Its an ambitious project a five bedroom 3 bathroom home on the slopes of one Australia’s most exclusive suburbs.  But mother of two and business-woman, Ali Mitchell, is no stranger to the challenge of renovating and running a family at the same time. “I have renovated before but this is the first time I will live in the house and renovate at the same time.  I am confident that I can keep to the budget and schedule.”

But for this Mum with a designer eye, her latest challenge has come with a huge price tag having paid 2.6million dollars for an established on home on the slopes of Balmoral, one of Australia’s most exclusive suburbs.  With millions of dollars already invested Ali plans to make every part of the renovation add value to the home too. “Its very important that every piece of work is carefully planned and the money is spent in the areas that make the biggest difference.”

Property expert John McGrath is impressed by the location of the house and knows that properties in the area can be sold for huge amounts. “It’s got great potential because they bought it for about 2.6 million dollars. I would think it’d be close to 3 million dollars today untouched.” And once John gets an idea of Ali’s plans he is even more confident she is on the right track.

Builder Luke Van Dyck is also confident that Ali has set the right budget and timeline and when he looks around the house he can see this is first time the house will be renovated. “Probably around about 3 times this place has had a renovation so she will probably encounter some weird and wonderful things through the different periods and different styles of building.”

Ali plans to do a huge amount of work to the house over the next 8 months but her immediate renovation plans involve structural changes to the front living area, new floorboards and redesign and decoration of the upstairs bathrooms.  All for a budget of around $120,000 and with a 10 week schedule.

It seems that past experience will pay off for Ali as the renovation starts with a visit to a specialist bathroom design shop. In anticipation of the stunning new design, the builders move in and the old rooms are quickly demolished.  Soon the front of the house becomes a demolition zone too as the walls come down and the floorboards are replaced.

As the work continues, Ali seems to be living proof that renovating doesn’t always end with blown out budgets, stretched timelines and unhappy families.  Will she get the perfect end to the perfect renovation?