March 13, 2019

If you’re anything like us you appreciate a good before/after shot.

There’s just something so instantly comforting in witnessing pure chaos transformed into complete organisation, calm and zen.

The worst the before, the better the after.

With that in mind we’d like to present you with our laundry, pre-renovation, complete with bottles of bleach and semi-open bags of cat litter.

Stunning isn’t it?

Laundry is already a bit of a thankless task— although that feeling of taking something dirty and making it clean is pretty priceless. But housework is house work. You might as well do it somewhere nice. Thus began our first laundry renovation journey.

All done on a complete budget (full transparency, we don’t count the AEG 900 Series 10kg washer and AEG 900 Series 8kg dryer because we consider them an investment in saving time but also our more expensive clothing).

So without any no further ado — here are 3 tips on how we turned this…

Into this….

All on $AUD2,000.

ENLIST ALL THE FREE FAMILY HELP YOU CAN

They say there’s 6 degrees of separation between every person on the planet.

Which means somewhere on the outer limits of your social circle there is a handyman or woman just itching to help you on your DIY odyssey in exchange for few cases of beer.

Perhaps not ‘itching’ but definitely able to impart some helpful knowledge on placing Caesarstone benchtops and plumbing without flooding.

For us that was Dom’s father, who has successfully renovated over 5 houses. He would constantly back and forth to the Central Coast from Sydney to watch over Dom as he sliced and diced materials (often even doing it for us), helping to tile the splashback, lifting the shelving. It was pure love embodied in handyman form and honestly there aren’t enough cases of beer to cover off the effort he put into helping.

NOBODY REALLY CARES ABOUT THE BRANDS OF TAP YOU INSTALL

While we can understand people having the odd conversation around a washer and dryer (“oh that’s AEG ? Isn’t that German? I’ve seen those in the showroom! How do they go? Are they worth the investment?”) because sharing intel on the latest tech is helpful.

Something people almost never say? ‘Wow, where did you get your laundry taps?’ Usually people just take in the overall effect.

If anyone is judging your tap brands it’s time to install new friends, not new taps.

For the record we found these matte black beauties at Bunnings Warehouse for $237. Not the cheapest but certainly not the most expensive. The handles on the cupboards were by far the most value at $1.50 per piece.

DON’T SET A TIME LIMIT

You know the old saying ‘good, fast, cheap, pick two’? It’s true. Especially when it comes to anything DIY. For this reason, don’t put pressure on yourself to get it all done fast. You’re juggling work, you’re juggling kids, you’re juggling life. Leave your do-it-yourself- jobs for when you have exactly that — time for yourself.

Which we all know is in scarce supply. Hence why there’s a booming tradesperson industry in the first place; nobody has time to do it.

Also the amount of time it takes to do a good DIY job works in direct correlation to how long you’re willing to put up with sheer mess. A week? A month? A year?

For us we lasted about 4 weeks where we didn’t have a laundry at all and got extremely friendly with the transients down at the local laundromat. Many expensive Kenzo sweaters were sacrificed in those giant nameless industrial washers (okay, more like just one sweater but you get the point) but what we lost in pricey threading we saved in labour.