Wednesday, October 4, 2000 — North Shore News - 15 Food Neighbourhoods Parenting . _ Table Hopping | 22 ara of he _ Whirlwind reno a SUCCESS +) THERE'S no ~ es question that a_ => -¢ renovation is . Stressful. For. me, the reno was actually fun. As_ for my husband, he “complained, argued . and swore but in the end I know he ‘ really hated it. ; : Overall! didn’t feel too overwhelmed by renovation::] felt it stayed relatively sane during the. 22 days. That’s right, 22 stress-filled days. -The job was definitely fast-tracked and the tradespeople were not entirely happy about con- stantly working around each other, but all i in all I" “think“everyone did a great job... ~ ‘We definitely tcarned a lot. First and foré:nost, how importént good budgeting is. In the long term we are not quite sure what will happen to this ” -- house. We love the property, but the house might eventually be torn down or seriously renovated to accommodate the growing family: - :’ -With this in mind we decided to invest in hard- re, fixtures and built-in cabinetry, which were hings that could be reused laicr and give the house haracter in the interim Thorough preparation is the key to any s success- ful'22-day remodelling project...“ We found that if you take your time in the initial : planning stages you can avoid costly. changes once he gutting process begins. 5 «SAL hardware.was purchased :and waiting ‘before. the trades showed up: This saved “inventory down- ime” that can kill a Projects: ‘We called i it Murphy’s Such was the case in this renovation. We had» four months to prepare our goals, develop'a budget ind Shop around for, the best values in a pliances, : ight fixtures and floor coverings. ° Browsing through magazines and design books : was one of the better things we did. I assembled ‘a file for the various rooms and over time a definite.’ heme: developed. This made the planning process “much easier. We-made.a list of our. goals and special « - fixtures we wanted to include and we then: broke i it lown into “needs” and