Homeowner saves $9000 with $1k Bunnings renovation

After being quoted a whopping $10,000 to transform the front of her “outdated” brick home, this savvy first-home buyer did it herself for $1000.

Jessica Fisher had every intention to hire a professional to renovate the front of her “outdated” home — until she was quoted of $10,000.

The 31-year-old and her partner Brad Whyte, 33, were initially on the hunt for a house that didn’t need much work, but as the market got tighter, their options dwindled and so the pair settled for a house that required more renovating than they had hoped for.

After finding out just how much it would cost to transform the front of her newly bought western Sydney home – Ms Fisher decided to do it herself, using Bunnings products, and saving a whopping $9000.

“The house hasn’t been touched since the ‘70s, so it was due for a facelift, it had good bones,” Ms Fisher told news.com.au

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Jessica Fisher, 31, and her partner, Brad Whyte, 33, bought their western Sydney home in December. Picture: Supplied

“I wanted to get the front painted and some people were quoting $10,000, so we decided to do it ourselves using $1000 worth of Dulux Domino paint from Bunnings.”

Ms Fisher said she was even shocked by how much they saved, describing it as “crazy”.

But also said they were fortunate to have borrowed a spray gun from a friend, which helped give the old brick-house its grey-coloured new look.

“We picked a paint that ended up being really expensive ($263 a tin) that had come in certain amount of litres, and couldn’t be bought in bulk size, but it was totally worth it.”

The pair also gave the window frames a new look, painting them white, with the entire facade taking five full weekends to complete.

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Jessica said it needed ‘a lot of work’ as it hadn’t been touched since the 70s. Picture: Supplied

“I think being new homeowners we were really enthusiastic, but it could have been different if we started this at the end of our renovating journey,” Ms Fisher joked.

“We also got a lot of neighbours saying ‘it looks so incredible’ and that helped motivate us to keep going and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.”

Ms Fisher shared before and after snaps of the “crazy” transformation in a DIY Facebook group in March, which has since attracted 6500 ‘likes’ and almost 1000 comments.

This is what it looked like before. Picture: Supplied

This is what it looks like now. Picture: Supplied

It took them five weekends to complete, but Jessica said it was worth it having saved $9000. Picture: Supplied

“It was so overwhelming,” Ms Fisher said.

“I hadn’t been in that group for that long and I was looking at other posts where some people were saying they weren’t sure if they should paint the front of their house, so I decided to share pictures of ours, to hopefully give them inspiration.

“The reaction wasn’t something I was expecting. I spent hours trying to respond to each individual question, but then I stopped because it ended up becoming too much,” she laughed.

Many bombarded her post, describing the makeover as “amazing”, “incredible” and “awesome”.

The couple were quoted $10,000 to have the front painted and fixed. Picture: Supplied

But they did it themselves, using $1000 worth of Dulux Domino paint and Dulux Lexicon quarter from Bunnings. Picture: Supplied

“Looks great, massive difference,” one woman commented.

“Looks like a new house, love the colour!” another added, while others shared their experience using a similar Bunnings paint.

“Best decision we made too, our house looks so much better. we had the same colour brick too but went lighter grey.”

According to new Bunnings research, almost half of Aussies (49 per cent) are planning to complete more DIY projects in 2021 that they would have outsourced in the past.

If that’s you, the research also indicates you’re likely to spend on average, $4100 to improve your home this year.