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The renovation of this Wellington villa didn’t go completely to plan

After many setbacks, u-turns and surprises, the owners of this Wellington villa share how their initial renovation idea didn’t quite go to plan

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Meet and greet

Jessica Godfrey, general manager of Acme Cups, Sven Wiig, freelance art director, and Otto, 9.

The renovation of this Wellington villa didn’t go completely to plan

They say good things take time. This may be true in the case of wine and cheese, but it’s not what you hope for when planning a quick property flip. Take Wellington couple Jessica Godfrey and Sven Wiig.

They bought their three-bedroomed 1907 villa in 2003 with the plan of renovating and flicking it for a profit within two years. What actually happened was they started a family (Otto joined them in 2008), took six years to complete the interior, and only finally laid down their paintbrushes last year. Ah, the best-laid plans…

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Honesty box

The best bang for your buck?
Jessica: Never underestimate the power of a good wall colour. Using the same colour throughout was important in such a small house.

The challenges?
Money, time, energy. Also, the fact that we discovered the house was only being held up by its weatherboards – most of the uprights were rotten.

Worst reno moment?
There were a few! Pulling up the old cork tiles in the kitchen, expecting gorgeous matai floors, only to find there had been a slow leak (which explained the damp) and all the matai was rotten. It was really hard to find recycled matai boards to match, especially at the 38mm width – and, boy, was it expensive. We were starting to get stressed about money at that point.

In the middle of the renovation, after some heavy rain, the earth bank behind us collapsed and fell against the back of the house. It held up renovations and severely affected our budget because the insurance only covered half the price of putting retaining walls in, and our bank was putting a lot of pressure on us to get the retaining done. At this point we had borrowed as much money as we could.

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Renovation tip for others?
Have the greater plan in mind: the layout, the materials, the colour palette. Be clear about what style the whole house is going to be – that way, even if your renovation takes years, it will all work in the end. Also, there is rarely a perfect time to renovate. It’s rare to have the money, energy and spare time all at once. My advice? Just get started.

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Jessica Godfrey and Sven Wiig bought their three-villa in 2003 with the plan of renovating and flicking it within two years. They finally completed it 11 years behind schedule.

Jessica Godfrey, general manager of Acme Cups, Sven Wiig, freelance art director, and Otto, 9.

The interior was painted in Resene ‘Tea’ throughout, with white accents in Resene‘Black White’.

Jessica’s advice is to have a greater plan in mind: the layout, the materials, the colour palette.

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The couple removed a wall at the end of the hallway, which not only opened up an area for a dining room, but also allowed light to flow from one end of the house to the other.

“The effort and memories return every time I look at the light above the dining table,” says Jessica.

The pendant lights in the hall and dining area came from secondhand stores in Copenhagen – it was a bit of a battle to get them home.

There wasn’t any running water during the kitchen and bathroom part of the renovation, so they moved into Jessica’s sister’s house for six weeks… “Ten months later we were thanking them a lot,” laughs Jessica.

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Jessica says the worst reno moment was pulling up the old cork tiles in the kitchen to find all the matai floorboards were rotten, which ended up being an expensive, stressful fix.

“We wanted the interior to be in keeping with the era of the house but also contemporary,” says Jessica.

It helps to have a handy designer in the house – Sven conceived and built the stylish perforated living room cupboards, as well as the kitchen cabinetry and various other items of furniture.

Jessica says they’ve christened their style as ‘Victorian industrial chic’.

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The Godfrey-Wiigs were into the industrial look before it went mainstream, and have used recycled lights, storage and accessories throughout their home.

We do like colour a lot,” says Sven. “It takes some effort to get it right.

They chose subway tiles for their kitchen and bathroom back in 2004 – they still look fresh and were also a thrifty move, costing $18 per square metre. Jessica and Sven put them up themselves.

“We had a terrible experience when painting the house in a denim blue – it peeled even before we got all the way around the house…There’s a good reason why most houses are white!”

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Words by: Debbie Harrison. Photography by: Nicola Edmonds.

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