I purchased this house in Woodstock recently; it’s more than 125 years old. It looked like it had good bones, there was no damp, it was full of natural light and what was so wonderful was that it had a cute front garden AND a back garden. Perfect for me and my doggo!

The downside was the heinously narrow bathroom, part of which was originally an old outhouse. Then when they discovered sewerage in 1902, they knocked through to the old original outhouse.

What I bought was a section of bathroom with high ceilings and then a section where the ceiling was just under 2m high. The idea was to raise that section to give me some height and a new wet room. My 50k budget went immediately to the dogs. We lost an old wall between me and the neighbour due to rotten bricks and no foundations and then we had to raise the roof and chop out the awful thick wall between the two sections of bathroom.

Cue structural engineer. The bath I had hoped to retain was destroyed in the process, as were the antique clay pipes under the bath. Cue plumber’s cameras to try and locate the 120-year-old sewer lines. Switching a bath and shower was not as simple as I had hoped.

And then I just threw caution to the wind and decided to create my dream Pinterest-inspired bathroom. I borrowed more money and my two-week reno turned into six weeks.

My mom loves this kind of thing, so she took over the management of the reno, which proved to be a huge challenge (the reno, not my mom). She did all the materials shopping, sourced the labour and contractors, and I now have my dream bathroom. I’m a lot poorer but my old house is a little richer for this beautiful space.