I am very privileged in that I own my own home. It is a 1960s weatherboard home and requires regular maintenance, but it has lasted 60 years, so I hope it will last many more. Over the years I have lived here, I have done a bit of DIY on the house, mostly painting. Because I am a low-income earner, I stick to the school of “frugal renovations”. I replaced some skirting with some my neighbours removed during a building project. I put in a cabinet for the IT that I got from Ginza bargains and refurbished. It covers all the powerpoints and wires and the ugly modem. I painted the downstairs concrete floor rather than installing expensive flooring.
However, recently something happened in the house that is beyond my skill level to fix: my son was having a shower and the water leaked through the ceiling into the room below. On an unlimited budget, a household might decide this was a good catalyst for ripping out all the bathroom fittings and giving it a style update. As much as I’d love to be Bobby Berk, I won’t be able to do this. Likewise the kitchen, which has painted-over wallpaper and probably original lino, is staying as-is for now.
Interior fashions are like clothing fashions: propelled by an industry that profits off convincing people everything has to be continually replaced or they will be left behind. There is an anxiety about social status and signifiers of wealth. There is the fear that a house will be unsaleable if it isn’t “up to date”. But the impetus to rip-out and re-do doesn’t sit well with the desire to conserve resources, along with the architecture and design of the past. I am of the school of thought that it is good to preserve as much of a building’s era and character as possible. To me, this includes keeping original fixtures where practicable. My kitchen has wooden cupboards and a built-in formica table that folds away if necessary. The bench is matching formica and stainless steel. The cupboards have been painted a visceral shade of purple, but that is fixable. It would be a travesty to replace all this with grey Melteca. I will definitely have to get my shower fixed (luckily we have a bath for the interim) but I will be keeping the basin and bath, the taps and the orange wet-wall because there’s nothing wrong with them, and I like the loud colour.
As house prices have become less affordable, and with interest rate increases that will hit first-home buyers hardest, the “dream renovation” that has become entrenched in our cultural consciousness over the past few decades will become more unattainable. Something I didn’t originally bargain for as a first-home buyer was the massive costs of ongoing maintenance on a weatherboard home. Keeping renovations frugal and preserving original fixtures saves money, resources and can preserve character that would be permanently destroyed by the rip-out and re-do method.