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Perfection vs Reality: How to Navigate Your New Build Confidently, with Ellen

Are you balancing perfection vs reality in your project, and wondering how to navigate your new build confidently?

In this conversation, HOME Method member Ellen shares how she balanced expectations, overcame overwhelm, and made confident choices in her new build – without chasing perfection.

Listen to the episode now.

Hello! This is Episode 357, and it’s Part 2 of my conversation with HOME Method member Ellen, about her new build and the construction process of her family home in Ballarat, Victoria. It’s been under construction for around 7 months.

If you missed Part 1 of this conversation, head back to Episode 356 so you can catch up on what we’ve discussed.

Remember too, that Ellen originally appeared on the podcast  in Episode 336 and Episode 337 to discuss all the steps and decisions that led up to construction, so if you’d like to learn more about the design process, builder and team selection, and feeling prepared for a project like this, I’ll pop the links to those episodes in the resources for this podcast.

Now, as I wrapped up Episode 356, we were discussing this idea of ‘there is no perfect’. 

There was more to that conversation, so we kick off this episode talking more about this concept of ‘there is no perfect’ and how you can empower yourself to still realise an incredible outcome for your project, whilst not overwhelming yourself with an unattainable goal of perfection.

I also ask Ellen about her thoughts on the psychological aspect of calibrating your standards and expectations for your project with the demands a project can place on you, so you don’t get apathetic or fall into overwhelm. Ellen talks about finding the balance, especially when there’s competing priorities.

And Ellen shares with me what helped her overcome her initial overwhelm in her project journey, and the importance of understanding the work you’ll need to do. In her words: “You may as well do the work well-informed”!

Plus, we talk about making bold choices with selections, and Ellen also talks about what she’s most looking forward to when the home is finished and they get to move in.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW.

For timeline context, Ellen was a member of an earlier iteration of the course that became HOME Method, joining back in 2018. 

Ellen and I recorded this conversation in late September, 2024. At the time of recording, their project was well into construction. The contract had been signed with their builder at the end of 2023 and work started on site with the demolition of the existing home in February 2024.

You’ll also hear us talk about project timelines, and how binary many can see them. I see people put themselves under huge amounts of pressure and stress to meet deadlines that are self-imposed and arbitrary. 

They’ll have navigated a project journey that might have taken years, but in the last weeks and months, will be racing to meet a deadline, sometimes at the cost of good decision-making, or making huge compromises on things that will impact them permanently. 

I’ve got an episode on the podcast about how no one sets out to build an ‘ok’ house … and it’s often in the pursuit of self-imposed deadlines I see people end up with ‘ok’ houses. 

Ellen’s suggestion of asking yourself ‘is this helpful’ or ‘is it unhelpful’ is a great one. Instead of getting hung up on bad or good, or these binary choices, finding the pathway through that actually serves you and the greater goals of your project, is a much more empowered way to navigate it.

This is the transcript of my conversation with Ellen about building with confidence and understanding perfection vs reality, whilst managing the overwhelm and competing priorities.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, I love that you said that, because I think that’s what a lot of people can hang on to, is they feel like this is going to be the only project that they do in their life and so it has to be perfect. And all it really can be is the best possible outcome for you at the time, based on your finances, the site, what you’re capable of, the attention that you give it, and the team that you pulled together to help make it happen. And that can still be absolutely amazing. And in 99.9% of cases, I see it be a dramatic transformation and improvement from where that person was previously. So, I love that you’re already in that mindset, and that you’re not crippling yourself with frustration and anxiety over the fact that something like this comes up. And then also, I’ve seen people punish themselves for having missed, and then it’s all they can see in the finished house is they feel like it’s a mistake, and it becomes this overwhelming regret when everything else in the house is singing and beautiful. And it’s the thing they apologise for every time somebody comes over, “I was meant to do this, this and this.” 

So, your perspective and your mindset and the way that you frame your thinking about this is so great to hear, because it’s such an important part of how you’ve navigated this project so well.

Ellen
And look, as a psychologist, I know how people’s brains work, and I know what trips people up, and I know where people go, where minds go. But equally, I know how to pull back from that, because I know that that’s not helpful. It’s not helping anybody – me, my family, guests. Because you can’t make it perfect, there is no perfect. You really just have to be able to take a step back and, as you say, let it go and say, “This is still so much better than anything that we’ve had before.” 

The other thing I remind myself is, I’ve lived in a lot of houses over my lifetime across three different cities, none of them are perfect. Most of them are far from perfect, but you adapt, you adjust. I think, it is different when you’re building your own home, because you feel like you have a level of control over things that you don’t when you just purchase an existing home. And to some extent, you do, but I think to think that you can make it all perfect, not just for now, but for the future. Yes, you want to be able to future proof as much as possible in your design, but we can’t control what happens in the future. We really don’t know. And I think, there’s possibly a temptation as well for people when it comes to that notion of future proofing, to try and imagine every potential scenario, and try and plan for that. And that’s just not how life works. And it’s not how life works if you’re in any existing property either. There will always be things that you will have to maybe change or adapt to circumstances. 

There’s plenty of people, when you look around, who you realise life just takes them off in an entirely different direction, and they might have built their perfect home and then had to sell that home and move on to something else. It’s one of the hardest things about being human, I think, is knowing that we don’t have a whole lot of control over what happens to us on any front. And that’s really uncomfortable for us. But the more you can get comfortable again with that discomfort, and I think it absolutely applies to building a home in the same way that you won’t get perfection, you don’t know what’s coming, you can only do so much, and that has to be okay.

Amelia Lee
This is a bit of a left of field question, but from a psychological point of view, I’m really interested in… you talked about that you’re a conscientious person, and I know you personally, you are incredibly conscientious. You’re also intelligent, you’re very able to apply yourself, and you’ve upskilled yourself really well in terms of how you’ve gained knowledge for this process… That sits hand in hand then with you navigating this project going, “Well, I know I can’t possibly be across everything. And this is not about creating the perfect house.” I suppose, where I see people start to dangerously tread is they can shift from that into an apathy of, “Look, it’s not going to matter.” And very quickly they end up on a slippery slope where they’re conceding to a lot of stuff in the spirit of, “I can’t get it all right.” And it’s almost like they drop their standards for themselves very quickly as they’re navigating things, in that effort to try and lighten the load of pressure that they’re putting on themselves. 

What does that look like? And how do you prevent that, I suppose, and maintain some level of calibration about your own standards as you’re navigating stuff that is uncomfortable and that you haven’t done necessarily before, and that you know that you can’t know everything… But, how do you know what you’re supposed to know? And just how do you reconcile all of that from your own mental and mindset approach?

Ellen
That’s such a good question, because I think it’s probably something that applies to so much of life. And for me, and certainly, again, if I’m working with a coaching client, it would come down to what are the things that you hold really dearly? So, what are the things that, I suppose, are the most valuable to you? So, we talk about values and that kind of thing, that you’re not prepared to shift on or move on? And what are the things that you can let go? So there will always be that calibration. 

And I think being really clear about your purpose, in this case, your build. What are the things that are really core to what it is you’re trying to achieve here, the ultimate impact you’re trying to have? And then what are the things that are perhaps the nice to haves? And then the things that you really don’t care about? So, there will be a cascading and being really clear about those, for you and the purpose of the build. So, for us, the things that we won’t relinquish on are things like thermal efficiency. And I was reading something on one of the Facebook groups, I think, this week about skylights. And some people are absolutely you cannot put a penetration in your roof. It’s disaster. We’ve got a skylight. I love a skylight. For me, again, there was that sense of, “Yeah, that, probably to some extent, compromises this value a little bit around thermal efficiency. But one of the other goals for me, for this house, was being able to see the sky.” So, it’s finding that balance always, or trying to find that balance between sometimes competing values. 

I want light. And it was funny because somebody in this Facebook group had actually made the point that you could go for perfect thermal efficiency by building an underground bunker. But do you want to live in an underground bunker? What are the other competing priorities here in terms of your well being or your quality of life? So, there will always be some of those things that come into conflict a little bit. And they are judgment calls that individuals have to make and then be comfortable with that. And that is the case in so many life decisions. Life is full of complexity and compromise. So, being able to be clear about what are the things that we will give on, and what are the things that really don’t matter so much? 

So, to give you a good example, we have timber-look tiles going into the property. And I was keen on those because I liked they were a suggestion of our interior designer. I like the timber, I’m into the natural substances, I suppose, even though this is a fake version of the natural, if you know what I mean. But the warmth and the colour and the texture that goes with the wood grain. So, I like that. But because we have so much northern light coming in, I know from experience that timber floors will fade, discolour. So, there was a bit of a, “Well, this counters that issue.” Again, from a thermal perspective, we might have been better off going with a concrete slab. I have spent time in houses with concrete slabs that were very noisy, and also, I drop things a lot. Now, tiles probably won’t be much different. So, there’s all of these little competing things that you have to manage. But my builder was a little bit concerned with a tile because they are long tiles. And he said, “From a laying perspective, they could bow. You can end up with something that isn’t perfect, that you won’t be happy with.” And I will often defer to my builder’s advice, because he’s got a lot more experience in construction than I do. But for me, it came back to I went and had a look at these tiles at the showroom, I was confident, when I saw them laid, that they were a high quality product. That as long as they were laid well, we would be fine. We don’t know, the proof will be in the pudding, because none of that’s happened yet. But for me, it came back to know that something I really do want for X, Y, Z reasons. 

So, there’s always that little bit of compromise that you have to make. But, I think, if you can be really clear on what is the ultimate impact. So for us, it was going to be around thermal efficiency, but also light, being able to see the sky, having the design work for us. 

Having just was a few things like, we have a carport because my husband has a caravan. So, we had to design around the fact that this thing had to get into this carport. So, having key criteria like that, that had to be the hard and fast, and then appreciating that there will be other things. So, for the sliding doors, for example, it’s not going to have an impact on thermal efficiency. It’s not going to have impact on the livability of the house, or whether or not we see what we see, that indoor, outdoor connection, the garden and any of those sorts of things. So, not a biggie. And, I suppose, that’s the framework for making those decisions. What are the things that you compromise on? What are the things that don’t matter as much? Knowing that you will always have to compromise on something, there will always be something that it doesn’t turn out as ideally as you might like.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, thank you so much for taking the time to take us through that, and also the illustrations along the way. Because I think it’s super helpful for those who are navigating this experience for themselves. 

I mean, I feel like how you navigate a renovation or new build project, how you show up in that process is pretty much how you show up in life. And so it is this big exploration and adventure, and a test, also, of a whole heap of mindset challenges, because it’s such a personal journey it can just feel like so much is at stake.

Ellen
Yeah. And look, to that point, for me now, I feel like I can talk about these sorts of things as, “Oh, we did this and we did that, and it’s all good and it’s all working really well.” Which it is at this point. But there were moments, it’s a highly emotive experience. It is not an easy project to navigate. With all of the education you can undertake, with all of the team you can put around you, I think knowing that for a lot of people, and me included, it’ll be one of the biggest things you ever undertake. And it requires navigating relationships within your family unit, and it requires navigating stuff about money that people could be really uncomfortable about. It’s a big, massive thing. 

And I tip my hat to anybody else who undertakes this process, because we perhaps underestimate going into it, especially a custom build. It might be different if you’re doing a volume build and you’ve got somebody who takes control over a lot of that stuff. But a custom build requires a lot of players, a lot of moving parts, a lot of decisions, and a lot of not knowingness, even when you do educate yourself. So, pulling on the resources that Undercover Architect and HOME Method has provided, and the team, and everything that I have has made an enormous difference. But, it’s still a lot.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, it definitely is. And I think too, it does impact everybody differently, because those things have different priorities. And I just see that it blindsides people, how much it can impact them. And I think there’s that thing, we’re fed a diet of reality TV that makes it all look super simple, super fast, and not the emotional roller coaster that it can be. 

So, can we just touch on how you feel HOME Method has helped you, or how you think things might have gone differently if you hadn’t had those resources inside Undercover Architect? Because it’s one of these things, I feel like some people start listening to the podcast, and then they’ll jump into HOME Method and think that it’s just going to make all of that stuff go away, that it’s going to be the silver bullet or the magic pill. And I’ve always said that I promise you that it will definitely simplify the overall process. And I also promise you that if you do the work, that this will be so worth it. But anybody who’s telling you that this is actually just going to be super easy is probably not being honest with you about what’s actually ahead of you. 

So, how have you found, I suppose, being inside that community and having the resources inside HOME Method has helped you navigate or made the process different for you?

Ellen
I’m going to pick up on something you said, and then I’ll go back to answering that question. Because I think that piece about doing the work, it’s a parallel with life. You have to do the work. And so, what the HOME Method materials and Undercover Architect and the podcast and everything that I’ve learned has done, has provided me with a framework, and tips and tools, and things to think about that I wouldn’t necessarily have thought about. And fundamentally, I just couldn’t have done it without it. I just couldn’t because I am perhaps a conscientious person, because I know that nothing in life that’s big and complex is simple and easy, that you will always have to do the work you. And it has provided me, absolutely, with that level of knowledge and understanding about how to approach it, things that I just knew nothing about. 

I remember looking at the whole construction process. So, I knew nothing, absolutely nothing about that. So, even just that first level of awareness of this is how building works. Things are done in stages. You pay these progress payments, that that’s all fairly standard. I didn’t know any of that stuff. So, to have all of that framework and knowledge and level of understanding, like an introductory level of understanding that you can then hang further learning on, is really what it’s been able to provide me with. And I know that I could not have done the build that we’ve done, and had the experience that we’re now getting to have through the construction phase, without having all of that resource available to me, because I just wouldn’t have known where to start. And as it was, it was incredibly overwhelming in those early stages. So, to even contemplate what that might be like without those resources and that material and that level of knowledge, it just would have been impossible. And I think, probably for us, we probably wouldn’t have done the build. We would have bought another existing property maybe.  

I can understand for other people, and I think that might be the appeal of a custom build, where everything is managed for you, but then that depends on what kind of outcome you’re looking for. So again, it was that values judgment for us. And as I said last time, we did look at a volume builder as an option, but it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t going to be an option because the things that we wanted and the level of control that we wanted over those big ticket things that impact stuff, the design, how it felt, we weren’t going to be able to achieve going down that route. So, for me, that was the big thing. 

And I think, that metaphor of life, you have to do the work. And I say that to anybody who wants to change anything in their life. And a lot of people will go, I’m not a clinical psychologist, but even as a coaching psychologist, I think there are people who will come and go, “Well, the psychologist is going to fix all my problems. They’ll just tell me what to do.” And I see that so much in so many of the services that exist within that realm. The magic pill, the 12 week program, any kind of behavior change stuff that purports to make it simple and easy.

Amelia Lee
Hack the system.

Ellen
Yeah. I’m sorry, that’s just not how it works. I know Osher Gunsberg, I read in his book, and when you listen to any of the stuff that he does about his experience of mental illness, and getting his life together across a number of domains, the thing he says is, “Do the work. You have to do the work.” And I think this is exactly the same. So, you’ve got the resources, you’ve got the framework, you’ve got strategies, you’ve got tips, you’ve got experts, you’ve got all of this resource available to you, but you still have to do the work to pull all of that together. It’s not somebody doing it for you, because it never is in life.

Amelia Lee
And I think that’s the thing, isn’t it? It’s work you’re going to have to do anyway. A lot of people ignore it, but it’s work you’re going to have to do anyway.

Ellen
You may as well do it well informed. Yeah, resources at your fingertips.

Amelia Lee
Can you tell us a little bit about what’s coming ahead? You’re going to be starting to fit out the interior, what are you doing with your kitchen and your bathrooms, and how those are getting pulled together?

Ellen
Yeah, so, I’m having conversations with our joiners at the moment about all of that. Again, because all the decisions have been made well in advance, it’s now just the little tweaks and things. So, one of the things that came up over the weekend, and there’s always these little things, was we’ve got a robot vacuum. Love my robot vacuum. I’ve got two dogs, two kids. Love the robot. And I said, “I haven’t thought about where we’re going to put the robot vacuum.” And when you’ve got the opportunity, at home now, because we’re living in an existing property, you’re just going, “Well, there’s a spot in the corner. It can go there.” But when you’ve got the opportunity to design these things in a little bit, I was like, “Oh, I better go send an email to the joiners and say, ‘I’ve got this. Where do I go?'” And they said, “Oh, have you spoken to your builder and blah, blah?” So, there’s little things there with those sorts of tweaks. 

But for the most part, the decisions have all been made about cabinetries, tiling, door handles, appliances. So, it’s now a case of just double checking that everything fits where it’s supposed to, that everything’s still available. That’s actually one of the things that was always a bit of an anxiety provoking thing, because we made decisions about so many selections, like 2021. And it’s now 2024. Would they still be available? 

And I’ve been amazed, actually, at the longevity of availability of products there. There has not been, I don’t think, anything that I chose… Now, again, we haven’t gone really unique, bespoke things necessarily. There’s a few quirky things in there, like the wallpaper that I’ve chosen for our powder room, which my children are horrified by. But I think it’s going to be amazing, because it’s dark blue background with giant cabbage roses and things. And I suppose, at this point, you do get to make some bold decisions if that’s your inclination, and it is my inclination, even if other people might look at it in horror. Being bold has been one of those values in the decision making process that I’ve implemented. I could go the safe option, but what does my gut tell me? My gut always tells me to go bold. So, there’s a few of those sorts of things that we’re just confirming. 

But yeah, so, it’s cladding at the moment. That will be interesting to see. Because, again, the cladding, I’ve had to make decisions. We’ve got a Weathertex timber. Weathertex, look it up, listeners, if you don’t know it.

Amelia Lee
Composite board.

Ellen
Composite is the word I was looking for. I thought it was compounded. So, yeah, composite board, because we have a certain BAL rating we’ve got to adhere to. And that’s about half the house. And then we’ve got some Hardie like that side, I think it is. And yeah, the cladding vertical and horizontal. So I’ve had to make final decisions on those, and I don’t know what it’s going to look like. So again, it’s one of those ones where it’s going to be very big, it’s going to be very visible, I’ve just had to trust my judgment.

Amelia Lee
Just back yourself.

Ellen
Yeah, it’s going to be fine, and it will be what it will be ultimately. So, that will be very telling in the next couple of weeks as that all goes in. And, yeah, again, electrical plans. So, we’ll confirm all of those as we go along, as in everything. Our builder and his team is very good at giving me a heads up. “Okay, this is where things are happening, what they’re looking like over the next couple of months. These are the decisions that, if not yet made, need to be made, or if made, need to be confirmed. This is when we need to know by so that sequencing all works according to when it needs to.” So, it will be electrical, rough-ins and confirmation of all the final drawings and decisions for the cabinetries, and we’ve got a lot of cupboards. 

Like many families, I think possibly, that experience of never quite having enough storage for everything. So perhaps, going to the other extreme. I did scale it back at some point, going, “This is just ridiculous now.” I still feel like we will have cupboards that we won’t have anything to put in, at least initially. I’m sure things will find their way into cupboards over time, at least initially. So yeah, it feels like we’re running into the final months.

Amelia Lee
You’re hoping to be in by Christmas, aren’t you?

Ellen
Well, I don’t really know at this point. The contract actually says next April.

Amelia Lee
Okay.

Ellen
Allowing, I think, plenty of contingency time.

Amelia Lee
Yeah.

Ellen
I haven’t checked in. I’ve got a site meeting tomorrow with my builder, so I’ll check in and just say, “What are you thinking in terms of where we’ll get to?” Again, we all have this mental thing about Christmas.

Amelia Lee
We do, don’t we?

Ellen
Things have to happen by Christmas. And there is a part of me that goes, “You know what? Christmas is chaotic anyway. I don’t think I want to be trying to move out at the same time.” As much as, and I think I might have mentioned last time, we bought this property 10 years ago. At the end of this year, it’ll be exactly 10 years. And as much as there’s something nice in thinking that you’ve finished and you’re done at that, it’s literally been 10 years, that kind of bookmark sort of thing. It has literally been 10 years, and an extra couple of months isn’t going to make a whole big difference. And there’s a part of me that, “We’ve been in the house that we’re in now for five years. I’m going to have to pack it all up and clean it all out and do all of that. I don’t want to have to do that again.” So, I’ll just take it as it comes. 

But yeah, it is only a matter of months, and that’s what I keep saying, especially to the kids when they get frustrated. Or my oldest who, I think I might have mentioned, is literally bursting out of his bedroom. “Mate, just a couple more months, just a couple more months.”

Amelia Lee
That’s the thing, a lot of the deadlines that we have in our projects are self imposed. And then we forget ,and put ourselves under a lot of stress and anxiety trying to achieve them. I mean, there’s nothing like a pregnant belly to be pushing a project along, but…

Ellen
Not having to deal with that, thankfully. Yeah, absolutely, just your own deadlines, I think, that you impose. And again, one of those opportunities to step back and go, “You know what? Why? Why are we pushing for this? Is this helping?” I think that’s one of the things I use a lot with clients, is we have this binary approach so often to decisions and life, things about something being right or wrong, or good or bad, or best or worst. When, in actual fact, if you can frame it up as is it helpful or not helpful? 

And for me, putting that extra pressure on yourself and on your family, if you don’t have to, not helpful. What can you do? How can you reframe it? How can you back off a little bit and say, “In the whole great scheme of things, I want to be living in this house for the next 30, 40 years maybe. If it’s another two months, that really doesn’t matter.”

Amelia Lee
Yeah, I love it. Absolutely love it, Ellen. Now, can you share with us, as we wrap up, what you’re most excited about when you think about moving into this finished home that you’ve been waiting for for some time?

Ellen
Mmm, that’s a really good question. I’m looking forward to it feeling like I want it to feel. I know that’s a really nebulous thing to talk about, but the design is around having the sunlight streaming in and being able to sit there with my cup of tea, and have that in the morning with the Eastern sun, because I haven’t been able to do that in a house for a very long time. For me, personally, I will have a home office in this build that will be absolutely mine in every sense. You might have to ask permission to be allowed in, if you remember my family.

Amelia Lee
Sounds fair enough to me.

Ellen
It will be decked out in my colours, my style, absolutely no compromises there. And it will be the first time that I’ve had a dedicated working space, and for me, recording space, because I do podcasts as well. In maybe forever, I’ve worked for myself for 22 years, so I’ve not had that. So, that is going to feel like an absolute luxury with the day bed that sits under the window and the whole bit. So, that’s a real highlight for me. But, I think, to see my family enjoy it. We have waited a long time, and I have been the predominant decision maker in all of this. And I’ve always done it with them and their experience of the house in mind as well. So, looking forward to that. I’m really looking forward to my garden, which actually will be late in the piece, in terms of we’ve got the design ready, and we’ll do the basic parts that can be done within the building contract. But I enjoy the garden, and so I’m looking forward to planting things. I’m looking forward to that all coming together. So yeah, there’s a lot to look forward to.

Amelia Lee
Yeah. I said to you before we jumped on that I don’t think you’re going to know yourself. And then very quickly, I think, it’ll become the norm for how you live, and you’ll forget that you ever lived any other way. So, it’s this amazing thing, my husband and I occasionally do that when we think about how we’ve lived in sheer construction sites, and just, I suppose, what looks normal and what you actually tolerate and get used to, and then you have this great big personal shift because you’ve created this new environment for yourself, and then that becomes your new level.

Ellen
Humans quickly normalise things, which is both good and bad. But yeah, I think for me, I will try to savour every moment of and have those moments of reflecting on where we’ve come from. Because I know, for me, personally, I’ve lived in some pretty average places over the years, and some lovely places over the years too. So, it’s beholden on us, as individuals, I suppose, to really savour the good things and reflect on those and try and keep that perspective and continue to enjoy it.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, reflect and have gratitude, hey? Absolutely beautiful. Ellen, thank you so much for your time and for sharing more of your story with us. I can’t wait to see you guys move into this finished home. Like you said, it’s been a long time coming, and I know it’s just going to be absolutely magical for you. And I really appreciate you speaking so candidly about your experience, and also bringing your expertise and knowledge to translate some of what’s actually going on behind the scenes, because I know that that is super helpful. I know that a lot of what you’re talking about, people experience and don’t quite know how to normalise it. And I think your conversation has done a really great job of framing it in that way, and helping people feel much more seen as they navigate it. So, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time.

Ellen
You’re very welcome, and I hope it’s helpful to all of those people. And if you are stuck in that really challenging part of it, just keep moving forward in whatever way you can. And it does get easier.

Amelia Lee
Thanks Ellen.

Ellen
Thank you.

RESOURCES

For Ellen, a Knockdown Rebuild was the right choice. If you’re trying to decide this, read the blog and the 7 questions to answer here >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/renovate-or-detonate/

Member story for Ellen >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/building-a-family-forever-home/

Instagram account for Ellen >>> https://www.instagram.com/the.house.the.hughes.built

Curious about Ellen’s work and resources? >>> https://bit.ly/m/Potential-Psychology

Ellen’s previous episodes on the podcast

Clare’s episodes (more conversation about relinquishing the idea of perfection)

3 Tips to help you avoid creating an ‘ok’ home design >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-avoid-creating-an-ok-home-design/ 

Access the support and guidance you need (like Ellen did) to be confident and empowered when renovating and building your family home inside my flagship online program, HOME METHOD >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/the-home-method/

Learn more about how to interview and select the right builder with the Choose Your Builder mini-course >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/choose-your-builder 

Access my free online workshop “Your Project Plan” >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/projectplan

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