Want to learn about managing construction decisions, budget and communication with your build team? Learn from HOME Method members, Louise and Zane’s, latest renovation update.

You’ll see how they’re staying organised during construction, navigating cash flow and owner-supplied items, and avoiding unintended consequences along the way.

Listen to the episode now.

Hello! This is Episode 384, and this is Part 2 of my conversation with HOME Method members, Louise and Zane. We’re catching up with them about their Melbourne renovation, and hearing more about their construction process.

If you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, I’d recommend heading back to Episode 383 first. In that episode, Louise and Zane shared how construction is progressing, how they navigated early challenges with bank finance, and how a collaborative team and clear brief have helped them stay confident as their home starts to take shape.

And, previous conversations with Louise and Zane can be found in Episode 317 and Episode 318, and then their most recent updates in Episode 354 and Episode 355. 

In this latest update, we go deeper into what it actually looks like to manage the construction phase well. 

Louise and Zane share some really practical insights around finalising their joinery, including their role in reviewing documentation, and highlighting a process with the cabinetmaker that you may not be aware of when building or renovating.

We also talk about the systems and technology supporting communication and collaboration with their build team, how they’re managing the construction budget in real time, and how they’ve managed to stay organised as decisions, invoices, and timelines all start moving quickly.

Louise and Zane also share their experience of supplying some items themselves, and the reality of juggling cash flow when you’re managing contract payments alongside owner-supplied items. 

If you’re in construction, or heading there soon, this episode offers a great insight into what helps projects stay calm, collaborative, and well managed.

Now, let’s dive in!

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW.

Before we dive into the conversation, let me give you some context on timing. 

Louise + Zane joined HOME Method in July 2023, after living in their home for about 12 months.

The conversation that’s in Episode 317 and Episode 318 was recorded in February 2024.

Then, in July 2024, 5 months later, we jumped back on for the updates that are in Episode 354 and Episode 355. 

This latest update was recorded in early December, 2025. Zane and Louise’s construction project officially started in late June, 2025 and is due for completion in March of 2026.

I particularly want to remind you of that question: “What are the unintended consequences of this?” 

I feel that language, that use of words, is a fantastic way to frame a question that can then flesh out assumptions, tap into the expertise and experience of those you’re working with, and uncover so much.

Because one of the things you quickly learn when building or renovating is that most decisions you’ll make will have consequences. 

They can create a domino effect that can be difficult to anticipate or pre-emptively understand. But this idea of asking about the ‘unintended consequences’ is a great way to open the conversation with your team, and invite them to share things you may not be aware of, but would love to know more about before making that final decision.

I also want to touch on Zane and Louise’s comment about staying organised. 

Did you know that the HOME in HOME Method is actually an acronym? 

When I was coming up with a name for my signature program, I wanted to create something that spoke to what it does, but also what it stands for. 

And so, the HOME in HOME Method represents my belief that when you:

>> create your home with Heart

>> stay Organised in your project

>> get Mentored along the way

>> you can be Empowered to turn your dreams into reality.

Heart, Organised,Mentored and Empowered – are what spells out HOME in HOME Method. 

And so, if you’d like guidance, tools, and mentoring to help you stay organised, be able to manage every phase of your project with confidence, and navigate decisions without second guessing every step, you can join Louise and Zane and our other HOME Method members inside HOME Method.

Let’s hear from Louise and Zane now.

This is the transcript of my conversation with Louise and Zane as share how they’re managing construction decisions, budget, and communication as their build progresses.

Amelia Lee
I’m wondering if we can just have a chat about how construction has gone generally for you. So you mentioned, you’ve had site meetings. So just thinking through the machinations of construction and what we talk about inside HOME Method, being able to see a schedule for the build, having the site meetings on a regular basis, what builder communication’s been like for you, and if there’s been any hiccups and hurdles. You mentioned wanting to save some cash because you were expecting that there would be some additional spend required during construction. And just curious how that’s all played out for you, particularly given that you’re through a good chunk of it now in terms of some of those big structural things, and some of the things that can get a bit hairy with a renovation, and you can sometimes uncover stuff that you didn’t anticipate or due diligence couldn’t really find without tearing the house apart a lot. How has it been for you overall? And what have been the systems and processes that the builder has used with you?

Louise
Yeah, well, the systems have been great, actually. So the builder introduced an app at the very beginning. So that app really houses all of our communication. So we’ve got the schedule on there that the builder updates regularly, and that we can always see. We’ve got a communication texting channel through there that we try to keep all of the communication through so everybody can see it. And that’s where all of the variations are posted to and approved on, all of the plans are there, the contract is there, so all of the really critical communication and documentation for the build sits on there, which has just been amazing. And our minutes, actually, our minutes of all of our site meetings. So we have a site meeting once a week, every Thursday morning. And it’s been good just to keep across the build, but also just for us to know when we need to have answers to questions by, and just keeping that communication and our knowledge of what’s happening and when across the build. So yeah, having that app has been awesome.

Amelia Lee
Do you know whether it’s Buildxact or Wunderbuild, or do you know?

Louise
Wunderbuild.

Amelia Lee
Wunderbuild, yeah.

Louise
Yeah. So we were actually a bit of a guinea pig for our builder, because he was using it, and I don’t know what app he was using previously, but this is the first time he’s jumped on to Wunderbuild. But yeah, it’s been great for us.

Amelia Lee
That’s awesome. And it’s great to hear he’s been keeping minutes for you as well, and that the communication is all happening inside one portal, that the site meetings are being kept as that communication hotspot as well, and that he’s updating the schedule regularly for you. You mentioned that you feel like the build has gone fairly, I suppose, consistently, and there hasn’t been massive delays. Has there been anything that’s popped its or reared its head that you didn’t anticipate, that you’ve had to navigate?

Zane
Yeah, a few things along the way, I think three. One, it was really early on when we went to excavate and just level the backyard to prepare for the slab, we found that there were a whole bunch of treasures buried in the backyard. So that was interesting that there was nearly a build site underneath the soil of our backyard, and we found steel, and luckily, not anything too nasty, but it just meant that you need different equipment.

You needed this fancy crane that could separate the soil from all of the materials, and then the cost of getting rid of those materials is more expensive than soil. So just, surprise. And I think those surprises typically are happening beneath the ground. So we knew early on to expect some of that. I think another would just be recognising and being eyes wide open. And we learned this through HOME Method as well, that ours is part renovation, part restoration. So as we then worked in different parts of the house, we realised that then there could be rotting, and we just had contingent budget to say, “Well, we want to make it right. So can we fix that?” And another area, which was the actual back of the house, I’m sure, has probably been taking in a fair bit of water for quite a long time, but not really being noticeable or impactful, because it would run down and go straight into the soil.

But when we extend off the back of the house, that same pattern of water coming into the top and running down would end up in our new roof. So we had to then say, “Alright…” It was five days maybe extra where we said, “Let’s just pause. Let’s fix that, make it right, do it properly.” So I guess that’s just the transparency of a weekly site visit, to be able to say, “This has emerged.” And I was working from home the day they found it, so I was like, “I want to come over.” And I popped over and have a look and make quick, decisive decisions. I’d say probably the more challenging one in recent times is you work so hard on having this three-legged stool of your owner and architect and builder. There are some trades that are so specialised, that it doesn’t make sense for your builder to be right into the granular weeds of everything you’re doing. And I’m talking about carpentry and the cabinetry.

The level of detail in that cabinetry meant that it’s actually not, unless we ask for it up front, it’s not reasonable for the builder to be able to know absolutely every detail of what the cabinet makers working through. And I think that one caught us out a little bit, just as homeowners, not knowing the exact right time to bring the architect in, for example. And we can look at statements of work, it’s really not for us until we get to those detailed shop drawings that you go, “Oh, I can now see how this is going to present.” But in many ways, probably the statement of work in advance of that was when the cabinet maker said, “Oh, they can sign off on materials and whatnot.” So for us, I think that little triangle got tested because we had a fourth entity, and we had to work out, how do we work transparently with other specialists. So I think just a learning there. We probably brought the architect in one step too late, which then just creates frustration, because the cabinet maker then goes, “I thought you were making the decisions, and now there’s someone else.”

It wasn’t a disaster, and in days elapsed, it was probably less than a week, but it’s just a tension point that we probably could have managed more effectively. It’s one thing I’d call out, but no other nasty surprises. Our front room has dropped by about 400 mil over the years. So we’re now working out, do we bring that up all the way? Because if we do, it’ll impact our beautiful ceilings and cornices. So, we’ll meet halfway on that one. But they’re just, I guess, the things that we learn and discover as you work with an older home. And, yeah, I think if you’re talking frequently, you can catch them quickly.

Amelia Lee
You mentioned earlier that you had your architect at the meeting this morning. So, where did your architect work up to from their fees, and then I’m imagining that they’ve switched to an hourly rate, when did that occur in your project scope? What was the decision about that?

Zane
Yeah, it was essentially working to the conclusion of the signed off designs. So essentially saying, fixed fee. I think he probably got a sense from our brief that we were allowing space for them to do what they’re good at. But equally, we’re organised, we had a decent understanding of what we wanted. And I think that then led us to say, “Well, here’s the fee that’ll get us to this stage.” And yeah, beyond that point, if we are seeking advice above and beyond, because we didn’t ask the architect to stay on and project manage alongside us. We wanted to place that trust in the hand of the builder, because the builder is probably the one with the skin in the game at that stage. And I think because the relationship was good, we thought that was good to do. But there have been times where something, particularly something aesthetic, comes up that we think, “Well, we know this will cost us incrementally for 30 minutes or an hour. Let’s just do the cost value equation on whether we would confidently make this call ourselves or if they need to be at the table.” So yeah, we’ve moved now into that rhythm of paying as needed.

Amelia Lee
And in regards to the joinery, when I was chatting to Fionna and Ed on the podcast recently, they had their architect review the shop drawings because they knew it would be helpful for them in terms of somebody who’s inside the industry knowing what to look at. Is that how you handled the architect and the joinery process? Or did you do it differently to that?

Louise
Yeah, well, that’s the stage where we bought our architect in, was the shop drawings. And that was the difficulty, because they came after the statement of works was signed off. So, if we had our time again, and I don’t know what the usual process is, it probably differs from each cabinet maker to each cabinet maker. But when we signed off that statement of works, that was the green light in the cabinet maker’s mind to get cracking and start ordering materials. And then the shop drawings were produced, and that’s when we provided them to the architect, and he picked up a few things that meant a change in in the statement of works, just minor stuff, but there was a few – a colour change, for example, on one of the big, long panels, and a few different choices. But the difficulty, actually, was that we had been consulting with the cabinet maker over a matter of months, and we’d actually changed a couple of things from when they were originally drawn up by the architect, and we hadn’t kept the architect informed of those changes that we’d made, and so it just got a bit confused.

So yeah, if we had our time again, we would A) keep the architect up to date with any of those changes that we made, but B) bring him in at the statement of works stage. Thankfully, in the end, it didn’t cause too much heartache.

Zane
Yeah, and I think the cabinet maker is someone who works consistently with the builder, so at least there’s a relationship and a rapport there, it wasn’t a completely independent party. So that allows the build team to just have a bit of a pulse, and we copy everyone into everything. So even if you think this email has nothing to do with you, at least you have line of sight. So the builders could at least see where confusion was beginning, and they could intervene.

And I think there’s a lot of common sense that comes from the build team, and they’re so close to the rest of the job that they could sense that it was a bit wobbly, and could just then gracefully step in and go, “Oh, maybe we should convene an all-in conversation on this one.” And that’s probably how we got there quickly, but that was because they’ve got a really great and long standing relationship with the cabinet maker. And it wasn’t a pointing fingers game, it was just, “Where have we gone awry here, and what do we need to do to get back on track?” And I think our on-site builder is just so obsessive about sticking to our schedule, which is awesome to have someone who’s that committed to the detail and progress, and not having slippages that yeah, something is even a day behind where it should be, you know about it, and it’s great. He keeps us all to account, and then we sit together and iron it out and move forward.

So yeah, it’s one we probably learned a bit from, but also it was really good. The builders then turned around and said, “Great, we’ve now got that approval we need, and we’re back on track. Can we stop and seek feedback from you about how that could have been better or different?” And I was really impressed that the builders would be mindful enough to say, “These are all learning opportunities, and what’s your feedback that would make this easier for the next person?” So, yeah, it’s positive.

Amelia Lee
That’s fantastic. Yeah, that’s a sign of somebody who’s constantly seeking improvement. And it’s interesting listening to you discuss it, because I imagine that it felt really big at the time, and also just possibly some of that tension that was occurring between the various parties involved, and perhaps a sense of you knowing that you’d taken on a responsibility through that period, and then something hadn’t gone as you anticipated it.

But to me, sitting from the outside of it, it sounds like such a small blip in a project that could have had so many things go unexpectedly. For you to be where you’re at in your project, having signed your contract, you said at the end of June, I think you said, so we’re now at the very beginning of December, so that’s five months. And for it to have gone as smoothly as it has, and you be at this stage, and for there to be such a proactive methodicism to it is just, to me, a testament to all of that preparation that you did and how you pulled your team together, and how collaboratively you’ve worked to then at the point where you do need to be, go, go, go, and where delays do make a very big impact on time and money and resources.

It’s gone so smoothly. I think that you’ve done a tremendous job in terms of it. So I can imagine that this did feel prickly and tricky, and you if you had your time again, you’d do it differently. And I love that the next client of that builder, because of the way that they’ve approached their business, that they’ll have the benefit of your learnings to be able to improve their experience. And I imagine, the architect, as well, has learned from it as well. So to me, it’s just this really exciting thing that it feels quite small in the grand scheme of things and yet, for you, it probably felt big because you were having such a smooth project overall, in other ways.

So I am really curious how you’ve juggled this with your overall life. Because it has moved fairly quickly by the sounds of things, in terms of the decisions you’ve had. I can imagine that that whole process of the finance with the bank would probably have been pretty tense, figuring out whether they were going to delay it, was it going to get across the line finally, figuring out what you were going to put in stage two versus stage one. Then just even physically, you both work. You’ve got kids, you’ve got lives. How you’ve then managed to make site meetings every week? How have you managed to stay intentional, proactive, methodical, through all of this and juggle it with everyday life?

Louise
Yeah, it’s been busy, that’s for sure. Oh, gosh. Well, there’s a very long answer to that question, but I think the short answer to the question is just making sure we are super, super organised all the time.

As I said at the start of the conversation, having those big decisions made before we’d sign the contract was an absolute game changer. Having the regular meetings has just meant that we have been able to field questions in real time, take questions away and know the deadline of when we need to have that answer by. And equally, on Wednesday night before every Thursday morning site meetings, Zane and I always sit down and say, “Okay, we write a list of what we need to speak to the builder about, or the questions we need to ask.” So we’re equally coming to those site visits with questions for him as much as he is with us. So that kind of organisation has been the glue that has just kept everything together. But yeah, that initial delay in the financing, we made the age old mistake of assuming that the finance would be approved imminently, and we moved out of the house before we actually had the tick of approval.

So that was quite a stressful time, sitting there thinking, “Well, we’ve moved out, we’re paying rent, and we have actually no control over when this bank is going to approve our loan.” So, that was actually the most stressful part of this entire build, before we’d actually started the build. So thank God everything else has run smoothly, because if it kept on that track, we both have had heart attacks by now. I don’t know if you’ve got anything to add there, Zane.

Zane
I think it was the other busy period was we both work office hours, traditional office hours.

Most suppliers are only open during those hours, or, if not, it might be 8 to 12 on a Saturday, which is when piano, netball and basketball happen. So, shout out to our friends, our kids’ friends’ parents, because there’s been certain Saturdays where the kids have had play dates, and it’s freed us up to go and just cite things, approve things, do that work. I think the moment all of our selections were done, life got a bit easier and smoother. We do our site visits at either 7:30 or 8am in the morning, which really suits us, because we can just get up and get it happening and have the kids involved too. Truth be told, they probably prefer just to grab a phone and play games, but they at least spend the first five minutes looking around and what’s different and what’s changed and what’s new. So they’ve actually been to all but maybe two site visits as well, which is nice for them to see this thing evolve the way it has.

But I think in terms of intentionality and purposefulness, it’s the most important thing we’re doing right now. So I think, as long as we can keep the school and the work and all the balls in the air, we’re just really excited by it. We love it. Sometimes it feels laborious, if it’s 10:30 at night and we’re reviewing a detailed SOW, but most of the time, we’re really passionate about doing it well. And we’re also pretty conscious that, I think I said it before, we’re a team, so we don’t want to let the team down. We see how hard everyone else is working, and if they were to turn around and say, “By lunchtime Wednesday, we need this answer.” We take that pretty seriously, because you’re only as good as your weakest link. So we’ve been pretty committed, I think, to not letting the team down along the way.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, that’s fantastic. How has the budget gone during the build? Has there been much variance from where you started?

Zane
So a whole bunch of overs and unders really, like, I think price management was really great because we could work between the builder and architect, and the builder could say to the architect, “I can see stylistically where you’re going, I have another product that I can get much more affordably.” And 9 times out of 10, the architects would say, “Great.” 1 time out of 10, they’d say, “That’s not comparable, and stick with my beautiful tap, please.” So we would have that. That did really well for us. Fortunately, I think when we went out at the start the stone selections we originally made, not purchases, but just, “These are the ones we thought we would like,” our final selections came in a whole lot cheaper than where we first started. So I think when you think about some of those restoration pieces that I mentioned earlier that we’ve just needed to do or like the excavation piece that was a bit of a surprise, we’ve had an equal number of things that have come in under what we expected. And even just transparent planning. So, for example, with our concrete pour, we had a certain amount that we expected to need. We then had six extra cubic metres as a provisional sum.

We’re, fortunately, on sandy soil where we are, and there were no surprises, and we came in under, and then we didn’t need to touch our provisional sum. So far, we’re not done yet, but we’re actually sitting where we thought we would with the balance of the overs and unders. I mean, we’re right where we want to be.

Louise
Yeah, we kept aside about 5% in cash for contingency. And in our provisional sums, we’re coming in a little bit under on those so far, we believe. But there’s lots still to move in that with the rest of the build. But, I think at the moment, we’ve probably spent about half of our contingency, so about two and a half percent. So I reckon, it’s looking like we’ll stick around that maybe 2.5% to 3% when we get to the end of the build, hopefully, if things keep tracking where they’re tracking. But there’s not too many surprises from here, I wouldn’t think, given where we’ve got plaster board up and all of that kind of stuff. Hopefully.

Amelia Lee
And your joint and your cabinetry is all been priced and documented in shop drawings and tiles and things like that, all of your tiles and your sanitary wear and all of those kinds of things. They’re all selected and priced and all of that kind of stuff.

Zane
Yeah, they’re all delivered last week. And they were all actually us to provide. So that was just that, balancing, I guess, different items in a ledger. But yeah, they’ve been delivered now. I think the last ones for us will be carpet and floorboards.

Louise
So yeah, the owner to supply element, that’s been a tricky element to manage, because it was owner to supply carpet, floorboards, tiles and kitchen appliances and laundry appliances and things. And so, we factored all of that into our budget. And this is what Zane was saying, with the downside to the build tracking really well is that they need all of those things sooner than we expected to have to pay for them. So managing our cash flow throughout has been tricky. Like, we said to the builder, actually just last week, because he’s saying, “Okay, we’re going to need floorboards by January, and we’re going to then need the carpet pretty soon after that.” And I said, “Okay, well, that’s fine, but we just can’t buy them before our next payday.” It’s just the reality of it is that it’s moving at such a fast rate that we can afford it, but just the cash flow can’t happen just yet.

Amelia Lee
What was the reason that you pulled them out? Was that a budgetary thing? You felt that you were able to get better prices on your own? Because we talk about that a lot inside HOME Method, and I know that people have various approaches to it. What was your call about making that inside your own budget and to be supplying it to the builder?

Louise
Yeah, that’s a good question. I actually don’t know why we made that decision. Can you remember, Zane, why that turned out the way it did?

Zane
Well, I think early on, the places we were looking for a lot of those items, we were talking with the rest of the team, and they were saying, “Well, these items, we can actually source more efficiently or more affordably ourselves, whereas you’ll be treated to the same experience as us in these particular outlets. So if you want to get started and you want to put things on hold, feel free to.” And I think that’s just the way that we got an early jump on some of those items. And I think, just because we’re across it and happy to put deposits down, they stuck with us. But yeah, that wasn’t a super intentional decision.

Louise
Yeah, I think, psychologically, it probably felt like the right thing to do at the time, because it reduced our building contract, which kind of felt better.

Two wallet problem, isn’t it? You have to find the money from somewhere. And I think it felt better to kick it down the road at the time. But it certainly doesn’t feel that great right now.

Zane
We’re down the road now.

Amelia Lee
Your future self is looking at your past self and saying, “Okay, all right, thanks for this one. Don’t worry, we’ll get us through it.”

So I want to be respectful of your time, and I can see that we’re getting to the end of our time together, but I did notice you popped a question on the questionnaire that I shared before the podcast, and it has your terminology, Zane, that you said the unintended consequences. I think that’s a piece of language that’s actually a really incredible thing for a homeowner to remember in terms of the language that can be really useful in those conversations with your builder or your architect or your designer, because it fleshes out the opportunity to discuss things that can be assumptions or decisions that just aren’t even being thought about. And so that unintended consequences, which is what you put into your question of managing a build in phases with the carport and the pool in build two. I just wanted for listeners to think about that as a couple of words to really put into the front of your brain in terms of how you speak to people. Is that something that’s come out of your professional background, or is that just you not even had any self awareness of what a great question that was?

Zane
I work in strategic design, so it is something we do think about a lot, and just this acknowledgement of the things you don’t know. So, maybe I just used it once, and it helped a lot, so I’ve been using it ever since. But it just helps experts to fill the void and say, “Watch out for this one and watch out for that one.”

Amelia Lee
Yeah, it’s awesome. In regards to the unintended consequences when you do stage any project, for me, I think that you’ve done what you need to do, in terms of ticking the boxes, of proactively thinking about what can we bring forward into stage one that then streamlines stage two and doesn’t have us undoing or redoing work.

To me, when you stage a pool or a garage, those two things in particular, because they’re kind of external works, particularly in the way that your project design is working and the integration of the pool in the garage. There’s the obvious ones of services and access, those two, and it sounds like you’ve dealt with those in terms of thinking about what you needed to do in the infrastructure of the home and the ability to maintain access for earthworks and those kinds of things. The other big one can just be the levels, so the design of the levels, because a garage can only be a certain position from your curb in order for a car to actually physically get into it, and then for that access then to happen into the house, and there to be proper waterproofing between the two, or ensuring that you don’t have any issues with water between the two. And then the pool, the level of it, and then what that might then generate in terms of its connection with your outdoor spaces and your home and any retaining or excavation that might be needed in the landscape zone.

So, in terms of the master plan for the design, has all of that detailed level examination already occurred, and there’s RLs on all of your reduced levels, on all of draw relative levels on all of your drawings. How has that all been considered and then that integrated with your thoughts about your landscape and your earthworks in your backyard?

Zane
Yeah, it was all designed as one. So that’s good, I think, because we did start in the belief that we would do it all in one go, it was designed accordingly. And then, I think, from there, we just had to be really intentional about working backwards.

So levels are all considered, and it’s all within the approved plans. We still have to have active, live conversations about all of these things. So, for example, the back of the house, the roof line continues beyond the back stack of doors for an extra three and a bit metres, which is our outdoor living. We’re now looking at that, thinking, well, if the pool is genuinely phase two, then it doesn’t make sense that we would do the preparation and the paving for that section. Because what it will do is leave it quite exposed and vulnerable to damage, and two types of damage, I guess, the access required for the pool and just destroying the edging of the work that’s been done. And also, you can do your best with waterproofing, but if it is an extended period, we don’t want water getting underneath a whole bunch of crazy pavement, spoiling the party.

So I think even down to that level, we had a conversation at last week’s site visit to say, “Let’s just be really transparent about the timing of this phase two, because if it were to be not butted up with phase one, let’s not do that paving right now, because we’re going to create pain for ourselves.” So I feel like it’s all in the plan, and the carport as well, all of those decisions. And that came to bear at one stage, we wanted to retain an existing window, just because we really liked it, and it had old rated glass at the top. And we said we’d love to retain this. But then when we moved it from the room it was in to the room it’s now in. It actually sat really low in the room, which, from a privacy point of view, felt a bit odd. You could see straight into a bedroom. And then we had to troubleshoot, because that’s the same wall that the carporter joins. And we’re trying to structurally understand where the carport needs to be and what kind of levels you need on your roof, from a drainage point of view.

So it is all in the plan, but it’s not to say that on a weekly basis, we’re not having to revisit that, and try and make quick decisions while remembering the long game. At least all parties know the ultimate goal. It helps us with day-to-day decision-making.

Amelia Lee
It’s the ideal scenario. It’s been master plan from the beginning, and the decisions that you’re making now are factoring in the inclusion of it down the track. And so to me, it’s the best case scenario from a staging point of view. I think you’re doing all the right things, and it sounds like your team is really on board with helping you collaboratively work through that.

Nobody else is parking it and going, “Don’t worry. That’s not going to be my problem. I’m not going to worry. I’m not going to have to think about it.” They’re just as invested in ensuring that it’s effectively coordinated as you are in making sure that the decisions you’re making now aren’t going to prevent you from having the things that you want down the track. So, it sounds to me like the things that need to be done are being done. So it sounds really awesome. Before I wrap up, is there anything that you just wanted to add or finish up with?

Zane
Not that I can think of.

Louise
No, not really. Well, just a shout out to our team. They’re the best in the business.

From our perspective, they’ve just been so awesome to deal with. And as you said, Amelia, we feel like they want the outcome to be amazing just as much as we do. It just feels as though they’re really invested. And the walkthrough that our architect did this morning, he hadn’t been to site for months, so he hadn’t seen a lot of the development that’s gone on. And actually, it was weird. I actually felt nervous while he was looking around. I’m like, “Oh God, I hope he likes it.” Which is silly, but he was walking around, and he’s like, “Yeah.” And he thought it was coming together really nicely, and he was picking up on all of the little details. And I felt this sense of relief that he actually likes it.

Amelia Lee
He’s probably walked around it inside his head. It’s like, “Oh yeah, it looks like it should, because it looks like it did in my imagination”, unless you’ve drastically changed things.

So yeah, as somebody in the profession, it’s like I said right up front, it never gets old, seeing all of that envisioning come to fruition in a finished, built form, And at the same time, it also just feels like a great big reveal of the thing that you’ve been seeing in your imagination, but not necessarily been able to convey in drawings or conversations and those kinds of things, too. So that’s absolutely awesome. I want to thank you both so much for your time and for taking us through your journey so far. I look forward to getting you back once you’ve moved in, and telling us how everything is wrapped up and what it’s like to be living in the home. I think you’re doing a tremendous job. You’ve just done such a great job of getting yourself prepared and working through the resources, and pulling together this team and working collaboratively with them. And I can see it’s paying dividends in how construction is going for you. And I know it’s going to be fantastic in the outcome in your future home.

When do you think it’s going to be finished? When is it scheduled for you to be able to move back into?

Zane
Yeah, well, if you look at the app, it’ll say end of February. So naturally, there’ll be a period of everyone downs tools over Christmas. We never had a desire to be in pre-Christmas. I think there’s a flood of people who want things done by Christmas. And we thought, we don’t want to be part of that. Let’s just give it a little bit extra. We can live where we’re living until in the middle of March. So we’ve got a little bit of contingent time. So yeah, hopefully all going well, and Feb, we’ll be in.

Amelia Lee
That’s fantastic. Well, thank you so much, Louise and Zane. It’s just been so awesome to catch up with you and hear about it all. I really appreciate your time and your being here.

Zane
Thanks, Amelia. Thanks a lot.

RESOURCES

Listen to Louise and Zane’s previous episodes on the podcast:

• Episode 317 ‘Where to Start When Renovating, with Louise + Zane’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-where-to-start-when-renovating-louise-zane/ 
• Episode 318 ‘Beginning a Californian Bungalow Renovation, with Louise + Zane’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-beginning-californian-bungalow-renovation-louise-zane/ 
• Episode 354 ‘Choosing the Right Team for Your Renovation, with Louise + Zane’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-choosing-the-right-team-renovation/ 
• Episode 355 ‘Early Design Phase: Budget, Plans, and Feedback, with Louise and Zane’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-early-design-phase-budget-plans-feedback/ 
• Episode 383 ‘Renovation Progress Update: From Design to Construction, with Louise + Zane’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-renovation-progress-update-home-method/ 

Access the support and guidance you need (like Louise and Zane 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 

My free ’44 Ways’ E-Book will simplify sustainability for you, and help you create a healthy, low tox and sustainable home – whatever your dreams, your location or your budget. Access your copy here >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/ways