September 7, 2026 • 48 mins
Victoria Devine spends her working life thinking about the part of a home most of us would rather not think about... the cost. What we pay for it, what we can afford and what it really takes to call somewhere home. As a financial advisor, host of She's on the Money, and managing director of mortgage broking business Zella, she leads a team of 17 brokers helping everyday Australians onto the property ladder.
But when it came to buying her own home, she broke nearly every rule in her own playbook.
In this episode of The Edit, Victoria tells Home Beautiful Editor-in-Chief Elle Lovelock about the Saturday morning walk that ended with her calling a real estate agent to cancel an auction outright, and why the heart (almost) always wins when it comes to property.
Plus, Victoria takes us on a tour of her light-filled forever home, and shares exactly how she renovated her Mornington Peninsula beach house kitchen for under $10,000.
Sending thanks to our partners at Kaboodle Kitchen.
Explore kitchen and laundry inspiration at kaboodle.com.au
This episode covers:
- Her career pivot from psychology to financial advice
- The $40,000 in personal debt that changed the course of her career
- Who makes up the She's on the Money community
- Why property decisions are never as logical as we think
- Buying her forever home, and breaking every rule she teaches
- A tour of her home, from the mudroom to the indoor-outdoor fireplace
- Inside her 1970s Mornington Peninsula beach house
- Renovating her beach house kitchen for under $10,000
- A listener's laundry renovation dilemma
- Quickfire house rules: bread, a coffee subscription and no big lights
- Mystery drawer: the two items that never stay in one place
- What makes a home beautiful
Disclaimer: The information provided in this episode is for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Before acting on any information, you should consider whether it is appropriate for your individual circumstances and seek independent professional advice where necessary.
You can find Victoria on Instagram here
Check out Victoria’s Spotify playlist ‘The OG Home Playlist’ 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: Victoria Devine
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.
https://www.homebeautiful.com.au/home-beautiful-the-edit-podcast/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is an R Media podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This episode is brought to you in partnership with a
brand I truly love and live with, Caboodle Kitchen.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We're out on a walk one Saturday morning and we're
walking along a path and the house that I used
to walk past every day during COVID when we were
talking about maybe one day being even able to afford properties.
had a forthcoming auction sale on it. And I looked
at my husband and he looked at me and he
(00:37):
literally said, no, no. And I was like, but....
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'm Elle Lovelock, Editor-in-Chief of Home Beautiful. Welcome to The Edit,
where we bring you into beautiful homes with the people
who create them. My guest today spends her working life
on the bit of a home most of us would
rather not think about, which is... what it costs, things
like mortgages, renovation budgets, and whether you can actually afford
(01:06):
the kitchen you've fallen in love with. Victoria Devine is
a financial advisor, host of She's on the Money podcast,
managing director of Zella, and a bestselling author. We get
into the balance of buying a home with your head
versus your heart, the budget secrets behind her beautiful beach
house renovation, and her economical approach to entertaining.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Victoria, welcome to the edit.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Thank you for having me, Elle. I am so excited.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Oh, I don't think you're as excited as I am,
but then... Are you sure?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Because the opportunity to talk about home styling, property, money,
all together, I don't know if you know this, but
I've made my entire career on this and I am keen.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
You started in psychology and you ended up in finance.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I started in psychology, I think, inherently because I wanted
to help people. And I remember in my third year
of psychology, I had my placement and I loved psychology
up until that point. And I had my placement in
child psych and this is what I thought I wanted
to do. I love kids. I love psychology. Like putting
them together would be fantastic. And I walked into the
(02:17):
career advisor woman's office in tears, like two weeks after
starting being like, I can't do this. Like, this is
not my journey. Like, this is not for me. Like,
what do you mean? This is too confronting. And what
do you mean I can't scoop them up and take
them home? So I learned a couple of things. Firstly,
that psychologists are incredibly special people and we need to
treat them way better. But secondly, that was never going
(02:40):
to be my journey. And she said, look, Victoria, I...
I didn't expect this, but also I'm not surprised. Have
you thought about organizational psychology? And I was like, no,
what's that? And she summarized it and was like, make
sure it's basically the science of people at work. It's
more like corporate psychology. I'm like, okay, sounds like mine.
And I did take that pathway. I did a placement
(03:01):
in it. I did an internship in it. I graduated,
got my graduate consulting job in organizational psychology, and I
loved it. But it was all about insight. and engagement
and culture and all of that was so exciting, but
none of it was really that measurable. Like I got
so excited when the numbers came up and I can
(03:23):
show people exactly what we were saving, or I could
show people exactly what was, you know, being able to
be measured. But how do you genuinely measure an employee's engagement?
And then how do you measure how much it's changed?
And then how do you craft a story that you're
invalid in that situation. So I felt a little bit
like a sham. And at that point in time, I
(03:44):
also was working in consulting as what I would call
a baby. I was 21 and I was trying to
keep up with all these 40-year-old consultants wearing gorgeous Sabah
and Scanlon Theodore suits. And my salary was $ 55, 000, including super.
And I just didn't have the income for that. So
I ended up in a whole heap of consumer debt myself.
(04:06):
And on my journey of learning about financial advice because
I kind of came to a conclusion where I can't
sleep at night. I can't do this anymore. Like do
people really live like this? This is crazy. And I
wasn't in a little bit, like I wasn't in like
$ 5, 000 worth of credit card debt. I ended up with
$ 40, 000 worth of personal debt in a personal loan that
(04:27):
I consolidated from some credit cards. So like I did
it really well. Like if you're going to say, did
you go into debt? Yeah, I was really good at it. Thanks.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
And was that chasing a lifestyle?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I think it was just trying to keep up because
it wasn't, you know, being showy. It wasn't, you know,
keeping up with my friends. It was more buying. I
went overseas with it and I studied overseas for a while.
So that did take a fair chunk of it. I
then started looking into financial advice, had a really negative
experience with a mediocre middle-aged white man, financial advisors who
(05:03):
basically said I didn't have enough money for him to
even bother. With me being his client. And I was
heartbroken because I'd just done all of this research into
trying to understand how I could get myself out of
this financial pickle.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
And I was like, how hard could it be? I'm
a little bit delusional at the best of times. Surely
I can do it myself. So I started learning. I
started just falling into realizing the power that financial advice had.
ended up getting a job in the financial advice space
and switching over. And I can tell you, I have
(05:38):
never been happier. Like the idea that I get to
marry on a daily basis, my background in psychology and
understanding how people function and why they make the decisions
they make and then actually having tangible impact with money,
which is something that all of us have to experience
and all of us have to manage whether we like
it or not, gives me such joy. Like I just
(06:00):
feel like We could change the world with this information.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Who is your audience, your listener, your reader? Who are
you talking to?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
So a majority of the She's On The Money community
sit between the ages of 25 and 45, and they
are usually women. I don't know if you picked up
on the she's in She's On The Money, but it's
mostly women.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
How does home and property come into this for you
and your audience?
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Well, my friend, not only do I have shoes on
the money, the podcast, I'm a mortgage broker who owns
a mortgage broking practice. And I have seven mortgage brokers
and a team of 17. So I actually talk, like
I'm not just on a podcast talking about the importance
of you know, wealth creation and getting your foot on
(06:51):
the property ladder. I live it and I breathe it
on a daily basis. Like my team and I hold
the hands of usually first home buyers, a lot of
refinances to get into their first or their next home.
And we settle almost half a billion dollars worth of
loans each year. So like on the back of she's
(07:12):
on the money, like I can promise you, like I'm
doing what I said I was going to do.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Something I'd love your perspective on is buying property is,
for most people, the biggest financial commitment and decision they'll
ever make. But so often it's made emotionally.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
We all try to make decisions with our head and
ultimately our heart likes to meddle with that relationship. And
it happens to the best of us. It happened to me.
My husband and I, we saved up. We went to
buy our first house. It's probably 2020 at this point,
and we're buying our first home. And I remember saying
to my husband, and at that point in time, I
(07:50):
was a licensed financial advisor. I had a mortgage broker
working for me. Of all the people to be making
good financial decisions, I had every opportunity at my disposal, right?
I was amazing. spoiled for choice. I had a heap
of friends who were real estate agents. Like I had
the right financial backing. Like I had some conveyances who
were really happy to get involved, but I was set
(08:12):
up and I said to my husband, we're going to
do this right. Like, you know, let's sit down and
talk about our non-negotiables before we even go shopping, before
we even jump on realestate.com.au so that we can, you know,
look at what's available to us. Let's work out our budget.
Let's work out our non-negotiables and what we want. And
we were so clear on that. until the pretty pictures
of the properties came up until someone had hearing blown
(08:38):
floorboards and I was like but honey have you seen
their floors until the property was beautifully styled and when
I walked in I was like is that a vanilla
candle like girlfriend they got me and like I remember
saying to my husband, like, these are my non-negotiables. Like,
I want it north-facing. I, you know, want it to be,
(08:59):
you know, not an apartment. All of this stuff that
I think is quite logical. And then I would walk
into a house. My husband would be like, that's really good.
You know, bathroom needs a little bit of work. And
I'd be like, oh, it's not big enough for a bath.
My husband would be like, Victoria, that wasn't even one
of your non-negotiables. Like, why does that matter? And I'd
be like, oh, that house would be beautiful with a bath.
I remember saying to my husband, this is a stepping
(09:21):
stone property in a perfect world. We'll purchase this house,
live here for 10 years. We'll be able to sell
it at some point, use some of the capital gains
for our next deposit, and then maybe buy our dream
house or become another step closer to our dream house.
Because that's the reality these days. Millennials, Gen Zs, Even
(09:42):
some boomers, we're not just walking straight into our dream
property anymore. Like there has to be, and this is
why you need a good broker, right? There has to
be a property strategy. This is what you can afford now.
This is what capital gains might look on it. This is,
you know, if you're going to rent best, this is
the rental yield on this property. This is what it
looks like. This is what you could claim. This is
what you like might not want to claim. And so
(10:03):
I think because I had all of those hats and
I was so prepared to be so logical, I forgot
that I am also deeply an emotional person. And, you know,
part of that 10 year plan for my husband and
I was that we did have babies in that house.
And so even though the logical thing would be Victoria,
(10:23):
actually location matters. At that point in time, the location
we were looking off street parking really mattered. All of
that happened. And then all of a sudden I'd caught
up on a bathtub. Like my husband was like, Victoria,
you want to walk in the walk right now? And
that was a humbling experience.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Coming up, Victoria tells us about the moment she saw
her dream house with a for sale sign at the front.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Back after this.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
You mentioned before we started recording that you have now,
in fact, bought your forever home.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Yeah, we have. And it's like the best thing ever.
It's something that, you know, if you go back to 2020,
that's six years ago. And if my husband and I
were having these conversations about property and this, you know,
property that we bought, we got it for a steal.
It was like that September of 2020 when COVID had
(11:21):
kind of like started to recede a little bit. I mean,
it came back, but it had started to recede a
little bit. People were really anxious about properties that they
weren't buying. And I knew logically that was a great
time for us. And it was a great property purchase.
And then fast forward to, we ended up buying last year.
So we bought mid last year and And I had
(11:45):
just felt, well, my husband and I had just found
out we were expecting our second baby. And he and
I both were like, wow, we are in a very
different financial position than we had ever anticipated to be
in five years down the track. Yeah. And, you know,
the house that we had purchased genuinely would have been
fantastic for another five years. Like when we purchased it,
(12:08):
a lot of the thinking behind it was, It's probably
not the type of house that we'd be comfortable having
teenagers in, but it's the perfect house. It's not very big,
but like it's the perfect house to have two small children,
still have our lifestyle, still be close to public transport and,
you know, feel like we haven't moved out to the sticks, which,
you know, for some people might be something they're happy
(12:29):
to compromise on. But for us, we were more about
having a smaller house in a better location. So we
kind of come to this like conclusion that we would
be there for teenagers. And then all of a sudden
we're having a second baby and we're in this situation
where hilariously we were like, we're in this great financial position.
We could afford the house we really want. Should we look?
(12:52):
And my husband and I decided, no, you know what?
Logical thing here. Again, property is deeply personal and an
emotional journey. We had decided, no, we're not going to buy.
And then we're out on the walk on Saturday morning
and we're walking along the path and the house that
I used to walk past every day during COVID when
(13:13):
we were talking about maybe one day being even able
to afford property had a forthcoming auction sale on it.
And I looked at my husband and he looked at
me and he literally said, no, no. And I was like, But,
and he's like, no, no, that forthcoming auction never happened
because I went straight to a real estate agent. I said,
(13:36):
can we please have a private inspection? Got it. Asked,
you know, like I was pretty blunt and did absolutely
everything that I tell my clients at Zella, my mortgage-breaking business,
not to do. Like, don't show the real estate your hand.
Do not tell your real estate agent what you are
willing to spend on this property. You get them to
put that I did all of this stuff wrong.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Totally uncool about it.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
But that's again, a really good example of like, we
are deeply emotional beings. And like, to me, this wasn't
just like, oh, do you want the property or not? Nah.
Like I was like, I don't know what's going to
happen if I don't get this house. And so I said, okay,
like so dumb, so dumb. And you know what? I'm
very grateful, like reflecting on this story. I'm so grateful
(14:20):
to have been in the position to be able to
do that. So I do also want to acknowledge that
that is such a privilege. And like, it's the community
that we've just talked about that I've built and the
business that I've built that's enabled me to be in
that position. But I, I said to the real estate agent, right.
And you should never do this. This is a terrible advice.
He said, what's it going to take to cancel that auction?
(14:41):
I'm like, well, how do I take that off the map?
Like I, I just, I had been up for maybe
three nights in a row, stressing over this thing, like,
this auction is going to come and what if someone
outbids me and what if I get flustered and what if,
what if, what if, what if someone puts an offer
on the house before auction and it goes and then
we don't get the chance to bid. And my house
(15:01):
then ended up just being like, Victoria, just call the
real estate agent and ask what it will take. Because like,
if they say something exorbitant, no one's going to do it. Also,
if it's way beyond our budget, then at least we're
not going to an auction you're going to be heartbroken over. Also,
it could be reasonable. And that's what ended up happening.
(15:22):
And yeah, moved in late last year, brought our second
baby Campbell home here. And we're obsessed. Like it's, it's
literally the home that I had dreamed we would be in.
And I feel very grateful that that's the case.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Well, you have to give us an audio tour. This
is something we do on the edit. So if you
can talk us through. what it's like being in your home.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
So say we come to.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
The front door and open the door. I feel like
I'm gloating because I'm obsessed with this house.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
No, gloat. Gloat away.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I think it's, I have to say, I think it's
so lovely to hear the stories where you have the
plan and you think, you know, it might take 10 years,
it might take longer, and you're good with that. But
to hear sometimes circumstances in your life can change and
dreams can move forward in the timeline. And I think
that is really important. makes me feel buoyant please take
(16:16):
us on the home tour.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Okay so the like you walk in we have a
really large like cantilever front door um and throughout the
house upstairs and downstairs we have three meter ceilings um
so that is for me it's that sense of space
but the way that they have built it is just
(16:41):
they've really capitalized on having lots of natural light so
the front door is glass the you know side of
our like you walk into our foyer kind of area
and there's a really big floor to ceiling window if
you like turn in you'll then see the stairs that
go upstairs and they are extra wide and because you've
(17:05):
got the three meter ceilings it goes from the ground floor,
floor all the way up to the top floor. And
we have like a chandelier, like kind of, I want
to say chandelier, but it's like a pendant light. Like
it's not, like if I say chandelier, it sounds old school,
but like it's a beautiful modern pendant light over the stairwell.
(17:26):
And then get this, this is so fancy. Like I
was a little bit embarrassed to tell my mum this
when I was like, oh, we've bought a house. We
have a mudroom. So beside, yeah, right, beside the stairs,
there's a door to the mudroom, which then you can
enter the garage from there. And that to me is crazy.
(17:46):
What do you mean? I have a place that my
handbag lives.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Does the whole family use the mudroom? You've got two
young children.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
So daycare bags are in there. My husband's golf shoes.
If we had guests over, I'd just shut the door there.
It's full of shoes and coats and Uh, random toys
right now, she walked into my house, there's a balance
bike and a scooter in there. Um, and those things
(18:14):
are very welcome, but also probably not what the designers
had in mind when they had styled it. Um, and
then to the right is my office. So I'm sitting
in my office right now and it has some beautiful cabinetry,
like bookshelves built in, and then that overlooks the garden,
(18:34):
which I love. Yeah. And if you were to walk
down in the hallway, like back towards the back of
the property, it's quite a wide hallway. And on one
side is what the old owners had as a sitting room.
And it's got some beautiful floor-to-ceiling cast-iron windows and, like,
(18:54):
fridge doors that go into that room. Come back out,
you've got the gallery-style or is it galley or gallery-style laundry?
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Galley laundry.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Yeah, galley. Like, when you walk through and, like, a
little powder room, and then down the back it kind
of opens up into a really big kitchen, living, dining space.
So that's probably, ooh, 15 metres across, I think, last
time I measured it. And it's got floor-to-ceiling, like, sliding
(19:27):
doors on the back. And really, like, on the left
you would have or you do have a– a built-in
fireplace um that is internal and external if that makes
sense so like it's a feature for internal of the
house and external of the house. And it takes up
(19:50):
significant room space. It's all kind of like granite stone
that's like really raw.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Do you have people over?
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yes, we love a dinner party.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
How do you like to entertain? Are you the cook?
Is your husband the cook?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Both, both.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
So my husband every day does most of the cooking.
And then if we're entertaining, which... we would probably have
people over for dinner once or twice a week. So
like quite regularly, I would cook.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Yeah. And so what else?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
What does your home sound like?
Speaker 1 (20:21):
You know what? At this point, it can be a
little bit echoey because when we moved in, we went
from having like quite a small house to now having
quite a large house. And we've lived here for 12 months.
And We need some more furniture, but I'm trying to
be quite mindful about those furniture purchases and not just
buy cheaper stuff to fill the space. I mean, every
(20:44):
day is quite loud here. I do have two very
small children and we do not tell them to be quiet.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
So I also want to ask, what does your home
smell like? Because I've heard you're big on scent and
I see a very fancy candle behind you.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Oh, that's good spotting. I am very big on scent.
I love a diptych candle. My house smells like the,
is it diptych? The base range? Yes. Yes. So I
have that everywhere. I am a big fan of a diffuser.
I have probably six or seven through my home and
(21:21):
I have shared on socials a fair bit about just
how important this is to me and how I always
flick my reeds and when I do that and just
I love having a house that smells welcoming.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
In a moment, Victoria shares all the details of her
beach house renovation and how she achieved a gorgeous kitchen
for under $ 10, 000.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
I'd love to hear more about... another home.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
You also have a beach house.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
We do. Again, the most entitled thing ever. If you're
listening to this podcast, you're going to learn about my properties,
I suppose. To give you a little bit of context,
I always said growing up, I would love to live back.
I'm from the Mornington Peninsula. Well, I'm actually from Tasmania,
moved over when I was in primary school, moved to
the Mornington Peninsula and always thought that I'd live down there.
(22:20):
There's not a lot of opportunity down there for career,
for growth. To drive all the way back and forth
every day was just not working when I was at uni,
so I moved up here. And I always said, like,
I'd love to own a place down there, but I
don't think I could be there forever. And when the
opportunity came up to purchase a property down there, 400
metres from my parents' house, 400 metres from the beach,
(22:43):
right before we were planning on having children, both my
husband and I were like well this is the lifestyle
that we are working towards like and this this beach
house is by no means a big shiny beach house
that you would see in like a Portio Sorrento like
(23:04):
I would say it's definitely the beach shack and that's
exactly what I want it to be like it is
not somewhere that you go and it's polished and you
ask me if you need to take off your shoes.
Like you walk in and hopefully you feel immediately at
home and like you've been there before. And that's kind
of the intent. It's not got a pool or a
(23:24):
tennis court or any of that. Like it's on an
empty block of land. Like we have a lot of grass.
There's probably some snakes in the backyard.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
You're selling the dream.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
It was built in the seventies and it looks like
it was built in the seventies.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
So when we took it over- I tried my hardest
with my cleaning hyperfixation to clean that bathroom, but you
could not get that mold out of anything. Like the
bathroom had to be demolished. Like it was not a choice.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
So let's talk about that. What did you do to
the house? What is the bathroom situation like now?
Speaker 1 (24:02):
So when we purchased the house, it... Had some questionable finishes.
It's definitely, it used to be one of those houses
where it was on stilts. So it was just the
upstairs area and it had a really big staircase up
to this like one story kind of beach shack. And
then clearly over time, someone filled in downstairs. So the
(24:26):
floor plans, you kind of go, this doesn't make sense.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
And then when I give you that context, you're like, okay,
that does make sense.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
It definitely was built in the seventies. So it kind
of the old, old vibey, sorry, old vibey kind of
vaulted ceiling. It has some, it has a really beautiful
teak wall. So it's like this wall of just like
teak wood that my husband, when we bought and settled,
(24:55):
he's like, when are we going to paint that? And
I was like, oh no, we're never painting that. If anything,
we're going to polish that. And I think it brings
such charm to the property that reminds you it's not
necessarily a brand new house. And I didn't want to
when we renovated, I said to my husband, I don't
want it to feel like any other house or like
a modern, you know, home. I want to keep all
(25:15):
of those things. So the light fittings we've kept, um,
the walls we've kept, they had some really beautiful floorboards
upstairs that were, uh, stained a really nice orange. And
we were pleasantly surprised when we sanded them back that
we could get them to a really nice light beach. Um,
The sander was not confident, but it did happen. Downstairs,
(25:40):
everywhere was carpet. Everywhere, everywhere. So we had to redo
everything there.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Do you think you will knock it over one day
or is this how it's going to be?
Speaker 1 (25:51):
We talk about it sometimes, but I just, I don't
think that we will. We kind of love the vibe
and I don't think you could rebuild the vibe. It's
a five bedroom like shack. And when I say that...
there's three bedrooms downstairs and two upstairs. One of the
upstairs ones is definitely more nursery size, which is absolutely
(26:13):
perfect for us at this point. It used to be
six bedrooms, but one of the bedrooms has been converted
into a butler's pantry. So again, quite disjointed. It's across from,
you know, the old pokey kitchen, which we've redone and
it's brilliant, but like there was just not enough room
for storage. So one of the bedrooms, which I believe
(26:33):
is like Two meters by three. So quite like a
little bit longer, but like not that wide. It feels
like a little bit of a galley pantry. The footprint
of where the kitchen was, was such that we couldn't
really expand the kitchen beyond what we had. So we've,
(26:53):
we've put in a new caboodle kitchen and we have
a beautiful pantry. some bench space, but not a lot.
So being able to have somewhere that the microwave lived and,
you know, another pantry and we've got a bar fridge
in there, it's just made the space so much more functional,
especially for entertaining. What does it look like?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Because I put a caboodle kitchen of sorts in the
back of my home.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
We call it the greenhouse.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
And so it's where, it's where I live the dream
and cut my flowers and, and do those sorts of things.
But then I also put it in as wardrobes. I
use pantries to make wardrobes and I'm just obsessed with it.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
So what have you done?
Speaker 1 (27:36):
We actually worked, I contacted the caboodle team and was like, Hey,
can you give me a hand? Cause I'm not really
good at this. And I had an idea in my head,
but I was playing with their online tool and I
couldn't like make it work. Anyway, I, I wanted, it's
a white kitchen with a really nice kind of like
soft stone look, melamine bench top. The total cost for
(28:00):
our kitchen was eight and a half thousand dollars, not
including appliances, which I think that's pretty good. And that
included bench tops. And so we've got the 40 mil
bench tops. So they're like the thick tops and what
I wanted was. And the reason I could do it
on the online tool was I kind of wanted to
take that bench top and put it on the side
(28:21):
to make it look like a waterfall bench top. And
we've done that. And so it actually looks fantastic. We
then have the shaker cabinet doors and where possible, we've
just done push to close. So like, I feel like
it looks quite sleek. We moved the sink to, instead
of having, we didn't have the space for an island.
(28:42):
We needed more bed space than that. We put in
like a peninsula bench with the waterfall at one end
and put the sink in smack bang in the middle
of that. We've also put in like bench seating. So
like there's three stools and like cabinetry on the outside
of the bench as well for like glasses and things
that we don't use as often. And yeah, we've kind
(29:04):
of gone for a really soft sage to kind of
soften that in terms of the tile. And I feel
like that looks really soft. but also really complimentary to
the space. Like we haven't gone and ripped everything out
and replaced it with something that looks Anglian for the space.
Like I think it feels complimentary, but at the same time,
(29:27):
really functional.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Do you think people who come into this kitchen, do
they realize that this is a kitchen that's under $ 10, 000?
Speaker 3 (29:37):
I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I don't think so. And I think that that's, you know,
not to blow my own horn, but I think that's
purposeful styling. I think that's making sure you're picking the
right cabinet doors, the right, you know, fittings. You know,
we purposefully put in a deeper tub style sink. And
so the sink, I think, cost us $ 500, whereas we
(30:02):
could have got like a $ 300 sink that would have
done the job. But I was like, no, let's do
a bit more high-end there because I think it does
influence the way you see the rest of the kitchen.
And for me, the kitchen sink being on the peninsula was...
a feature. Um, and we, we picked really nice tack
wear that kind of complimented the style of the house.
(30:23):
It wasn't super modern, but it wasn't, you know, really
super vintage, but it was somewhere in between. Um, I
think that really helped. And then having that like 40
centimeter bench top really gives it a lux effect instead
of just like a 20 mil bench, like the 40
really feels like I don't know, dense. And you know,
(30:45):
when you like see a thicker bench top, you just
immediately assume it's more quality. We also splashed out, I
don't know if it was splashed out, it wasn't that
much more expensive, but we did use a lot of
space with this. We In this space, I think anyone
(31:07):
else would have chosen the 60, but I do think
for us, because we entertain, because I cook a lot,
I said to my husband, we're going to need the
90 because I can't do a roast and veggies in
a small 60 centimetre oven that's just not going to work.
And I think that that gives an air of luxe
as well because it's a really big oven. But there's
nothing expensive about it. It's just kind of the size
(31:28):
and the way it's fitted.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
It's all about the design details, I think. Design is
what makes, spaces feel incredible and bad design can make
spaces feel uncomfortable, a bit stingy.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Sometimes you're trying to make a design happen that maybe
doesn't work for that kitchen or that space. So had
you taken a similar kitchen to the one that we've
done in our other house, like which had beautiful stone
and like, you know, it was more about impact when
you saw, you're like, we had this beautiful stone island
(32:04):
bench made with curved stone around the front which as
you can imagine was not the cheapest decision but it
was the feature of the house like you walked into
the house and you saw this beautiful like Calcutta marble
bench top that they'd cut and it was curved and
the wall was curved and then we had really beautiful
(32:25):
ceramic backsplash that had the marble pattern and that was stunning.
But had you tried to place something similar into this house,
it just wouldn't have seated. So we needed to pick
something beachy and something coastal. And I spent a really
long time on Pinterest trying to pinpoint why I liked
certain kitchens.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
So I found myself looking at kitchens and being like,
I love that one.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
But I had to find a way to articulate why
I liked it. And a lot of the time it
was like, oh. I really gravitating towards that like shaker
style door. Okay. So for me, I really wanted that.
You know, I loved the idea of like a colored kitchen,
but the space was too small to make that work.
So I think we just had to go with white
(33:10):
and clean and, you know, in that space, it just
needed to be clean. I didn't want people to walk
in and be like, wow, the kitchen. I wanted them
to walk in and kind of pass the kitchen so
that it was luxe. It was nice, but it like,
with the rest of the house because it is a
very small shack. Like you can't fit a really big
(33:31):
dining table in there. And if you're trying to make
an impact with the kitchen, I think it makes it
feel even smaller. So we had to be quite cautious
with what we picked and how we picked it.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Victoria, we have a listener dilemma.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
My favorite kind.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Great, great.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
I think you're perfectly placed to answer this one. So
I will read what we have here now. It's a
DM from Steph in Torquay. And she says, we finally
did our kitchen last year and I love it. But
the laundry is right off it. You can see it
straight from the kitchen and it's still in original condition.
(34:10):
One sad cupboard, the washing machine and a laundry basket
on the floor that I move every single time someone
comes over. I keep thinking... I should just do it.
But we went over on the kitchen and my husband's
face does a thing whenever I say the word renovation.
Is a laundry even worth spending money on or am
I being ridiculous?
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Laura, I'm the wrong person to ask. I know you
said I'm perfectly placed, but I think you were going
to ask me to be like, look, you shouldn't spend
money on your laundry. You already spent money on your kitchen.
But girl, if you can see it from the kitchen,
I'd already be doing it. Like I would definitely be
doing it. And That's just because I'm like, you, is
it taking the shine off the kitchen? And also like,
(34:53):
let's think about the logic of this. You overspent on
the kitchen. Let's have a think about why. Let's go
back to why did you overspend? Is it your appliances?
Was it cabinetry? Like, was it the whole thing? Did
you move, you know, some fixtures? Cause like, if you'd
moved your sink, we all know that's where stuff starts
to add up. And like, I think that people really
underestimate how expensive expensive cabinetry can be like the second
(35:17):
you go oh I would like a custom kitchen because
like I have a custom shaped space not because I'm
trying to be bougie they go that's $ 25, 000 minimum thank
you and I think that that makes you a little
bit gum shy for doing spaces like a laundry um
and that's why I did the caboodle laundry we used
to have an old laundry trough which I felt like
(35:39):
was not a good use of space because it took
up so much space and And it had that little
teeny cupboard underneath that you just get the creeps opening.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Every time you open and close.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yeah. And then sitting beside that, we had a washing
machine and then a dryer. And then there was like
a really old cabinet that they had that had like
little kind of French doors, but quite pokey shelving in it.
So like you couldn't put your ironing board or anything
really in there to store. So when we moved in,
I knew that I wanted to change that, but also
(36:11):
wasn't sure how much it would cost. And again, Kobudo's
biggest advocate. You can just go on their website, put
in your dimensions. And it's kind of like, do you
remember when we were younger, we used to play The Sims?
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Yes, I loved The Sims.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Yeah, it's basically that, but for adults and with real products.
So you can kind of put in the dimensions of
your room and where your water fixture is and where
you want things. And they even have like, you can
move a washing machine and a dryer in so you
can mock up what this is going to look like
and add the product. So you go, all right, well,
in our laundry, and you and I were talking about
this off air, about using pantries for different uses.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Yes, definitely.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
So a lot of people use pantries as wardrobes because
their box is perfect for it and it's good quality.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Here I am, exhibit A.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Yeah, but we put a pantry in our laundry because
the cabinet and the storage in it just made sense.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
And so we did that. And because it was like
one of those pantries, we pulled the door open, there
were side like side space to put out our ironing board,
which works. Perfect. And then we did just a bench
straight across one cabinet with the sink built in. So
instead of like a trough, we just did a really
nice sink and then space for the washing machine and
(37:28):
the dryer. And then up the top, we did just
some cabinet trees. So like push to close, um, like
just cupboards where I keep all of the detergent things
out of the way of little fingers.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Um, And our laundry cost about two grand.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Steph, I hope you're inspired. This is your approval to
do the laundry.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
I think that the laundry needs to happen. And if
it sparks joy, I think it's important to invest in things,
especially in your home, if it elevates your experience. But
then also we need to think about how can we
do this on a budget? How can we do this reasonably,
because I think often we get taken down the garden
path when it comes to custom cabinetry, when that's actually
(38:13):
not necessary and the same quality exists in the DIY
space now.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Well, I want to hear more about the other things
that you pick and choose and do in your home.
So we've got our little, it's supposed to be quick fire,
but it never is, but your house rules. So I'm
going to ask some questions.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
What is something that you always have fresh in your home? Bread.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Bread. And coffee. Yeah, bread and coffee.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Fresh beans?
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Yes, always fresh beans. I actually have a bean subscription.
So like I can't be trusted. Like they turn up
at the door and they are always fresh. And I
love the smell of coffee beans. Like we do a
lot of, because I have a toddler and a baby
and all my friendship group are going through that at
the moment. We realized that a brunch catch up is
(39:05):
arguably the best time. So I actually have girlfriends come
over at about 8.30 in the morning and I've already
turned the coffee machine on. One of them has the
job of going past Baker's Delight and picking up a
heap of croissants. And then we have croissants and coffee
out on my back deck and it is literally the best.
And I mean, that's such a budget friendly way of
catching up with your friends and your kids are in
(39:25):
an enclosed space. They can't run away.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
Exactly. Everybody's happy. Who do you see with?
Speaker 1 (39:31):
I'm with Ona at the moment, O-N-A Coffee, and they
have a bean. And this is, I am very sorry,
not budget-friendly. I swear it's the most expensive bean I've
ever seen. And when I tried it, I was like, damn,
I see why. It's called Raspberry Candy. And it, everybody
(39:52):
raves about it. And now I've bought it, I can't
not buy it.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
What would the soundtrack to your home be?
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Oh, I could give you my Spotify playlist. There's one
called the OG Home Playlist. And this is my husband
and my favorite songs. And it's seven and a half
hours of content. I kid you not, like I can
provide the link. You've got everything from Bruce Springsteen and
(40:19):
Neil Diamond. We've got some Whitney Houston. We've got Beyonce.
We've got Daryl Braceway. The Spice Girls have made it
to this mix. And then just all the songs that
we kind of know and love that we want in
the background. They're the songs that, you know, my parents
were big entertainers. They're the songs that I remember them
having on when their friends were over. I mean, they
(40:42):
probably weren't playing the Rihanna and Justin Bieber that have
made it into there. But, you know, we live and
we learn and we grow. If that's not happening, we've
got bluey all the wiggles. And I won't leave that
because nobody needs that.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
The next question I want to know is, I'd love
to know, are your shoes on or off household?
Speaker 1 (40:59):
We're shoes off household. I'm so sorry in advance.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
Don't apologize.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
I think we probably have more shoes off guests than on.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
I cannot walk into somebody else's house and keep my
shoes on. Like they'll say, no, no, no, keep your
shoes on. And I'm like, ah, this feels so uncomfortable. Yeah,
I have slippers that I wear around the house. And,
you know, I actually get quite annoyed. My husband and I,
he believes that you can wear slippers to take the
bin out. And I do not believe that that is
(41:29):
true because they're slippers. They live inside. You would have
to put outside shoes on to take the bins out.
But that seems to be a point of contention in
our house.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
What about, are you a tidy person?
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Is it everything has a place or you've got piles
of stuff, but you know where everything is?
Speaker 1 (41:47):
I am in between. And I think I'm really struggling
with this at the moment because, you know, we haven't
lived in this house for the longest time. And we
went from a house that had a lot of built
in storage. to not having the same built-in storage. So
for a long time upstairs, we just had piles and
piles of books because we didn't have a bookcase to
(42:09):
put them in. And so that felt really messy. I
would say I'm a very, very clean person, but I
can be very messy. So yes, I will leave, you know,
I've got stuff all over the chair in our bedroom,
but our bathroom smells like bleach. So like, I feel
like that's a good like balance, you know?
Speaker 3 (42:27):
That sounds healthy to me.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
I think it's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
And you know what?
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Having kids in the house, like I'm trying to find
homes for everything. So like as I'm learning how they
work and, you know, what toys they like playing with
the most, I'm like buying different storage solutions as we go.
So I love a storage solution. Yep. I love a
storage solution, but I am also a little bit messy.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Tell me about lighting. Are you lights on, lights off, lamps?
Speaker 1 (42:57):
No big lights in this house.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
No, no.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
If you turn on the big lights, that's a big no-no.
You must be angry at me to have turned on
the big lights.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
I feel like this is a good point to find
out what is your mystery drawer item.
Speaker 4 (43:12):
They just seem to float around my house.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
So they're not necessarily just, you know, from, you know,
the drawer at the bottom of the kitchen that everybody has, right?
They are something that if you came into my house...
You might see them sitting on the stairs sometimes. They'll
be on our entertainment unit. They'll be like, they just
move around the house based on where the kids are
and they don't make a lot of sense. So first
(43:38):
is this Hatch sound machine. It is a portable sound machine.
It's by a brand called Hatch. I just bought it
on Amazon and it has a ring on it so
that it can attach to a pram or literally anything.
And having a six month old... she loves a little
bit of white noise or some lullabies. And so this
(44:00):
comes around the house. Like if she's in her bouncer
and you know, she's a little bit unsettled, I'll pop
it on and sit at the side her and she's happy.
If we're going out in the car, I've taken it
in the car and it's hanging from the like car.
What is that? The like hand rail thing. If we
are going in the pram, it is attached to the pram.
(44:21):
So like I swear in this house, my husband and
I across the house would be like, this in the hatch?
Where's the hatch? Like this is what we're talking about.
And even my son, he's two, he goes, can he
sound sing? Yeah, that's exactly what that is. And he
knows where it is. And the second is this, which
(44:42):
looks like a white pebble and it is actually a
red light. And my... husband and I love this the
like at night tone I will literally carry this with
me it's beside my bed and if one of the
kids wakes I'll turn this on and use it as
my nightlight to walk around the house grab a you
(45:04):
know a clean bottle then walk into my daughter's room
I can put it on her side table to like
pick her up and feed her a bottle and then
go and both kids are obsessed with this it's kind
of like squishy so it's like silicon it bounces But
I bought it when my son was little so that
we had a travel nightlight and it's just never left
our sides. So these are the two unhinged random things
(45:27):
that you will just see around my house that I'm
always trying to like put away before guests come, but
they never get away. And then guests are like, what's
that rock thing? I'll be like, well, thanks for asking.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
I want to ask one final question that I ask
all our guests and that is, what do you think
makes your home beautiful.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
The people that come to it that is lovely I
was saying this to my husband I was like we
have created a life where our friends and our family
just drop in and I think that that's not common
anymore like I know that I've said that to people
before like oh yeah my friend just dropped in and
they're like during a work day and I'll be like
(46:11):
oh Yeah, like she's on maternity leave and she just
knows I'm home all day. And if I was busy,
like she wouldn't have like stayed. Yeah. She's like, oh,
I would hate it if somebody just dropped in. And
I'm like, oh, like it's actually to me so special
that my phone's like, oh, you're home. And I'll be like, yep, no,
I'm just in a popover. I've got half of before
another meeting. And like, come in, have a coffee. Like,
(46:34):
you know, I do love entertaining. So that probably leans
a lot into my personality of wanting that. But I
would say having created a home where it's a hub
and people do come and like it's very often that
my husband will come home from work and a couple
of my girlfriends are already here and it's a weeknight.
And I'm like, oh, they're joining for dinner. And I
(46:55):
really love that. So to me that would be the
most beautiful part of our home.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
I love that. I absolutely love that. And I've loved
having you come onto the edit.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
Thank you for having me. What a privilege.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
Oh, it's been an absolute joy. I hope we get
to do it again sometime.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
I do.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
Well, thank you so much. I have thoroughly enjoyed this.
It has been an absolute privilege.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
If this episode has taught me anything, it's that a
beautiful home doesn't need an unlimited budget, just the right priorities.
More expensive doesn't always mean better. And what's important is
getting the design right. Thanks for listening to The Edit.
We have so many more episodes for you to dive
into and binge for company or inspiration.
Speaker 3 (47:43):
So follow us wherever you listen to your podcasts and
look for Home Beautiful on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
I'm Elle Lovelock.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
See you next time.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
This episode is brought to you in partnership with a
brand I truly love and live with, Caboodle Kitchen.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
This is an R-Media podcast.
This is an R Media podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This episode is brought to you in partnership with a
brand I truly love and live with, Caboodle Kitchen.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We're out on a walk one Saturday morning and we're
walking along a path and the house that I used
to walk past every day during COVID when we were
talking about maybe one day being even able to afford properties.
had a forthcoming auction sale on it. And I looked
at my husband and he looked at me and he
(00:37):
literally said, no, no. And I was like, but....
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'm Elle Lovelock, Editor-in-Chief of Home Beautiful. Welcome to The Edit,
where we bring you into beautiful homes with the people
who create them. My guest today spends her working life
on the bit of a home most of us would
rather not think about, which is... what it costs, things
like mortgages, renovation budgets, and whether you can actually afford
(01:06):
the kitchen you've fallen in love with. Victoria Devine is
a financial advisor, host of She's on the Money podcast,
managing director of Zella, and a bestselling author. We get
into the balance of buying a home with your head
versus your heart, the budget secrets behind her beautiful beach
house renovation, and her economical approach to entertaining.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Victoria, welcome to the edit.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Thank you for having me, Elle. I am so excited.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Oh, I don't think you're as excited as I am,
but then... Are you sure?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Because the opportunity to talk about home styling, property, money,
all together, I don't know if you know this, but
I've made my entire career on this and I am keen.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
You started in psychology and you ended up in finance.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I started in psychology, I think, inherently because I wanted
to help people. And I remember in my third year
of psychology, I had my placement and I loved psychology
up until that point. And I had my placement in
child psych and this is what I thought I wanted
to do. I love kids. I love psychology. Like putting
them together would be fantastic. And I walked into the
(02:17):
career advisor woman's office in tears, like two weeks after
starting being like, I can't do this. Like, this is
not my journey. Like, this is not for me. Like,
what do you mean? This is too confronting. And what
do you mean I can't scoop them up and take
them home? So I learned a couple of things. Firstly,
that psychologists are incredibly special people and we need to
treat them way better. But secondly, that was never going
(02:40):
to be my journey. And she said, look, Victoria, I...
I didn't expect this, but also I'm not surprised. Have
you thought about organizational psychology? And I was like, no,
what's that? And she summarized it and was like, make
sure it's basically the science of people at work. It's
more like corporate psychology. I'm like, okay, sounds like mine.
And I did take that pathway. I did a placement
(03:01):
in it. I did an internship in it. I graduated,
got my graduate consulting job in organizational psychology, and I
loved it. But it was all about insight. and engagement
and culture and all of that was so exciting, but
none of it was really that measurable. Like I got
so excited when the numbers came up and I can
(03:23):
show people exactly what we were saving, or I could
show people exactly what was, you know, being able to
be measured. But how do you genuinely measure an employee's engagement?
And then how do you measure how much it's changed?
And then how do you craft a story that you're
invalid in that situation. So I felt a little bit
like a sham. And at that point in time, I
(03:44):
also was working in consulting as what I would call
a baby. I was 21 and I was trying to
keep up with all these 40-year-old consultants wearing gorgeous Sabah
and Scanlon Theodore suits. And my salary was $ 55, 000, including super.
And I just didn't have the income for that. So
I ended up in a whole heap of consumer debt myself.
(04:06):
And on my journey of learning about financial advice because
I kind of came to a conclusion where I can't
sleep at night. I can't do this anymore. Like do
people really live like this? This is crazy. And I
wasn't in a little bit, like I wasn't in like
$ 5, 000 worth of credit card debt. I ended up with
$ 40, 000 worth of personal debt in a personal loan that
(04:27):
I consolidated from some credit cards. So like I did
it really well. Like if you're going to say, did
you go into debt? Yeah, I was really good at it. Thanks.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
And was that chasing a lifestyle?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I think it was just trying to keep up because
it wasn't, you know, being showy. It wasn't, you know,
keeping up with my friends. It was more buying. I
went overseas with it and I studied overseas for a while.
So that did take a fair chunk of it. I
then started looking into financial advice, had a really negative
experience with a mediocre middle-aged white man, financial advisors who
(05:03):
basically said I didn't have enough money for him to
even bother. With me being his client. And I was
heartbroken because I'd just done all of this research into
trying to understand how I could get myself out of
this financial pickle.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
And I was like, how hard could it be? I'm
a little bit delusional at the best of times. Surely
I can do it myself. So I started learning. I
started just falling into realizing the power that financial advice had.
ended up getting a job in the financial advice space
and switching over. And I can tell you, I have
(05:38):
never been happier. Like the idea that I get to
marry on a daily basis, my background in psychology and
understanding how people function and why they make the decisions
they make and then actually having tangible impact with money,
which is something that all of us have to experience
and all of us have to manage whether we like
it or not, gives me such joy. Like I just
(06:00):
feel like We could change the world with this information.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Who is your audience, your listener, your reader? Who are
you talking to?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
So a majority of the She's On The Money community
sit between the ages of 25 and 45, and they
are usually women. I don't know if you picked up
on the she's in She's On The Money, but it's
mostly women.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
How does home and property come into this for you
and your audience?
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Well, my friend, not only do I have shoes on
the money, the podcast, I'm a mortgage broker who owns
a mortgage broking practice. And I have seven mortgage brokers
and a team of 17. So I actually talk, like
I'm not just on a podcast talking about the importance
of you know, wealth creation and getting your foot on
(06:51):
the property ladder. I live it and I breathe it
on a daily basis. Like my team and I hold
the hands of usually first home buyers, a lot of
refinances to get into their first or their next home.
And we settle almost half a billion dollars worth of
loans each year. So like on the back of she's
(07:12):
on the money, like I can promise you, like I'm
doing what I said I was going to do.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Something I'd love your perspective on is buying property is,
for most people, the biggest financial commitment and decision they'll
ever make. But so often it's made emotionally.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
We all try to make decisions with our head and
ultimately our heart likes to meddle with that relationship. And
it happens to the best of us. It happened to me.
My husband and I, we saved up. We went to
buy our first house. It's probably 2020 at this point,
and we're buying our first home. And I remember saying
to my husband, and at that point in time, I
(07:50):
was a licensed financial advisor. I had a mortgage broker
working for me. Of all the people to be making
good financial decisions, I had every opportunity at my disposal, right?
I was amazing. spoiled for choice. I had a heap
of friends who were real estate agents. Like I had
the right financial backing. Like I had some conveyances who
were really happy to get involved, but I was set
(08:12):
up and I said to my husband, we're going to
do this right. Like, you know, let's sit down and
talk about our non-negotiables before we even go shopping, before
we even jump on realestate.com.au so that we can, you know,
look at what's available to us. Let's work out our budget.
Let's work out our non-negotiables and what we want. And
we were so clear on that. until the pretty pictures
of the properties came up until someone had hearing blown
(08:38):
floorboards and I was like but honey have you seen
their floors until the property was beautifully styled and when
I walked in I was like is that a vanilla
candle like girlfriend they got me and like I remember
saying to my husband, like, these are my non-negotiables. Like,
I want it north-facing. I, you know, want it to be,
(08:59):
you know, not an apartment. All of this stuff that
I think is quite logical. And then I would walk
into a house. My husband would be like, that's really good.
You know, bathroom needs a little bit of work. And
I'd be like, oh, it's not big enough for a bath.
My husband would be like, Victoria, that wasn't even one
of your non-negotiables. Like, why does that matter? And I'd
be like, oh, that house would be beautiful with a bath.
I remember saying to my husband, this is a stepping
(09:21):
stone property in a perfect world. We'll purchase this house,
live here for 10 years. We'll be able to sell
it at some point, use some of the capital gains
for our next deposit, and then maybe buy our dream
house or become another step closer to our dream house.
Because that's the reality these days. Millennials, Gen Zs, Even
(09:42):
some boomers, we're not just walking straight into our dream
property anymore. Like there has to be, and this is
why you need a good broker, right? There has to
be a property strategy. This is what you can afford now.
This is what capital gains might look on it. This is,
you know, if you're going to rent best, this is
the rental yield on this property. This is what it
looks like. This is what you could claim. This is
what you like might not want to claim. And so
(10:03):
I think because I had all of those hats and
I was so prepared to be so logical, I forgot
that I am also deeply an emotional person. And, you know,
part of that 10 year plan for my husband and
I was that we did have babies in that house.
And so even though the logical thing would be Victoria,
(10:23):
actually location matters. At that point in time, the location
we were looking off street parking really mattered. All of
that happened. And then all of a sudden I'd caught
up on a bathtub. Like my husband was like, Victoria,
you want to walk in the walk right now? And
that was a humbling experience.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Coming up, Victoria tells us about the moment she saw
her dream house with a for sale sign at the front.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Back after this.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
You mentioned before we started recording that you have now,
in fact, bought your forever home.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Yeah, we have. And it's like the best thing ever.
It's something that, you know, if you go back to 2020,
that's six years ago. And if my husband and I
were having these conversations about property and this, you know,
property that we bought, we got it for a steal.
It was like that September of 2020 when COVID had
(11:21):
kind of like started to recede a little bit. I mean,
it came back, but it had started to recede a
little bit. People were really anxious about properties that they
weren't buying. And I knew logically that was a great
time for us. And it was a great property purchase.
And then fast forward to, we ended up buying last year.
So we bought mid last year and And I had
(11:45):
just felt, well, my husband and I had just found
out we were expecting our second baby. And he and
I both were like, wow, we are in a very
different financial position than we had ever anticipated to be
in five years down the track. Yeah. And, you know,
the house that we had purchased genuinely would have been
fantastic for another five years. Like when we purchased it,
(12:08):
a lot of the thinking behind it was, It's probably
not the type of house that we'd be comfortable having
teenagers in, but it's the perfect house. It's not very big,
but like it's the perfect house to have two small children,
still have our lifestyle, still be close to public transport and,
you know, feel like we haven't moved out to the sticks, which,
you know, for some people might be something they're happy
(12:29):
to compromise on. But for us, we were more about
having a smaller house in a better location. So we
kind of come to this like conclusion that we would
be there for teenagers. And then all of a sudden
we're having a second baby and we're in this situation
where hilariously we were like, we're in this great financial position.
We could afford the house we really want. Should we look?
(12:52):
And my husband and I decided, no, you know what?
Logical thing here. Again, property is deeply personal and an
emotional journey. We had decided, no, we're not going to buy.
And then we're out on the walk on Saturday morning
and we're walking along the path and the house that
I used to walk past every day during COVID when
(13:13):
we were talking about maybe one day being even able
to afford property had a forthcoming auction sale on it.
And I looked at my husband and he looked at
me and he literally said, no, no. And I was like, But,
and he's like, no, no, that forthcoming auction never happened
because I went straight to a real estate agent. I said,
(13:36):
can we please have a private inspection? Got it. Asked,
you know, like I was pretty blunt and did absolutely
everything that I tell my clients at Zella, my mortgage-breaking business,
not to do. Like, don't show the real estate your hand.
Do not tell your real estate agent what you are
willing to spend on this property. You get them to
put that I did all of this stuff wrong.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Totally uncool about it.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
But that's again, a really good example of like, we
are deeply emotional beings. And like, to me, this wasn't
just like, oh, do you want the property or not? Nah.
Like I was like, I don't know what's going to
happen if I don't get this house. And so I said, okay,
like so dumb, so dumb. And you know what? I'm
very grateful, like reflecting on this story. I'm so grateful
(14:20):
to have been in the position to be able to
do that. So I do also want to acknowledge that
that is such a privilege. And like, it's the community
that we've just talked about that I've built and the
business that I've built that's enabled me to be in
that position. But I, I said to the real estate agent, right.
And you should never do this. This is a terrible advice.
He said, what's it going to take to cancel that auction?
(14:41):
I'm like, well, how do I take that off the map?
Like I, I just, I had been up for maybe
three nights in a row, stressing over this thing, like,
this auction is going to come and what if someone
outbids me and what if I get flustered and what if,
what if, what if, what if someone puts an offer
on the house before auction and it goes and then
we don't get the chance to bid. And my house
(15:01):
then ended up just being like, Victoria, just call the
real estate agent and ask what it will take. Because like,
if they say something exorbitant, no one's going to do it. Also,
if it's way beyond our budget, then at least we're
not going to an auction you're going to be heartbroken over. Also,
it could be reasonable. And that's what ended up happening.
(15:22):
And yeah, moved in late last year, brought our second
baby Campbell home here. And we're obsessed. Like it's, it's
literally the home that I had dreamed we would be in.
And I feel very grateful that that's the case.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Well, you have to give us an audio tour. This
is something we do on the edit. So if you
can talk us through. what it's like being in your home.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
So say we come to.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
The front door and open the door. I feel like
I'm gloating because I'm obsessed with this house.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
No, gloat. Gloat away.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I think it's, I have to say, I think it's
so lovely to hear the stories where you have the
plan and you think, you know, it might take 10 years,
it might take longer, and you're good with that. But
to hear sometimes circumstances in your life can change and
dreams can move forward in the timeline. And I think
that is really important. makes me feel buoyant please take
(16:16):
us on the home tour.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Okay so the like you walk in we have a
really large like cantilever front door um and throughout the
house upstairs and downstairs we have three meter ceilings um
so that is for me it's that sense of space
but the way that they have built it is just
(16:41):
they've really capitalized on having lots of natural light so
the front door is glass the you know side of
our like you walk into our foyer kind of area
and there's a really big floor to ceiling window if
you like turn in you'll then see the stairs that
go upstairs and they are extra wide and because you've
(17:05):
got the three meter ceilings it goes from the ground floor,
floor all the way up to the top floor. And
we have like a chandelier, like kind of, I want
to say chandelier, but it's like a pendant light. Like
it's not, like if I say chandelier, it sounds old school,
but like it's a beautiful modern pendant light over the stairwell.
(17:26):
And then get this, this is so fancy. Like I
was a little bit embarrassed to tell my mum this
when I was like, oh, we've bought a house. We
have a mudroom. So beside, yeah, right, beside the stairs,
there's a door to the mudroom, which then you can
enter the garage from there. And that to me is crazy.
(17:46):
What do you mean? I have a place that my
handbag lives.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Does the whole family use the mudroom? You've got two
young children.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
So daycare bags are in there. My husband's golf shoes.
If we had guests over, I'd just shut the door there.
It's full of shoes and coats and Uh, random toys
right now, she walked into my house, there's a balance
bike and a scooter in there. Um, and those things
(18:14):
are very welcome, but also probably not what the designers
had in mind when they had styled it. Um, and
then to the right is my office. So I'm sitting
in my office right now and it has some beautiful cabinetry,
like bookshelves built in, and then that overlooks the garden,
(18:34):
which I love. Yeah. And if you were to walk
down in the hallway, like back towards the back of
the property, it's quite a wide hallway. And on one
side is what the old owners had as a sitting room.
And it's got some beautiful floor-to-ceiling cast-iron windows and, like,
(18:54):
fridge doors that go into that room. Come back out,
you've got the gallery-style or is it galley or gallery-style laundry?
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Galley laundry.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Yeah, galley. Like, when you walk through and, like, a
little powder room, and then down the back it kind
of opens up into a really big kitchen, living, dining space.
So that's probably, ooh, 15 metres across, I think, last
time I measured it. And it's got floor-to-ceiling, like, sliding
(19:27):
doors on the back. And really, like, on the left
you would have or you do have a– a built-in
fireplace um that is internal and external if that makes
sense so like it's a feature for internal of the
house and external of the house. And it takes up
(19:50):
significant room space. It's all kind of like granite stone
that's like really raw.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Do you have people over?
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yes, we love a dinner party.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
How do you like to entertain? Are you the cook?
Is your husband the cook?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Both, both.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
So my husband every day does most of the cooking.
And then if we're entertaining, which... we would probably have
people over for dinner once or twice a week. So
like quite regularly, I would cook.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Yeah. And so what else?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
What does your home sound like?
Speaker 1 (20:21):
You know what? At this point, it can be a
little bit echoey because when we moved in, we went
from having like quite a small house to now having
quite a large house. And we've lived here for 12 months.
And We need some more furniture, but I'm trying to
be quite mindful about those furniture purchases and not just
buy cheaper stuff to fill the space. I mean, every
(20:44):
day is quite loud here. I do have two very
small children and we do not tell them to be quiet.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
So I also want to ask, what does your home
smell like? Because I've heard you're big on scent and
I see a very fancy candle behind you.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Oh, that's good spotting. I am very big on scent.
I love a diptych candle. My house smells like the,
is it diptych? The base range? Yes. Yes. So I
have that everywhere. I am a big fan of a diffuser.
I have probably six or seven through my home and
(21:21):
I have shared on socials a fair bit about just
how important this is to me and how I always
flick my reeds and when I do that and just
I love having a house that smells welcoming.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
In a moment, Victoria shares all the details of her
beach house renovation and how she achieved a gorgeous kitchen
for under $ 10, 000.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
I'd love to hear more about... another home.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
You also have a beach house.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
We do. Again, the most entitled thing ever. If you're
listening to this podcast, you're going to learn about my properties,
I suppose. To give you a little bit of context,
I always said growing up, I would love to live back.
I'm from the Mornington Peninsula. Well, I'm actually from Tasmania,
moved over when I was in primary school, moved to
the Mornington Peninsula and always thought that I'd live down there.
(22:20):
There's not a lot of opportunity down there for career,
for growth. To drive all the way back and forth
every day was just not working when I was at uni,
so I moved up here. And I always said, like,
I'd love to own a place down there, but I
don't think I could be there forever. And when the
opportunity came up to purchase a property down there, 400
metres from my parents' house, 400 metres from the beach,
(22:43):
right before we were planning on having children, both my
husband and I were like well this is the lifestyle
that we are working towards like and this this beach
house is by no means a big shiny beach house
that you would see in like a Portio Sorrento like
(23:04):
I would say it's definitely the beach shack and that's
exactly what I want it to be like it is
not somewhere that you go and it's polished and you
ask me if you need to take off your shoes.
Like you walk in and hopefully you feel immediately at
home and like you've been there before. And that's kind
of the intent. It's not got a pool or a
(23:24):
tennis court or any of that. Like it's on an
empty block of land. Like we have a lot of grass.
There's probably some snakes in the backyard.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
You're selling the dream.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
It was built in the seventies and it looks like
it was built in the seventies.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
So when we took it over- I tried my hardest
with my cleaning hyperfixation to clean that bathroom, but you
could not get that mold out of anything. Like the
bathroom had to be demolished. Like it was not a choice.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
So let's talk about that. What did you do to
the house? What is the bathroom situation like now?
Speaker 1 (24:02):
So when we purchased the house, it... Had some questionable finishes.
It's definitely, it used to be one of those houses
where it was on stilts. So it was just the
upstairs area and it had a really big staircase up
to this like one story kind of beach shack. And
then clearly over time, someone filled in downstairs. So the
(24:26):
floor plans, you kind of go, this doesn't make sense.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
And then when I give you that context, you're like, okay,
that does make sense.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
It definitely was built in the seventies. So it kind
of the old, old vibey, sorry, old vibey kind of
vaulted ceiling. It has some, it has a really beautiful
teak wall. So it's like this wall of just like
teak wood that my husband, when we bought and settled,
(24:55):
he's like, when are we going to paint that? And
I was like, oh no, we're never painting that. If anything,
we're going to polish that. And I think it brings
such charm to the property that reminds you it's not
necessarily a brand new house. And I didn't want to
when we renovated, I said to my husband, I don't
want it to feel like any other house or like
a modern, you know, home. I want to keep all
(25:15):
of those things. So the light fittings we've kept, um,
the walls we've kept, they had some really beautiful floorboards
upstairs that were, uh, stained a really nice orange. And
we were pleasantly surprised when we sanded them back that
we could get them to a really nice light beach. Um,
The sander was not confident, but it did happen. Downstairs,
(25:40):
everywhere was carpet. Everywhere, everywhere. So we had to redo
everything there.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Do you think you will knock it over one day
or is this how it's going to be?
Speaker 1 (25:51):
We talk about it sometimes, but I just, I don't
think that we will. We kind of love the vibe
and I don't think you could rebuild the vibe. It's
a five bedroom like shack. And when I say that...
there's three bedrooms downstairs and two upstairs. One of the
upstairs ones is definitely more nursery size, which is absolutely
(26:13):
perfect for us at this point. It used to be
six bedrooms, but one of the bedrooms has been converted
into a butler's pantry. So again, quite disjointed. It's across from,
you know, the old pokey kitchen, which we've redone and
it's brilliant, but like there was just not enough room
for storage. So one of the bedrooms, which I believe
(26:33):
is like Two meters by three. So quite like a
little bit longer, but like not that wide. It feels
like a little bit of a galley pantry. The footprint
of where the kitchen was, was such that we couldn't
really expand the kitchen beyond what we had. So we've,
(26:53):
we've put in a new caboodle kitchen and we have
a beautiful pantry. some bench space, but not a lot.
So being able to have somewhere that the microwave lived and,
you know, another pantry and we've got a bar fridge
in there, it's just made the space so much more functional,
especially for entertaining. What does it look like?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Because I put a caboodle kitchen of sorts in the
back of my home.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
We call it the greenhouse.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
And so it's where, it's where I live the dream
and cut my flowers and, and do those sorts of things.
But then I also put it in as wardrobes. I
use pantries to make wardrobes and I'm just obsessed with it.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
So what have you done?
Speaker 1 (27:36):
We actually worked, I contacted the caboodle team and was like, Hey,
can you give me a hand? Cause I'm not really
good at this. And I had an idea in my head,
but I was playing with their online tool and I
couldn't like make it work. Anyway, I, I wanted, it's
a white kitchen with a really nice kind of like
soft stone look, melamine bench top. The total cost for
(28:00):
our kitchen was eight and a half thousand dollars, not
including appliances, which I think that's pretty good. And that
included bench tops. And so we've got the 40 mil
bench tops. So they're like the thick tops and what
I wanted was. And the reason I could do it
on the online tool was I kind of wanted to
take that bench top and put it on the side
(28:21):
to make it look like a waterfall bench top. And
we've done that. And so it actually looks fantastic. We
then have the shaker cabinet doors and where possible, we've
just done push to close. So like, I feel like
it looks quite sleek. We moved the sink to, instead
of having, we didn't have the space for an island.
(28:42):
We needed more bed space than that. We put in
like a peninsula bench with the waterfall at one end
and put the sink in smack bang in the middle
of that. We've also put in like bench seating. So
like there's three stools and like cabinetry on the outside
of the bench as well for like glasses and things
that we don't use as often. And yeah, we've kind
(29:04):
of gone for a really soft sage to kind of
soften that in terms of the tile. And I feel
like that looks really soft. but also really complimentary to
the space. Like we haven't gone and ripped everything out
and replaced it with something that looks Anglian for the space.
Like I think it feels complimentary, but at the same time,
(29:27):
really functional.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Do you think people who come into this kitchen, do
they realize that this is a kitchen that's under $ 10, 000?
Speaker 3 (29:37):
I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I don't think so. And I think that that's, you know,
not to blow my own horn, but I think that's
purposeful styling. I think that's making sure you're picking the
right cabinet doors, the right, you know, fittings. You know,
we purposefully put in a deeper tub style sink. And
so the sink, I think, cost us $ 500, whereas we
(30:02):
could have got like a $ 300 sink that would have
done the job. But I was like, no, let's do
a bit more high-end there because I think it does
influence the way you see the rest of the kitchen.
And for me, the kitchen sink being on the peninsula was...
a feature. Um, and we, we picked really nice tack
wear that kind of complimented the style of the house.
(30:23):
It wasn't super modern, but it wasn't, you know, really
super vintage, but it was somewhere in between. Um, I
think that really helped. And then having that like 40
centimeter bench top really gives it a lux effect instead
of just like a 20 mil bench, like the 40
really feels like I don't know, dense. And you know,
(30:45):
when you like see a thicker bench top, you just
immediately assume it's more quality. We also splashed out, I
don't know if it was splashed out, it wasn't that
much more expensive, but we did use a lot of
space with this. We In this space, I think anyone
(31:07):
else would have chosen the 60, but I do think
for us, because we entertain, because I cook a lot,
I said to my husband, we're going to need the
90 because I can't do a roast and veggies in
a small 60 centimetre oven that's just not going to work.
And I think that that gives an air of luxe
as well because it's a really big oven. But there's
nothing expensive about it. It's just kind of the size
(31:28):
and the way it's fitted.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
It's all about the design details, I think. Design is
what makes, spaces feel incredible and bad design can make
spaces feel uncomfortable, a bit stingy.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Sometimes you're trying to make a design happen that maybe
doesn't work for that kitchen or that space. So had
you taken a similar kitchen to the one that we've
done in our other house, like which had beautiful stone
and like, you know, it was more about impact when
you saw, you're like, we had this beautiful stone island
(32:04):
bench made with curved stone around the front which as
you can imagine was not the cheapest decision but it
was the feature of the house like you walked into
the house and you saw this beautiful like Calcutta marble
bench top that they'd cut and it was curved and
the wall was curved and then we had really beautiful
(32:25):
ceramic backsplash that had the marble pattern and that was stunning.
But had you tried to place something similar into this house,
it just wouldn't have seated. So we needed to pick
something beachy and something coastal. And I spent a really
long time on Pinterest trying to pinpoint why I liked
certain kitchens.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
So I found myself looking at kitchens and being like,
I love that one.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
But I had to find a way to articulate why
I liked it. And a lot of the time it
was like, oh. I really gravitating towards that like shaker
style door. Okay. So for me, I really wanted that.
You know, I loved the idea of like a colored kitchen,
but the space was too small to make that work.
So I think we just had to go with white
(33:10):
and clean and, you know, in that space, it just
needed to be clean. I didn't want people to walk
in and be like, wow, the kitchen. I wanted them
to walk in and kind of pass the kitchen so
that it was luxe. It was nice, but it like,
with the rest of the house because it is a
very small shack. Like you can't fit a really big
(33:31):
dining table in there. And if you're trying to make
an impact with the kitchen, I think it makes it
feel even smaller. So we had to be quite cautious
with what we picked and how we picked it.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Victoria, we have a listener dilemma.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
My favorite kind.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Great, great.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
I think you're perfectly placed to answer this one. So
I will read what we have here now. It's a
DM from Steph in Torquay. And she says, we finally
did our kitchen last year and I love it. But
the laundry is right off it. You can see it
straight from the kitchen and it's still in original condition.
(34:10):
One sad cupboard, the washing machine and a laundry basket
on the floor that I move every single time someone
comes over. I keep thinking... I should just do it.
But we went over on the kitchen and my husband's
face does a thing whenever I say the word renovation.
Is a laundry even worth spending money on or am
I being ridiculous?
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Laura, I'm the wrong person to ask. I know you
said I'm perfectly placed, but I think you were going
to ask me to be like, look, you shouldn't spend
money on your laundry. You already spent money on your kitchen.
But girl, if you can see it from the kitchen,
I'd already be doing it. Like I would definitely be
doing it. And That's just because I'm like, you, is
it taking the shine off the kitchen? And also like,
(34:53):
let's think about the logic of this. You overspent on
the kitchen. Let's have a think about why. Let's go
back to why did you overspend? Is it your appliances?
Was it cabinetry? Like, was it the whole thing? Did
you move, you know, some fixtures? Cause like, if you'd
moved your sink, we all know that's where stuff starts
to add up. And like, I think that people really
underestimate how expensive expensive cabinetry can be like the second
(35:17):
you go oh I would like a custom kitchen because
like I have a custom shaped space not because I'm
trying to be bougie they go that's $ 25, 000 minimum thank
you and I think that that makes you a little
bit gum shy for doing spaces like a laundry um
and that's why I did the caboodle laundry we used
to have an old laundry trough which I felt like
(35:39):
was not a good use of space because it took
up so much space and And it had that little
teeny cupboard underneath that you just get the creeps opening.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Every time you open and close.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yeah. And then sitting beside that, we had a washing
machine and then a dryer. And then there was like
a really old cabinet that they had that had like
little kind of French doors, but quite pokey shelving in it.
So like you couldn't put your ironing board or anything
really in there to store. So when we moved in,
I knew that I wanted to change that, but also
(36:11):
wasn't sure how much it would cost. And again, Kobudo's
biggest advocate. You can just go on their website, put
in your dimensions. And it's kind of like, do you
remember when we were younger, we used to play The Sims?
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Yes, I loved The Sims.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Yeah, it's basically that, but for adults and with real products.
So you can kind of put in the dimensions of
your room and where your water fixture is and where
you want things. And they even have like, you can
move a washing machine and a dryer in so you
can mock up what this is going to look like
and add the product. So you go, all right, well,
in our laundry, and you and I were talking about
this off air, about using pantries for different uses.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Yes, definitely.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
So a lot of people use pantries as wardrobes because
their box is perfect for it and it's good quality.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Here I am, exhibit A.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Yeah, but we put a pantry in our laundry because
the cabinet and the storage in it just made sense.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
And so we did that. And because it was like
one of those pantries, we pulled the door open, there
were side like side space to put out our ironing board,
which works. Perfect. And then we did just a bench
straight across one cabinet with the sink built in. So
instead of like a trough, we just did a really
nice sink and then space for the washing machine and
(37:28):
the dryer. And then up the top, we did just
some cabinet trees. So like push to close, um, like
just cupboards where I keep all of the detergent things
out of the way of little fingers.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Um, And our laundry cost about two grand.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Steph, I hope you're inspired. This is your approval to
do the laundry.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
I think that the laundry needs to happen. And if
it sparks joy, I think it's important to invest in things,
especially in your home, if it elevates your experience. But
then also we need to think about how can we
do this on a budget? How can we do this reasonably,
because I think often we get taken down the garden
path when it comes to custom cabinetry, when that's actually
(38:13):
not necessary and the same quality exists in the DIY
space now.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Well, I want to hear more about the other things
that you pick and choose and do in your home.
So we've got our little, it's supposed to be quick fire,
but it never is, but your house rules. So I'm
going to ask some questions.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
What is something that you always have fresh in your home? Bread.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Bread. And coffee. Yeah, bread and coffee.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Fresh beans?
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Yes, always fresh beans. I actually have a bean subscription.
So like I can't be trusted. Like they turn up
at the door and they are always fresh. And I
love the smell of coffee beans. Like we do a
lot of, because I have a toddler and a baby
and all my friendship group are going through that at
the moment. We realized that a brunch catch up is
(39:05):
arguably the best time. So I actually have girlfriends come
over at about 8.30 in the morning and I've already
turned the coffee machine on. One of them has the
job of going past Baker's Delight and picking up a
heap of croissants. And then we have croissants and coffee
out on my back deck and it is literally the best.
And I mean, that's such a budget friendly way of
catching up with your friends and your kids are in
(39:25):
an enclosed space. They can't run away.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
Exactly. Everybody's happy. Who do you see with?
Speaker 1 (39:31):
I'm with Ona at the moment, O-N-A Coffee, and they
have a bean. And this is, I am very sorry,
not budget-friendly. I swear it's the most expensive bean I've
ever seen. And when I tried it, I was like, damn,
I see why. It's called Raspberry Candy. And it, everybody
(39:52):
raves about it. And now I've bought it, I can't
not buy it.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
What would the soundtrack to your home be?
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Oh, I could give you my Spotify playlist. There's one
called the OG Home Playlist. And this is my husband
and my favorite songs. And it's seven and a half
hours of content. I kid you not, like I can
provide the link. You've got everything from Bruce Springsteen and
(40:19):
Neil Diamond. We've got some Whitney Houston. We've got Beyonce.
We've got Daryl Braceway. The Spice Girls have made it
to this mix. And then just all the songs that
we kind of know and love that we want in
the background. They're the songs that, you know, my parents
were big entertainers. They're the songs that I remember them
having on when their friends were over. I mean, they
(40:42):
probably weren't playing the Rihanna and Justin Bieber that have
made it into there. But, you know, we live and
we learn and we grow. If that's not happening, we've
got bluey all the wiggles. And I won't leave that
because nobody needs that.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
The next question I want to know is, I'd love
to know, are your shoes on or off household?
Speaker 1 (40:59):
We're shoes off household. I'm so sorry in advance.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
Don't apologize.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
I think we probably have more shoes off guests than on.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
I cannot walk into somebody else's house and keep my
shoes on. Like they'll say, no, no, no, keep your
shoes on. And I'm like, ah, this feels so uncomfortable. Yeah,
I have slippers that I wear around the house. And,
you know, I actually get quite annoyed. My husband and I,
he believes that you can wear slippers to take the
bin out. And I do not believe that that is
(41:29):
true because they're slippers. They live inside. You would have
to put outside shoes on to take the bins out.
But that seems to be a point of contention in
our house.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
What about, are you a tidy person?
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Is it everything has a place or you've got piles
of stuff, but you know where everything is?
Speaker 1 (41:47):
I am in between. And I think I'm really struggling
with this at the moment because, you know, we haven't
lived in this house for the longest time. And we
went from a house that had a lot of built
in storage. to not having the same built-in storage. So
for a long time upstairs, we just had piles and
piles of books because we didn't have a bookcase to
(42:09):
put them in. And so that felt really messy. I
would say I'm a very, very clean person, but I
can be very messy. So yes, I will leave, you know,
I've got stuff all over the chair in our bedroom,
but our bathroom smells like bleach. So like, I feel
like that's a good like balance, you know?
Speaker 3 (42:27):
That sounds healthy to me.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
I think it's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
And you know what?
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Having kids in the house, like I'm trying to find
homes for everything. So like as I'm learning how they
work and, you know, what toys they like playing with
the most, I'm like buying different storage solutions as we go.
So I love a storage solution. Yep. I love a
storage solution, but I am also a little bit messy.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Tell me about lighting. Are you lights on, lights off, lamps?
Speaker 1 (42:57):
No big lights in this house.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
No, no.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
If you turn on the big lights, that's a big no-no.
You must be angry at me to have turned on
the big lights.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
I feel like this is a good point to find
out what is your mystery drawer item.
Speaker 4 (43:12):
They just seem to float around my house.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
So they're not necessarily just, you know, from, you know,
the drawer at the bottom of the kitchen that everybody has, right?
They are something that if you came into my house...
You might see them sitting on the stairs sometimes. They'll
be on our entertainment unit. They'll be like, they just
move around the house based on where the kids are
and they don't make a lot of sense. So first
(43:38):
is this Hatch sound machine. It is a portable sound machine.
It's by a brand called Hatch. I just bought it
on Amazon and it has a ring on it so
that it can attach to a pram or literally anything.
And having a six month old... she loves a little
bit of white noise or some lullabies. And so this
(44:00):
comes around the house. Like if she's in her bouncer
and you know, she's a little bit unsettled, I'll pop
it on and sit at the side her and she's happy.
If we're going out in the car, I've taken it
in the car and it's hanging from the like car.
What is that? The like hand rail thing. If we
are going in the pram, it is attached to the pram.
(44:21):
So like I swear in this house, my husband and
I across the house would be like, this in the hatch?
Where's the hatch? Like this is what we're talking about.
And even my son, he's two, he goes, can he
sound sing? Yeah, that's exactly what that is. And he
knows where it is. And the second is this, which
(44:42):
looks like a white pebble and it is actually a
red light. And my... husband and I love this the
like at night tone I will literally carry this with
me it's beside my bed and if one of the
kids wakes I'll turn this on and use it as
my nightlight to walk around the house grab a you
(45:04):
know a clean bottle then walk into my daughter's room
I can put it on her side table to like
pick her up and feed her a bottle and then
go and both kids are obsessed with this it's kind
of like squishy so it's like silicon it bounces But
I bought it when my son was little so that
we had a travel nightlight and it's just never left
our sides. So these are the two unhinged random things
(45:27):
that you will just see around my house that I'm
always trying to like put away before guests come, but
they never get away. And then guests are like, what's
that rock thing? I'll be like, well, thanks for asking.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
I want to ask one final question that I ask
all our guests and that is, what do you think
makes your home beautiful.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
The people that come to it that is lovely I
was saying this to my husband I was like we
have created a life where our friends and our family
just drop in and I think that that's not common
anymore like I know that I've said that to people
before like oh yeah my friend just dropped in and
they're like during a work day and I'll be like
(46:11):
oh Yeah, like she's on maternity leave and she just
knows I'm home all day. And if I was busy,
like she wouldn't have like stayed. Yeah. She's like, oh,
I would hate it if somebody just dropped in. And
I'm like, oh, like it's actually to me so special
that my phone's like, oh, you're home. And I'll be like, yep, no,
I'm just in a popover. I've got half of before
another meeting. And like, come in, have a coffee. Like,
(46:34):
you know, I do love entertaining. So that probably leans
a lot into my personality of wanting that. But I
would say having created a home where it's a hub
and people do come and like it's very often that
my husband will come home from work and a couple
of my girlfriends are already here and it's a weeknight.
And I'm like, oh, they're joining for dinner. And I
(46:55):
really love that. So to me that would be the
most beautiful part of our home.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
I love that. I absolutely love that. And I've loved
having you come onto the edit.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
Thank you for having me. What a privilege.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
Oh, it's been an absolute joy. I hope we get
to do it again sometime.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
I do.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
Well, thank you so much. I have thoroughly enjoyed this.
It has been an absolute privilege.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
If this episode has taught me anything, it's that a
beautiful home doesn't need an unlimited budget, just the right priorities.
More expensive doesn't always mean better. And what's important is
getting the design right. Thanks for listening to The Edit.
We have so many more episodes for you to dive
into and binge for company or inspiration.
Speaker 3 (47:43):
So follow us wherever you listen to your podcasts and
look for Home Beautiful on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
I'm Elle Lovelock.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
See you next time.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
This episode is brought to you in partnership with a
brand I truly love and live with, Caboodle Kitchen.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
This is an R-Media podcast.
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