Renovating our home has been one of the greatest challenges we’ve faced. It’s taken a lot out of us not only financially but physically and emotionally. Actually, we weren’t expecting it to cost so much. We did the budgeting and everything before we began but I think a lot of people get ambitious at the start about how economical they can be. When it comes down to the crunch, there are always expenses you were hoping not to face up to at the start. From floor tiling to house painting, there have been things we weren’t expecting.
It’s been a few years since we started turning out little cottage into a period home. And in that time our munchkins have grown up a lot. They’ve entered their “trouble-making phase” and that’s making renovations so much harder. Not only do I have to worry about what the house painters are up to, for instance, I’ve got my hands full with the little ones. Thankfully, with the recent renovations I’ve actually been grateful to the painters. Melbourne companies are very efficient and while I thought I was going to have to monitor their work and get them to fix it up a few times, instead they listened carefully and got the job done like I asked. So I could keep watch on the kids and give them some lunch while the painting was going on.
I can only hope to have a similar experience when we get our garden landscaped, because the kids will be running around everywhere and I really can’t handle having to watch over the gardener and the kids at the same time. I do have to admit that I was particularly impressed with the house painters. Melbourne is not the kids of place you can get perfect service every time, unlike say, in Japan where they put more emphasis on customer service.The expenses of the house renos have left for a babysitter and I’d rather spend more time with the kids anyway while they’re at this special age.