and I, I've lost your message, sorry, but I'm going to, I'll stick that up on my Instagram. Um, and you, if you guys like it, you can buy me a coffee to say thank you. Ha ha

Kate: so good, maybe don't follow mine.

Jen: Ha 

ha ha

Kate: I'm learning. I have my husband keeping me in kind of, you know, on the straight and narrow when it comes to splashing out and things.

Jen: Yeah.

Kate: I'm still convinced I can [00:07:00] fit a sauna somewhere in our garden room.

Jen: Oh, sorry. Just can we divert to this topic for a moment because I think saunas are an actually great investment. They're not that expensive They're really cheap to run, especially if you get an infrared sauna, and they are unbelievably good for your health So you're actually saving money in the long run.

Okay, maybe don't come to me for budgeting advice But like they're not that much money and they're really cheap to run

Kate: And I think these little, um, I suppose, kind of token, kind of things like this in a house, they're not necessarily part of the main house or part of the main stack of the house, but they're real, like, draw, I think, for people. They remember your house. They remember viewing the house. They'll be like, oh, I remember the house I saw now.

Or, my husband is convinced they'll remember the house they viewed that had a golf simulator in the garage. I'm like, will they? And Cian was like, the men will remember that. Trust me.

Jen: There was a whole study done on saunas recently. I think it was done on the Finnish population and it was a really Long study, like over the course of a couple of decades. And the impact of regular sauna use on [00:08:00] your cardiovascular health is, I think, in the double digits. Like, it was absolutely insane.

Kate: Better than an

Jen: really positive. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kate: And actually enjoyable.

Jen: Thank God for that.

Kate: Yeah, you couldn't get me into an ice bath. You can get me into a sauna, but not into an ice bath. Thanks.

Jen: Okay, so lesson one, budget properly and find out how to work a sauna into your

Kate: Budget to the nth degree. All the detail in there. Down to, what did you say last time? Toilet rolls?

Jen: toilet roll holders, I didn't quite go as far as toilet rolls, but please feel free to do so. Okay, lesson number two, and I think this is a big one that holds people up, is not having a plan. And you should go back and listen to our, I think our first two episodes maybe on the renovation or maybe it's episode three on the renovation journey.

Um, understand when things are going to happen. Like when is your first fix? When's your second fix? How long is your furniture order timeline? Is something, like is your sanitary ware going to take a long time to come in? [00:09:00] When do your builders and your plumbers and your tilers need to have your decisions made by?

Because you can end up holding up your renovation by weeks, months if you don't know what is expected of you and when.

Kate: And especially things like maybe windows, where you have the final call and style and whatever. And until you have like paid the deposit signed off and you know that the spec of the windows that timeline isn't ticking yet and They might be waiting to make the house kind of sealed and watertight before they can start doing, you know Some other first fix stuff so you can really delay stuff.

So I asked those kind of key dates from your builder or your contractor and say like when do you need windows by, when do you need them installed by and work backwards from there and see what the lead times are. And like you said, some stuff like kitchens, you know, kind of 12 week, 14 week lead times now depending on the supplier.

Um, so knowing kind of when the kitchen place can come in and measure. But also, you know, when it's going to be installed, will your, will your contractor still be there at that stage and [00:10:00] whatever, and trying to kind of coordinate that. So ask for those kind of key dates and key deliverables for your builder, I'd say.

Jen: yeah, absolutely. It's um, it's one that takes so long. And the other thing as well is if you don't do it, and then you end up making a rushed decision, you can really mess up your life. Because like, you could end up putting, you know, not enough sockets, or switches in the wrong place, or you end up with tiles that you don't really want, or colours that aren't quite right, or something, so just do yourself a favour and know what is needed when.

Kate: Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned it as well there, like, like don't cheap out on the kind of basics or like that kind of core stuff that you can't retrospectively do. So the switches, sockets, stuff like that, like, you know, don't make a

Jen: number three, don't cheap out on the basics. Don't prioritize the wrong things.

Kate: Yeah.

Jen: totally 100 percent with you. Like, there's some things that if you cheap out on them, when you're doing up your budget, in favor of other things, it's just going to be more expensive in the long run. And I'm talking about, for example, plumbing [00:11:00] fixtures.

Windows is such a good shout. Like, definitely don't cheap out on your windows. Um,

Kate: I will actually give you a little like A little view into my last windows debacle. I suppose it was, uh, we were a bit of a guinea pig. I wouldn't say we cheaped out on the windows. They were good. It was a good windows place and I've heard people have having great, um, great experiences with them, but our windows were kind of the first time they had done that style of kind of bifolding, we'll say, aluminium, crittle style, whatever it was, with very thin frames and bars and all that.

I know they're like a pound a penny now, they're everywhere, but like they weren't at the time. And he said yeah we can do that and we were kind of a guinea pig and how it met with our skylight and all that was all a bit kind of the first time they had done it. And as a result we had an absolute nightmare.

Like nothing lined up, they didn't seal properly, there was leaking in the skylight. So like you never want to be the guinea pig for something so big like your windows and doors.

Jen: Yeah.

Kate: Go with a solid, solid supplier that's done it [00:12:00] a million times I would say.

Jen: So the basics that you really want to get right, I would say anything to do with plumbing, anything to do with electricity, just don't, just get the good fittings. You're going to have to spend more money on getting the right, the right fittings there. Windows for sure, like do not mess up with your windows or your door.

Um. Because if nothing else you'll end up spending a fortune on your heating and then it's going to have to be replaced and it's going to be a disaster. I think your flooring, your insulation is a big one, like just make sure that that's done right. Like anything that's going to take work to rip up and put back in again, it'll just cost you a fortune in the long run.

It's worth, you know, even if you get a bit ripped off, just spend the money and get it right.

Kate: and I think in the renovation process episode as well, we talked about like first fix and stuff. And you can kind of say where sockets and switches are going and stuff. And that's something that's difficult to do afterwards. So like, don't regret, you won't regret an extra socket. You'll regret not having a socket though when you have an extension cord trailing behind your couch or in front of a table or something like that.

So like. Have sockets [00:13:00] everywhere you need them. You don't have to put a fancy brass front on it or something, you can do a basic one if it's going to be hidden, but have enough sockets, because doing it after the fact is a pain. And have enough switches, and good control on the switches, because again, that's something that's hard, that's hard to retrospectively do.

Jen: Yeah, and think about your lighting, think about that layered lighting. Um, that's one maybe that goes into failing to plan. I think have a lighting plan really early on. Again, we have an episode on lighting back in one of the first maybe five or six episodes that we did. But

Kate: you, like, nailed, I didn't the first time, and I regretted it. We put in a couple of wall lights here and there, but we didn't have that kind of layered lighting we had kind of a pendant in every room because it was kind of ceiling roses in every room and I thought well that's it and then we put spots in our bedroom which I just hated turning on like I literally never turn them on because we were just convinced we were told that the pendant isn't enough lighting but really what we needed is good wall lighting good floor lamps good you know like we needed good layered lighting like you said and that's something that I regret in our last one so that's why I spent [00:14:00] so long on our lighting plan this time

Jen: Yeah.

Kate: just yeah you can't do it easily afterwards

Jen: No, and getting it wrong, like getting lighting right makes your house 10 times better. Like it really has such a huge impact on your house. And I think you had said it before, you can have like three types of lighting. You have your main task lighting, maybe your ambient lighting or your, you know, evening lighting.

So you're entertaining lighting maybe. And then just like you're really relaxing, cozy lighting. So I love like maybe you don't need main spotlighting in every room.

Kate: No.

Jen: just don't

Kate: Just for where you're shopping or doing work.

Jen: Yeah. Um, wall lighting I love, I just think it's so flattering, like, I, I love it.

I just think everyone looks better when lit from the side as opposed to overhead. And then, we were talking about there about putting in sockets and putting in switches, like, think about can you put in, um, those 5 amp, uh,

Kate: No. I disagree to

Jen: I like them!

Kate: Sorry. Like 1990s Celtic [00:15:00] Tiger. No. Just use a smart bulb.

Jen: Oh, a smart bulb,

Kate: I actually don't understand those 5 amp switches anymore. Your man, the electrician said it to us in our house, like last week, where are you putting 5 amp? And I was like, nowhere, like with smart

Jen: Oh, I love it. It's 5 amp. for anyone who doesn't know what we're talking about. These are, these are plugs. If you've ever seen them, they're funny looking plugs or sockets that have little round holes in them. Um, and they're designed to plug lamps into and then you can control the lamps on the wall light.

What's wrong 

with that? I think they're great. Ha,

Kate: I mean, yeah, if we're in fucking 1999, like we're not, we're in 2025. You can just have a smart bulb and say, Alexa, turn on the lamp. Alexa, lamps 20%. Sorry, Alexa's actually changing my lights here now, so I have to stop.

Jen: I'll try to get with the times. I actually do, I don't personally have the 5 amplodes and I do have Alexa, so. I suppose you've won that

Kate: an easy transition. It's an easy transition.

Jen: Fair play to you. You got me there.

Kate: And then you always have to have a lamp with [00:16:00] a 5 amp plug, like, right?

Jen: Yeah.

Kate: Yeah. You can't move lamps around. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Go on. Go on. We'll, we, we can disagree. We can disagree. Maybe, maybe I don't know something about these 5 amp plugs, but I always saw them in like rental houses or anything like that.

And I'm like, what is that weird plug for? Who's got a lamp to fit that?

Jen: Well, my issue is, if, like, if you have Alexa or you have Google Home or you have whatever, smart, smart home stuff, and you, like, you can get the bulbs for it, that's totally fine. You don't need the 5 amp plugs. It's just, anyone I'm thinking of, maybe, if you're a bit older, or, you know, the concept of just walking across your room at night time, after you've fallen asleep on the couch, watching your TV, and then you've left the bed.

So I'm going to put a bloody lamp on in the corner of the living room and then you just like fall over your coffee table turning it off and like you don't want to turn on the big lights because you don't want to blind yourself. I just, I think they're, I get they're an analog solution to a smart home problem, but not everyone's into smart homes and if you're not,

Kate: I, I agree, I agree. Yeah, fine, not everyone's into smart home and like you [00:17:00] said, some people just hate talking at stuff to do stuff. You know, like talking at Alexa or talking at Google Home or whatever, so I get that too. So maybe there's a place for it, just not in my house.

Jen: Not in your house! Your husband would not allow it. Just not happening.

Kate: No, if I said can we put 5 amp plugs in, he'd be like, okay, no, like absolutely not.

Jen: We're getting into worse. Fair enough. Listener, choose for yourself.

Kate: Actually, prioritizing the wrong things here. There's one thing we didn't say. We're talking about kind of like plugs and whatever. Heating is something, it's a mistake I made last time. And one, one good piece of advice that our plumber gave us last time is, you kind of want to over spec rads for your house, not under spec, right?

So, if you don't know what that means, there's loads of calculators online, BTU calculators, and what you want to do is like, you put in the area of your room, you put in the ceiling height, you put in if there's insulation, windows, whatever. And then it'll calculate the BTUs, I can't even remember what it's, it's like something thermal units, is it?

Is it British thermal units? No? It's something thermal units anyway, um, [00:18:00] and it's like, it's in the thousands, so like a standard bedroom might need four or five thousand BTUs. So you look at the radiator then, that aligns to that, that has that output. But you really want to be hitting like, that's the minimum output of the radiator, and it goes up from there.

Because if you underspec, your heating system's running kind of overtime all the time to get to that. into that room. So it's better to have more than you need and turn the radiators down. But also, I didn't put heated mats, which are so, it's just a no brainer. They're not that expensive to do in our bathrooms.

And our tiles were cold, especially if you've an old house like our house. Like the floors are cold, especially when you tile them. It's one thing walking on like uninsulated timber floors, because timber is kind of warm underfoot, right? But once you step on tiles on a winter's morning in a Victorian house.

Your feet nearly freeze to the floor. So I would 100 percent put in Devi mats, or the heated mats under your tiles if you're

Jen: And they're easy to put in. They're a type of underfloor heating and they're just these really thin like electric mesh mats. [00:19:00] So they do add a little bit to your electricity bill but they're so nice. It's such a small area, it's not hard to heat up a little bathroom.

Kate: underfoot and it makes the water splash, kind of evaporate off as well from your shower. Do you know if you have a shower splash, it'll be gone in like a few minutes with those on. So I would, 

Jen: other thing you mentioned as well, tiles work amazingly well with underfloor heating. But if you are getting underfloor heating, you need to plan for your flooring. Because not, you can't have carpet for example, you can't have solid wood. Well you can but it just doesn't work great.

Kate: Yeah, it doesn't get through as well. I, that was another mistake I made. Learn from my mistakes people. Maybe not Jen. Jen says it's perfect. I moved on. No,

Jen: do love it, yeah.

Kate: my house was pretty comfortable but we put down solid wood flooring, um, like solid wood block, wood flooring and we put it glued down. on cement over underfloor heating and that was not ideal.

I guess the heat, the, you know, expansion, contraction of the wood combined with any kind of moisture fluctuations, I suppose, with new, um, with [00:20:00] new, uh, screed or new cement or new concrete down, um, it meant our floors just popped up and they creeped when they stood on them and, you know, it wasn't perfect.

So, yeah, that's probably a mistake I made.

Jen: also wood is a very good thermal insulator, so that's not what you want for under foreheating.

Kate: Yeah, I think, like, a good engineered floor though is pretty good, it's still conducting, they're like, you know, conducting the heat. So I think you'd be alright.

Jen: they don't warp so much.

Kate: No, no, they won't move and whatever, and you'll still transfer the heat a good bit once you have a good bit of insulation in your floor that you're not losing it all into the floor, like below the subfloor.

Uh, but like, yeah, I think just go engineered if you're doing underfloor heating, don't do what I did.

Jen: Yeah. Or a good laminate or, uh, vinyl, uh, or

Kate: Yeah, final tiles, yeah, I'd say that works great. Yeah,

Jen: Um,

Kate: so one of the things that we say over and over again, How do you use the room?

Jen: I would say.

Kate: [00:21:00] How do you use the room? How do you use the room? Think about how you use the room and design for form over function. So like, yeah, understand how you're going to use the space.

Don't design it because you saw an image on Pinterest or something that you liked. Think about how you're going to use the space. Yeah,

Jen: utility, how is the room going to be used, how do you live, like be really honest about how you live, like if you're somebody, if you're a messy person, don't beat yourself up about it, just don't design a minimalist house, like why would you do that to yourself, just put, like put in loads of storage, put in, and put in easy access storage where you can just throw things away very easily, like be really honest with yourself about how you live, about how you, Cook about how you entertain, about how often you're willing to clean, um,

Kate: yeah.

Jen: everything.

Like be really, really honest about that and

Kate: we said that in storage, actually, you nailed it there on the storage episode. And you were talking about like the coat hooks and stuff behind your door. Um, and having those there, I was working with a client a while back and they had three kids and like their hallway was a [00:22:00] busy hallway, like sports gear, kids, jackets, shoes, and they came from school.

And I looked at their kind of joinery plan. And I was like, where are you going to put your coats? And they said, we're just going to open this press and hang them up here. And I

Jen: you don't, you don't open a press.

Kate: kids are going to open a press and put something in there. But if there's hooks directly above a bench, they might, they might throw it up in a hook or it's easy for you to throw it up and hook when they come in and then you're always tidy.

So just think realistically about how you live in the space rather than ideally what you'd like your hallway to look like or your house to look like.

Jen: and it's the same with shoes. I said this to a client recently who was looking at putting in those drawers for shoe storage in the hallway. And they're brilliant if you are somebody who will meticulously open and close a door, a drawer. to put your shoes away. If you're not, or your kids aren't, then you really have to just get those open, like, have open boxes underneath the bench or something like that.

Because, like, you have to make it easy for people to kick their shoes off, um, and put them away somewhere. And, like, don't let perfect be the enemy of, of [00:23:00] really good here. Like, just make it easy for, like,

Kate: Any kind of,

Jen: for yourself.

Kate: any kind of layout things that you thought you got wrong or is your house just perfect? Yeah.

Jen: So, I love my kitchen, I'm really delighted with the job that Savvy Kitchens did in my kitchen. Um, I don't know how this would have been possible to fix without adding a few more thousand euro to the mix, but underneath my sink there is um, a pull out bin, that's where my bins are.

And then, in beside that is the corner. So where the corner of the peninsula meets the main, um, kitchen countertop. And that's where all my cleaning products and stuff are stored. But it's just really hard to access it. Um, and I feel like I maybe could have done something with a pull out thing there or like a riser or something like that.

Um, That part is just difficult to get at and a bit annoying. [00:24:00] the one thing as well, I know what I just said about shoes and drawers, and putting them away, but I think I missed a trick by not putting drawers into my stairs. It's an

Kate: Oh yeah! Very cool.

Jen: And

Kate: But then you couldn't have a carpet on it, right?

Jen: Yeah, but I would have had to cut the carpet.

So this is literally where you just, like the risers of your stairs just become drawers and you can pull them out. So like my first three or four steps, it would have been so ideal, um, cause that's just wasted space underneath there now. And maybe like, okay, my two or three main pairs of shoes would probably have still been like littering up my hallway, but I could have got so much more storage in there even for hats and gloves and other shoes and stuff.

That would have been really good, I think.

Kate: Yeah, no, that would be cool. And I think like, yeah, just having those, having those little gadgets or storage bits are, it'll just make your life easier. I think, you know. I love throwing stuff out, and I love doing a clear out, but like, having more storage just always makes your house tidier. And especially when it's easy access storage.

Yeah.

Jen: like I'd prefer like [00:25:00] small but frequent storage spaces rather than like one big storage room that's really hard to get at.

Kate: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so throughout your house, like. Because then the storage is like, particular to that space, right? So your hall storage might be your shoes and jacket when you come in, but your living room storage might be like, the remotes and a few other things, a blanket or whatever that you have in your living room space, so like.

I think, yeah, it's good to have like dotted storage and sometimes like you have in your ottoman like storage in the form of furniture.

Jen: Yeah. That's my favourite, most satisfying thing.

Kate: Yeah.

Jen: it. Any layout, uh, things that you would have

Kate: Um, no, like you I was really happy with my kitchen. I think I probably would have made my kitchen island a little deeper. I think we spoke about this in our kitchen episode before, just because I had a bit more space over there, and I felt like it was just a little bit of a, it was always like a bit of a corridor.

You know, whereas I could have just filled the space with a bigger square or island, and had better circulation space around it, and still, you know, still use that space. But also [00:26:00] I think, I think I did it pretty well, but I would put pull outs on everything in the kitchen.

Jen: Yeah, oh my god, totally. Every single thing. Anything below countertop height in particular should never just be a cupboard door that opens with shelves inside. Like, make it pull out. Pull everything out. Yeah. 

Ugh.

Kate: units. Do you know, they're only like 60cm on the bottom or whatever it is. So you're kind of only one or two things deep. Whereas down low, like, you'd be reaching into the back of things. You're reaching into corner shelves, stuff like that.

Like, no, just make a pull out if you can at all. It does add a little bit to the cost, but it makes it, like, infinitely more usable, I think.

Jen: Big time. And you can get really cool appliance pull out things now that actually, they almost like add to your countertop space. They're just on these levered arms and say you could have like your KitchenAid or Airfire or something in there and like you have it stored underneath the countertop space and then you you pull it out and then these levered [00:27:00] arms come up and put, and you know, pull the appliance up to countertop height.

Kate: Yes! Yeah, yeah.

Jen: it's really

Kate: They're like, and they're on the heavy duty runners and stuff then. Cause I've seen some of those runners can hold up to like 70 kilos. So like you'd be, you know, that'd be a good stand mixer

Jen: in that yourself.

Kate: Yeah, yeah.

Jen: If you wanted to.

Kate: Do you know something that's making a little bit of a resurgence? And I used to think it's hilarious. So when I went to my, my mother in law's house, their kitchen was pretty old but they had This tiny little drawer in the kitchen and when they pulled it out, it was like a foldable ironing board.

Jen: Yeah. Oh yeah,

Kate: In the drawer and I was like that is hilarious like the way the ironing board has been in the kitchen But like I see them being put in utilities a lot more now And I was like that's actually really smart and I think where we always pulled out our ironing board in the house we're renovating now is in the landing and Like the ironing board we had was just ridiculously huge to be honest and like it was just always in the way So someone would iron in the morning and then go off and get ready and then leave the ironing board out because the iron is [00:28:00] hot Whatever.

Do you know it was just Something that was left out then, but I think like a tidy little cabinet with a little fold down ironing board is the dream, actually. I actually might put one in this time.

Jen: Now if you iron, which I refuse to do, I have a steamer. But I think shirts, you have to iron

Kate: Shirts. There's a few work stuff I think you can, and certain times bed sheets if you want it like baby for a guest room and you want it to look crisp and fresh or something like that. But yeah, for the most part I try and avoid ironing if I can.

Jen: it is the worst.

Kate: Yeah. Yeah.

Jen: so design for how you use the space. Form, design for function first, and then you can think about how it looks. I think it's so important.

Kate: Yeah.

Jen: Kind of similar to that then, like once you've got your utility right, and you're thinking about your design, I think another mistake that people make is just picking things up.

without kind of sticking to some kind of a plan. Now I'm not saying that every room has to look the same or that like everything has to be absolutely perfect and like totally matchy matchy but I think have a scheme in mind, have a palette in mind, know your [00:29:00] colors. I always say this to people who are interior shopping, like you need to bring a bag with you of all the samples of stuff you

Kate: All the swatches, look I have, I have them here. In my bag beside me. Paint swatches, everything. My towel, everything. It's all there, Jen. It's all in my bag. I've a big, I've a big like doctor's bag that I go shopping with. 

It's 

heavy as hell though.

Jen: But you have, it's just for a few minutes, it's while you're shopping. Like, the swatch is for like, your couch, your, exactly as you said, like your tiles. Maybe if there's like a plank for your wood flooring or your vinyl flooring, whatever you're going to have. Your paint colours, um, and then a measuring tape.

Definitely put a measuring tape in there and know what you have to play with. I just think the amount of people who come home with like, Oh, I love this. sideboard and it just doesn't fit in your house and now your whole room is thrown off and like you can like things but you're just going to have to leave them in the shop sometimes.

They just don't go with your house.

Kate: Yeah, and if you are one of those people who kind of, you know, buys, purchase sporadically or kind of on a whim, don't go to an auction house.[00:30:00] 

Jen: It's too much pressure.

Kate: It's too, it's too tempting. You're going to buy something. I was picking up something this morning that I bought on AdWords in Francis Street. Like where did I go? I went to Oxfam, obviously on Francis Street because their furniture is class there.

Like the Oxfam charity shop there. And I nearly went home with a few things. I was like, I don't need that chair, but it's so cool. So,

Jen: Especially when there's, you're in like that kind of one of a kind environment, you know, like

Kate: you're like, what am I going to do with one chair? Like, it's lovely, but what am I going to do with one chair? Like, it's not a bedroom chair. It's kind of a dining chair. I just have one now.

Jen: So do you know what you can do, listener, if you're out shopping and you see something you love, take a photo of it, treasure that photo and then walk away. Just walk away. You don't need it. It's just going to make your house look higgledy piggledy. And like some people really have the eye and have that talent for like maximalism and clashing and all that kind of stuff and if that's you like go for it well done I don't really um yeah it's a skill so just know your palette stick to your scheme and just don't buy something that'll throw the whole [00:31:00] thing off because you'll end up hating that thing

Kate: Have you ever bought something or left something behind and had kind of absolute regret? Trying to think, like, I'm, I'm pretty bad now for buying stuff in TK Maxx and HomeSense. Like that I don't need, but I just liked. Like I have so many pots. I have so many plant pots. Because I just think they're cool.

And like, they're like 8. 99, 9. 99. And like, I must have 30 plant pots in my house. Like, all from HomeSense at different times. I mean, plant pots can kind of be different anyway. So I'm not too bothered about them being all matchy matchy. But like, stuff like that now. But when I moved out for our renovations, I sold so much on adverts.

Because I was like, I don't know what I'm doing with all these vases. Like, do you know?

Jen: Are they full of flowers?

Kate: Well, like, no, I had, like, I just had a stash of different ones. I have one actually in front of me because I took it from the attic. Like, this long one. Now, I liked this because I could put, like, long

Jen: Yeah.

Kate: lilies in it or something. And then, like, anyway, if you're only [00:32:00] listening to this, there's no point in me telling you about it.

But I'm holding off the vase with, like, that I bought in Medicine Barn randomly one day because I thought it'd be cool for lilies. It's, yeah, but it's like, it's like empty most of the time. But like yeah, stuff like that, I, I overbuy like those small accessories I would say.

Jen: The thing I tend to overbuy the most, because I'm actually not that bad for it, because I just don't like stuff that much. I don't really like that much clutter. But I will overbuy. Books, like I will buy recipe books, cookbooks, like there's no tomorrow. Not one time have I cooked a recipe from a cookbook.

Not, not one time.

Kate: do you remember I told you I bought the, the Matt Atler, the Baker one, like recently. I mean, honestly, like I haven't made anything. I would flick through it the first time and I was like, these all look amazing. Never made one. I'm like, I need to stop buying

Jen: my bookshelf here, right? The biggest book on my bookshelf I bought in, on a trip to, uh, to Ramallah in Palestine back in 2019, I think it was. And it's just hummus. I've never made hummus. I don't [00:33:00] know how many types of hummus I'll ever make. Not one time have I so much as

Kate: But it's like, it's almost like a bit of a, um, a memory of your trip.

Jen: It's outrageous. It's ridiculous. I know, but I've got photographs. Like, I don't need a gigantic book on just hummus. Like, come on.

Kate: I know. 

Jen: Anyway, the other thing I tend to buy other than books is cook, anything to do with cookware or like, uh, bakeware or anything like that.

Kate: Yeah, kitchen. I, I think we all, we also like just spoke about this in our gadgets episode. We like gadgets. We obviously, we were like, what would we talk about, about gadgets? And then we talked for like an hour and needed to cut. We obviously do like gadgets, especially kitchen gadgets. I think I have a kitchen gadget to do everything in the kitchen.

I don't have a spiralizer and that's about it, I'd say.

Jen: Oh, I have one. You can borrow it.

Kate: Do you?

Jen: Never used it. 

I

Kate: actually going to buy a heavy duty, heavy duty chipper one time, you know, the big. Steal like, you know, [00:34:00] big lever action ones. I was like, why am I, like, just buy frozen chips if I really want chips? And if I want chips, I'm probably going to eat them out.

I'm probably not going to make them at home anyway. Like, I don't know. Anyway, for another day.

Jen: potato. That said, I do have a gadget for Like the chopper, the kind of veg chopper thing and it's got different sizes of chopper, like dicing stuff and you put a potato in that bad boy and you got chips in two seconds. I mean, it's great purchase.

Kate: Well, there we go

Jen: No

Kate: off to buy, I'm off to buy a chipper. I'm off to buy a

Jen: Do you know the one thing I bought?

Sorry, and this is another topic that I know you came up against as well. Now look, I am primed and ready to do a full episode and anybody who knows me listening to this is going to be rolling their eyes on. Japanese toilets and South Korean toilets because I went to South Korea last

Kate: I'm, I'm sold, by the

Jen: light years ahead of us, light years ahead of us.

I, toilet paper, we're, it's disgusting. We are, we're, it's inadequate and we're, we're unevolved. Anyway, so I was totally convinced and I bought this thing. I

Kate: You bought a [00:35:00] Japanese toilet?

Jen: or something like that. I'd love to buy a Japanese toilet. Ireland's not ready. I don't think we're like,

Kate: 7 grand or something.

Jen: But I think there's an issue with installing them.

Now, I need to be

Kate: Well, I was up in, I was up in Soaks in

Jen: get electrics into your bathroom.

Kate: Yeah, I was up in Soaks in Belfast and they have 20 off the middle line. So, they're for sale, so it's possible now, but they were pricey. Yeah.

Jen: Well, I, so what I did buy was this thing, I think it's called Tushy. And it like sits underneath your toilet seat. And it has the nozzle and you can direct the flow and all

Kate: Underneath your toilet seat.

Jen: Yeah, it's just kind of like a little attachment that kind of goes under your toilet seat and it needs to like be plumbed into your bathroom all well and good but it just doesn't work on Irish toilets and the fitting is like 7 eighths of an inch whereas we have like

Kate: Yeah,

Jen: like that I don't know what it is but my point is there's lots of stuff you buy and you, I know you have said this in different countries and it just doesn't work you have to check with your plumber or your [00:36:00] electrician.

Yeah.

Kate: not to get too technical here, but like, I know, especially plumbing fittings, you know, there can be, there can be imperial versus metric, whatever, and even UK and Ireland, sometimes they're not interchangeable. And I think. I think, my contractor tried to explain this to me the other day, just be careful when you're buying them, because a lot of the fittings now aren't kind of compression fit, that would allow for that little tiny variation, a lot of the new ones are kind of like click fit or whatever, I don't know exactly, but yeah, it is something that can throw your tradespeople off, so if you're buying from somewhere outside of wherever you're renovating, whatever the country is you're renovating in, just run tradespeople first, and be like, this is the list of stuff I'm planning to buy, do you see any issues with it?

Yep.

Jen: if you're buying anything

Kate: Light fittings in general, yeah.

Jen: yeah, it can't have a motor in it. Anybody who's tried to bring their hair dryer to America will know this or to Canada, um, they're on a different frequency, they, they, they've lower hertz than we have, so it just doesn't [00:37:00] work.

Um, so be really careful when you're buying from abroad,

Kate: Yeah, definitely. And light fittings, they can be rated differently as well. You know, the IP rating or the water proofness. Some of them are rated for gardens, some of them are rated for outdoors. And then I've seen a lot of the ones, you know, from wherever they're coming from, drop ship from China or whatever on some of those websites that you're pushing on Instagram, they don't even have a rating in the description.

So they could be showing it as a picture of a light in a bathroom, but you give it to your electrician and he's like, I'm not putting that in a bathroom.

Jen: Yeah, because every country has different ratings and regulations and everything, it's just kind of hard to,

Kate: Yeah, that's definitely a watch out. Just, if you're buying anything kind of technical or fitting related, definitely check it with your tradespeople first.

Jen: Yeah. I think that's it, those are the biggest, most expensive mistakes. The rest of it, you know,

Kate: Keep listening, guys. I'm sure I'll make some more mistakes this time. But hopefully I learned from my Windows one last time and I have some solid options this time. They'll be installed [00:38:00] in a few weeks, so fingers crossed for me.

Jen: Keep an eye out on Kate's Instagram, victorianratwines, loads of cool stuff coming up.

Kate: Yeah,

Jen: Alright, well hopefully

Kate: see you guys

Jen: saved you all thousands if not hundreds of thousands of euros. You're

Kate: Yeah, you're welcome. Thank us afterwards guys. Bye, see you next time. 

Kate: If you found that episode useful, please do us a huge favour by giving us a like and a few stars and especially click that subscribe button. Thank you!