Once upon a time there was a big lush garden here. And vines all over the house. I've had the garden cut back [perhaps a little severely] and my favourite plants moved out of the way of the impending builders.
That now seems to have been a complete waste of time.
We've had the first quote in on the work and it has blown our socks off. We've renovated before and I don't believe we are going into this process with rose-colored glasses. Last time our builder was de-registered half way through the build so we understand the downside of choosing the cheapest builder.
This quote was WAY above even our WORST SCENARIO quote which included a 25% contingency. It was - sit down - 47% dearer than we expected and 100% dearer than estimated by our architect.
Three quotes are still to come so, hopefully, they will be more reasonable but there's a little niggling doubt in my mind which means that we may have to rethink this entire project.
Breathe in,
breathe out, breathe in,
breathe out.