There's a big difference between renovating your own home versus renovating your investment property. Here's some tips.
- Carlene Duffy’s advice to successful applicants
- An open letter to Block contestants
- What is your renovation style?
More than any other question, The Block contestants are asked if renovating really was as difficult as it appears on TV. The answer is, it was harder.
Despite what people might think, we didn’t have additional help behind-the-scenes or an interior architect to consult with or more time than the editing suggests.
However, now that we are in the process of renovating our own home, I can tell you that there are a few ways The Block was, in fact, much easier than our own real life reno.
There are a few ways The Block was in fact much easier than a real-life renovation.
One job
Sure, we’ve got cameras in our faces all day and on-the-fly interviews and weekly off-site challenges, but this was nothing compared to renovating whilst contending with the distractions of everyday life.
On The Block we had one job and that was to renovate one room within seven days. There was no trying to juggle, work, kids, housework, family commitments and social lives on top of it. We could be completely immersed in our renovation without the risk of missing kids’ homework deadlines, misplacing the power bill or forgetting to give the dog his monthly tick medication.
Room by room
The idea of renovating one room at a time in real life is absurd, but I’ve very recently come to appreciate how good this situation was. Right now, I am in the process of trying to make a million micro decisions for our own home extension, which consists of three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a rumpus room, an office, a breezeway and landscaping. The extent of it is overwhelming to the point that I’ve been frazzled into idleness. And I make these decisions for a living!
I’ve decided that the only way forward is to revert back to my Block ways and to make all the design decisions for one room at a time. Wall colour, cabinetry detail, art, furniture, the whole shebang, room by room.
Committed tradies
The bane of every renovation is the unreliability of tradies, and anyone who’s renovated knows that one flaky tradesperson can swing your whole renovating schedule into disarray. On The Block, every tradie who signs up knows what they are in for and what is required of them, which could even mean hanging plaster sheets at 1am.
Sure, some of them grumble under their breath about having to work over and around seven other trades, as everyone scrambles towards the tools-down finish line, but they know that they can’t not show up. This is because a) it will be aired on national television (not good for business) and b) it could mean the difference between the contestants revealing a room or not. So with some exceptions, trades on The Block show up and perform.
Enthusiastic suppliers
Much like tradies, The Block suppliers (whom we seek out ourselves) also go above and beyond to help a weary and desperate Block contestant out. There is no eight-week turnaround on material and furniture orders that we can expect from real life renovations.
Generally speaking, you can make a frantic phone call and willing suppliers will work nothing short of a miracle to deliver what you need. I recall receiving my terrace upholstery at midnight before reveal because Michael had initially provided the incorrect measurements and we had to get the foam recut at the last second. You’d only get service like that on The Block.