Hi ,

Well… it’s official.

After 12 months of council drama, bushfire reports, ecology assessments, enough paperwork to kill a large tree and one very expensive mortgage…

My latest project – The Farmhouse, has finally begun.

And honestly? This project is slightly unhinged.

For those just joining me, I’ve bought an 8.3 acre property on the outskirts of Western Sydney that I’m transforming into my very own modern farmhouse – complete with veggie gardens, chicken coop, fruit orchards, beehives and a slower paddock-to-plate lifestyle.

Basically, I’m swapping traffic jams for tractors. 🚜

But this isn’t just another ordinary house renovation.

This project is being filmed for a TV series airing next year AND I’ll be dropping behind-the-scenes digital content almost daily on my YouTube channel, Instagram and Facebook account as the build unfolds in real time. Be sure to join those pages now so you don’t miss out on any of the action.

Episode 1 went live last night – click on the image below to watch the first mini episode on my YouTube channel.

The front facade of the house.

The back view of the house which shows the slope of the land.

The second dwelling on the property was illegally built by the previous owners.

THIS HOUSE WAS A HOT MESS 🔥

I purchased this house for $2.7 million. Yes, its a lot of money and I’ve had to do quite a few reno’s to be buying properties at this level. The mortgage costs on the property were originally $12,485 per month but with the interest rate rises over the last 6 months, they’re now sitting at $13,385 per month.

The original house was built in the late 70’s or early 80’s and suffered a seriously dodgy floorplan that I determined would be hard to fix due to the house being thinner in depth than most homes.

The ground floor level of the main residence.

The sub floor level of the main residence.

From the street, the home doesn’t look that bad but the internals were a mess and the possibility of a cosmetic reno was out of the question. No lick of paint is going to fix a fundamentally flawed floorplan.

Originally, I wanted to knock the whole thing down and rebuild it from scratch. Simple idea, right? Nope.

Because the property sits on a sloping block, environmentally sensitive land in a BAL-29 bushfire zone, several project home companies told me its not a good candidate for a knock-down & rebuild project. So, I’m now retaining all of the original structure on the lower sub floor level and rebuilding everything from ground level up.

There’s also a second dwelling on the property, completely unrenovated and illegally built by the previous owners that got stripped back this week also. It needs an extensive renovation using a wide range of BAL-29 rated building materials.

The lower level has been retained and the upper level demolished.

WHY I BOUGHT THE PROPERTY 🌿🚜

A lot of people have asked me why I bought this property… and honestly, this renovation is about so much more than just building a beautiful house.

I’ve lived in the hustle and bustle of Sydney for years and while I’ve loved city life, over time I started craving something completely different.

Peace. Quiet. Space. Nature.

And somewhere my 3 teacup chihuahuas could actually run around without doing laps of a postage stamp-sized backyard. 😂

Ironically, one of the biggest turning points was when a massive new home started being built right next door to my current house. Slowly but surely, it started blocking more and more natural light into my property and it made me realise something …

I didn’t want to feel boxed in anymore.

I wanted breathing space.

I wanted to wake up and hear birds instead of traffic.

I wanted fresh air, open skies and enough land to actually LIVE on – not just sleep on.

The older I get, the more I realise success isn’t just about owning nice things or building beautiful homes. It’s about lifestyle. Health. Simplicity. Connection to nature. Slowing down a little. That’s really what this project is all about.

Yes, I’m creating a stunning modern farmhouse renovation… but I’m also creating an entirely different way of living.

I want to grow my own vegetables, collect eggs from my chickens, plant fruit trees, keep bees and learn how to become more self-sufficient. I want to know where my food comes from.

Will I become some glamorous farmer overnight? Absolutely not. 😅 At this stage, I can barely keep supermarket herbs alive. But that’s part of the adventure.

This project isn’t just a renovation journey – it’s a life reset.

THE DA PROCESS AGED ME 10 YEARS 😵‍💫

I thought buying the property at the right price would be the hardest part of this project… especially with another buyer trying their absolute best to gazump me during negotiations. Cute.

The Development Application process took 12 MONTHS in a suburb that normally takes 4 to 6 months for DA approval.

Due to a tiny slither of the property being in an environmental management zone, council insisted on a wide range of consultant reports, all ranging from $1,500 to $7,500 a pop. The biggest issue was around ecology and the possibility there might be endangered Woodland Plains snails living on the property. Yes, snails.

That little adventure cost me over $20,000 in ecologists reports alone and no, there weren’t any snails found on the property. Extensive tree protection measures and signage were also required around many parts of the property, before construction could officially begin with council having to sign off on that, once again.

Temporary fencing & safety flags were a council condition prior to construction.

Then came the bushfire requirements. Because the property sits in a BAL-29 zone (one of the highest bushfire risk categories), almost every material being used on the project has to meet strict fire-rating standards. More reports were needed with money flying out of my bank account faster than the skips bins being filled during demolition.

In total, it cost me $98,009.99 to get through the council DA & certifier CC process before construction could even begin. Lucky I was knowledgeable enough to negotiate 6 months extended settlement. Instead of paying 12 mortgage repayments while waiting for the property to be DA & CC approved, I only had to pay 6 months of mortgage costs. Through clever negotiation, that saved me almost $75,000 alone.

STAGE 1 – DEMOLITION… THE QUOTES WERE INSANE 💸

When the demolition quotes came in between $45,000 to $60,000, I nearly swallowed my own tongue.

So naturally, I did what any slightly crazy renovator would do…
I grabbed a team of tradies and said: “We’ll do it ourselves.”

One week later:

• 9 x 13 Marrell size Bingo skip bins delivered, fill & removed
• endless dust
• aching bodies

…we managed to slash demolition costs to around $35,000 fully finished, saving me at least $10,000 on the lowest quote received.

Bingo skip bins were used throughout the demo phase. We filled several bins with the same material saving us several hundred dollars per bin by not having mixed waste.

Would I recommend doing your own demolition? For a small room or 2, yes. For almost a whole house, absolutely not unless you know what you’re doing & have a good team behind you.

Demolition looks fun on Instagram.

In real life, it’s sweaty, dangerous, filthy and physically brutal.

But WOW, it’s so satisfying smashing walls after months of council DA process and delays. 😂

DAD ROLLS ON IN 🚜❤️

One of my favourite parts of Week 1 was having my Dad onsite helping me with the land excavation and demo cleanup.

Dad’s been an earthmover for 56 years and came down from Gulgong (where he lives) to jump on his excavator and help reshape the land around the main residence.

Watching him onsite was pretty emotional.

While most people his age have retired, Dad (76) is still out there moving the earth around and crushing demolished materials with his tractor like an absolute legend.

Every time we knocked part of the house down, Dad would fire up his machine and crush all the old roof tiles and demolished brick walls into rubble. Instead of paying to cart it all away, we recycled the tiles and bricks into road base for the long driveway leading down to the second dwelling on the property. Nothing says “family bonding” quite like turning your house into a giant pile of crushed debris 😅.

My dad removing roof tiles & bricks before crushing them into road base for the driveway.

ENTER: TINNIE 🤖

Now let’s talk about the thing everyone’s losing their minds over…
“Tinnie”.

Yep – this project will officially become the world’s first live residential renovation series featuring an AI humanoid robot onsite.

And before anyone panics…
No – Tinnie is not replacing tradies.
No – Tinnie is not a terminator, out to kill everyone.

A robot can’t demolish your house, frame a roof or tile your bathroom.

But it CAN answer building questions, recite building codes, greet visitors, help with inductions, provide information, interact with the crew and become a hilarious digital apprentice along the way.

Think of Tinnie as ChatGPT in hi-vis.” 😂 And yes… we’ve even programmed him to understand Aussie tradie slang.

He officially arrived in Australia last Thursday much to our delight and for the last few days, we’ve been interacting with him. He’s up walking and talking now but I must admit, my 3 teacup chihuahuas are petrified of him. Expect to see his big arrival onto my reno site in the next mini episode.

The truck delivering my new digital renovation apprentice, Tinnie, all the way from China.

THE YOUNG’INS VS THE OLDIES 👷‍♂️😂

One of the things I’m most excited about on this project is mentoring the next generation of tradies.

The Farmhouse crew is young. REALLY young.

Josh is just 24, a registered builder and this is his first big build. He has 2 full-time chippies on his crew, Ricco 22, Andre 21 (who are brothers) and first year apprentice carpenter, James who is just a mere 17 years young. The boys are hungry, hardworking and determined to prove themselves.

Meanwhile over on the second dwelling, the Guest house, my older experienced crew who I’ve worked with for over a decade, are quietly watching the younger guys like concerned fathers. 😂

We now officially refer to the two teams on this project as The Young-In’s & The Oldies. The banter between these two crews is already elite.

THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING…

Week 1 has already included:
✅ demolition
✅ rain
✅ massive excavations
✅ good money savings doing the demo ourselves
✅ emotional family moments
✅ young tradies proving themselves
✅ and a humanoid robot about to enter a construction site…
…and we haven’t even started rebuilding yet. 😳

This project is going to be massive. And I’m taking you along for every dusty, stressful, hilarious second of it via my weekly progress updates throughout the entire build. It’s going to be one hell of a ride which I hope you’ll enjoy.

Until next week,
CB x