With three young children, two cats and a dog, Lucy Duckham and her husband figured living elsewhere while they completed home renovations was out of the question.
"It was part of our budget to stay in the house — rentals in Perth are very hard to get for a family like ours," 41-year-old Lucy says.
"And we both work full time, so needed to be close to our kids' school. Just trying to find somewhere would be extortionate."
But retrospectively, living at home while renovating is something Lucy wished she could have avoided.
The heritage architect says while in some ways she "should have known" what to expect, she could have never predicted the chaos of living in a dust-filled home for eight months with kids.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures from 2023 show Australians spent more than $12.4 billion on renovations that year.
We spoke to Lucy about her decision to live-in while renovating their 1930s California bungalow in Perth, and what she learnt.
What renovations were you undertaking?
California bungalows are quite common in Perth. In those houses, the kitchen is tiny and often in the middle of the house.
The main focus of the reno was sinking [the kitchen] to match an extended part of the house which was lower than the rest, and creating one big living/dining/kitchen area.
We redid both bathrooms, and we ended up having to redo the front room as things happen during renovations to old homes, like cracks appear.
So it ended up being most of the house.
How did you manage living in the home while work was done?
For a time I had access to some of my kitchen, then none at all.
At first I lost my sink, but I had my dishwasher plugged in through a hole, and the oven and my hot plate.
It was the smallest kitchen on Earth for about four months.
Then I lost it completely. I set up the barbecue on the front verandah, and had a dining table out there as well, with a store-bought hot plate. The microwave was in the living room.
Each bathroom was done separately, so we had access to one at all times.
What did you find most challenging?
I can live in mess and dirt — I'm a camper, I'm used to it. I just wasn't prepared for the sheer volume of dust.
I'd shower and get into bed, and just feel dusty again.
I went through three vacuums — ruining them. Then I borrowed an industrial one, and even that couldn't cope.
My youngest child was two at the time and still in nappies. Just the management of having a small child in a construction zone was tough, and also having no room.
Also during this time my dad got quite sick back in the UK. So I went home for 10 days, leaving my husband with our three children in total chaos.
Then I had to go away again for five weeks when he passed away.
It was definitely a challenging year.
The biggest lesson from the renovation?
You've got to factor in living outside of the home into the budget from the start, I reckon.
Worst case, live there for the first 80 per cent, then move out for that last 20 per cent. It always drags out at the end.
That said we did go into an Airbnb for a couple of weeks, and while it was clean, it was almost just as hard.
It was minute. And there was no storage.
For us, though, I just don't see how we could have afforded to move out for a longer period of time.
How does it feel living in the renovated space now?
The actual outcome that we've got is amazing, we are so happy, and we now have a house that is worth well over what we spent on it.
Would I do it again? Yes, I probably would.
