Renovating is a fantastic way to get a home tailored to your needs, tastes and lifestyle while bringing an old, tired property back to life. It’s a megalithic industry that we see promoted everywhere, from adverts encouraging ‘new year, new kitchen’ to Instagram reels where someone clicks their fingers and boom, remodel complete. Zero mess, stress or money seemingly involved.
When my partner and I started the renovation of our 1700s house in 2023, I was eager to make the property feel like ours, all while preserving its history and reintroducing the lost character. Almost four years later I’m still working on it, which is in stark contrast to our previous project where we moved in, renovated and moved out thanks to a job relocation in almost exactly two years.
This time, I decided that I wanted to take my time and really learn to live in the process of it all. Although this isn't a new phenomena, there's a new terms for it — slow renovating — that is becoming a popular alternative to the instantaneous before and afters we see so much.
What is slow renovating?
Slow renovating is generally a rejection of quick fixes, bash-down-a-wall-and-paint-the-room-in-the-latest-trendy-colour style of home improvement. It encourages conscientious decision making and a reduction of overconsumption that is prevalent in the home improvement market.
The cottage section needed a new roof, which was completed in 2024, and we are just beginning to replaster now.
One thing I hadn't anticipated when we started this particular project was how our timeline would divide opinion of our family and friends.
Ever since we first got to work, we have fielded questions about how much work it is going to be, when we think we might be finished, and how miserable we must be to live mid-way through for so long. There’s also a faction who lament that we might have to move again before we get to ‘enjoy the finished house properly’.
To give you a picture of our slow renovating project:
- Feb 2023: We moved in
- December 2023 – January 2024: rewire, replumb, remodel floorplan but only new bathroom finished
- July – August 2024: finish the first bedroom, new roof start, new windows
- October 2024: fit new flooring
- March 2025: create wildlife pond
- April 2025: new kitchen
- September 2025: started bedroom conversion
- November 2025: new wall for bedroom
- July 2026: finished bedroom (here is the finished look)
- September 2026: start plaster upstairs
- We still have two bedrooms, the staircase, a living room and an en suite to complete.
What are the benefits of slow renovating?
Slow renovating comes with all kinds of benefits that my partner and I appreciate every day.
1. We appreciate renovation/life balance
In my 10-ish years of writing about renovating and home improvement projects, I have interviewed hundreds of people about their own projects.
Most of them admit that for one to two years, their family lives suffered and they had to constantly say no to social engagements so they could ‘finish’ the house. If I had a penny for every time I heard a renovator says that they planned to be done by Christmas only to wear themselves to the bone to the point that they couldn’t enjoy a second of it…
We didn't want that. By removing deadlines and timelines, if we need to push back a certain job to keep our sanity or relationships strong, we will. Completely guilt free.
2. We understand the house and how we live in it
We lived in the house for nine months before we made any big changes to it and when I compared my initial designs to the ones we ended up choosing they could not be more different.
I’m a big believer in letting the way you interact in a house lead the design choices. We looked at the most common circulation routes we used in a day, where we naturally gravitated in the evening, how the light came through windows at different times of day and in different seasons.
All of this valuable information was gathered and has made our home so much more livable as a result. We also think we made fewer renovation mistakes as a result, rather than rushing in only to regret our initial ideas.
3. We save money on buying the right things
Our kitchen was 'completed' in 2025 but rather than rushing into the island size, we used a freestanding dresser and table to work out a comfortable circulation for ourselves, rather than using guidelines.
Mistakes are inevitable with any kind of house project, especially when you’re doing the work DIY. However, I have noticed that by slowing right down, I reduce overwhelm and make clearer, better informed decisions.
As an example, at the very start of the renovation we had in all kinds of trades at once for the layout modifications, rewire, replumb etc. It was a mad rush to make sure the plans were clear and the materials were ordered. This meant that silly and avoidable but costly mistakes were made.
For one, I bought twice as many socket and switch face plates as we needed in order to meet a deadline once they were delayed by a different company, only to have lost them in the madness and never recover the money. For another, I ordered the wrong type of tile for our bathroom and didn’t realise until the job was done at the end of the day and I looked a little closer.
4. We are more waste conscious
Generally, when you’re in the process of building work, when you order materials you add an extra 10% just in case there isn’t enough, or if something gets damaged.
It’s sound logic when you’re working to get the next trade lined up to take over, or while they’re working in tandem, but with us taking our sweet time about literally everything, we can be more aware of over purchasing.
5. We are open to surprises we find along the way (good and bad)
During the rewiring of the cottage, we found that the joists for the first floor had been unceremoniously chopped off a foot from the wall and poorly bodged with a plank of wood. If we were going full-steam-ahead with the project and the next trade needed to get in, we would have had to pay a fairly sizable chunk of a budget to get the structural engineer in, carpenters to do the work and express delivery on materials.
Taking our time as we are, we were able to properly assess the situation, decide what our plan of attack was going to be without inconveniencing anyone but ourselves. The result? We were able to add head height to our low ceiling in the cottage, provide support to the floor above and fix the problem for a fraction of the cost because we didn’t have to find the quickest delivery.
6. We can create a more bespoke finish
My partner crafted this bespoke vanity unit based on my design using Rosewood, quartz and ply.
By not rushing from room to room, we’ve been able to design and build things that would otherwise have been unaffordable in its equivalent quality.
This can be applied to anything from learning stained glass for secondary window glazing and using the roof timbers to create a characterful new wall to building a vanity unit rather than buying one off the shelf.
It makes the process so much more rewarding and it means we can hone our skills to use elsewhere in the house.
A similar-quality vanity unit to the one we were able to design (with solid oak and ceramic countertop) from Tikamoon would have been faster and less effort, but far more expensive.
This wall hung vanity is made using wood and marble-effect particle board, which is a downgrade in quality from our unit, but probably all-in-all cheaper.
I love this alternative to us making our own unit because this probably falls closest in line with our style, budget and our material quality.
What are the downsides to slow renovating?
I would be lying to say that there are absolutely no downsides to slow renovating. Looking at it realistically, we have been living ‘on site’ for almost four years and we probably have another year (at least) to go. Renovating is often messy and dusty work, and over a prolonged period, the never ending mess can sometimes weigh on me.
I am constantly thinking about the house, too, because I’m always in it. If I didn't love the slow renovating process, I think the constant mental load would be too much.
It impacts how we entertain friends and family too. To remodel one of our rooms into a bedroom, it took from October to June, meaning we didn’t have a spare room for almost an entire year. My parents live five hours away so it was pretty frustrating for all involved to find suitable space when they visited.
Also, because we have basically a line down the centre of our house that is livable and an empty shell, we did find we needed to be especially cautious when friends with small children come around, and close off some parts of our home to ensure their safety.
But for us, the benefits definitely outweigh the drawbacks.
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