The Ins & Outs - Renovation Roadmap

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

On this episode, Polly goes full "Innie" and peppers Jojo with questions about her renovation project.What are the dos and don'ts with a renovation? Where do you start? Who do you get involved and when? Plus, find out where you can save money and where you should spend it!Jojo also opens up as to why she's a bad friend and her "Book Club" faux pas!InstagramPodcast - @the_insandouts_Jojo - @houseninedesignPolly - @pollyanna_wilkinsonProducer Andy - @andy_rowe_WebsitesJojo - https://www.housenine.co.uk/Polly - https://www.pollyannawilkinson.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The She Soars podcast is an absolute must for conversations about sexual and reproductive health and rights. We are a group of passionate young women from across Canada who are exploring global issues that affect girls' lives and choices, and how they relate to Canadian youth. Tune in to Season 3 of the She Soars podcast for more hot topics and inspiring speakers from around the world, and discover ways we can all take action. Her rights. her voice. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Mitch from SideNote Podcast, and I'm here to tell you about the new Google Pixel 9 powered by Gemini. Anyone who knows me

knows the Pixel has always been my favorite out of all the phones I've ever had. Now, with Gemini built in, it's basically my personal AI assistant. Since I'm truly terrible at keeping up with emails, I use Gemini to give me summaries of my inbox, which is a lifesaver. And if I'm feeling stuck creatively, I just ask Gemini for help and bam, instant inspiration. You can learn more about Google Pixel 9 at store.google.com. green the color of true elation pine on a summer's day see i've been waiting for you hello and welcome to today's episode of the ins and outs with myself jojo bar and the very lovely pollyanna wilkinson on today's episode we are going to be talking about why I'm a shit friend, an update on Polly's dick pond because we all want to know, my book club faux pas and Polly is going to absolutely hammer me

with questions about renovations and where to start, how to start, how to save money, what to do, what not to do and just about everything in between. to do and just about everything in between. Hello mate. Hello my darling. How are you? I'm so well. I'm so well. Oh you've had a haircut. I have had a haircut. You've gone very French Bob chic. It's got a hint of the choir boy about it. No I don't know. I'm going to go French chic. It's very short. It's a little shorter than I anticipated. And, you know, I'm getting used to it. No, I like it. I think it looks fabulous.

So that's your news. That's the wrap on your news. So what's been going on in the world of Polly? How's our Mr. Big? He's so well. Oh, gosh, that's so exciting. He's so well. Polly's going to love, love, love him.

He's so lovely. Oh, good. this is so exciting. He's so well. Polly's going to love, love, love him. He's so lovely. Oh, good. All is well. You deserve it. My little boy was eight this week. Oh, my gosh. Isn't that scary? Eight years old.

I'm too young to have an eight-year-old. No, you're not. Don't you fuck off. Although the visage is looking very good is that collagen starting to kick in my friend the collagen is going well i use it religiously but now you might have seen i've now bought one of these red light masks oh have you yeah okay um do you know it's a difference like the rave reviews about those well pal i've only used once, so not yet. I'll keep you updated. You can use it all over your body.

That'd be good. There is one that comes with a neck flap. I'd like one to lift the boobs. Well, no, it's not going to lift them, darling. It's not a miracle worker. I mean, it does lift the skin. But it's the skin on the décollage, isn't it? It's the décollage that starts to go.

Yeah, so there's one which is like a face flap, but also a neck flap. Sexy. Because you all get the old crepey chest. I didn't buy that one, so I'm just going to have an immaculate face and a crepey old chest. Do you know what?

Interestingly, I never put my, I think I say this all the time, I don't put my face in the sun. No. Because my mum for 78 years old has got wonderful skin and her secret was don't put your face in the sun. So she'll lather 50 all over her face. Love it. Usually wear a hat or just keep out the sun.

And then put fake tan on her face. And there's some really, really good fake tan drops out there that I use. Those tan luxe drops are good, aren't they? Tan luxe, yeah, I use the Clar tan luxe drops are good aren't they? Tan luxe yeah I use the um Clarins ones are very good. Do you mix them in with your moisturizer? A little bit of moisturizer with my factor 50 moisturizer yeah. That's why you always look so healthy. So yes Project Skin going apace Mr Big Superb. Now catch me up what have you been doing? Catch you up we've just wrapped up on a new project actually up in york which is very exciting all of our projects are coming to an end at the same time which is really exciting because it

means that we can line up all our photo shoots and then in the spring which is the best time to photo shoot because the light's so beautiful and then we are in full design phase all of our projects are in the same place at the same time is that how it normally works a bad thing I don't know why it's happened that this way it just all seems to have just backlogged right up to sort of installs and photo shoots and everything within condensed into a couple of months and then we just sort of literally on the design board doing designing of internal spaces um we're at the early very very early um design and renovation stage now look I want to check in with you on your resolutions how's the paper diary going

you mean this one stop it well done stop it I know I'm really I have to say that's been an absolute gift I love that amazing I tell you and they're going to bed early and not watching television yeah I'm doing that I'm definitely I'm getting into bed earlier I mean that amazing I tell you and they're going to bed early and not watching television yeah I'm doing that I'm definitely I'm getting into bed earlier I mean this past couple of weeks has been a bit mad because of um commitments and work stuff but I have been getting into bed at sort of 10 10 30 and I've been I have been religiously setting my alarm and I think bots want to help because it kicked me back a couple of hours but I've been getting up at 6 15 every day first up in the house it's usually Bradley hasn't been

feeling very well he's usually out running and doing the gym um but 6 15 every morning I'm downstairs I make my kettle on I do a hot water and lemon love it I have I take that synergy that there's improved stuff that you take 10 minutes before do that 10 minutes that that so good for the gut yeah gut gut uh so i do that first i have my lemon water and then i have my oat milk flat white with my collagen in nice and that's my and i sit and i'll do a little meditation um and then i'll catch up on the on the news and that's my that's my morning and i'm really enjoying it i have to say it's the routine i'm that's my, that's my morning. And I'm really enjoying it. I have to say it's the routine. I'm loving the routine. Yeah. It's a really funny, it's a, it's a good feeling, I have to say. I've kind of resigned myself to the fact, and actually I was talking to someone

about this this week, when I went to my little book club, my first book club review. Oh, I want to hear about this. I see that you finished the book. Finished the book. And when we, sort of some local mummates we all get together and this is our first one that we ever did it was so brilliant and it was real tonic I have to say to sit down with just some good mates and just thrash it out um but I have come to the realization that I am truly a workaholic and it's not for want of wanting to be anything else I just am a workaholic I love my work and I it's almost like I've sort of so so much try and convince myself I should do other things but actually it's what interests me the most I just really enjoy running a business and working so

that's been quite nice that's quite a sort of settling feeling when you actually think that's okay that's fine as long as I make sure you know to sort of they're one of the saying no's to certain things and giving myself a bit of me time then actually I'm just fine with it but it does mean that I'm a I'm a pretty crap friend I would say I wouldn't say that well I am I think I how so I would say when you're running a business um you tend to put your work and your clients first before most other things and friends sort of end up sort of falling to the back of the back of the pile and it's a really awful thing to say but I'm so grateful that I have such good friends that actually know that I I do love them

and I'm useless on whatsapp and you are useless on whatsapp rarely get back to people um and the worst thing is is when my friends are like they're whatsapp me and then yeah you do you're whatsapp me and ask me a question and then I'll sort of leave you hanging but then suddenly you'll see me on instagram and it's so so I know I know I'm a I'm a I'm a bad friend, but a good friend, if you know what I mean. I love my friends dearly, but I'm just not always there as much as I should be. But I've sort of resigned myself to the fact that I'm just going to be, you know, a very unpopular person. I think someone said the other day that it's your sort of the age we are now is that crucial work time it's when people are really investing in their careers so I think I don't think you have to apologize for it

as long as your family life isn't suffering as a result or your mental health then you're right you know what it probably it probably comes back later in life I've still got we've got little ones haven't we I just I think I'm I see so many of my friends out and about doing lots of lovely fun things and going to social places and but that's just not my life at the moment it's just I think I'm, I see so many of my friends out and about doing lots of lovely, fun things and going to social places. And, but that's just not my life at the moment. It's just, I, and I can't see how anywhere in the near future it will be. I sort of have to turn down a lot of social things. Probably don't get asked out to a lot, many more social things. Cause I usually say no, but unless it's for work.

Yeah. Just a little realization there that I thought I'd share with you and God knows how many listeners. So sorry about that. Now tell me also a quick one on the book tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. I saw you gave it a seven out of 10,

which I find grossly unfair. So I'm not sure I, well, first of all, the very funny thing was, is that I turned up to the book club bearing in mind I was the one that started this thing and I turned up to the book club and I sat down I said right girls I've got one small question for you all what happens at the end of the book no and they all looked at me like you are fucking joking and i was like i didn't get to finish it no i didn't i and she i know i didn't get to finish it um but it would have probably helped that i'd read the end that might have pumped it up to an eight but certainly certainly would have helped yeah but fair enough oh how's the how's the flowering around the dick pond

i thought that was a euphemism for a minute i was like pardon me is the dick pond staying or is it going it's there for now it will be going soon more on that in a minute but actually the flowering around the dick pond they've uh i've now discovered that they planted a series of little yellow mini daffodils and crocus so actually it's quite pretty how sweet a little incongruous okay so no wild grasses at the base no just some very pretty spring bulbs up the shaft you could have had some snow drops just spouting from the end next year you can have some real fun with it it could sort of grow you could actually make it you could actually do new little new little water features around around the garden just to sort of you know

surprise people whilst meandering it shall soon be going actually my friend because the the house renovation is a go i can't see i can't keep up here because you you have absolutely charged into this renovation at full literally full pelt she's she's strapped herself in with with a helmet on that's got like go faster stripes on and what's that old what's this 80s skier I can imagine you like being like that Eddie the Eagle pointing head down the mountain don't talk about skiing oh how is the knee shit it's okay it's okay physio's going well it feels like you only bought this yesterday and you've basically designed it had the quotes back got the tender yeah starting you've done your

office I can't keep up I've literally here I am shopping for a bog I am and I look and I'm interior designer and I'm like I can't bring myself to do anything in my own house it's a strength and a weakness that I'm very very impatient and also quite um proactive let's say I mean you know I put I put planning in the day that I exchanged on the house as soon as you're allowed to um planning went in and yeah the build and then Mitch Levinson my architects have been absolutely amazing they were on it straight away as soon as I had an offer accepted we started on the design which was a bit of a risk but hey worked out in the end and so the tender quotes are back and so I would love to use this episode as a bit of a reno special a poly reno special selfish so selfish

no but I'm hoping this will be usually unselfish because the question is like you've got your quotes what now and I've got loads of questions and a lot of them tie into ones that have been sent in. Do I need to get myself a really strong coffee before we start this? Buckle in, lady. Buckle in, double espresso. Okay, so today is a renovation special. Yes. And you're just going to basically fire questions at me. Yes, I am.

Okay, right. Let's go go then let's fire away so I've got the quotes and I'm picking a builder and it's surprise surprise it's uh costing far too much and I can't afford to do it all which I think is pretty common right like that's we see that in our work all the time the design goes out comes back and then we have to value engineer which is a um sort of nice way of saying cut costs yes i'm going to just very quickly stop you right there because sometimes uh sometimes people will jump straight into getting quotes from contractors i would say before you can obviously get a bit of a rough guide quote if you want to the contractor or just to suss out which contractors you might want to work with

and that you gel with and you feel you know that sort of that you're going to work well together so you can indeed suss it out but I would go as far as to say you really want to get really firmed up on your designs to the point where you've got your floor plan layout absolutely sussed yeah you've obviously got your planning um and you've actually done done a sort of pretty high level scope of works so you want to really know what's going on the floors what's going on the walls and what's going on the ceilings um that will hugely help do you need to know the exact flooring that's going on the floor i.e this is tile this is wood or can it just as in does it have to be it's a um small format parquet or can you just say this is going

to be timber tbc so the it's not that you need to have actually selected what it's what the sort of the make and the name yeah model yeah um it's more that you have to say what it is because it will determine the laying conditions and obviously leveling so you want to say what it is because it will determine the laying conditions and the leveling. So you want to say, you know, almost do a floor plan where you highlight, just really roughly highlight. This is going to be wood floor. This is going to be tile. This is going to be stone. This is going to be marble.

Whatever it is. That's going to really help the contractor. Because also what you want to do when you're entering into any project is try and get a fixed cost. So that it's not just rolling and rolling and rolling and the only time really that there should ever be an alteration to the cost is if you the client have made an addition or an alteration or indeed your designer has um or something gets thrown up when you're renovating such as pipework or damp or something else that's obviously going to cost the contractor money and time yes um but you just there's no point in it rushing headfirst into a project without having everything fixed and and agreed and i to the point

where i'd even say sort your electrical lighting plan out as well because if a contract is costing essentially off very very basic plans um without having any idea of m&e drawings you know you're heating electrical you're having underfloor heating you're having wet you're having radiators yeah what's what's what sort of lighting systems are you having if you don't know those things a contract is going to quote very basic he's the tender's going to come back as a basic he'll probably put four basic white down lights in the ceiling you know simple white single switch at the door so you kind of want to give them as much information as you can to get a much more um airtight uh tender back yeah which makes total sense so that would be my number one advice. And also give yourself time to prepare everything

that you're specifying for the house. So don't, for goodness sake, set yourself, right, contractors are starting on the 1st of May, spades are going in the ground, haven't chosen a single bloody thing. Well, that was my next question, my friend. I've done what you told me to do. So all of the quotes are very robust and they have obviously lighting plan. next question, my friend. I've done what you told me to do. So all of the quotes, the quotes are very robust

and they have obviously lighting plan. Thank you, House 9. We've got lighting plan, we've got layout, we've got rough ideas and materials. So that's gone to quote, that's come back. I'm now unpickling all of those quotes and reading them through. It's costing too much, so things have to come out,

which I will figure out. Let's say I've chosen who it is and we've agreed a price we're happy with what do I or what does what does one need to do next so I'm very aware it's a six to eight month build what do I need to decide on first so that when they come to me with a question I have an answer is it materiality of the floor is it that I need to have picked my kitchen and it has to be booked because I guess they're on a long lead time kitchens so yeah if in terms of assuming that you don't have help assuming you're not working with an interior designer you've paid your deposit the build is about to happen I don't know what happens first footing I don't know how stuff and then what do I need to have ready and what can wait till later so I think absolutely your

understand what heating you're going to be using that's pretty key and then also what flooring is going to be going down I think flooring is pretty essential that will help them also understand levels where they might need to do some leveling work, what screed and that sort of thing is going to be going down. So I'd say that's, that's really important. Again, like I say, wall and floor and ceiling finishes,

because again, if they're going to be finishing, I suppose it's not even the finishing, but they're not going to, you don't, what you don't want, if you haven't decided, for instance,

for instance, if you haven't, if you've deciding on paneling, which we know I love, and you haven't written early on that you're having paneling in xyz rooms yeah the contract is obviously going to cost to plaster and finish that wall to the point where why would you then plaster but beautifully a wall to then panel it because plastering is, is a job in itself. So that's why get your understand what you're going to be, what treatments you're going to be putting on your walls quite early on.

Yeah. Um, so flooring is, I'd say flooring is one of the very first things we always say hard finishes. It's going to be much like you for the garden. If you imagine your plant, your, your hard finishes,

your core, we call those your core, your core items. And then your plants are your furnishings and your accessories i love that so do you okay hard so yeah so like hard materials okay so you want to go hard stuff first so don't worry about you can have your mood boards and you can think about the lot the big term the long-term picture because that's nice to keep coming back to and remembering when you're in the depths of a build that you can look at that and think this is what it's going to look like one day but it's really honing in on try not to over clutter your mood boards if you're doing it yourself with but I want this on the sofa and I want this on the curtains and I want the wallpaper

forget that for a minute put that to one side dial in on your wood floor yes um what sort of you know if you're going to do stone where it's going to meet the stone your threshold details um your doors your hardware put the hard stuff on a board that's kind of I feel like the most important thing what your radiators look like things on longer lead time items so yeah what are on the longer lead time because that's I'm terrified of not picking that kitchen early enough. So what do you need to be organized with? Depending on, it totally depends on the kitchen supply that you're using on their lead times. Check with them when you very first start.

Don't be afraid to go and speak to kitchen companies before you've even started on site. Because the sooner you get those guys involved, the better. on site because the sooner you get those guys involved the better the she soars podcast is an absolute must for conversations about sexual and reproductive health and rights we are a group of passionate young women from across canada who are exploring global issues that affect girls lives and choices and how they relate to canadian youth tune in to season three of the she soars podcast for more hot topics and inspiring speakers from around the world and discover ways we can all take action. Her rights, her voice. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Mitch from SideNote Podcast,

and I'm here to tell you about the new Google Pixel 9 powered by Gemini. Anyone who knows me knows the Pixel has always been my favorite out of all the phones I've ever had. Now, with Gemini built in, it's basically my personal AI assistant. Since I'm truly terrible at keeping up with emails, I use Gemini to give me summaries of my inbox, which is a lifesaver. And if I'm feeling stuck creatively, I just ask Gemini for help and bam, instant inspiration. You can learn more about Google Pixel 9 at store.google.com. I'm actually going to rewind. You can learn more about Google Pixel 9 at store.google.com. Our role is as important as an architect. Please don't overlook the importance of having an interior designer at the same time as having an architect. And it's really important to say that look at the interior designer and what they do as a service, because a lot of interior designers like ourselves, we cover spatial planning. ourselves, we cover spatial planning. And I've said it so many times before, we work alongside architects, but we also we do our own architectural plans and elevations. So what you don't want is a

board of work where you hire an architect, spend months with them designing a house, which we've got currently at the moment on a project, and we then get brought in yeah and introduced to the architect who undoubtedly hates us from the offset because they think oh god we know what's coming it's only because we're looking at we i always say to clients it's like as a designer and as if you even if you're doing it yourself imagine walking up to your front door close your eyes and stand in front of your front door and put your key in that door. Open the door, turn your lights on and think about the space that you're in. Yeah. Like visualize it.

Like where are your light switches? What lights do you want to come on? What happens when you turn the corners of room there? Like you've got to get into the space. So as interior designers, this is what we do. We're thinking about where the console is going to go, where your is going to go does it need wall lights has it got all of those little details we're mapping out for you on a floor plan without blowing smoke you guys saw my original laying uh laying layout plan which was beautiful um but what the clever suggestions you

made the tweaks you made um are iconic frankly they're they were genius and if you hadn't have seen it I still would have had a very beautiful house but it's they were so clever so clever thank you Paula really appreciate that I think a lot of people will over overlook and this is I think as interior designers our job is quite misunderstood um yes we pick lovely fabrics and yes we make houses I don't think layout is necessarily something I would have thought that you did. Layouts are absolutely, and I think most interior designers, I don't know many of the top designers that don't help with floor plans like we do. So I would say really consider if you're starting a project,

you will save yourself time and money by getting yourself an interior designer. And do it sort of in parallel. Do it in parallel. Don't be afraid to bring an architect. When you bring an architect and an interior designer and do it sort of in parallel do it in parallel don't be afraid to bring an architect when you bring an architect and an interior designer together at the same time it's a unit it's a magic it's magic and and you appreciate and you respect each other whereas if we're brought in late understandably we're going to come and piss them off I would be pissed off if suddenly someone was like oh by the way I know you've done all this hard work and I know this is your vision but we actually just brought this other expert in to look at you and it's you know

what it's like well you've been there we've spoken about this before you don't want someone picking at your plans and telling you that they could be better we'd rather work with an architect on that than you know it'd be too late so that's a really really important bit of advice we have the exact same outside and actually it really is worth repeating because at the same time i know we say this all the time and i know a lot of people see gardens as secondary to the house so they do leave it until afterwards but we often come on when the architects have already had a go on the garden and with with love and respect as much like you what we would do in that garden is almost always different to what has been proposed and there's a misunderstanding sometimes with clients that architects design the hardscape

outside and it's just not true if it's outside of the back doors onwards or front doors we design it and the layout is so crucial we are not just the plants people we are literally everything that flows and the very best ones as you say the best projects are where we're all instructed at the same time and everyone knows what their um responsibility is what their responsibility is there's no pissing anyone off because we countless times come in we always get called in when everything is already almost underway it's so uncomfortable and we're going oh no we wouldn't have done this we would have done it differently and it would have been better in our view but yeah and then it's a very very careful line between not wanting to piss off the existing people who have already done a brilliant job both of us cross into

each other's realms so sometimes you have architects that also have an in-house design team who are capable of doing they'll put furniture layouts in and they might do electrical lighting plans and things but and likewise you have interior design practices like ours that also do architecture um we don't take drawings to planning so we take drawings to a point where this is what we want it to look like this is we've we've followed your aspirations and this is what the client brief has covered we've got everything down we've agreed the furniture layouts we've got it pretty much pinned down we then hand those plans to the architect who does that works their magic draws them up for planning and construction so they then take our drawings that have been approved by the client and draw them up for construction we then work with the architect to say uh they might say i know jj you've proposed to move this door but

actually we can't do that because we've got a structural pillar or whatever it is and they're the pros of that and those are the tweaks so that's essential and then they go off to do the drawings and the sort of taking our electrical lighting plans they'll then put those into proper format for construction so that tends to be that's on a sort of quite high level project but sometimes the architect is only needed for planning drawings. And then actually ours are good enough to go to construction. Right. So it just, it depends.

I just really fully understand the responsibilities of both parties. And also who's project managing it. That's another thing. Paul, I don't know. Actually, we haven't discussed this. But project management is another thing. I think sometimes people assume that we as designers might be project managing project managing is something that is quite a different different beast isn't it responsibility

altogether so we usually say it's up to the client to be the one to manage their own project or get a project manager in if they don't want to because otherwise it's yeah it's a whole new beast but the best projects are really when you bring everyone on at the beginning everyone respects what everyone else is doing and you work as a collaborative team celebrating each other's work rather than totally yeah right onwards so I'm going to first of all it's the builders are being instructed I'm going to spend my time focusing on choosing those those hard materials so my floors my walls what can come later because it's things like we've talked about switches and I eventually want all very beautiful switches but that might not necessarily be something I can achieve straight away is it okay just to whack in the very basic ones going

I'll change them in a couple of years or are there other places yes okay yeah you can totally do that switches as switches and sockets um is a good place to save money i say it all the time please don't put really expensive sockets behind hard furniture yeah so for instance behind beds where you're never going to see sockets and you know you're going to have a big bedside table just put a white plastic socket it's a huge cost saver honestly it will save you a lot of look after the pennies the pounds will look after themselves just consider those small little they add up like think how many sockets you need around a house what else can you do later what can you do later so there's always things that you can

add later such as it's going to be it's going to be joinery okay joinery is a really big one carpentry carpentry is expensive joinery is expensive i think people used to gawk at the idea of having mdf like that that was a really sort of like can't believe my wardrobe is going to be made of mdf that is the best thing to make wardrobes out of because they don't swell they don't move they don't change you can have wooden fronts but so mdf is now the cheapest way to make wardrobes but it's still don't don't turn your nose up at it because we make all our joinery from MDF um things like coving details you know in rooms you don't you can miss off coving for the time being you don't need to put coving up um do consider wall lights things like wall lights so you might want to have lovely feature wall lights around the place or

but you can put a sort of cheap fitting up temporarily or you could even just close it off in the wall and just know it's there for later yes okay and is there anywhere that you shouldn't if you're choosing where to uh I don't want to do anything that is sort of redacted works that I go damn it I wish I'd just um spent that bit more are there places that you should just go don't scrimp here you're going to regret it because I know when all you're looking at all the costs together you're sort of hacking away at different costs are there things where you like never compromise on the x I would say that's going to be the your wood flooring is an absolute essential

um I suppose things like uh yeah I mean, you can get brilliantly priced tiles now. So bathrooms, sanitary wear, there's some great companies out there now that you can get really good sanitary wear, but for God's sake, make sure it's good quality because you don't want drippy taps and things that are just going to break after a couple of years. So I would say things like your brass, brassware is important that you get right wood floor is it's such an essential to me I think so many people rush out and get cheap wood floor um especially in kitchens because you've got to obviously really think about the fact that wood floor is is it's going to wear it does wear wood floor don't for goodness sake

think it doesn't especially if you're running in and out and you've got a sort of a terrace and yeah you've got kids and dogs running in and out it will start to mark and it will start to fade and it will scratch um and therefore you want to be able to sand it back okay and treat it and most wood floor has two or three sands in it you don't want to go lower than three sands in especially in a kitchen area otherwise you're gonna have to take up the whole floor and replace it and sometimes you actually put the kitchen on top of the wood floor so all these things just please just personally i would go for a wood floor that you can sand three to five times and if you speak to a wood flooring specialist they'll know what they you mean by that with an engineered oak floor so it's more

about looking at things you could add later because that makes a lot of sense with the carpentry that you could just have a plain box you can put in those it's the finishes so it's things like your your door handles your switches your sockets um your wall lights all those things are obviously a really additional cost yes so the contract it's worth thinking about long term for instance if you want it like i said if you if you want wall lights in a room but you just can't afford the wall lights right now there's no harm in making sure the power's there getting it wired in and then you can bring it out later the same for like tvs in rooms even if you're not going to get a tv just make sure you've got your tv point where you want it in the wall so you're not having to like chase it out and again you know get um decorated to repair it yeah things

like skirting think those sorts of things i would say make sure you put the right things in put the right to put the doors in that you like put the skirting in that you like put the architraving in that you like that those will fall under the contractor's budget it's the finishing touches it's the finishing touches that you can save the money on okay fine yeah and kitchens so kitchens can vary in price from what i don't know ten thousand to a hundred plus thousand yes kitchen what's a clever use of money in kitchens where should you spend and where can you save oh again mdf so don't go down the route of doing a solid solid timber it would have to be painted do you mean the units yeah the units so painted units as opposed to timber obviously exposed timber real timber is

going to be much more expensive obviously something that's much more picked up off the shelf rather than bespoke is going to be a lot cheaper for you the handles that you choose that's a big thing handles can range massively in value the white goods i mean white goods can again range massively in value the oven that you choose i would say kitchens is a real you need to get you need to just get some quotes in because i think sometimes people are really shocked at actually how expensive kitchens can come out at once you've considered your your unit costs and your white goods and your handles and hardware and your taps and your worktops marble worktop courts so all those things just

again start to get some costs together and really understand it but you okay you want a good quality kitchen that's going to last it's it's that it's the most important room in your house i think if you're doing a renovation from the start look into air source ground source heat pumps yep think about insulating your house because you really want to think about long-term gains of insulating your house properly and how much energy you can save you get a really energy efficient house underfloor heating we've spoken about it before but there's wet underfloor heating there's electric underfloor heating wet's more expensive to put down in the first place electric is cheaper to put down the first place but water is cheaper to run in the long term electric's much more expensive so put it in

put it in your bathrooms carpet go carpet upstairs because it's going to be warmer we tend to put ground uh underfloor heating on ground floors and then you could put radiators on first floors and up that tends to be a big cost saver good windows good good quality windows again i'm talking about insulating your house it's so important i can't stress enough how much money windows and doors are about a quarter of my budget my goodness they are but let me tell you they're one of the most important things that you will put in your house they are not just the way they look but how efficient they are okay so first of all hard hard finishes so choose your floor choose your walls choose rough finishes it doesn't have to be the exact tile going into your bathroom but know that tiles are being used there for example yes so

that's focus one focus to phone the kitchen companies yeah but also if you're working with an interior designer like us then we design kitchens for you but if you're not for you but if you're not but if you're doing it but if you're doing it yourself yes then reach out to kitchen companies early on to get your costs aligned to make sure that you start to plan that. Jojo, that is so helpful. And I hope that's helped a lot of people who are thinking about the renovation think about what they need to think about first. Obviously, that's probably probably came across as hugely overwhelming. And I probably just absolutely splattered you with facts and information there. So it's an ongoing project, isn't it? So we will keep if you've got questions about renovations please send them in because obviously it's rife and i shall be walking that journey with you guys so we can learn together from jojo's insane knowledge and expertise so jojo what's my what's

my homework what's my reno homework this week reno homework i think for you it's going to be really hammering out those tenders so you want to get those tenders in front of you and line by line go through them don't just look at the bottom line price and go fucking hell like sit down really go through them put question marks next to what you don't understand sit with your contractor and try and and say to him what can we pull out here that's coming out expensive what here is expensive that you think we can pull back on and then speak to your brilliant designer um who will also try and work with you house line uh houseline.co.uk who will also work with you to to you know really sort of eke out your budget and make all right well i'll have done that before i've even had my morning coffee what else come on

you bloody well you will you'll have picked the fucking paint colors for your house love i know what you're like jesus jesus i mean i can't catch my breath i can't even catch my breath jesus um i still need to get a house sign fine all right i'll get on to it that's your homework all right hammering out the costs okay fine well that brings us to my favorite bit what's in what's out well do you know what because you just hammered me with questions for the last like half hour i'm gonna hammer you right back bring it tell me what's in and out my love do you know what's in is um colorful trainers I'm seeing them everywhere you're noticing them loads of sort of either bright red bright green I'm not sure if I'm gonna go down that route because I think I will go off them but colorful trainers are everywhere

color in general everywhere color in general color colors in in in yeah color is having a moment and then what's out is one of my most hated plants which is called forsythia and it's in flower now it's bright yellow which you hate yellow flowers don't you no i there are some yellow flowers i love in summer they're beautiful foils to other colors but this very angry shrub i hate it i hate it and it's out in my garden we need to see a picture of that so you'll be pulling that up this week what's out is that that shrub you're pulling it out okay it offends me every time i walk past it okay right on that note my love um i'm off i'm off to do some more work but i love you have fun with mr big hope you get it oh excuse me right goodbye my love bye

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