The third commandment

If you ask renovators what advice they have for others, they usually reply: budget one-and-a-half times more and set aside twice as much time.

I have a third commandment to add to this: lower your expectations when it comes to service providers, then you may just be (pleasantly) surprised rather than disappointed… I reckon it’s a case of win some, lose some.

My 100-year-old house was a real bargain, its dilapidated state a millstone around the neck of the selling price. After I moved in, my builder Paul diligently got to work, but new