Our 2011 winners!
Rob and Tammy Foote
Creativity in abundance and a magpie-like eye for a good find have earned Rob and Tammy Foote of Port Elizabeth our Fix it with Flair 2011 crown. After five years in Japan, this intrepid couple returned home with far less savings than they had anticipated. Luckily, Tammy’s mother bought a home of barely 70m2 in Richmond Hill, one of Port Elizabeth’s oldest suburbs.
Open to suggestion
The biggest structural alteration was breaking out the walls between the minute kitchen and the living room to create an open plan living area. And, as damp was a problem, the kitchen cupboards had to go too. Next, everything was thoroughly sealed and painted white. The original Oregon-pine floorboards were either infested with borers or rotting from damp and had to be replaced. So they chose the most affordable option – laminated wood floors. And because they wanted to keep the house’s old-world feel, they were set on broad skirting boards which they found in a junk shop. But these were covered in layer upon layer of paint, so Tammy got stuck in with a heat gun and her grandfather’s industrial sander.
Total Cost: R21 677
Their prize
The Footes won a hefty R25 000 shopping voucher from Pennypinchers and Timber City. ‘We haven’t decided what we’re going to do with the money yet. I want to buy some tools and naturally we have to equip a nursery soon,’ says Rob. ‘But friends of ours have started a charity organisation called “Free Walker”, which does The parking bay is used for building work in the community, and we’d like to contribute to that.’