Redefining DIY: with Jasmine from Oh Abode
Episode 2 – Fixings Not Included Podcast: DIY Success with Jasmine from Oh Abode
In this episode of the Fixings Not Included podcast, we chat with Jasmine, the creative force behind Oh Abode, who shares her inspiring journey in DIY and home renovations. From her childhood inspiration to becoming a DIY content creator, Jasmine's passion for home projects has grown into a successful social media presence.
Jasmine takes us through her transition from beauty blogging to sharing her home renovation journey after purchasing her first home. We discuss her experiences with DIY projects, from building decking and raised planters to renovating an older 1920s home. She reflects on the learning process, challenges, and the importance of trial and error when tackling DIY.
We also delve into the growing presence of women in DIY and construction, the impact of social media on trends, and Jasmine's commitment to sustainable practices. Plus, she shares what’s next for her, including future projects like a new porch.
This episode is all about creativity, resilience, and the satisfaction of taking on DIY projects. Tune in and get inspired to start your own home renovations!
Transcript
I'm really glad that I've made it look easy. The point of my video is to make these
Speaker:projects look easy so that you have more confidence to actually start
Speaker:them. As a society, we see them as more skilled. When
Speaker:Welcome to the Fisher podcast. I am here today with
Speaker:Yeah. So I'm Jasmine. I run the Instagram account Oh Abode.
Speaker:I'm a DIY and I guess home renovations content
Speaker:So with your account tell me about like
Speaker:how it started because I noticed that you bought
Speaker:a new home from Taylor Wimpy and then did it sort of stem
Speaker:This account definitely did, yeah. I was actually a
Speaker:beauty blogger from like 2011. Way back
Speaker:in the day before Instagram. Actually no, we had Instagram.
Speaker:We had like 3,000 followers, which was a lot back then. I did it
Speaker:with my sister. And yeah, that kind of died a death as
Speaker:we were at uni and she was abroad and everything. But yeah, when I
Speaker:bought that house, I guess
Speaker:it's six years ago now, I just
Speaker:started sharing photos of the house. House accounts were
Speaker:kind of a new thing. But there was a lot of Taylor Wimpy.
Speaker:accounts. And I kind of joined to see what everyone else was
Speaker:doing with the blank space, with the lack of storage. And
Speaker:yet I look back on those photos now and really cringe. They're
Speaker:awful. There was a trend going around recently that was like sharing photos when
Speaker:you first started the account. I made one, I was like no, I can't even show
Speaker:it, it's too embarrassing. Just random photos of candles
Speaker:I'm definitely guilty of that because I have a Taylor Wimpy home
Speaker:as well. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, I I mean, I
Speaker:haven't posted for a while and all of the old photos, I'm like, oh, no,
Speaker:Yeah, throwback. Yeah. So when we first moved in, I started
Speaker:just posting random photos like that. And then I think
Speaker:it was the first summer I'd built a
Speaker:decking area in my garden and then did a
Speaker:raised concrete planter. And the people that follow
Speaker:me were like, how did you do that? Oh, OK. I
Speaker:was like, oh, Okay let me
Speaker:see what photos I have and I kind of posted stories about how I did
Speaker:it and the process and the planning and all the rules around height
Speaker:So why did you start the account? What was your interest in
Speaker:I think
Speaker:it was just to get ideas just to see because I'd only ever seen one
Speaker:show home of my house and the design in
Speaker:that was a bit meh. But I mean,
Speaker:as you'll know, they don't account for storage really
Speaker:in the house. So there was a lot of spaces that were just dead
Speaker:space, I guess. So I wanted to bring in different I
Speaker:guess elements of other
Speaker:people's houses and just get ideas basically. I'd seen one owner
Speaker:of a, I had an Ashton G, I think it was called. Three
Speaker:storey townhouse. I saw one guy had actually knocked down the kitchen wall
Speaker:and made a sort of an open plan entrance.
Speaker:And I said, oh, that's a really good idea. Maybe I'll do that one day.
Speaker:So yeah, I was just getting ideas like that. And then obviously
Speaker:So with the decking and the
Speaker:flowerbed thing, was that something that you did? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:So was that the spark then of like, okay, I'm kind of interested in
Speaker:That was more the spark for the account. I've always had an interest
Speaker:in DIY. Even from a young age I would spend
Speaker:summers with my grandparents and I'd be building stuff with my granddad. He
Speaker:does so much activity type stuff. He
Speaker:goes cycling, so he spent a lot of time repairing bikes and
Speaker:teaching me how to change the tyres and clean
Speaker:the chains and everything. He taught me how to scuba dive. He's
Speaker:a paddy scuba diver. He also rock climbs still.
Speaker:He's an ultimate adrenaline junkie. But
Speaker:yeah, he built loads of stuff in their house. They
Speaker:lived on quite a slope, so obviously parking down that slope was
Speaker:a bit tricky. So I remember, I was
Speaker:either between the ages of five and eight, I
Speaker:remember building like concrete block, hard standing, filling
Speaker:it with rubble. concreting it, tamping it down. Like,
Speaker:I remember doing that with him, mixing the concrete and everything. And
Speaker:that was probably my earliest memory of actually doing DIY.
Speaker:And from then I kind of always thought, oh, normal people do this stuff, you
Speaker:don't need a builder. And then, yeah, through
Speaker:school I did all the DTs. Oh, you did? Okay. Textiles.
Speaker:Yeah. I wasn't such a fan of the cooking one. And Yeah,
Speaker:So you've always kind of had that dip into a bit of DIY
Speaker:I just like knowing how things work, how things
Speaker:are built. I actually grew up watching the show How It's
Speaker:Made. Oh, okay. I think it was on the Discovery Channel or
Speaker:something. My dad would always watch it and I just found it fascinating. They
Speaker:don't really show many episodes these days but it is Like,
Speaker:you'd get to see how a Bic pen was made and all
Speaker:the process that goes into that. And I was like, that is amazing. And
Speaker:so, yeah, that plus my
Speaker:love of Lego. We had so much Lego. I had a
Speaker:little brother as well, and I would always take his things that needed building and
Speaker:So would you say like your, was it like your
Speaker:grandad and your dad that was like a bit more of an inspiration, like
Speaker:that helped like think, oh okay, this is what I would like
Speaker:Yeah, I think so. I mean my mum was actually the DIYer in
Speaker:the house as well. Oh my gosh, there's a family of DIYers then. Yeah, my
Speaker:mum, my dad had all the tools, but my mum was the one
Speaker:that used them. so yeah we'd be putting shelves up
Speaker:like built-in alcove shelves we'd be painting and
Speaker:decorating yeah I think one year we painted my room pink
Speaker:and I really liked paisleys at the time so we made
Speaker:a stencil I just can't remember what it was made out of, but we made
Speaker:a stencil and it's just like mixed up different color paints to make like
Speaker:some glittery purple or whatever. And then yeah, just like painted all
Speaker:these paisleys around my room. And yeah, I
Speaker:just have loads of different memories of just making things with her
Speaker:and with my granddad and yeah, my dad having
Speaker:I am now owner of all the tools, all the tools, and
Speaker:actually use them. Do they sort of tell, do they help, like
Speaker:with, because obviously you have a, is it like, it's not like,
Speaker:sorry let me start again, it's not
Speaker:Like a renovation. Renovation, yeah sorry. Yeah, so my house was
Speaker:built I think in the late 1920s now,
Speaker:so it needs a lot of work. We are uncovering more
Speaker:work than he's doing to it every week it seems. And
Speaker:the garden is just ridiculously long. So
Speaker:there's a lot that needs doing to sort of bring it up to
Speaker:modern standards as well as modern
Speaker:So going from like the Taylor Wimpy home, were you like, yeah,
Speaker:I want to do a renovation? Was that an easy decision to make? Because
Speaker:obviously with all of your skills and things like that, is that like, yeah, I
Speaker:Yeah, I think because I spent five years in the Taylor Wimpy house,
Speaker:making it more usable, I guess, as a home, a
Speaker:lot more storage, a lot more character. I
Speaker:kind of thought, OK, my skills are getting better now. Let's
Speaker:try an older house. And obviously we hadn't looked at
Speaker:another new build on the same estate as what we wanted to move into. And then
Speaker:We had like three failed sales and they had failed sales and
Speaker:that fell through. So we found another house, which is the house I live in
Speaker:now. And we literally found it by chance. Like I was looking
Speaker:on Rightmove. I feel like I'd seen everything. And
Speaker:randomly this house came up with just five photos of the garden, just
Speaker:random bushes in the garden. And I was like, OK,
Speaker:let's look at the location. There's the location. I was like, OK. Literally just
Speaker:down the road. How, like, let's actually
Speaker:read into this. Read the description, it mentioned bifold doors. I was like,
Speaker:oh, they've had an extension. They've had work done.
Speaker:Because all the houses we were looking at before, the older ones, they all
Speaker:needed, like, a kitchen extension or
Speaker:something. And I wanted bifold doors. Like, that was my, that's what I want.
Speaker:Yeah, this house had, I went to look, and I was like, oh my God, this is the
Speaker:one. This is the house. Obviously, then not knowing how much
Speaker:Yeah, so they'd only done it like five or six years prior. Like brand
Speaker:new kitchen, air source heat
Speaker:pump they'd added, all new windows, all new radiators. So they'd done like
Speaker:quite a bit of work to it already. Two new bathrooms as
Speaker:well, like two of the bedrooms were extended. So
Speaker:it was already like a bigger footprint than I thought it
Speaker:would be. This is amazing. They actually dropped
Speaker:it in price by like 50 K. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
Speaker:And that was just as we just before Christmas of
Speaker:20. two, I think it was. And I was
Speaker:like, oh, amazing, amazing, amazing. Please don't sell it to anyone else, put in our offer,
Speaker:had it accepted. One of our sales had just fallen through. So
Speaker:we were like, we need to find another sale. You know, dropping our price
Speaker:on Boxing Day, because weirdly that's the most popular day to
Speaker:put your house on the market and for people to look at houses. post
Speaker:Christmas shopping, I don't know, Boxing Day sales, even
Speaker:on houses. So yeah, we dropped our price and I think
Speaker:by the January, we'd had quite a few more viewings. And
Speaker:then a couple came to look around and the agent wasn't available. So I did
Speaker:the viewing. And I was like, I've done all this, I've
Speaker:built this and I've built that and that's new and that's new and I
Speaker:really sold the house. I literally included, I was going
Speaker:to take all my wall panelling with me, I was going to take all my light fittings because
Speaker:obviously I'd changed all the basic pendants. And
Speaker:they were like, no, we want it with all of that. And I
Speaker:You can have it. Please just take it. And then, yeah,
Speaker:we moved in. I think it was. No,
Speaker:it was either the June or the November of twenty three. Oh so quite
Speaker:recent then? Yeah we've only been there just over a year now but
Speaker:I was knocking down walls. Yeah I mean from going
Speaker:from a new build to a renovation obviously that's a huge difference. Did
Speaker:you find your DIY projects obviously completely different?
Speaker:Yes. Was that the fun part though? It was the fun part
Speaker:because it's I feel like DIY is very much a
Speaker:learning process. You don't go into DIY knowing
Speaker:exactly what you're doing. Even me now, having
Speaker:so many projects under my belt, I still go into projects and I'm like, oh,
Speaker:I don't really know what I'm doing. For me, that's the fun part because
Speaker:I get to challenge myself, I get to learn new things,
Speaker:I get to buy new tools. Yeah,
Speaker:both new builds and old builds, I guess, have a
Speaker:lot of work they need doing to them in very different ways. Yeah. New
Speaker:build obviously needed personalising, storage, and I
Speaker:We had like 30 plus snags. And
Speaker:I mean, one of them was like our front door didn't even lock for a year and a half
Speaker:and it got to the point where, and they were still building on my estate as well so it
Speaker:Yeah I ended up fixing the majority of them. I mean a
Speaker:Do you find it difficult for inspiration or do you
Speaker:find it almost like there's too much out there that you want
Speaker:There is, so I'm really torn between different interior
Speaker:styles and it's being
Speaker:able to merge those styles that I'm
Speaker:finding difficult like in my old house I had it was very I
Speaker:guess, scanty modern, clean lines, neutrals,
Speaker:a lot of wood. Yeah. And I love that. But I
Speaker:also want to bring in elements like because it's an older house, I don't
Speaker:want it to look too modern. Like I want to bring coving back in. Yeah. And,
Speaker:you know, pretty moldings around and bring the I
Speaker:mean, it's very of the house, but my skirting boards
Speaker:are like maybe six centimetres tall. So
Speaker:I want to replace those for like 20 centimetres tall. I
Speaker:mean, I've got three dogs and a toddler, so I need to protect my
Speaker:walls as much as possible. So, yeah, I
Speaker:kind of want to bring in that country, older... Cottagecore.
Speaker:Not quite cottagecore for me. I mean, I love cottagecore, but
Speaker:not for this house. Yeah. I've always just gone for what I want. I
Speaker:mean, I was thinking on the way up here, how
Speaker:popular this sort of panelling is, the slap panelling now.
Speaker:I had that four years ago in my house and
Speaker:I don't even think like anyone in the UK really did
Speaker:it then. I just sort of picked up from America because I thought that
Speaker:looks nice. Yeah. Collabed with the brand to
Speaker:do my guest room. And then all
Speaker:of a sudden, everyone's doing it. And I was like, oh, yes,
Speaker:I'm on trend. I suppose you're ahead of it all there. I'm
Speaker:the trendsetter. Yeah. But I don't know.
Speaker:I really want to do it in this house, but I don't think it will fit with
Speaker:So I suppose like the house that you're at the moment is not it's not your like forever home.
Speaker:It's like my 10 year home. Like my last one was my five year
Speaker:home, 10 year home. But, I mean, it has the potential to
Speaker:be long-term home. I just have big aspirations for
Speaker:Yeah, I don't blame you. I mean, who wouldn't? Do you think you could ever go to a
Speaker:home, though, and not do something up, like
Speaker:I mean, there's always, even going to people's houses sometimes. Oh, really? Anywhere
Speaker:I go, even, I'm like looking around like, oh, OK. Yeah,
Speaker:you've got the eye. I've got the eye. Yeah, there's
Speaker:always room for improvement. Even the house that I moved out
Speaker:of, that I'd finished, there
Speaker:was still a lot to do in my mind. I would have changed quite a lot of things. I
Speaker:would have gone back and redone some projects to make
Speaker:them better. There was a lot of wood filler. used
Speaker:in a lot of those projects from mistakes. You
Speaker:know the old saying, do your best and cork the rest. Right. So there
Speaker:With obviously like you had mentioned about like tyling and obviously
Speaker:you'd mentioned that you do electrics and all this sort of stuff. Where do
Speaker:you even start? Like if it's something that you haven't done before, like
Speaker:Mostly YouTube. Okay. If there's not a YouTube video, someone
Speaker:on Instagram will have done it. Yeah. A lot of the projects I start actually
Speaker:And then do you find yourself learning, you
Speaker:know, different ways? And then is that what you then, you know, give to your
Speaker:So I, when I, when I'm starting a project and I've
Speaker:obviously seen how someone else has done, how
Speaker:someone else has done it, if I start it and I'm thinking, that's
Speaker:probably not the best way to do it. Or I
Speaker:don't actually know how they're doing it. I'll just
Speaker:make it up as I go along. I hope for the best. If I get some
Speaker:things I film without the intention of
Speaker:posting that because I'm like, I'm just filming it
Speaker:for the content, like just in case it turns
Speaker:out okay. And then like from stories, for example, you
Speaker:might not see the whole project because I'm
Speaker:figuring it out. And then I'm like, actually, no, I've got footage of that so
Speaker:I can show it like that was a good way. so
Speaker:I use a lot of my projects as obviously like teaching
Speaker:moments to be like there's not any there's not a single one way
Speaker:to do things and I think that's a lot of the comments I actually get
Speaker:from trades or more experienced DIYers saying
Speaker:you know you're doing not doing it right I'm like it's the same outcome. yeah
Speaker:like so it's like a maths problem like i could never explain how i got
Speaker:the answer i just got the answer but as you said like so many people do it
Speaker:different ways yeah there's so many different ways of doing it you don't have to use
Speaker:the same tool like there are you
Speaker:know, different roads to the same destination. I would say
Speaker:it doesn't have to be perfect, just perfect for you. Because then, you
Speaker:know, I mean, the amount of comments I see loads
Speaker:of different interior accounts get saying, oh,
Speaker:Obviously you have an amazing amount of followers and
Speaker:the community that I can see is incredible. But
Speaker:how do you feel or what do you do when you have them types of
Speaker:comments? I mean, I'm assuming you just ignore them.
Speaker:Mostly ignore them. Sometimes I laugh at them because some
Speaker:are just ridiculous. Instagram's actually quite
Speaker:a nice community. There's TikTok. No one likes TikTok. TikTok
Speaker:viewers are savage. Like, they will go hard.
Speaker:Yeah, some of the comments I've had on there, I'm just like, why? Like, how
Speaker:do you have this much time on your hands to leave these comments? Obviously,
Speaker:it's very, I feel like TikTok is a lot more anonymous, whereas people use Instagram more
Speaker:for like, sharing their family photos and holiday photos,
Speaker:whereas TikTok is just more of a consumption platform, I
Speaker:think. I mean,
Speaker:in the early days, a lot of the negative comments, I
Speaker:used to then be like, OK, maybe
Speaker:it isn't that good. But I guess
Speaker:And so I will do everything I can to prove that actually I can
Speaker:do it. And it either looks good or looks better than it
Speaker:did before or you'd expect. So now
Speaker:I mostly see the comments as funny and I
Speaker:I mean I've obviously, I've been working at Fisher
Speaker:for like seven years and at the very start there was like
Speaker:barely any women, barely any women in like construction.
Speaker:I mean there was a few here and there it's almost like I
Speaker:would say in the past five years it has just blown up
Speaker:with women and it is so good to see, like so
Speaker:good. Do you find it difficult when like
Speaker:men tell you to do it this way or do you sort of take it on
Speaker:and be like oh okay like I will try it? How are you finding
Speaker:male and women in the in the construction industry
Speaker:so i think there is diy sorry like through
Speaker:your social channels there is still quite a big gap
Speaker:gender gap i guess yeah between men and women in either
Speaker:the diy or the construction industries um i can't
Speaker:resist i think it's either like one in 10 maybe?
Speaker:I don't know. There's very, very few women in that space. I
Speaker:feel like online, especially with DIY, there are a lot more female
Speaker:DIY accounts than there are male. And I was actually having a discussion about
Speaker:this the other day, how women
Speaker:label their home accounts as
Speaker:DIY and men will label it something completely different. Or
Speaker:as a business. Or as like, you know, either they're like
Speaker:a legitimate tradie or they're saying, you know,
Speaker:Mr. Fix It or Mr. Build It, you know, like very
Speaker:different terminology. And there are very few male accounts
Speaker:who do DIY, who are named something DIY. Scott
Speaker:DIY is a great example because he actually does like trade level
Speaker:stuff. But obviously he's, apart
Speaker:from an electric course, he's not a trader. And
Speaker:I think there's a very big difference online,
Speaker:especially between men and women, and
Speaker:the levels of DIY you see, I guess, because there's also
Speaker:the beginner level DIY, which is I'd say is painting, upcycling,
Speaker:And they're doing plumbing, electrics, which is obviously
Speaker:more like tradie level, but doing yourself. And
Speaker:I feel like there's a lot more women in the lower bracket. than
Speaker:the higher one. Yeah. Whereas the men side, very
Speaker:few of them do painting, panelling sort of
Speaker:stuff. And you see the more during the construction side. And I don't know whether that's because
Speaker:they can do it in that that's what they've always done,
Speaker:or whether that's a very gendered thing that why
Speaker:would there be a male account doing that? Yes. Okay, you see
Speaker:them as more skilled, like inherently, as a society, we see them
Speaker:as more skilled. When it's not the case, women are
Speaker:But it's good though, like as you say, you've just inspired someone
Speaker:else to have a go at this project or they
Speaker:might see something or have a project that they want to do and then they
Speaker:see your content and they're like, you know what, I really should
Speaker:I mean, a couple of years ago, some of the comments I used to get were
Speaker:just women tagging their husbands. Oh, no way. Oh, I love that. I
Speaker:love this. Can you do it? Yeah. And I'm just like replying like, you've missed the
Speaker:point here. Yeah. Do it yourself. You can. You
Speaker:are have the UK. Everyone has the capability. I mean, it's
Speaker:I mean, a lot of the people who regularly
Speaker:comment on my profile on my posts and
Speaker:who I get dms from quite a lot are men and a lot
Speaker:of them are older generations I guess um
Speaker:saying you know they wish they could have taught their children how to
Speaker:do that or whatever um some
Speaker:a bit creepy well you're always gonna have one
Speaker:you're always gonna have that and Yeah,
Speaker:so the male side of the comments, there are some really, really like
Speaker:genuinely nice guys that are like, Oh my God, you're amazing
Speaker:for doing this. Like, well done you. But not in a patronizing way.
Speaker:Yeah, because some can come across quite patronizing. But
Speaker:most especially on TikTok are from men.
Speaker:Either you're not doing it the right way or it looks rubbish or
Speaker:the age old, get back in the kitchen. I'm like,
Speaker:I've already done that one. Oh, I love that. I love that comment.
Speaker:From when you started, like your, like your account and,
Speaker:you know, doing DIY, how has it been over, say,
Speaker:for example, seven years? Like, how has, like, the difference? Like,
Speaker:I find that the community is a lot closer with both
Speaker:men and women involved. Yeah. At the very start it was very
Speaker:male dominating but now like women coming in it's
Speaker:and the support that you do see from the men is it's so nice
Speaker:to see. It is. Like has that, do you think it's
Speaker:I think in a way yes and
Speaker:in a way no. Okay. Obviously with a lot more female
Speaker:accounts coming out there is a lot more men
Speaker:feeling a bit know yeah this is our
Speaker:space okay and a lot of so
Speaker:i've got like a whatsapp group with loads of influencers like diy influencers
Speaker:and we all sort of share funny um funny
Speaker:comments we get and yeah some of them i
Speaker:feel like This is what I was
Speaker:going to say before. Some of the comments I get from men are saying
Speaker:that something I've shared, whether it's a DIY tutorial or a tip or something,
Speaker:they've commented being like, oh, that's easy. I'm like, well, this
Speaker:is aimed at beginners. Like, it's supposed to be easy. I'm
Speaker:really glad that I've made it look easy. Because that's the whole point
Speaker:of my video. Yeah, the point of my video is to make these projects look easy so
Speaker:that you have more confidence to actually start them. But
Speaker:yeah, I mean, the last couple of videos I've done have all had at least
Speaker:one comment saying, oh, that's easy. That's obvious. Oh, everyone knows that. Like
Speaker:the tape measure video, for example. So many people say, oh, I knew
Speaker:that already. I'm like, cool. Well, I didn't. There's a
Speaker:Yeah, because your your sort of social channel is obviously, you
Speaker:know, a bit of like how to's and obviously the projects
Speaker:that you're working on at home. Where do you plan
Speaker:your content? Do you plan the DIY or do you just sort
Speaker:I always try to plan it and it never happens. I
Speaker:worked in marketing for, I guess, 10 years. on
Speaker:the social media side. And so I know like you've got to plan ahead. Yeah
Speaker:I had I was managing calendars and I had certain
Speaker:posts going out every day and of a certain topic and
Speaker:making sure each topic was repeated. You know that's like the proper way to do it.
Speaker:I don't do that. I am so bad at marketing. for
Speaker:myself. But yeah, I can literally just scroll through my phone and I've
Speaker:got projects and projects and projects and projects and projects. And
Speaker:I've also got the idea of, oh, I'll just put them all on my laptop and then I'll
Speaker:sort them into the folders and have folders for each project. Am
Speaker:Because I was like, oh, you know, maybe I'll just hire someone to make the
Speaker:videos for me, but I'll need to have them in
Speaker:folders. Can't do the folders, so I can't hire someone. As
Speaker:we said, it will happen eventually. Eventually. There was
Speaker:a, who was it? I used to watch the Amanda Bynes
Speaker:And one of her skits was like, I'll do, I'll save
Speaker:that baby eventually. And that is me.
Speaker:I hate it. When do you do it? I.
Speaker:I do it when I literally don't have anything quick
Speaker:to edit. And I'm just like, OK, I'm going to have to edit something. Or
Speaker:if I'm getting DMs saying, can you finally please, please
Speaker:put up the video of you making this thing? Like my
Speaker:vanity unit, which is like one of my favorite DIYs, one
Speaker:of my proudest DIYs even, I never put up
Speaker:the tutorial. Oh no way. I think I put up like the first
Speaker:And then no other parts. And I keep getting DM saying
Speaker:can you please put it up. So I've said I've saved all the videos back to my phone ready.
Speaker:haven't done it yet. I just need to wait for that like, I
Speaker:don't know, day, I guess to edit it. Yeah. So what
Speaker:would you say is your favourite DIY project then? It's definitely the
Speaker:vanity I did in my last house. Yeah. I
Speaker:don't think I'd actually, had I built anything before? I'd
Speaker:done like built in shelves. Yeah, I guess. And I
Speaker:did the pantry in my understairs cupboard that
Speaker:same year. That was twenty twenty two.
Speaker:Why would you say that's your favourite? Was it because you were just starting? It
Speaker:Yeah. And it was, it kind
Speaker:of rescued me in a way, like I had my son in
Speaker:the September before. I think I started
Speaker:in like the like a couple months after and had a
Speaker:really horrible birth and
Speaker:the time after it was like I had postnatal depression, I
Speaker:had PTSD, I had birth trauma and I needed
Speaker:and a baby that literally would not stop crying. He
Speaker:had like allergies and feeding issues and
Speaker:all this so I was like very like I needed an escape
Speaker:yeah and for me DIY has always been an escape and
Speaker:So was that the first project you did after or was
Speaker:I think after he was born yeah I think It
Speaker:may have been one of the first ones. And I was like, you know what, I
Speaker:just need a big project. I need to just dive into it. I need to get it done. And,
Speaker:you know, I'll feel better. So I
Speaker:also used pretty much like 90% of
Speaker:the materials I used were just scraps that I had in my shed. Built
Speaker:the whole frame. I actually had to add another stud behind the wall. I
Speaker:had a little crawl space behind the en
Speaker:suite. So I put in a new stud for stability and
Speaker:built the whole frame out of, I think some of that was new, some
Speaker:of it was stuff I already had. And then, yeah, just like cladded
Speaker:it out with like scrap MDF. and
Speaker:then bought some bits for the doors. But
Speaker:I kind of had this, I was inspired, but I can't remember who the account was. I
Speaker:think it was like Claire Moran Designs or something like that. May not even
Speaker:have even been her. But she had this matte black slatted,
Speaker:literally exactly like that, bathroom vanity. And
Speaker:I was like, that is beautiful. I want it. So
Speaker:I built it and I had all I had was like the
Speaker:vision of what it needs to look like in my head and the sort of okay I'm
Speaker:gonna have slots at the side for space for you
Speaker:know toilet rolls and rolled up towels and and it's gonna have loads
Speaker:of storage inside big shelves and it's gonna be floating because I
Speaker:was always told anything that's floating makes it look like it's bigger like
Speaker:the space is bigger and literally made
Speaker:it up as I went along I didn't even have any measurements pre-prepared I didn't have
Speaker:any I literally had maybe
Speaker:how long I wanted it to be and how high, and
Speaker:that's it. Everything else I just measured on the spot, went
Speaker:and cut, came back, did it. And
Speaker:I think that kind of immersion into a project where
Speaker:you literally don't know what you're doing, you haven't got it planned, you've not thought anything out,
Speaker:was the best escape for me at that
Speaker:time. And it turned out amazingly. I
Speaker:made a few mistakes, but I
Speaker:also broke like four router bits. It
Speaker:was a compact laminate. worktop
Speaker:okay and I thought you could cut through it in one pass and
Speaker:so I just kept snapping like 30 pound bits oh
Speaker:no and I was like why am I why is this happening is
Speaker:the like is it the bit is it the router is it you know what
Speaker:why is it breaking um and I did,
Speaker:I actually did a little bit of research and found out
Speaker:you're supposed to just, you go in a little bit and then you go in again and
Speaker:then you go in again and then eventually you know you get through and then you can clean up, clean
Speaker:up. I said okay that makes much more sense. So
Speaker:yeah that was, that was the big mistake with that one but
Speaker:it looked amazing and I was so proud of it because I was like I did this,
Speaker:I did it when I was like you know at my darkest I guess and I
Speaker:was on, I think it was ITV News, really
Speaker:randomly, I don't know why, ITV News
Speaker:East Anglia or something, and the guy came and, you
Speaker:know, showed my workshop, which was my shed, and
Speaker:then we went upstairs and I showed him the en-suite I'd
Speaker:just finished, all the tiling and stuff I'd done while I was pregnant. obviously
Speaker:built the vanity. And he's like, you know,
Speaker:is this your your favorite project? I said, yeah, I literally sit in bed every
Speaker:day and stare at it with the door open. I'm like, why have I said that on
Speaker:TV? But
Speaker:it was true, like I would leave the ensuite bathroom door
Speaker:open and I could see it from my bed and I'd literally just look at it and be like, I
Speaker:I mean, as I said, like it's something that you're so proud of.
Speaker:I mean, the way that you explained of how proud you were that you sit in bed and
Speaker:A little bit weird. But I think that's one of my, yeah,
Speaker:definitely the proudest so far. there's
Speaker:So is there is there like a project that you're now really
Speaker:So when we within like a couple months
Speaker:of living in this house, we realised how not
Speaker:poorly designed, but poorly designed. The
Speaker:entranceway is, like you go in the door, it's like the typical ex-council,
Speaker:like 1920s countryside house, like there are hundreds
Speaker:of them that look all exactly the same. Not
Speaker:on my road, but like I drive around, I'm like, oh, that's the same house as I've got. And I
Speaker:always look for ideas when I drive past. But I want to build
Speaker:a porch. And I'm like toying between, do
Speaker:I timber frame it? Because that's easy. Or do I brick
Speaker:built it? And I'm like, I'm just
Speaker:going to brick build it. I'm going to check regs, you know, see how far
Speaker:do I need time permission to put porch on? I don't know. Need to double
Speaker:check. But yeah, it doesn't from
Speaker:the projects I've already done. So building the. The
Speaker:concrete planters, for example, like I well
Speaker:overdid the footings for those. I did like 60 centimetre footings
Speaker:for a raised planter. I'm pretty
Speaker:sure that's more than you'd use for a house. Yeah, I think so. So I'm
Speaker:like, OK, if I've done that, I can do this. And it's not too
Speaker:dissimilar. And I plan on rendering it anyway or
Speaker:cladding it, one of the two. So it doesn't need to look good. It
Speaker:just needs to be structurally sound. Yeah. I'm like, I could do that. I
Speaker:mean, I've knocked down enough walls. I know how they're made. So,
Speaker:yeah, that's my, like, the
Speaker:big project that I'm looking forward to. I've no idea when I'm going to do it. I also
Speaker:need to double check in terms of, like, the front elevation where
Speaker:the lintel's at and whether there is a lintel and how
Speaker:much of that I can knock down. But you literally walk into my house and
Speaker:the front door opens covering the
Speaker:next door. and the other door's right you you walk in and
Speaker:you you're just not even a meter two
Speaker:people can't stand in there yeah and it's just too It's
Speaker:Yeah, I just want to pull that out, you know, put a little mudroom bit in there,
Speaker:somewhere to hang the dog leads, somewhere to throw my shoes, and
Speaker:not have to keep walking through the house to the utility where we keep our
Speaker:shoes. Like, I want that out of the way. Because
Speaker:we live in the countryside as well, the dogs go on long
Speaker:walks through farmland, you know, we need somewhere that's
Speaker:not going to trudge mud. charge
Speaker:mud through the house because the only ways
Speaker:to the kitchen are through my son's playroom, which obviously we
Speaker:So yeah, the design of the house isn't the greatest. Ideally
Speaker:I would want a hallway. But I
Speaker:don't want to lose space from the playroom because
Speaker:he has a lot of toys. Like a lot of toys. And
Speaker:I say that like it's not me buying them, it's me buying them. I
Speaker:mean ideally I'd want to like extend the whole of the front out. But
Speaker:we'll see how ambitious I feel at the time, whether
Speaker:I want to. So that's quite like a, that's obviously a big project. Yeah.
Speaker:Is that, so is that something in the future is
Speaker:obviously, I know, I know that you've obviously got a lot of projects going
Speaker:on at the moment. Is that one that you're just really excited for and
Speaker:you think is going to sort of like step you out of your comfort zone?
Speaker:I think so. I mean, I keep pushing it. I
Speaker:want, I wanted to do it like as soon as we moved in. But
Speaker:I keep pushing it back because I'm thinking, oh, I
Speaker:mean, money is obviously a big element, but do
Speaker:I want to do that? Yeah. Or do I want to just concentrate on making the house livable first?
Speaker:And then, but then that's pushing me back on
Speaker:other projects. Like I was saying to you earlier, I
Speaker:don't want to redo the flooring in the playroom because
Speaker:I might be knocking that wall down, you know? I don't then think, oh,
Speaker:I can just add extra flooring on. It's not that difficult to then
Speaker:add more. But it's just those... Where
Speaker:do you start? Yeah, like, do I do that first? Do I do that first?
Speaker:And it's always like a constant battle in my head, like, which one do I do first?
Speaker:Which is the most important room and all of them need doing? And
Speaker:so each room has had, like, a little, little
Speaker:thing done to it. But
Speaker:I think because I've not finished my son's room, I'm now like, I've
Speaker:got to finish that first, like to give myself permission to move on
Speaker:Do you have, does it sort of influence you when your social, like
Speaker:your followers sort of say, oh, like, I'd really love to see this
Speaker:type of video? Does that was, does that sort of push you then to say,
Speaker:Or do you just do it your own time? Sometimes. Like, I do get, obviously,
Speaker:questions saying, oh, I really want to see this, that and the other done.
Speaker:A lot of the time it's things that I won't be doing. Like
Speaker:I just don't have that plan. So I'm thinking, OK, I
Speaker:don't know, I don't have this video for you and I probably won't have this video for you, but I can find
Speaker:one that, if I can find a good one. So
Speaker:I do that sometimes. If I've seen it done by someone else,
Speaker:or I will sit and watch through some different videos to make sure that
Speaker:actually it turns out well. And I was like, OK, this is a really good video. You can have this
Speaker:one. But like little jobs. really
Speaker:want to be able to make even the most basic
Speaker:videos on like how to do painting.
Speaker:I don't know. I can't think of any examples. But I built a workshop.
Speaker:I think I feel like it was this year. This year has been very long. It
Speaker:was probably this year. With every intention of it
Speaker:kind of being like a mini studio where I will have like,
Speaker:you know, a fake wall and show people how to put up shelves and
Speaker:do like actual basic homeowner DIYs,
Speaker:I guess, and have that as like a series or a
Speaker:course or YouTube. I don't know. I haven't decided. So
Speaker:that was kind of my intention of the workshop, to
Speaker:be able to provide those videos that everyone asks for. And
Speaker:I put up question boxes all the time being like, oh, what? what
Speaker:do you need, let me answer your questions and I'll like go through my video. Do
Speaker:you have quite a lot then come through? I have, yeah, a lot of them
Speaker:are similar in that everyone's asking for a particular type
Speaker:or thankfully a lot of them are questions of
Speaker:stuff I've already done. So I'm like, oh thank God, I don't have to do something new. So
Speaker:I'll just like scroll through the thousand and something videos I've already got and
Speaker:pluck it out for them. um but I think that's an issue
Speaker:with Instagram in general like you can't search for
Speaker:someone's specific video like you can on YouTube for example um
Speaker:they really need to change that but a lot
Speaker:of the project questions I get I'm
Speaker:just like yeah I'll add it to my list like I'll get
Speaker:there or oh I've got plans to do that yeah next year
Speaker:like Make sure you're following then. I say
Speaker:Stay tuned. Or with the people that are messaging
Speaker:you. obviously like
Speaker:with the questions, do you find like
Speaker:it's to do with the trend that's going on in that moment? Yeah.
Speaker:Because I can see like a lot of it be trends
Speaker:for, you know, House 2025. And it's almost like,
Speaker:well, how do I do this? Do you find it's more like that? Or
Speaker:is there more home renovation companies that are just like, oh, what
Speaker:I think a lot of what people want to see are very trends led and everyone
Speaker:in the sort of home DIY space, I guess, is
Speaker:making sure that their content is aligned with whatever's trending. But
Speaker:yeah, there's a lot of questions about panelling, like
Speaker:all the time. Panelling, panelling, panelling. It'll go
Speaker:out of fashion eventually, but at the moment it's very in. So
Speaker:I get a lot of questions related to
Speaker:the different types of panelling, and thankfully I've done every
Speaker:type of handling that there is, I'm pretty sure. So
Speaker:I'm able to signpost them to the right video or,
Speaker:you know, someone's done it. So I can say, oh, this person's done,
Speaker:you know, I don't know, like a double double weens
Speaker:coat or something. I can send them that. So I
Speaker:feel like Instagram is very trends led.
Speaker:But then you also see some people doing things completely
Speaker:unique as well, that really stand out. And
Speaker:I'm just like, oh, that's a really good idea. I wouldn't do it in my house, but it's
Speaker:a really good idea. And, you know, I'll share it and be
Speaker:like, you know, for those that don't want to follow these trends, here's
Speaker:another idea you could do. But I
Speaker:wouldn't say my content is at all, like, led by anything
Speaker:Yeah no but I think that's what makes your content unique and
Speaker:as you say like you jump from like your how-to's to then
Speaker:oh I'm you know with the when
Speaker:you were collecting all the leaves like it just jumps from one thing to another and
Speaker:then you're putting up like your the studio oh yeah
Speaker:yeah the workshop that you've put up and it's just it's so
Speaker:refreshing and as you say like you get this person asking how
Speaker:to do paneling but then you're going to be asked someone's going to be asking about the whole like the
Speaker:concrete thing but yeah you don't recommend 60 centimeters yeah definitely
Speaker:um do you with like we've just going on like
Speaker:the trend subject what would you love to see like what where
Speaker:I feel like trends really just recycle. Like
Speaker:if it wasn't on trend last year, it will be at
Speaker:some point. Yeah. But I feel like panelling is here to stay for sure.
Speaker:I'm loving the
Speaker:colour drenching and I really want to do it in my lounge. Yeah.
Speaker:But I also, as I was saying, I really like the neutral but
Speaker:also like traditional looks and how that translate. And
Speaker:what else? I feel like boot clay. It
Speaker:was big a few years ago and it's still big now and I'm
Speaker:here for it. I love boot clay. I
Speaker:actually bought like this massive roll of boot clay material with
Speaker:But I was looking at a stool that's like a little footstool that's in my son's room yesterday.
Speaker:I was like, you know, I'm just going to get that fabric out. I'm just going to do it. I'm just going to do it.
Speaker:I don't know where it is. I think it's in the loft somewhere. But I
Speaker:was like, yeah, I'll be a quick like 20 minute project to, you know, get
Speaker:my dopamine flowing. Your list must be so long.
Speaker:It is. I actually made a list once and I think I've ticked
Speaker:With trends like, I mean, It
Speaker:seems to be as well, there's like eco, eco-friendly ways
Speaker:of doing things and have you incorporated that
Speaker:into any projects or how do you feel about the eco part?
Speaker:So I'm quite sustainable with my DIYs
Speaker:anyway, like I'm always trying to use as much scrap wood as I can. I will
Speaker:literally raid the B&Q scrap pile and see what's in there and
Speaker:people's off cuts but I've got a huge stash
Speaker:of wood that I've either off cuts or just random scraps I've picked
Speaker:up that I want to use and
Speaker:incorporate into the projects and I will literally make up a project if
Speaker:I see some wood. I had loads of, for my workshop, there
Speaker:were loads of little battens that were separating the different layers of wood when
Speaker:it came in the pallets And
Speaker:they were just taking up space in my shed, and I was like, you know, I'm gonna make something out of these. I
Speaker:made a cover for my air source heat pump out of them. And
Speaker:I was like, boom, done. That's them out of the way, used, not
Speaker:having to, didn't have to throw them away, didn't have to do anything with it, like, I made something out
Speaker:of that. And obviously with the vanity as well, using, that
Speaker:was like 90% scraps. But
Speaker:I think in terms of like actual eco-friendly products,
Speaker:I really want to see more cork brought in. There
Speaker:are companies out there, I think ReCork is one of them, they
Speaker:do lovely cork flooring. And
Speaker:there's also a company, might be the same one, that do
Speaker:wood effect cork, almost like an LVT, it's
Speaker:got wood effect cover, but it's made of cork. And
Speaker:it's water repellent. it's really sustainable and
Speaker:really soft underfoot as well and I don't know why more people aren't using it. Similarly
Speaker:with bamboo as well, they actually do bamboo like herringbone
Speaker:flooring for example. My sister was going to get some for
Speaker:And they come in all sort of different colours and you can really see like the natural fibres in
Speaker:them and obviously that's a source that's really
Speaker:really sustainable like that grows like hellfire, like that
Speaker:will regrow itself like in a couple months. You
Speaker:know that it's not like a forest being chopped down. But
Speaker:there's not enough people shouting about these products to
Speaker:But then does that make you feel like you should advertise that? Yeah. I
Speaker:mean, it's not saying like the pressure, but you know, where you
Speaker:think of this is would be like, oh, this would be pretty cool. Do you think then,
Speaker:well, with how that you're going at the moment, it seems that
Speaker:Do you find like you have to, you know, shout about it
Speaker:Yeah I'm there is a little bit of pressure there for
Speaker:sure especially if I see a product and I'm like oh my god that's a genius idea
Speaker:yeah um like with I don't
Speaker:know how eco it is but the I don't know
Speaker:Thermos skirt. They, they're on Dragon's Den at some point. But
Speaker:it's literally having your radiators in your skirting board. And
Speaker:it was a big thing in like the 80s. But they weren't nice in
Speaker:the 80s. Yeah, now they literally look like skirting boards like proper. You
Speaker:know slab with the molding at the top like that's
Speaker:cool. That's a good idea, but it cuts down your heating bills it
Speaker:Runs a lower temperature so again cost-saving yeah
Speaker:warms your room up quicker because it's heating all the room rather than
Speaker:one's fixed point and it's obviously floor level
Speaker:so it just Does it all at once? But that
Speaker:kind of was something that I came across and was like, that's a really good idea. Well,
Speaker:especially in my house where we've got the air source heat pump and the radiator is massive,
Speaker:take up an entire wall. I'd initially thought, OK,
Speaker:I'll just put in a column radiator and then move that vertically out
Speaker:the way. But then I came across these radiator
Speaker:skirtings and I was like, that will free up so much space,
Speaker:especially in my son's room and my son's playroom where you
Speaker:know, the wall space is space for him to, you
Speaker:know, have a little whiteboard or have his things up against, like, there
Speaker:needs to be more wall space, essentially. So I was like, right, I'm going to
Speaker:do that. And I've kind of made it my mission to get
Speaker:that in the house and share it as much as possible, because I know that other
Speaker:people will find it interesting, too. Other people will have the same pain point, like there isn't enough
Speaker:wall space. I mean, I didn't even know that existed. They
Speaker:also do an electric version. where rather than obviously
Speaker:plumbing it into your heating pipes, you're wiring it
Speaker:in. And that's really good in like summer houses,
Speaker:for example, or workshops. So obviously heating
Speaker:the space quicker, more efficiently, worked
Speaker:really well with air source heat pumps and solar panels and everything. So I'm just like,
Speaker:get this, you know, a bit more mainstream. I mean,
Speaker:we had solar panels installed again,
Speaker:it might have been that this year has been so long that it feels like last year, but I think
Speaker:it was this year. Or was it last year? I don't know. We
Speaker:had solar panels in store because I was like, if I'm going to be, you
Speaker:know, making all these changes to this house, and
Speaker:I talk a lot about sustainability, like when my son was born, I put him in reusable nappies,
Speaker:my sister owns a zero waste shop, like, it's very much in my family
Speaker:and in my life to be as eco-friendly as possible, within
Speaker:reason. So adding, obviously
Speaker:we already had the air source heat pump that the previous owners put in, but I was like, why
Speaker:don't we have solar panels? And I was like, that's, you
Speaker:know, one big thing that I can obviously share that's happening. I
Speaker:can share how it's
Speaker:making our lives better and cheaper and everything. I mean, my electricity bill
Speaker:over summer was like six, not just electricity, electricity and
Speaker:gas was like 20 quid a month. and
Speaker:hasn't really gone up much because we've got batteries, we've got
Speaker:the pump when it works, because it's broken at the moment,
Speaker:not that it's rubbish. The savings
Speaker:is phenomenal and especially in this sort of financial crisis,
Speaker:let's call it, we're all kind of looking for ways
Speaker:to save money and also not you
Speaker:I mean, they're a big expenditure to start off with, don't
Speaker:Yeah, but as you say, like, long term, when they're that
Speaker:much amount during the, like, 20 quid, like, in
Speaker:Yeah, for a large four bedroom house as well, an old build that's
Speaker:got, apart from the extra insulation I put in,
Speaker:like, not insulated, it's pretty
Speaker:good going. Yeah, there's definitely like
Speaker:I mean, if you like the product, yeah, at the end of the day, like, it's not like you're forcing
Speaker:sustainability into your home because of that. Yeah. Is that
Speaker:you actually like that product and you, you
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And so to show more people should
Speaker:be using it. I
Speaker:feel like sometimes I do feel like a bit of a guinea pig in some of
Speaker:the things that come out or are new or
Speaker:that's the same thing. Or become
Speaker:a trend, for example. And I feel there is a lot of pressure on influencers
Speaker:especially to kind of try these things out,
Speaker:Do you find things that don't work? And
Speaker:do you say that, like, do you say like, oh, like, we've tried
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, if obviously if there is something that I've
Speaker:given a go or a trend that
Speaker:I really wanted to try, but didn't actually end up, I would obviously say,
Speaker:yeah, it's not, I don't just, you
Speaker:know, say everything's amazing. So, yeah,
Speaker:there is, I guess, you
Speaker:kind of need to trust influencers as well to say
Speaker:if something's not right or something's not working or something's not
Speaker:worth the hype, I guess. De-influencing is a big trend over
Speaker:the last year as well. I wouldn't say there's anything that
Speaker:I can think of off the top of my head that I've had
Speaker:or done that's been like, actually, no, it's not worth it.
Speaker:I guess that's probably influenced by other people having already
Speaker:sort of said, oh, no, that's not a good one or me doing
Speaker:more research into it and thinking, oh, actually, I'm not going
Speaker:Yeah, because I know obviously certain things will work for
Speaker:some people and some things will work for others. So I completely
Speaker:understand that. But as you say, like where with
Speaker:the sustainability thing, it's just nice to know
Speaker:that it's something that you want to do. Because I find, like, with a
Speaker:trend, it might not be eco-friendly, like with all of the wall panelings. Like,
Speaker:there are so many people that, you know, they get rid of the... Yeah, I've seen
Speaker:a lot of people taking them off now. I'm like, you've
Speaker:not had it up very long. I know, but then would you keep the stuff
Speaker:and then potentially reuse it? It's trying to
Speaker:sort of see if there's ways that, you know, that you
Speaker:can, yeah, as you say, like reuse things. because you have that
Speaker:whole shed worth of
Speaker:wood still, but then you might use
Speaker:Yeah, I think people, especially influencers, need to, and
Speaker:I do feel like it's almost a duty, to not encourage
Speaker:things that are to consumerism, that's
Speaker:not a word, to consumeristic, is
Speaker:that the word? I don't know. I don't
Speaker:know. It could be a word. It sounds
Speaker:It sounds like something that I... I
Speaker:But yeah, influencers shouldn't, should
Speaker:feel morally obliged, I guess, not
Speaker:to promote things that are too wasteful, like
Speaker:single-use products. I actually found
Speaker:out yesterday, and I don't know whether it's everything in general
Speaker:or just posters, but there's very little or
Speaker:no VAT on things that you throw away. Like
Speaker:I was ordering some posters for something and it was like, if
Speaker:it's a, if you add artwork that needs to be kept, you've
Speaker:got to pay VAT on it, like a voucher code or something.
Speaker:But if it's literally just like a throwaway flyer, you don't pay VAT. And
Speaker:I was like, that is mad. That should be the other way around. You
Speaker:should pay more if you have to throw it away. So
Speaker:yeah, I feel like influencers, especially in, you
Speaker:know, the home space and the beauty, like literally
Speaker:any space should feel a moral obligation to seek
Speaker:out the more sustainable options for
Speaker:things and not, this is why I don't
Speaker:really like trends that come and go. Like panelling
Speaker:ones are great because they are, they do last a long time and
Speaker:paint trends I mean, people can repaint their houses, even
Speaker:one room like six times in the space of four months. Some
Speaker:Like, yes, great paint. By the very nature,
Speaker:you can just paint over it if it goes wrong or if you don't like it. But that's so wasteful
Speaker:And yeah, just trends like that, that are too of the moment.
Speaker:I try and pick and choose ones that I
Speaker:know will probably be here for a long time, like paneling, whether
Speaker:it's Slack paneling or whatever, it will be on trend
Speaker:for a long time. But
Speaker:there are obviously a lot of influencers that literally would
Speaker:just post things because they're trendy at the time or do things
Speaker:because they're on trend. I'm like, what are you doing with that after? And I've
Speaker:either thrown it away, given it away or stored it. But
Speaker:how long are you going to store that for isn't the trend might not come around for another 10 years
Speaker:or. you know, you
Speaker:had it for like a month. Like that's not, it's not responsible,
Speaker:Yeah. And I suppose as well, like if their followers
Speaker:are watching them and they're constantly changing one
Speaker:room, it must get pretty boring. Like
Speaker:as you say, like with your renovations, there's so much
Speaker:going on and where you break it up, it's
Speaker:interesting. But to change one room constantly, it's,
Speaker:Yeah I think there's I mean there's a lot of pressure on influencers
Speaker:to keep obviously producing content and
Speaker:if they're not if not got plans to move or not plans to do
Speaker:anything big to their house there's kind of nothing left to
Speaker:do yeah but redecorate and going
Speaker:with the trends and everything they will have to just keep catching
Speaker:up or leading in some cases with
Speaker:yeah it might not be interesting but at least it's like content i
Speaker:guess do you advise to like
Speaker:a certain style maybe because it will last or
Speaker:if they're trying to sell a house like do you advise do it
Speaker:this way because it's more um so
Speaker:yeah like visually yeah it's it's
Speaker:sellable i think with houses especially when you're selling
Speaker:there's always the argument, do I, am I decorating for
Speaker:the next person or am I decorating for myself? And
Speaker:I was very much of the mind when we were selling that our house is
Speaker:already quite neutral. So people can envision themselves being there.
Speaker:And actually they've not changed a thing since we've, I've been back a couple of
Speaker:times to collect posts and I'm not looking in the window like they've
Speaker:not changed anything. Is it a good feeling? Cause I know like they liked it.
Speaker:But ultimately, It's your house. And
Speaker:I don't think you should decorate for anyone but yourself as
Speaker:much as the trolls, you know, would like you to decorate to
Speaker:suit everyone's tastes. Like there are maximalists that
Speaker:will literally want leopard print on the walls. And
Speaker:I like a neutral because it's safe. I really
Speaker:want to play with colour more. But I like the safety of things.
Speaker:And I think decorating to
Speaker:sell unless you are fixing things that are very obvious
Speaker:that need to be fixed or like you know caulking the
Speaker:crack along the stair risers. Don't
Speaker:change it. Decrease the amount of stuff in the house,
Speaker:yes, because people need to see the space and its potential, not,
Speaker:you know, 17 bits of furniture in a small room. Like
Speaker:they want to see that the space is there. But in terms of decorating, if
Speaker:you go into a house that you want to buy and you
Speaker:can't see past the colours on the wall, you
Speaker:need to like re-evaluate what you're looking for
Speaker:in a house. I know a lot of people
Speaker:who kind of look at photos of really old houses that
Speaker:haven't been touched in like 30 years in terms of decorating, 30 years, like 70 years
Speaker:Yeah. I love it. Although like the really classic wallpapers and the garish
Speaker:carpets and the clashing of the colours, if you
Speaker:can't see past that, like
Speaker:interiors might not be for you. And I don't mean that in like a harsh way,
Speaker:I just mean like, when
Speaker:you're buying a house or selling a house, you need to see the space, the
Speaker:shell, the carcass of what you're buying, because you're not
Speaker:buying the stuff that's in it. You're not buying the paint on the walls. You're gonna
Speaker:change it. And so I
Speaker:don't think it's worth wasting money trying to make your house like
Speaker:a white box just to appeal to people. If
Speaker:Like they're just using the paint as an excuse. I
Speaker:try not to look at photos of houses. I just look at the floor plans
Speaker:and the sizes. Yeah. And then I look where
Speaker:they've put things. Like when I actually go, I'm like, okay, they've put the sofa here
Speaker:because maybe that makes the most logical sense. But I won't be
Speaker:like, oh, their interior choices were awful. Like
Speaker:that's only obviously an issue when you're living in it and you've
Speaker:got to change those things. But you can change it. It's paint or
Speaker:wallpaper. Like it can be stripped, it can be covered. There's
Speaker:no point. trying to keep up with trends
Speaker:or neutrality, I guess. It's just
Speaker:Well, let's dive into, like,
Speaker:obviously your channel. You have obviously
Speaker:a lot of followers. And do
Speaker:you enjoy the response of, like, try
Speaker:and inspire people to DIY. Let's talk about that.
Speaker:You know, we obviously want to encourage, you know, the youngsters
Speaker:going into DIY and the trades and things. Do
Speaker:you have that in mind when you put stuff out there? Do you have a
Speaker:lot of followers that would like to go into the trades? Do you have a
Speaker:I'm seeing a lot more trade Instagram accounts,
Speaker:which is really cool, because you get to see more into their
Speaker:daily lives. There are, I think, three
Speaker:accounts that especially, like, show
Speaker:you how much something will cost. Like, here's what a, you
Speaker:know, £25,000 garden will cost, and then you get to see where
Speaker:the money will go. And there are
Speaker:other accounts that just show, you know, their daily lives and how actually
Speaker:demanding some trades can be, all trades I guess.
Speaker:Like I follow quite a few electricians, quite a
Speaker:few like
Speaker:labourers, plumbers and I just like seeing that
Speaker:side of things. I think in another life I would have been a tradie had
Speaker:I discovered my love for this earlier I guess. But
Speaker:the there aren't obviously as many women
Speaker:But there are lots more coming up. And yes,
Speaker:the statistics, I can never say statistics properly, statistics
Speaker:of women in trades is like one percent. And that was
Speaker:I think last year that figure was out. So there
Speaker:needs to be obviously more, but it's more
Speaker:of like an age issue than a gender issue at the moment,
Speaker:Of all the, when I think about trades,
Speaker:older men come to mind. Like all the ones I've hired
Speaker:in the past, apart from the last year, because I've found most
Speaker:of them on Instagram. But they've all been like older
Speaker:men. And you don't see
Speaker:that many Youngsters, I guess. I say youngsters being
Speaker:anyone under the age of 30. Because I try to consider myself a
Speaker:youngster, even though I'm not under 30. Oh, that's really sad.
Speaker:To remind myself how old I
Speaker:am. Yeah, you don't see that many, I guess, younger
Speaker:millennials, Gen Z, you don't see many of them going into the trades. college
Speaker:isn't really spoken about much anymore. And I don't know why, I don't know
Speaker:whether it's because I'm no longer of that age to discuss college.
Speaker:But even then, the people
Speaker:I knew who went to college were going for like hair and beauty. Never
Speaker:construction. I don't, from my year group, I don't know anyone in construction. a
Speaker:couple years above anyone in construction or any of the trades is a small handful.
Speaker:Yeah. But then I know a lot of people who probably
Speaker:would be better suited in the trades like a very practical hands
Speaker:on people and not sit behind a desk doing marketing. And
Speaker:I feel like with the age of social media especially younger
Speaker:generations are moving more towards you
Speaker:know marketing social media like online presence.
Speaker:Yeah I'm present like careers and so and less practical.
Speaker:And I think that now with more
Speaker:trades going on social media and showing their day to day lives and actually how interesting
Speaker:and different and varied it can be and you can do both inspiring more
Speaker:people. So with my content for example with
Speaker:the majority of my followers being women or being either
Speaker:older, so I've got a lot that are older women who
Speaker:either are divorced or still single or
Speaker:their parent has died or something saying, you know, I'm
Speaker:following you because I have a need, like I need to learn this stuff to
Speaker:do myself. Then I've got a huge amount
Speaker:of like new homeowners, so millennials who
Speaker:are just buying their first homes or setting down to have a family and
Speaker:want to do up their own house. And then I've got a small
Speaker:amount of younger people who are kind of just,
Speaker:I guess, captured by a woman
Speaker:doing things, I guess. Because it
Speaker:is refreshing to see women doing this sort of stuff. And
Speaker:I think, hopefully, with
Speaker:the reach of the different generations will
Speaker:somehow hopefully inspire younger people to become involved
Speaker:in trades. Yeah. Because I would love to do this every like I
Speaker:mean I do do it every day but like when I was younger I would have loved
Speaker:to do this every day just building stuff and making stuff and
Speaker:fixing things like that for me is very fulfilling
Speaker:I guess both for dopamine and just
Speaker:knowing that I'm actually doing something rather than just
Speaker:tapping away at a desk. But
Speaker:yeah, the 1% needs to increase, not only for
Speaker:women, girls in general, but young people in
Speaker:general. I think a few years ago, and especially
Speaker:when I was at school, I didn't know that being
Speaker:No one really talks about it. And it wasn't
Speaker:really until I started work, like I did DIY
Speaker:SOS last year as well as this year. And
Speaker:one of the guys that I was working alongside had just
Speaker:finished college as a carpenter. And I was talking to him
Speaker:about it and I was like, that sounds like so
Speaker:fun. I would have loved to do that. But
Speaker:when I was, you know, 17, 18, those
Speaker:sort of careers not only weren't really advertised
Speaker:in general, but definitely weren't advertised to girls. For
Speaker:me, it was like, you know, you can either be a doctor or
Speaker:a lawyer and go into TV, go into marketing, like
Speaker:these are your options. I feel like schools
Speaker:have a responsibility to say, you
Speaker:know, you don't have to be academic. You don't need to do these exams. You
Speaker:can go to college and do, you know, academic
Speaker:and exams in practical things. You
Speaker:know, there's a lot of Gen Z these days, especially who,
Speaker:you know, didn't go don't want to go to university. They want to
Speaker:start work now. And especially the workforce that need 20 years
Speaker:experience when you're 18. Like, that is
Speaker:the best industry to go in to have practical hands
Speaker:on experience at a young age because you see so many like labourers who
Speaker:Hopefully the gender disparity will soon
Speaker:I was going to say through social media where you say about the tradies
Speaker:having an account and you get to see what they're doing day to day.
Speaker:It's That hopefully will be
Speaker:an inspiration to say through like colleges. I mean I remember that
Speaker:not even being an option. Like they had carpentry but that
Speaker:wasn't even listed to me. And now I think
Speaker:well why wasn't it? fingers crossed like
Speaker:colleges are doing it. I mean we try and you know
Speaker:speak to colleges to offer you know the products and
Speaker:say look like have this like we want you to we
Speaker:want the encouragement and say like oh like you know this this could
Speaker:be something not the product but you know that could be
Speaker:as you say like electrician, plumber, carpenter,
Speaker:all of that. And it's nice to see,
Speaker:as you say, like there's so much more now that are creating. They
Speaker:might only have a small following, but that one person can
Speaker:just make a huge difference. Going from, you know,
Speaker:trying to obviously inspire the younger generation, I
Speaker:know that you are working on a children's DIY book.
Speaker:So talk to me about that, was that sort of to inspire, I
Speaker:mean obviously not, well, inspire
Speaker:children but like talk to me about the book.
Speaker:So I was actually putting it into a PDF document
Speaker:last night because it's never actually been in a
Speaker:book format, like it's just been separate pictures because I've had it illustrated
Speaker:and everything. It actually started off almost
Speaker:like a poem, I guess, to my son. He is
Speaker:very much like me. He is like my clone in every way but
Speaker:visually. Like he is the visual clone of my husband, but
Speaker:he is me, he is hands-on, he is practical, he wants
Speaker:to fix things, he wants to take things apart, he wants to break
Speaker:things. But whenever something in the house needs
Speaker:fixing, needs looking at whatever, he goes, Mommy, fix
Speaker:it. Oh, Mommy, fix it. I'm like, you're
Speaker:Never, you know, does he like come with you? Like, does he watch and
Speaker:Yeah, he he wants to get involved in everything I do. Yeah.
Speaker:Most the time I don't kind of want him involved because one, it will slow me down. And
Speaker:two, like, it's more stressful having to especially run
Speaker:Having to be like, no, you need to stand over there for a minute. Well, I cut this. But
Speaker:then obviously I've got the element of like I want you to learn how to do this and
Speaker:do it safely. So when I've got the drill out he'll come.
Speaker:He helped me clear the space for his wardrobe the other
Speaker:day and we were using my SDS to get up some gripper rods
Speaker:because I didn't want him using a hammer in case he hit himself. But yeah he
Speaker:was doing that, he was using with his hand on mine, a
Speaker:Stanley knife to cut the carpet. He
Speaker:uses pliers to get plugs out the wall. So
Speaker:he's very much like, he sees me doing it, and
Speaker:whenever I'm, this is gonna sound really big headed, whenever I'm
Speaker:watching my own content, or
Speaker:like editing it, for example, he'll be watching over my shoulder on my phone, or
Speaker:when my husband's watching my content, because I make sure he's my number
Speaker:If he's not, we'll have words. So yeah, he's always seeing
Speaker:me doing something, whether it's like on our phones or actually
Speaker:in person. I do most of the stuff while he's at preschool.
Speaker:He is so involved in that. And I wanted to sort of do
Speaker:something that I guess represents
Speaker:that in a way. So yeah, it started off as a poem
Speaker:slash, I don't know what you'd call it. It kind of looks like, it
Speaker:rhymes. So it's, I'm calling it a poem. And
Speaker:I thought, you know what, this would make a really cute book. And I've not seen
Speaker:any, I tried to make a point to buy books for
Speaker:him that are in construction DIY. Like he's got a book that's
Speaker:called She Builds. and it's all about the different roles um
Speaker:people play in building a house um and it's obviously all
Speaker:women um and
Speaker:yeah so he's got loads of books on this but none of them are really none of
Speaker:them they all say like daddy you did this daddy did
Speaker:that And all the shows you see are men with tools. And
Speaker:all the branding, you see like
Speaker:adverts for brands and men using the tools. Although
Speaker:I actually saw a Cadent van the other day with a woman on the side. I was like, yes, progress.
Speaker:Yeah, we're getting there. We're getting there. And I was
Speaker:like, obviously that's not the case in
Speaker:my house. My husband does the cooking and the cleaning. I
Speaker:do the DIY and Man stuff.
Speaker:Man stuff. Man stuff. And so I,
Speaker:yeah, I got it illustrated and it was kind of, never
Speaker:really intended it to be a book that
Speaker:I'd do anything with. I just wanted to make him a little book. And
Speaker:it's, the illustrations are of me and him. Like, quite obviously,
Speaker:they're me and him. And it's using his name. So,
Speaker:you know, I can't even remember any of the words off the top of my head. It's
Speaker:so annoying. Yeah
Speaker:it was like Theo never grew fast enough, it just wasn't
Speaker:fair, he couldn't get up onto the sofa so mummy built him
Speaker:a chair, something along those lines. And
Speaker:obviously it's, I then thought okay I will make it into
Speaker:a book, I'm gonna make it a lift the flat book because my son loves those, and
Speaker:it would show like a normal scene of him
Speaker:struggling or doing something, like one of them is And
Speaker:they're all based on projects I've done as well, which
Speaker:makes it a little bit more exciting for me. It's
Speaker:him trying to see up onto the kitchen counter, for
Speaker:example. I can't remember
Speaker:the lines, but the first scene shows him trying to look onto
Speaker:the counter like this. I'm baking or something. And then you
Speaker:lift the flap, and it shows me in my dungarees with
Speaker:a tool in hand, and I've just built something, and he's solved the problem.
Speaker:So it's a learning tower, which I actually built for my nephew before
Speaker:my son was born. But let's pretend it was for Theo. Is it
Speaker:still something that you've built? I was half there. I bought him the stool for
Speaker:it. I just haven't built the frame. But yeah, they're all
Speaker:based on projects I've already done or have or planning to do. Like
Speaker:a treehouse is in it and I'm planning on building a treehouse. yeah
Speaker:it's all it's all illustrated it's all done it's now in a pdf format for
Speaker:me to send i don't know to publishers i guess um but
Speaker:yeah the idea then once i decided it was a book was
Speaker:to show kids,
Speaker:I guess, that it's not just daddy that does these things. Mommy does them too. And
Speaker:especially in households where the mom does do everything and the dad
Speaker:does other things in the house or they don't
Speaker:have a daddy, you know, just to make it
Speaker:So that's sort of like a project going on. You've
Speaker:got your workshop that's going on. I mean, obviously, we've
Speaker:spoken about your list. We won't go through all of
Speaker:it. That's not shaming me. No, no, no, sorry, sorry. I
Speaker:mean, obviously, I think it's just you've got so much going on. And as
Speaker:you say, like if one thing needs to be done before this and
Speaker:this and this. Obviously, we've spoken about
Speaker:a few little projects. You obviously got your garden one coming up
Speaker:as well. or you're working on the parts
Speaker:of it, is there anything
Speaker:else that is coming
Speaker:There's two projects that are rather pressing. and
Speaker:they are ripping out my downstairs toilet, shower
Speaker:room, and my utility. Because earlier this
Speaker:year, my brand new washing machine decided
Speaker:it wanted to just pour water from the front of it. And
Speaker:the new floor that I just put down in my utility, thankfully it's
Speaker:not ruined, like it was LVT, so it's waterproof. But
Speaker:I had to lift it all up. There's stud
Speaker:walls between that and the downstairs shower room and
Speaker:I don't know the extent of the damage to that wall because it seeped under
Speaker:the wall or through the wall. And
Speaker:yeah, the flooring in the downstairs toilet is just completely gone. So I can't
Speaker:actually rip up the rest of the flooring without taking out the toilet, like taking
Speaker:out the toilet and taking out the sink and the shower. So
Speaker:it kind of just needs to be gutted and done again. So
Speaker:I suppose there's that hat to come first now because
Speaker:I've got it. I mean, I've not really, other than soaking up the water,
Speaker:I've not done anything to make it nicer
Speaker:to live with. And I think I think that's the
Speaker:thing that's pushing me to do it quicker because it's in
Speaker:So like that's. after I
Speaker:finish the wardrobe in my son's room so that I can sign that room off, that
Speaker:will be like the next big thing. And I
Speaker:think it'll be quite exciting because I've not ripped a room back to its,
Speaker:other than on DIY SOS, I've not ripped a room back to its bare bones before.
Speaker:And I want to add in like a little niche in the shower and try and
Speaker:make it a wet room and learn how to do that whilst not
Speaker:bringing the floor level up, you know. There's going to
Speaker:be some learning elements in there as well. And it's
Speaker:such a small, the shower room is so small, it's like 2.2 by 1.2. So
Speaker:smaller than a sheet of MDF in size. It's long and
Speaker:thin. So
Speaker:yeah, it'll be interesting to see how I can reconfigure it, because it doesn't feel like
Speaker:the best configuration of the space either. So yeah, I
Speaker:keep trying to design it and then deciding, oh no, it's probably not the best idea. And
Speaker:yeah, I try and go into projects having designed it
Speaker:first. and then I'll just work out
Speaker:Okay. But then I suppose that's where, you know, you
Speaker:learn stuff, you learn new skills, and that's, you know, what's exciting.
Speaker:Yeah. And with yourself, O
Speaker:Abode, where do you see yourself? Like,
Speaker:I don't know, you know. Like I had, obviously with my workshop, I had
Speaker:planned to have it as a space
Speaker:to make videos and do the sort of basics.
Speaker:So I was like the go to person for how
Speaker:to every project, every, every like tool tutorial. Um,
Speaker:and also, you know, have, I
Speaker:don't know, use it as a kind of like a filming studio to do
Speaker:projects like that. Um, but I also wanted to open it
Speaker:up as a tool school. I actually
Speaker:own the trademark tool school. Um, and
Speaker:have hold workshops in my workshop and teach would
Speaker:be women because I don't know. I
Speaker:just feel like it's more appealing to women. Have them over
Speaker:and I teach them how to do like basic projects or how to use tools or
Speaker:just hold like different classes. Almost like a community hub
Speaker:to teach these skills that are lost in generations because
Speaker:some people, excuse me, because some
Speaker:people don't have someone in their family to have taught them or they
Speaker:were never They were always like the higher out kind
Speaker:of people. And then I
Speaker:kind of had the idea to bring in, I guess,
Speaker:guests. guests
Speaker:to teach specific things. So I know people who
Speaker:make their own furniture so I'd get them to come in and do a class on furniture building or
Speaker:I'd get a local bricklayer to
Speaker:teach someone how to lay bricks and just kind of do very
Speaker:specific courses for people who want to learn how to do it themselves. and
Speaker:that kind of snowballed into wanting to provide like
Speaker:youth clubs and get younger generations in,
Speaker:teaching them how to use the tools and even like in
Speaker:if they came in with their parents or it was like a summer
Speaker:thing or something to get them in and teach them how to
Speaker:like one have these life skills that
Speaker:are invaluable, basically. And also
Speaker:kind of give them a taste by getting those guests in, give them a
Speaker:taste of what it could be like to do it as a job. Kind
Speaker:of a bit like a college. I don't even know if I have a local college that
Speaker:does things like that where I live. Maybe the nearest
Speaker:one's like Hitchin or something. But yeah,
Speaker:to offer that as like a weekend thing, you
Speaker:Whether that will happen, I don't know. Because I kind of go wherever the wind takes
Speaker:And go with what I need then and there. So
Speaker:we'll see. But hopefully, I mean,
Speaker:I'm a bit addicted to doing DIY SOS at the moment. Like
Speaker:I've done two now and I'm like right when's the next one that's not too
Speaker:far like they keep they're doing one Swansea at the moment they're doing one up
Speaker:in Scotland and I'm like do one closer. Well are
Speaker:you able to travel like with them? I
Speaker:mean I can go to any of them I want to really. I
Speaker:just do it on a volunteer basis. So I think they've got one
Speaker:in Leicester in February and I'll probably do that
Speaker:one. How many have you done this year? So I've done one this year, one
Speaker:last year. They've got like 12 more episodes to
Speaker:film over the next year so I'll be
Speaker:in there. I grew up watching that show so it's like
Speaker:dreamy to be part of it and I it's
Speaker:that in itself is kind of like a learning experience because you are literally in
Speaker:the deep end on a construction site watching all
Speaker:these trades work alongside each other chipping in helping each other and you're
Speaker:then able to either learn from them or help them or
Speaker:in my case take over because that's I don't know why I just do it. And
Speaker:then, you know, 3 a.m. in the morning being like, I'm getting progressively more stressed,
Speaker:Because it's one where they, it's like a 24-hour thing,
Speaker:isn't it? It's over, these were eight days. Oh, eight days, okay.
Speaker:And it's literally taking houses or last
Speaker:year was a community centre, literally taking it back to nothing and
Speaker:building it up again or building an extension or doing all this stuff. Very
Speaker:intense work, there are like 13 hour
Speaker:days, I even did like an all-nighter from 7am one
Speaker:morning to 1 p.m. the next day. Very
Speaker:labor-intensive and you learn so much. And the collaboration with
Speaker:all the different trades is really nice to see as well. And everyone has such respect for
Speaker:each other. There's also like the general jokes that happen
Speaker:between trades anyway. But like everyone knows
Speaker:that they're giving up their time, giving up their money, giving up their
Speaker:materials. And yeah,
Speaker:Fingers crossed they'll have some more local ones that you can get
Speaker:The travel is not an issue. It's obviously if I have to do that every
Speaker:day or stay up there and stuff. I
Speaker:just love it. It's literally what
Speaker:I feel like I was made for. Like that stress environment with
Speaker:my ADHD. It's perfect. Perfect. Match
Speaker:Yeah. So when's it when's it being? I
Speaker:Because the one we did last year was a Christmas episode. So we
Speaker:literally filmed in October and it was done in December. This
Speaker:You don't really see many of them like DIY programs
Speaker:There are more coming out, well there are more than there
Speaker:used to be. The 90s was like best
Speaker:time for it. Yeah. Six second makeover. Yeah. Changing
Speaker:rooms that came back briefly. Yeah. But then
Speaker:died a death. Hopefully that comes back. But yeah I
Speaker:really want to see more more shows like that. Yeah. Be really good
Speaker:to see that. Yeah. One of my dreams was to do a show like that. Like
Speaker:to go and go into someone's
Speaker:house it really needs help. Whether it's where they've been let down by a
Speaker:builder or something's happened in their life that they can't finish
Speaker:what they need to or they can't afford to and do it for them and get people
Speaker:basically DIY SMS. But
Speaker:I feel like that's kind of grown to be
Speaker:like big builds now. Whereas like the original, I want another show
Speaker:Well, yeah, just to have more females representing on
Speaker:Yeah well I think I've seen some of the photos from
Speaker:your DIY SOS and you can see there's quite
Speaker:Yeah on both builds there were quite a lot of women. There
Speaker:were maybe five I think from memory on
Speaker:this one that were actually trades. A
Speaker:few more painter decorators and all
Speaker:the cleaning team were women. But yeah, it'd be nice to
Speaker:see more in like, you know, the nitty gritty trades. There
Speaker:was a girl, a young girl, I think her name was Lottie. She
Speaker:was one of the plasterers. And I was like, you're amazing. She's
Speaker:like taking over her dad's business and everything. And she does, she runs everything
Speaker:now. And I was like, you're amazing. Like, we need more of you. That's nice.
Speaker:That's really nice to see. Yeah, it is. I
Speaker:don't know, hopefully like showing that I've been on it as well, that I've
Speaker:volunteered my time and that I can do all these
Speaker:different things on the show will hopefully like I
Speaker:guess, encourage more people to, more women to do
Speaker:I suppose if it's like, because you don't see DIY TV
Speaker:shows when something like this comes up, but as you say, like, hopefully
Speaker:it will, people will see people doing different trades.
Speaker:Yeah. It's also like a week of free work experience. Yeah.
Speaker:I think they have to be 18, I think. But, you know,
Speaker:if younger people want to get involved, they can literally volunteer and they can spend
Speaker:I know I did see like quite a few of them teaching people how to do
Speaker:things as well or had brought their apprentice on with them and
Speaker:teaching them on the job. Yeah. And because it's such a high pressure, high, like
Speaker:quick turnaround project, like,
Speaker:they get to learn very, very quickly and
Speaker:know what it's like on a building site. I mean, it's not quite that
Speaker:stressful on a building site, I hear. But like, it's
Speaker:a great environment to learn. And I think, yeah, hopefully
Speaker:that will encourage more people to just give up their time because
Speaker:it's such a lovely community. based
Speaker:thing as well. It's all local people, mostly local people, and everyone's
Speaker:Yeah. As I said, in that environment you've
Speaker:got all kinds of trades as well. So if you're going there with one
Speaker:skill, you might, you know, learn something new.
Speaker:Yeah. But no, that's really... I'm definitely
Speaker:You don't want me on there. You can be handing out
Speaker:plugs. It
Speaker:I'll just be someone's bitch for the day. There you go. I'll
Speaker:Literally, there's a job for everyone on those builds.
Speaker:But yeah, there's definitely a shortage of materials. Especially
Speaker:wall plugs. Oh really? Yeah. So I'll be like, contacting
Speaker:you next time and be like, can you send a load please? Because we have none. We've
Speaker:Yeah, because I think with these types of things that
Speaker:pop up, we do sort of say like, if there is
Speaker:something like DIY, SOS, I mean,
Speaker:from my point of view, I'd assumed everything would have been provided. But
Speaker:from like the show, if it's something that you're all input
Speaker:I think pretty much everything is, like all
Speaker:materials, everything is donated from other brands. Oh, that's
Speaker:That's good to know. Well, we
Speaker:don't really hear about it, but it's only when someone like yourself or
Speaker:someone brings something up and it's like, oh, OK, well, let us know and we
Speaker:can send you some stuff. Yeah, lots of opportunities there.
Speaker:There was a real shortage of materials compared to last year. Oh
Speaker:really? We had like six containers last
Speaker:year and at the end of the build, because they weren't sure whether they were
Speaker:going to recommission it for the next year, they were just
Speaker:like, right, take your pick, take what you want, we're not going to need it.
Speaker:And this one, they're like, you cannot take anything because we need it. Oh
Speaker:really? Oh, do they not
Speaker:reach out? I think they, yeah, mostly they do. Yeah. But I
Speaker:don't, I don't know why they didn't have much
Speaker:So if, what was the question again, if
Speaker:you could give one piece of advice to someone just starting out
Speaker:Just to dive in. Yeah. Just give it a go. Do, if
Speaker:you're really unsure, like do as much research as you can. Find someone
Speaker:on YouTube, find someone on Instagram or TikTok, any of the platforms. Ask
Speaker:questions. No question is a silly question. And You
Speaker:know, I mean you can borrow tools, you can hire tools, you can buy tools.
Speaker:There are a lot of... companies
Speaker:out there that, you know, like speedy hire that type of thing that will
Speaker:hire out tools or borrow it from a friend. And just,
Speaker:yeah, just ask the questions, do your research and just start. Because
Speaker:if you don't start, you're not going to make progress. It's
Speaker:better to start something and not finish than to not start it at all. Which
Speaker:I tell myself to reassure myself. Making
Speaker:myself excuses, not finishing projects. But
Speaker:you learn by doing, I know I do, especially
Speaker:with things that are so hands-on and practical. If you don't make
Speaker:mistakes as well then you're not learning. I always
Speaker:tell my followers that people in the trades They
Speaker:didn't know everything when they first started. They have had years of training,
Speaker:of years of hands-on experience of doing, making mistakes, and
Speaker:learning from them. You're not going to be perfect first time. Don't
Speaker:expect to be. So I would say expect
Speaker:and accept failure, because it
Speaker:And be easy on yourself, don't
Speaker:expect it to look perfect first time
Speaker:as well. You use that as a
Speaker:starting point to do bigger, better projects or
Speaker:even to go back and perfect it once you've had
Speaker:some time to think about how to fix it or how to make it
Speaker:better. DIY is not supposed
Speaker:Yeah it allows you to be you and if
Speaker:you've got you know if you've got the time you can spend as much time on it
Speaker:And we're going
Speaker:to be asking everyone this question to close
Speaker:All I ever know are like dad jokes because my husband's so,
Speaker:he's like way older
Speaker:than he is mentally. He
Speaker:loves a dad joke and I've adopted a lot of them. What
Speaker:did the triangle say to the circle?
Speaker:I don't know. You're pointless. So
Speaker:Yeah, that is a dad joke, isn't it? Well,
Speaker:thank you so much, Jasmine, for being on. Thank you for having
Speaker:me. It's been great to have you. I apologise for waffling, but
Speaker:that's what I do. It's fine. I
Speaker:can talk for England. No, that's fine. I've loved it. I can't
Speaker:I won't say how long because we may cut it down. But no, thank you
