August 17, 2026 • 26 mins
Cherie Barber has spent more than three decades renovating property and after more than 250 projects, there isn’t much she hasn’t encountered on site.
In Part 1 of her conversation with Home Beautiful Editor-in-Chief Elle Lovelock, Cherie gets candid about what renovating really costs today, how to tell whether a quote stacks up and why the cheapest tradie isn’t necessarily the one you want.
Plus, she shares how she keeps disagreements from blowing up on site, the experiences that shaped her relentless work ethic and introduces Tinnie, the humanoid robot joining her latest renovation, The Farmhouse, as a very unconventional assistant.
This episode covers:
- Cherie Barber’s rules for choosing and managing tradies
- Fixed-price quotes vs hourly rates
- Why she always gets three quotes
- How to handle disagreements on a renovation site
- The work ethic behind more than 250 renovations
- The Farmhouse, Cherie’s major new Western Sydney project
- Meet Tinnie, the humanoid robot working alongside her tradies
- What AI and robotics could mean for the future of renovating
You can find Cherie on Instagram here.
Read about Tinnie, Cherie’s humanoid robot here.
Check out Cherie’s 7 Top Renovating Tips here
🎧 Listen to The Edit and follow on Apple Podcasts
Listen and follow on Spotify
👀 Watch and subscribe to The Edit on Home Beautiful's YouTube
Credits:
Host: Elle Lovelock
Guest: Cherie Barber
Edited by: Leah Porges
Head of Vodcasting: Rachel Fountain
With thanks to our wonderful Home Beautiful team.
The Edit is a production of Home Beautiful and Are Media.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is an our media podcast. I work seven days
a week, but saying that I love what I do,
so it doesn't feel like work. Like I sit at
my dear squirrelm on site. I'm not drudging being there.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I love what I do, so I love the thrill
of buying a property. I love negotiating it bound, you know,
like getting a good deal.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I'm our Lovelock, editor in chief of Home Beautiful. Welcome
to the Edit, where we bring you into beautiful homes
with the people who create them. Today we're talking to
Shari Barber, a woman who has renovated over two hundred homes,
so I can't think of a better person to share
advice on how to secure the best trades, navigate quotes,
and decide whether a fixed price or an hourly rate
(00:54):
is the way to go. In this chat, we go
deep on budgets, diffusing arguments on site, and an exciting
new project where her sidekick is a humanoid called Tinny Cherie.
Welcome to the Edits thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
I was so.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Lovely having you here, and I have the perfect story
to start our chat. Do you tell Years and years ago,
I had my very first experience presenting on stage at
a home show of sorts. I can't remember which home
show it was, and I was quite nervous. We got
(01:32):
to the show and saw that on the stage that
I was presenting at, you were presenting before me, and
you were up there and there was this enormous crowd,
and I thought this is going to be unreal. And
then you concluded your presentation. I was getting ready to
go up and then everybody left. No. Sorry, the crowd,
(01:57):
they just loved you, and I know they were hanging
on to every word that you had to say.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yeah, and you.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Know, maybe it was it was a good practice run
for me to present a handful of people, but it
really struck me that the way you share your information
is so real and so authentic that people want to listen.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
That's my Western Suburbs upbringing, you know, just keep it real,
like you you know, we love sharing information because particularly
for myself, you know, with around the whole sort of
game of renovating for profit, you're dealing with big sums
of money in property, and so you don't want to
see anybody lose ten or one hundred grand, like people
(02:44):
work hard for their money. Yeah, So I've always been
of the mentality share share as much as you can.
You know, people build trust in you. It's just all
good things, good vibes all around.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
So yeah, that's so nice to hear, because I've always
wondered with being you're one of the people who are
so open about.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
How much things really cost.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
If something is a bit more expensive, do people ever say, well,
that's not real or because actually things are expensive now?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, And things are like right now in the renovating
environment is quite terrible. You know, products are expensive, lead
times have blown out. Trade e's are expensive now, and
there's some crazy things happening with trade's as well. Like
I'm doing a big project at the moment called the
farm Housage I know you know of, and there's just
(03:35):
been some crazy things that I've noticed with the trade's
that I'm like, wow, where did this come from? Do
you want me to give you an example?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Most trade's will either when they're doing a job for you,
will either charge you an hourly rate or a fixed price.
And the better way to always go is a fixed
price because, particularly when you're renovating a home, because if
you are on an hourly rate, tradees can go that
little bits or and guess who's paying for that you? Yeah,
(04:07):
So I always sort of say to my students around
the country, if you can try and get a fixed
price quote. But what some particular trades now are doing
is they're giving you a fixed price quote, but they're
building a big profit margin on top. And the worst
culprits are plumbers.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Really. Yeah, And how do you know, as a regular
person who maybe is renovating for the first time, how
do you know when a quote is accurate or when
it's been inflated?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well, a good way to try and work out the
value of what something should cost, because let's face it,
not everybody knows what things cost, and there's not a
like a book that says you should pay this for this,
because every home is different. But a good way to
always try and determine the true value of something is
to always get three quotes. Yeah, because if you get
(04:59):
just one quote, you've got nothing to benchmarket against. If
you get three quotes, one trading might try and have
a go and rip you off, but it's very rare
that three trader's will try and rip you off. So
if you get three quotes, you've then got something to
benchmarkt So for example, let's say we wanted to tyle
a bathroom, and the one tyler quoted five thousand dollars,
(05:21):
and another tyler quoted one and a half thousand, and
another tyler quoted maybe six grand. You know that the
true value of that tiling job is probably somewhere between
five to six. I'd be very cautious about using the
person that's one and a half because obviously, why can
they do the job so cheap? Exactly, so, you can
(05:41):
tell a lot just by getting three quotes. You can
tell a lot about the trades person, whether they're going
to have those conversations with you, Like, you know, if
I had appointed that one and a half thousand dollars trading,
I'm sure he might be the type of trading that
we're like, oh love, Well he's in the job.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
That wasn't included. Yes, that wasn't included. That wasn't included.
That I can do it, but that's extra.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
So just going through that quoting process, you can actually
sort of weed out a lot of bad things that
can happen to you. And renovating it can be difficult,
but not always, and it really depends on how you
treat that trades person too. If you sort of go
in and you're all like hoity toity and do that please,
you're not gonna last long.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So so what should you do instead?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Just try and be a human being, Try and talk
to trades like they're humans. They have families, they have kids,
they have expenses, they have worries, Just paying attention, like
being considerate, being a kind person. It's really tough because
on a renovation site, particularly if you do have trades
that are hourly rates, and a lot of trades do
(06:47):
like hourly rates, it's a tough thing because you need
to try and drive them, like you need to push
them a little bit to move out a reasonable pace.
But then you don't want to be seen as that
person who's cracking the whip on them, because that's the
fastest way to get them to, you know, turn around.
(07:07):
So I sort of try, and you know, when I'm
starting a job, particularly with new trail, I'll go through,
I'll brief them, you know, walk around, show them exactly
what needs to be done, explain it to them.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
I'm always like, okay, I'm here on one side.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
If you need anything, don't guess, just come at us,
you know, just to avoid mistakes.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
And then I'm always going and getting you.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Know, the coffees and the sausage rolls from the local bakery.
We have a barbecue every Friday. So I go down
the butcher and I get like, even though I'm a vegetarian,
I go down the butcher and I get like twenty
Scotch billets. You know, we just have bread rolls and
salad and you know, just like sliced cheese, and I
stick it on the table, I cook it all.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Are they on the clock at that point?
Speaker 4 (07:51):
No, so most trades they don't. This is the thing.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Some trades will charge you for ali like their lunch break,
and some won't. And there's no like definity all about that.
So like, for example, all my carpenters, I've got about
ten ten carpenters on site at the moment, and they
like from two separate carpentry companies, and their bosses have
made the decision not to pay their traders for.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Their lunch breaks.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
But then I have other trades where they'll start at seven,
they'll start at three, and you just pay for an
eight hour day.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Isn't it interesting that the hourly rate thing when we
were innovating our place. My husband can be quite a talker,
and I just said him, can you please just stop
talking to everybody because we're paying them, Yeah, by the hour,
and yes, be friendly, but save the chat for another time.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
I just had the same conversation with my habby about
last week. Actually, the excavator pulled up on site and
so he stopped. And my hobby likes this tradey, so
he just was like having this conversation in the front yard,
rambling on.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
With god knows what.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
And then I said, I was like looking at that,
and I was like, oh my god, that conversation has
just cost me seventy five dollars.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
So I was like, come on, come on, home on.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I am learning so much from Shari.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Will be back with more tips soon. So let's talk
about your renovation. Yes, the farmhouse. This is massive. Yeah,
so for anybody who hasn't come across it yet, take
us back to the beginning.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Okay, Well, I live in the city at the moment.
I live in an old lolly factory, which is quite interesting. Wow.
So I live in a big sort of converted warehouse
and I love it. Like as soon as so I
bought that in the first week of COVID, so I
bought the property.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
You know, it was more expensive.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
But then I thought, oh my holy, holy crap, what
have I done, you know, because there was so much
fear in that first week of COVID, so I panicked
a little bit.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
But anyway, I bought it.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I saw the property and I just absolutely loved it,
and I was like, I have to have this house.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
So I bought it. That was great. It used to
be a lolly factory, so the walls were just right up.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
But it's beautiful, Like it's really great indoor outdoor connection.
So there's central yards within the warehouse, but it is
like a fortress. And I love it because nobody can
see it.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
I can see out.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
And it's super quiet and all that sort of stuff.
And I just love all the you know, the vintage.
It's like an authentic vintage warehouse. And I'm just like
obsessed with everything from the nineteen fifties. I was born
in nineteen seventy, but I'm obsessed with everything from the
fifties and sixties and a little bit.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Of the seventies.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
So I talk about it.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
I love the color.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
I love, like, oh, just the beautiful lines and everything,
like the beautiful cars, like I have a nineteen fifty
six Chevy bel Air in pink.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Oh, that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
That's my that's my most favorite possession. Mildred I named Dondred.
I'm the second owner, so the first owner was Mildred Lambrest,
so I got her name Mildred painted on the car.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
I love the warehouse.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Because it had all the vintage exposed RAFs and it
just felt nostalgic and had a triple garage, which is
great because really hard to find a double garage anyway.
So my Chevy fits in, but my hobby doesn't like
it because he sort of grew up on a farm
and so he's used to open spaces, green paddicks. So
(11:17):
I ended up buying this property in Molgoa, which is
sort of like the posh part of Penrith, the western suburbs.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
And I like it out there because I also grew
up out there, so that's where I grew up from
the age of sort of like five to seventeen, so
it's sort of like going back home for me.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, So I've never lived on an acreage property, but
I love the serenity, like you know the serenity. So
in the city there's hustle bustle. My house is five
k's from the CBD. Planes go over. You always hear ambulances,
please cars bybib you know, there's always noise.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And what do you hear at the farmhouse?
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Birds? Birds and more birds. Kangaroos.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
You wake up every morning and there's kangaroos in your backyard.
There's a few animals that I don't like, like brown
snakes and stuff that are there. And there's wedge towel egals.
So I've got little three little Psycho two hours, so
those wedge towl eagles can fly in and pick them up.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
So that's terrifying. Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
It is super terrifying. So that's the only thing I
don't love about it. But oh, it just does something
to you. Like living on an acreage property. I just
feel so relaxed. Yeah, And I think just with my lifestyle,
I've been go, go, go go for the.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Last thirty five years, so it's good for me.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
You know, I'm sort of like fifty six now and
I just think I can't be like going like a
full on, overcharged energizer bunny all the time.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
What changed.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Nothing really, just life went on and you evolved.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I think it was just getting starting to get tired,
you know, because I've done over like two hundred and
fifty I think I'm at about two hundred and sixty
renovations that I've personally done.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Believable, and it's.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
That's a lot of work, a lot of us sort
of designing them, finding the properties, designing them, just lining
up all the trades, sourcing all the materials, executing the renovations,
selling them or keeping them, and then managing tennis?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Is that what kept you going?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
I love doing property deals. Like I don't know, I'm like,
I'm super weird. Well, I'm really lucky that I found
my passion really early in life, because in all truthfulness,
I had all the makings to be really not much
in life with my education lack of it.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
At what point, as a child, or a teenager or
a young adult, did you realize I want something different?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Pretty early on?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
So I think when my parents got divorced and my
m my mum had been a stay at home mum,
so she tried to apply for jobs, couldn't get a job,
and so then she had a nervous breakdown and so
I was sort of like the one sort of mopping
up that mess.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
My gosh, it's a lot for a fifteen year old.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Well, by the time all of that happened, I was seventeen,
and so I just saw what a lack of money
did to her, and I think that was the catalyst
for me wanting to work hard. But now I've gone
to an extreme level where I work too hard.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
You know, I work.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
It's not unusual for me to be working. I work
seven days a week. But saying that, I love what
I do, so it doesn't feel like working like I
sit at my desk, I'm on site. I'm not drudging
being there. I love what I do. So I love
the thrill of buying a property. I love negotiating it foundly,
you know, like getting a good deal. I would be
(14:52):
absolutely lying to say that, Hey, if you do a renovation,
it's all going to be smooth sailing.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
We know that's not true.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
How do you deal with that when something isn't what
you expect it to be or not up to standard.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I really haven't had any situations over the last ten
years where I've had any sort of heated exchanges with
my trades. I don't let them get to that level now.
So if I can feel something brewing or I know
a trade is not going it's there's going to be
a result that I'm not going to be happy with,
I'll approach them and I'll say, hey, can we just
have a chat about something? I just want to double
(15:28):
check with you, Like I'm tiptoeing around a bit in
a nice way, because you don't ever want to go hey,
you're doing that wrong because instantly.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
The walls go up with trades.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Absolutely, So I'll just say, hey, can we have a
chat about something. I'm a little bit concerned about this.
I was wanting this. Pictures are always good, yes, because
when you're renovating, because if you've got an idea in
your head or you want a certain look, explaining that
to a trade like, don't assume what's in your heads
is translatable into their head.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
So yeah, I'll try and nip it in the bud,
and I'll.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Talk to that person very kindly and say look, if
they say, look, that can't be done, OK, can we
try and find a solution.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
And I find often that if you.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Let the trades person find the solution, they'll often do
the best work for you. So definitely don't be some
hot head on site, and like I said, gets back
to just talking to them.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Like real people, be kind, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And that's where you know, if you have had a
somewhat heated exchange with the trading, you know, hey, can
I go down the shop and grab your coffee whatever?
Or the really great thing is, hey, I can feel
that this is not this conversation is not going where
it should be. Can we just like ten minutes time out?
I just want to step away, gather my thoughts. It
(16:48):
gives them time to cool down, it gives you time
to cool down.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
So back to the farmhouse, you said you have two
teams of carpenters. Yes, because one team's not enough.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, well I've got a guest house there, and then
I've got the main house, and then I've got other
teams working on like the landscaping.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
So yeah, it's a bit of a juggling act.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
So you're making the move to the country.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Look for me, I think it's just.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
You know, just sort of having a house that you're
really happy with, a house that you know brings you
incredible joy when you come home, a house that you
can have your favorite things in and a house that
sort of really suits the spaces. Like, for example, my
hobby is a musician, a professional musician. He's a cameraman
as well, but before we met he was a professional musician.
(17:34):
So he's always like on his bass guitar drives me
absolutely nuts.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
So like I knew that in this house, I need.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
To build him a music room so you know, he
can I can lock him away down and the dungeon
and I can you know, a jam as much as
he wants. So I think, like you know, for us,
it's just you know, getting the spaces that we need
at this stage in my life. There's also my daughter,
so the guest house will be her house, so I
can my twenty year.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Old daughter close at Bay.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
That's a wonderful idea.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Yeah, so, and it's so hard for young people to
get on the property ladders these days, so it gives
her a bit of a head start. And then it's
just also like just the beautiful.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Green grass and the.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Trees that the little three little Psycho two hours can
run around it. So it's sort of just chicking all
the box and cute.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
We saw a picture of them where they're wearing little hats.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Oh yeah, it was so little with the little flower hats. Yeah,
and so black and yellow.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
I was in Melbourne filming Space Invaders for four months.
I relocated there for the show, and I just went
to some Melbourne art and craft show on the weekend
and then I saw this little stand.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
They had dog hats and like.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Oh, I was like, oh, that's so cute. So I
thought I'll get three of them. And I thought they're
just like little hand knitted things, almost nothing to them.
I thought they'd probably be like ten dollars each. So
I said, yeah, I have three of them. Yeah, and
then she said, so I stuck them on my dogs
and everybody.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Was like, oh, they're so cute. And then she said
that's two hundred and forty dollars and I was like,
oh my god. And I just didn't have the heart
then to go, oh, put them back.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I'm already tied onto the dog's hair.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
And the dogs hate them like they were like strain
their head around, ripping them off.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
One dog was trying to rip the other one off,
and it's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
The moral of that story is don't buy your dog's
weird hats.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
That's a good life lesson What do you speak of
life lessons? What are you learning at the farmhouse?
Speaker 4 (19:33):
The SSM? Do you know what that is?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
It's the poo and weed pits. So yeah, basically the
on site sewer management system. So I'm just like, I've
never dealt with like a big on site sewer management system.
So it's like the enviros cycle where you know, all
the waste goes into one chamber and that spins around
and does whatever, and it goes into like eight different
chambers and that flows from there to there and all
(19:58):
sorts of stuff. And then there's the water tanks and
you know, pumping those up and downhill, and it's the
whole bush fire. So I'm in a bushfire zone. And
so all the bush fire materials and the thermal break windows,
you know, as opposed to single blaze or double glaze,
they've got to be thermal break So even at this
(20:20):
ripe old age of mine, I'm still learning things when
it comes to renovating. And I just think as a renovator,
it doesn't matter if you've done one project or three
hundred projects. You never stop learning, absolutely, and that's great.
It is.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
After the break. Schari tells us more about.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Timmy and why she wanted to embark on this world
first social experiment, and of course you have embraced technology
in a way that is.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Really exciting. Tell us about your teammate.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yes, so I have a new teammate, a new renovation assistant.
His name is Tinny. Tinny is not a human. Tinny
is a humanoid robot.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
This is just phenomenal. I've met a humanoid before.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
He she They were absolutely gorgeous, but all they really
did in our encounter was wave and breakdance.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Yes, so what does Tinny do?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Well, Tinny's from Unitary Robotics in China, So they have
like a G one and that's the one that just
waves dancers. Okay, and that's fine for the first five minutes,
but what do you do? You look that after that,
and that robot's about twenty thousand dollars astray and by
the time you know, the currency is converted. So Tiny
is a g one EDU, which means he's totally programmable,
(21:42):
and he's about one hundred and sixty thousand, one hundred
and fifty hundred and sixty depending on currency, So he's
totally programmable. So, for example, he's been programmed with a
lot of the products that I'm using, Like, for example,
I'm using James Hardy cladding on all of the on
all of the property, and so he's been programmed with
(22:03):
all of the cladding specs how to install.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
So if the trades are.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
On site and they're not sure maybe how corner comes together,
I can ask Tinny, how do we do the corner
joints on this James Ardi streea cladding for example, and
he'll go, he'll spit the answer out, Oh my god,
he can do the site inductions.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
He speaks yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
So you communicate with Timmy like you would any other
trades person, and.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
We talked to him for design opinions. So I can say, Tinny,
I'm thinking about painting this bedroom sage.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Green or muddy olive.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
What do you think what color do you think would
be best for this bedroom? And he'll statistically sort of
tap into chat chept and he'll say, Chari statistically proven,
sage green might be the better color because it's more calming,
better suited to environment. You know, if it was orange
or something might be energizing, not a good color. So yeah,
So it's a social experiment. So when to China and
(23:00):
I saw Tinny for the first time, so I named Tinny.
I thought Tinny, he's made of metal, yeah, so I
thought tin And then I thought Tinny is a can
of beer exactly, which is what all the trades have
on a Friday afternoon. So that's where his name came from,
so like Gussie slang. And then I went and saw Tinny.
So I'd worked on him so much like we would,
programming him, writing briefs for his personality what I needed
(23:24):
him to do, so he all got programmed. And then
I saw him for the first time. And I know
it sounds really stupid, but the first time I saw him,
I felt like I was in love with him because
he's so tiny, He's like a little kid, and so
I just walked up to him and gave him my huggar.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
I know it's stupid, like I know all the viewers.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Right now saying, yep, she's totally like Craig Cray, But
I just had done so much work on him and
my partner had as well, that we just felt like
this emotional bond to him. Robots are coming, whether we
like it or not, and to be honest, I'd have
copped a little bit of flak from people like people
on my social media who I love you know, people have.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
Said, Shari, I love you.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I've been following your work for you know, a decade,
but I'm not following you for this one. So there's
people have been quite anti robot. And do you think
that is because everybody is scared of AI and robot's
taking our jobs.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
It's the security thing.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
And one thing I can say with absolute certainty Tinny,
is he can't do construction work. A robot cannot do
what the trades do. Like a robot cannot climb a roof,
take roof sheets or you know, pop out rivets take
roof sheets of. They can't run electrical cables like they
have hands, but even like the fingers, they've got fingers,
(24:41):
but the fingers don't do this. They can't they can't
grab stuff, so they're very limited. So one thing that
has definitely come out of this social experiment so far
is that robots are not replacing humans anytime soon.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
And I think I will get to the end of this.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Project and I think that'll literally be my closing line
in this show. Tinny was great. Tinny was great as
the brainy assistant. He really saved me time. For example,
I was on site like two weeks ago, and I said, Tinny,
can you recommend three steel suppliers for.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Me in Sydney.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
So instead of me jumping on Google and having to
troll through Google, Tinny just went three steel suppliers in Sydney.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Boom boom boom.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
So I just quickly wrote them down in my diary
and then I contacted those three companies and I ended
up going with one of them. I could have spent
half an hour googling, but Tinny answered that for me
in about three seconds.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
It saves so much time.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
So I think there's really good. There's good and bad
sides to this the robot. Like, as I said, it's
a social experiment, and I think I will get to
the end and say, you know, the robots can't do
what we do, but that's a great thing. And this
opens up an incredible opportunity for humans to enter the
construction industry.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Definitely, I can absolutely see why Cherie is such a
renovat for a profit icon. She's clever, she's real and
willing to share every last detail of her renovations. Shari
and I had so much to talk about that there's
a part two of this conversation out right now, where
she walks us through her newest project, the farmhouse, And
(26:16):
you don't have to go far jump onto the next episode.
Wherever you're listening to or watching this one.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
This is an Our Media podcast,
This is an our media podcast. I work seven days
a week, but saying that I love what I do,
so it doesn't feel like work. Like I sit at
my dear squirrelm on site. I'm not drudging being there.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I love what I do, so I love the thrill
of buying a property. I love negotiating it bound, you know,
like getting a good deal.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I'm our Lovelock, editor in chief of Home Beautiful. Welcome
to the Edit, where we bring you into beautiful homes
with the people who create them. Today we're talking to
Shari Barber, a woman who has renovated over two hundred homes,
so I can't think of a better person to share
advice on how to secure the best trades, navigate quotes,
and decide whether a fixed price or an hourly rate
(00:54):
is the way to go. In this chat, we go
deep on budgets, diffusing arguments on site, and an exciting
new project where her sidekick is a humanoid called Tinny Cherie.
Welcome to the Edits thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
I was so.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Lovely having you here, and I have the perfect story
to start our chat. Do you tell Years and years ago,
I had my very first experience presenting on stage at
a home show of sorts. I can't remember which home
show it was, and I was quite nervous. We got
(01:32):
to the show and saw that on the stage that
I was presenting at, you were presenting before me, and
you were up there and there was this enormous crowd,
and I thought this is going to be unreal. And
then you concluded your presentation. I was getting ready to
go up and then everybody left. No. Sorry, the crowd,
(01:57):
they just loved you, and I know they were hanging
on to every word that you had to say.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yeah, and you.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Know, maybe it was it was a good practice run
for me to present a handful of people, but it
really struck me that the way you share your information
is so real and so authentic that people want to listen.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
That's my Western Suburbs upbringing, you know, just keep it real,
like you you know, we love sharing information because particularly
for myself, you know, with around the whole sort of
game of renovating for profit, you're dealing with big sums
of money in property, and so you don't want to
see anybody lose ten or one hundred grand, like people
(02:44):
work hard for their money. Yeah, So I've always been
of the mentality share share as much as you can.
You know, people build trust in you. It's just all
good things, good vibes all around.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
So yeah, that's so nice to hear, because I've always
wondered with being you're one of the people who are
so open about.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
How much things really cost.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
If something is a bit more expensive, do people ever say, well,
that's not real or because actually things are expensive now?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, And things are like right now in the renovating
environment is quite terrible. You know, products are expensive, lead
times have blown out. Trade e's are expensive now, and
there's some crazy things happening with trade's as well. Like
I'm doing a big project at the moment called the
farm Housage I know you know of, and there's just
(03:35):
been some crazy things that I've noticed with the trade's
that I'm like, wow, where did this come from? Do
you want me to give you an example?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Most trade's will either when they're doing a job for you,
will either charge you an hourly rate or a fixed price.
And the better way to always go is a fixed
price because, particularly when you're renovating a home, because if
you are on an hourly rate, tradees can go that
little bits or and guess who's paying for that you? Yeah,
(04:07):
So I always sort of say to my students around
the country, if you can try and get a fixed
price quote. But what some particular trades now are doing
is they're giving you a fixed price quote, but they're
building a big profit margin on top. And the worst
culprits are plumbers.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Really. Yeah, And how do you know, as a regular
person who maybe is renovating for the first time, how
do you know when a quote is accurate or when
it's been inflated?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well, a good way to try and work out the
value of what something should cost, because let's face it,
not everybody knows what things cost, and there's not a
like a book that says you should pay this for this,
because every home is different. But a good way to
always try and determine the true value of something is
to always get three quotes. Yeah, because if you get
(04:59):
just one quote, you've got nothing to benchmarket against. If
you get three quotes, one trading might try and have
a go and rip you off, but it's very rare
that three trader's will try and rip you off. So
if you get three quotes, you've then got something to
benchmarkt So for example, let's say we wanted to tyle
a bathroom, and the one tyler quoted five thousand dollars,
(05:21):
and another tyler quoted one and a half thousand, and
another tyler quoted maybe six grand. You know that the
true value of that tiling job is probably somewhere between
five to six. I'd be very cautious about using the
person that's one and a half because obviously, why can
they do the job so cheap? Exactly, so, you can
(05:41):
tell a lot just by getting three quotes. You can
tell a lot about the trades person, whether they're going
to have those conversations with you, Like, you know, if
I had appointed that one and a half thousand dollars trading,
I'm sure he might be the type of trading that
we're like, oh love, Well he's in the job.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
That wasn't included. Yes, that wasn't included. That wasn't included.
That I can do it, but that's extra.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
So just going through that quoting process, you can actually
sort of weed out a lot of bad things that
can happen to you. And renovating it can be difficult,
but not always, and it really depends on how you
treat that trades person too. If you sort of go
in and you're all like hoity toity and do that please,
you're not gonna last long.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So so what should you do instead?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Just try and be a human being, Try and talk
to trades like they're humans. They have families, they have kids,
they have expenses, they have worries, Just paying attention, like
being considerate, being a kind person. It's really tough because
on a renovation site, particularly if you do have trades
that are hourly rates, and a lot of trades do
(06:47):
like hourly rates, it's a tough thing because you need
to try and drive them, like you need to push
them a little bit to move out a reasonable pace.
But then you don't want to be seen as that
person who's cracking the whip on them, because that's the
fastest way to get them to, you know, turn around.
(07:07):
So I sort of try, and you know, when I'm
starting a job, particularly with new trail, I'll go through,
I'll brief them, you know, walk around, show them exactly
what needs to be done, explain it to them.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
I'm always like, okay, I'm here on one side.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
If you need anything, don't guess, just come at us,
you know, just to avoid mistakes.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
And then I'm always going and getting you.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Know, the coffees and the sausage rolls from the local bakery.
We have a barbecue every Friday. So I go down
the butcher and I get like, even though I'm a vegetarian,
I go down the butcher and I get like twenty
Scotch billets. You know, we just have bread rolls and
salad and you know, just like sliced cheese, and I
stick it on the table, I cook it all.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Are they on the clock at that point?
Speaker 4 (07:51):
No, so most trades they don't. This is the thing.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Some trades will charge you for ali like their lunch break,
and some won't. And there's no like definity all about that.
So like, for example, all my carpenters, I've got about
ten ten carpenters on site at the moment, and they
like from two separate carpentry companies, and their bosses have
made the decision not to pay their traders for.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Their lunch breaks.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
But then I have other trades where they'll start at seven,
they'll start at three, and you just pay for an
eight hour day.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Isn't it interesting that the hourly rate thing when we
were innovating our place. My husband can be quite a talker,
and I just said him, can you please just stop
talking to everybody because we're paying them, Yeah, by the hour,
and yes, be friendly, but save the chat for another time.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
I just had the same conversation with my habby about
last week. Actually, the excavator pulled up on site and
so he stopped. And my hobby likes this tradey, so
he just was like having this conversation in the front yard,
rambling on.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
With god knows what.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
And then I said, I was like looking at that,
and I was like, oh my god, that conversation has
just cost me seventy five dollars.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
So I was like, come on, come on, home on.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I am learning so much from Shari.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Will be back with more tips soon. So let's talk
about your renovation. Yes, the farmhouse. This is massive. Yeah,
so for anybody who hasn't come across it yet, take
us back to the beginning.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Okay, Well, I live in the city at the moment.
I live in an old lolly factory, which is quite interesting. Wow.
So I live in a big sort of converted warehouse
and I love it. Like as soon as so I
bought that in the first week of COVID, so I
bought the property.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
You know, it was more expensive.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
But then I thought, oh my holy, holy crap, what
have I done, you know, because there was so much
fear in that first week of COVID, so I panicked
a little bit.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
But anyway, I bought it.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I saw the property and I just absolutely loved it,
and I was like, I have to have this house.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
So I bought it. That was great. It used to
be a lolly factory, so the walls were just right up.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
But it's beautiful, Like it's really great indoor outdoor connection.
So there's central yards within the warehouse, but it is
like a fortress. And I love it because nobody can
see it.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
I can see out.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
And it's super quiet and all that sort of stuff.
And I just love all the you know, the vintage.
It's like an authentic vintage warehouse. And I'm just like
obsessed with everything from the nineteen fifties. I was born
in nineteen seventy, but I'm obsessed with everything from the
fifties and sixties and a little bit.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Of the seventies.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
So I talk about it.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
I love the color.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
I love, like, oh, just the beautiful lines and everything,
like the beautiful cars, like I have a nineteen fifty
six Chevy bel Air in pink.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Oh, that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
That's my that's my most favorite possession. Mildred I named Dondred.
I'm the second owner, so the first owner was Mildred Lambrest,
so I got her name Mildred painted on the car.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
I love the warehouse.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Because it had all the vintage exposed RAFs and it
just felt nostalgic and had a triple garage, which is
great because really hard to find a double garage anyway.
So my Chevy fits in, but my hobby doesn't like
it because he sort of grew up on a farm
and so he's used to open spaces, green paddicks. So
(11:17):
I ended up buying this property in Molgoa, which is
sort of like the posh part of Penrith, the western suburbs.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
And I like it out there because I also grew
up out there, so that's where I grew up from
the age of sort of like five to seventeen, so
it's sort of like going back home for me.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, So I've never lived on an acreage property, but
I love the serenity, like you know the serenity. So
in the city there's hustle bustle. My house is five
k's from the CBD. Planes go over. You always hear ambulances,
please cars bybib you know, there's always noise.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And what do you hear at the farmhouse?
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Birds? Birds and more birds. Kangaroos.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
You wake up every morning and there's kangaroos in your backyard.
There's a few animals that I don't like, like brown
snakes and stuff that are there. And there's wedge towel egals.
So I've got little three little Psycho two hours, so
those wedge towl eagles can fly in and pick them up.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
So that's terrifying. Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
It is super terrifying. So that's the only thing I
don't love about it. But oh, it just does something
to you. Like living on an acreage property. I just
feel so relaxed. Yeah, And I think just with my lifestyle,
I've been go, go, go go for the.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Last thirty five years, so it's good for me.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
You know, I'm sort of like fifty six now and
I just think I can't be like going like a
full on, overcharged energizer bunny all the time.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
What changed.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Nothing really, just life went on and you evolved.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I think it was just getting starting to get tired,
you know, because I've done over like two hundred and
fifty I think I'm at about two hundred and sixty
renovations that I've personally done.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Believable, and it's.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
That's a lot of work, a lot of us sort
of designing them, finding the properties, designing them, just lining
up all the trades, sourcing all the materials, executing the renovations,
selling them or keeping them, and then managing tennis?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Is that what kept you going?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
I love doing property deals. Like I don't know, I'm like,
I'm super weird. Well, I'm really lucky that I found
my passion really early in life, because in all truthfulness,
I had all the makings to be really not much
in life with my education lack of it.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
At what point, as a child, or a teenager or
a young adult, did you realize I want something different?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Pretty early on?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
So I think when my parents got divorced and my
m my mum had been a stay at home mum,
so she tried to apply for jobs, couldn't get a job,
and so then she had a nervous breakdown and so
I was sort of like the one sort of mopping
up that mess.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
My gosh, it's a lot for a fifteen year old.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Well, by the time all of that happened, I was seventeen,
and so I just saw what a lack of money
did to her, and I think that was the catalyst
for me wanting to work hard. But now I've gone
to an extreme level where I work too hard.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
You know, I work.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
It's not unusual for me to be working. I work
seven days a week. But saying that, I love what
I do, so it doesn't feel like working like I
sit at my desk, I'm on site. I'm not drudging
being there. I love what I do. So I love
the thrill of buying a property. I love negotiating it foundly,
you know, like getting a good deal. I would be
(14:52):
absolutely lying to say that, Hey, if you do a renovation,
it's all going to be smooth sailing.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
We know that's not true.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
How do you deal with that when something isn't what
you expect it to be or not up to standard.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I really haven't had any situations over the last ten
years where I've had any sort of heated exchanges with
my trades. I don't let them get to that level now.
So if I can feel something brewing or I know
a trade is not going it's there's going to be
a result that I'm not going to be happy with,
I'll approach them and I'll say, hey, can we just
have a chat about something? I just want to double
(15:28):
check with you, Like I'm tiptoeing around a bit in
a nice way, because you don't ever want to go hey,
you're doing that wrong because instantly.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
The walls go up with trades.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Absolutely, So I'll just say, hey, can we have a
chat about something. I'm a little bit concerned about this.
I was wanting this. Pictures are always good, yes, because
when you're renovating, because if you've got an idea in
your head or you want a certain look, explaining that
to a trade like, don't assume what's in your heads
is translatable into their head.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
So yeah, I'll try and nip it in the bud,
and I'll.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Talk to that person very kindly and say look, if
they say, look, that can't be done, OK, can we
try and find a solution.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
And I find often that if you.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Let the trades person find the solution, they'll often do
the best work for you. So definitely don't be some
hot head on site, and like I said, gets back
to just talking to them.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Like real people, be kind, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And that's where you know, if you have had a
somewhat heated exchange with the trading, you know, hey, can
I go down the shop and grab your coffee whatever?
Or the really great thing is, hey, I can feel
that this is not this conversation is not going where
it should be. Can we just like ten minutes time out?
I just want to step away, gather my thoughts. It
(16:48):
gives them time to cool down, it gives you time
to cool down.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
So back to the farmhouse, you said you have two
teams of carpenters. Yes, because one team's not enough.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, well I've got a guest house there, and then
I've got the main house, and then I've got other
teams working on like the landscaping.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
So yeah, it's a bit of a juggling act.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
So you're making the move to the country.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Look for me, I think it's just.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
You know, just sort of having a house that you're
really happy with, a house that you know brings you
incredible joy when you come home, a house that you
can have your favorite things in and a house that
sort of really suits the spaces. Like, for example, my
hobby is a musician, a professional musician. He's a cameraman
as well, but before we met he was a professional musician.
(17:34):
So he's always like on his bass guitar drives me
absolutely nuts.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
So like I knew that in this house, I need.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
To build him a music room so you know, he
can I can lock him away down and the dungeon
and I can you know, a jam as much as
he wants. So I think, like you know, for us,
it's just you know, getting the spaces that we need
at this stage in my life. There's also my daughter,
so the guest house will be her house, so I
can my twenty year.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Old daughter close at Bay.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
That's a wonderful idea.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Yeah, so, and it's so hard for young people to
get on the property ladders these days, so it gives
her a bit of a head start. And then it's
just also like just the beautiful.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Green grass and the.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Trees that the little three little Psycho two hours can
run around it. So it's sort of just chicking all
the box and cute.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
We saw a picture of them where they're wearing little hats.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Oh yeah, it was so little with the little flower hats. Yeah,
and so black and yellow.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
I was in Melbourne filming Space Invaders for four months.
I relocated there for the show, and I just went
to some Melbourne art and craft show on the weekend
and then I saw this little stand.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
They had dog hats and like.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Oh, I was like, oh, that's so cute. So I
thought I'll get three of them. And I thought they're
just like little hand knitted things, almost nothing to them.
I thought they'd probably be like ten dollars each. So
I said, yeah, I have three of them. Yeah, and
then she said, so I stuck them on my dogs
and everybody.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Was like, oh, they're so cute. And then she said
that's two hundred and forty dollars and I was like,
oh my god. And I just didn't have the heart
then to go, oh, put them back.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I'm already tied onto the dog's hair.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
And the dogs hate them like they were like strain
their head around, ripping them off.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
One dog was trying to rip the other one off,
and it's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
The moral of that story is don't buy your dog's
weird hats.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
That's a good life lesson What do you speak of
life lessons? What are you learning at the farmhouse?
Speaker 4 (19:33):
The SSM? Do you know what that is?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
It's the poo and weed pits. So yeah, basically the
on site sewer management system. So I'm just like, I've
never dealt with like a big on site sewer management system.
So it's like the enviros cycle where you know, all
the waste goes into one chamber and that spins around
and does whatever, and it goes into like eight different
chambers and that flows from there to there and all
(19:58):
sorts of stuff. And then there's the water tanks and
you know, pumping those up and downhill, and it's the
whole bush fire. So I'm in a bushfire zone. And
so all the bush fire materials and the thermal break windows,
you know, as opposed to single blaze or double glaze,
they've got to be thermal break So even at this
(20:20):
ripe old age of mine, I'm still learning things when
it comes to renovating. And I just think as a renovator,
it doesn't matter if you've done one project or three
hundred projects. You never stop learning, absolutely, and that's great.
It is.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
After the break. Schari tells us more about.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Timmy and why she wanted to embark on this world
first social experiment, and of course you have embraced technology
in a way that is.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Really exciting. Tell us about your teammate.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yes, so I have a new teammate, a new renovation assistant.
His name is Tinny. Tinny is not a human. Tinny
is a humanoid robot.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
This is just phenomenal. I've met a humanoid before.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
He she They were absolutely gorgeous, but all they really
did in our encounter was wave and breakdance.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Yes, so what does Tinny do?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Well, Tinny's from Unitary Robotics in China, So they have
like a G one and that's the one that just
waves dancers. Okay, and that's fine for the first five minutes,
but what do you do? You look that after that,
and that robot's about twenty thousand dollars astray and by
the time you know, the currency is converted. So Tiny
is a g one EDU, which means he's totally programmable,
(21:42):
and he's about one hundred and sixty thousand, one hundred
and fifty hundred and sixty depending on currency, So he's
totally programmable. So, for example, he's been programmed with a
lot of the products that I'm using, Like, for example,
I'm using James Hardy cladding on all of the on
all of the property, and so he's been programmed with
(22:03):
all of the cladding specs how to install.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
So if the trades are.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
On site and they're not sure maybe how corner comes together,
I can ask Tinny, how do we do the corner
joints on this James Ardi streea cladding for example, and
he'll go, he'll spit the answer out, Oh my god,
he can do the site inductions.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
He speaks yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
So you communicate with Timmy like you would any other
trades person, and.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
We talked to him for design opinions. So I can say, Tinny,
I'm thinking about painting this bedroom sage.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Green or muddy olive.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
What do you think what color do you think would
be best for this bedroom? And he'll statistically sort of
tap into chat chept and he'll say, Chari statistically proven,
sage green might be the better color because it's more calming,
better suited to environment. You know, if it was orange
or something might be energizing, not a good color. So yeah,
So it's a social experiment. So when to China and
(23:00):
I saw Tinny for the first time, so I named Tinny.
I thought Tinny, he's made of metal, yeah, so I
thought tin And then I thought Tinny is a can
of beer exactly, which is what all the trades have
on a Friday afternoon. So that's where his name came from,
so like Gussie slang. And then I went and saw Tinny.
So I'd worked on him so much like we would,
programming him, writing briefs for his personality what I needed
(23:24):
him to do, so he all got programmed. And then
I saw him for the first time. And I know
it sounds really stupid, but the first time I saw him,
I felt like I was in love with him because
he's so tiny, He's like a little kid, and so
I just walked up to him and gave him my huggar.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
I know it's stupid, like I know all the viewers.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Right now saying, yep, she's totally like Craig Cray, But
I just had done so much work on him and
my partner had as well, that we just felt like
this emotional bond to him. Robots are coming, whether we
like it or not, and to be honest, I'd have
copped a little bit of flak from people like people
on my social media who I love you know, people have.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
Said, Shari, I love you.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I've been following your work for you know, a decade,
but I'm not following you for this one. So there's
people have been quite anti robot. And do you think
that is because everybody is scared of AI and robot's
taking our jobs.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
It's the security thing.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
And one thing I can say with absolute certainty Tinny,
is he can't do construction work. A robot cannot do
what the trades do. Like a robot cannot climb a roof,
take roof sheets or you know, pop out rivets take
roof sheets of. They can't run electrical cables like they
have hands, but even like the fingers, they've got fingers,
(24:41):
but the fingers don't do this. They can't they can't
grab stuff, so they're very limited. So one thing that
has definitely come out of this social experiment so far
is that robots are not replacing humans anytime soon.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
And I think I will get to the end of this.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Project and I think that'll literally be my closing line
in this show. Tinny was great. Tinny was great as
the brainy assistant. He really saved me time. For example,
I was on site like two weeks ago, and I said, Tinny,
can you recommend three steel suppliers for.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Me in Sydney.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
So instead of me jumping on Google and having to
troll through Google, Tinny just went three steel suppliers in Sydney.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Boom boom boom.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
So I just quickly wrote them down in my diary
and then I contacted those three companies and I ended
up going with one of them. I could have spent
half an hour googling, but Tinny answered that for me
in about three seconds.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
It saves so much time.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
So I think there's really good. There's good and bad
sides to this the robot. Like, as I said, it's
a social experiment, and I think I will get to
the end and say, you know, the robots can't do
what we do, but that's a great thing. And this
opens up an incredible opportunity for humans to enter the
construction industry.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Definitely, I can absolutely see why Cherie is such a
renovat for a profit icon. She's clever, she's real and
willing to share every last detail of her renovations. Shari
and I had so much to talk about that there's
a part two of this conversation out right now, where
she walks us through her newest project, the farmhouse, And
(26:16):
you don't have to go far jump onto the next episode.
Wherever you're listening to or watching this one.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
This is an Our Media podcast,
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