00:00:04
Speaker 1: This is an our media podcast. I actually solved my renovation problems in my sleep. So like, for example, if I've got something where I'm not sure how something's to get going to come together, I solve it in my sleep. It's really bizarre. Or I'll come up with really great design ideas in my sleep.
00:00:28
Speaker 2: So do you have a notepad beside your bed or how do you I'll.
00:00:31
Speaker 1: Just get up, it's not doing them.
00:00:38
Speaker 2: We're back with part two of my chat with Shari Barber. If you're rejoining us after listening to part one, welcome back. And if you happen to already listen to part one, scroll back up in your feed, listen to part one and then join me here again. So her expertise is in renovating for profit, Shari Barber's current project is more personal. After thirty plus years of buying and selling, she's putting everything she knows, plus a few new lessons learned, into a modern farmhouse located in western Sydney, a place where she spent the first part of her life. This next chapter involves rethinking a six hundred square meter floor plan, why she wakes up at three thirty every morning, and what it's like living next door to your builder. Sheari also shares a wild story about the time she almost bought Elvis Presley's honeymoon home and reveals the greatest property regret of her life. I would love you to take us on an audio tour of the farmhouse as you see it completed.
00:01:40
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:01:42
Speaker 2: So if you walk through the front door and the farmhouse is all ready to go, yep, what does it look like? What do we see?
00:01:50
Speaker 1: Okay, So, as we're walking up to the house, it's long, so it's about seventy meters long the front facade. Yeah, so quite different to most houses, but it's not an overly deep house. The current window the old house had little tiny windows. This house is full of floor to ceiling glass windows. So you've got three point nine meter walls. Wow, and then the ceilings reaching up to eight meters high. Beautiful big gable exposed rafters. Is incredible, big floora ceiling glass windows. It's a modern farmhouse style mixed with modern mid century because I'm obsessed with everything from the fifty sixty seventies. So it's going to have the farmhouse five, which sits the rural, rural sort of acreage property, but mixed with the modern mid century and those two styles work really well together.
00:02:46
Speaker 2: They do.
00:02:46
Speaker 1: It's got lots of earthy colors, so sort of going back, nothing polished, nothing manufactured, so there's no shiny chromes or anything like that. It's all terra cottas, chocolate browns, green colors of the earth. So and it's so beautiful, like there's so many trees and the rolling hills there that I wanted the indoors to feel like, you know, the outdoors coming inside. So yeah, lots of greens. And in fact, I've actually taken my color inspiration from the bark of the trees out there. So I looked at the trees. I think that's a good tip for people, like if they're wanting like a home that feels very relaxed and natural and organic, look to the colors in nature. So I literally looked at the trees, and you know, sometimes how bark pills off trees, it reveals the most amazing colors. So you get like your brown's, your grays, your creams. So I'm using that as the color palette for inside the house.
00:03:50
Speaker 2: What a wonderful idea. So what do you need from this house? How many bedrooms? Do you have multiple living rooms or is it open plants.
00:03:59
Speaker 1: Yes, you've just raised a really interesting point. So it's myself and my hobby living in the house, and then obviously my daughter will live in the guest house. That's her little house, and when she moves out, it will become a guest house. And that's only sixty square meters, like the average size of a granny flat. But on the main house it's big. It's six hundred square meters and it is way too big. Yeah, way too big. It's excessive for what two people need. So we will have a lot of bedrooms that just don't get used. But you know what, it's the suburb expectation. So in that suburb of Molgoa, the average house is between Most houses are between four to five hundred square meters two a thousand square meters in size. So if I didn't build a house, I'm at the lower end six hundred square meters. But if I came in and bought a built a house that was maybe say only two hundred square meters, I would absolutely get crucified on the property value. Yes, it would become a buyer objection. When I ultimately sell, and I will ultimately sell because I never sort of stay in one spot forever forever. When it comes time that I will ultimately sell that property, it'll be a major buyer objection. They'll say, this house is just too small. So it's a shame really, And I sort of thought about that. I thought, well, it's incredibly sort of wasteful sort of building a house. It's expensive to build the house for a lot of it that I'm not going to be using. But I know that ultimately it won't be my forever home. I'll stay there definitely, maybe a year or two or three, I don't know, who knows.
00:05:36
Speaker 2: So that's a really good insight into when you are renovating or building, how do you choose where to put your personality in what you want and what decisions do you make for resale because so often people will just everything painted white and let's just prepare it for sale, but then they might live in it for two years.
00:06:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the big difference between renovating for profit and renovating your own home. Like one is based on return on investment, the numbers, yep, and renovating your own home is based on emotion. So what I tell my students For example, a lot of my students will buy their own home and they'll renovate that first. They'll create equity in that they don't have separate living expenses, so they might live in their renovation project. They might do it a room at a time, or you know, they might live in the front of the house and do a structural add on, altraation extension at the rear. So I always say to them, renovate that home, even though this is going to be a home that you might live in for the next five or ten years. Renovate it so in a way that it's not polarizing in any way. Renovate it to the market. Renovate it so that if something changes tomorrow, you get sick, your hobby get sick, something happens, and you've got to do a shift. That property is easy to sell, but instead to make it feel like your own home, painted the color that make you happy, because paint is such an easy thing to change. Knocking out walls, putting structural beams in, that's time consuming, expensive counsel approval. Don't do that right. So just you know, get it, Get the structure right and.
00:07:14
Speaker 2: The floor plan to suit the area.
00:07:16
Speaker 1: The floor plan. You got to make it functional, You're got to make it practical, So all those basic things you've got to do. But in terms of personalizing it, paint it to the colors that you know make you happy, and then really use styling to you know, the styling things that bring you joy, to make it feel like home. Obviously, I've worked on the show's Space Invaders for the last six years, so we're a decluttering show and I can't love you. Yes, it's very popular, but you know what, a lot of people collect stuff, stuff, and that stuff doesn't make them happy. So I work with Peter Walsh, who I absolutely adore. He's one of my really good friends, and he has a really great saying that everything that you bring into your home should bring you joy and get rid of the stuff that doesn't bring you joy, because otherwise it's just clutter and clutter bogs you down, and clutter is hard to keep clean and makes your spaces feel, you know, not as freeing.
00:08:18
Speaker 2: That's true. Do you have stuff?
00:08:19
Speaker 1: I have no stuff? You know what, since I've been working on Space in that is, I've become very conscious about what I buy now. So I was sort of the sort of person that I would just if I saw something that I love, I'd buy it and not really think about it. And I've never been a hood or anything far from it. I'm that person that sort of has a home that's more like a show home.
00:08:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, let's talk about you in the home and how you live. I'll ask some questions and just tell me the first thing that comes to your mind. So something you always have fresh in your home?
00:08:50
Speaker 1: Fresh fruit, yes, I don't know, boring fresh veggies? Yeah, so I do. Every week. I just go to the supermart. We've got a old fashioned fruit and vegetable shop where I'm doing the property. So I just go and buy a big box of fruit and veggies and literally just go buy a couple of dozen organic eggs and some goat cheese and that's my diet. So I have like veggies for breakfast, normally veggies for lunch and dinner. And yeah, I know it sounds really boring. Obviously I go out.
00:09:23
Speaker 2: So what about things like shoes on.
00:09:25
Speaker 1: Or off, shoes on, work boots on. Yeah, I've always got clumps of dirt around my house because I walk in from sight, particularly when it's been muddy, and you know, I wipe my feet on the map. But often you'll find these clumps of bits, you know, they get stuck in the soles of your work boo, yeah, always swiping those up.
00:09:44
Speaker 2: Do you like to have people over or do you prefer to go to other people's homes.
00:09:48
Speaker 1: I prefer to go out to like venues, like all like restaurants. I'm quite a quiet person. I know probably find that hard to believe, but I'm always talking, like in my job, and so I like being a public speaker, being a TV presenter, being on site all the time. Like literally, my jaws do not stop. I know.
00:10:09
Speaker 2: I hear this more often than people would expect. For example, Darren Palmer, we were having a chat and he said he's an introvert, and I said, how does that work? And he said, well, you know, if I'm filming, I'm behind a camera. If I'm presenting, I'm on a stage, and there's still I'm not with everybody. And I feel that is quite common for people who are in the public eye, that they are introverts.
00:10:33
Speaker 1: Exactly, like out of the same mold it is, And my my hobby is quite social. And then when I get home from work, he just wants to like chin way, and I'm so I'm just like so normally like we jump into bed and then we'll talk, but then I fall asleep like five minutes late. As he says, I'm megaboring. But yeah, I just I love just like quiet, like my the only time I'll get really peace and quiet in my life is I get a bar every morning. So I get up at three thirty every morning. So I'm normally in the bath at four and I'll just sit in the bath for about fifteen minutes and that's my time for me. So I literally, especially in winter when so cold, oh I was like scorching hot. I inched myself in and then I just sit there. So I love that. I just love not having to speak to anybody at that time in the morning. And my brain is like on at that time, and as the days goes on, I get like more dopey.
00:11:30
Speaker 2: That is that why you get up at three point thirty, because that you are, Yeah, the brain's on, the brain's on.
00:11:36
Speaker 1: I actually solved my renovation problems in my sleep, so like, for example, if I've got something where I'm not sure how something's to get like going to come together, I solve it in my sleep, it's really bizarre. Or I'll come up with really great design ideas in my sleep.
00:11:54
Speaker 2: So do you have a notepad beside your bed or how do you.
00:11:58
Speaker 1: I'll just get up I start doing them. So yeah, I'm not like Yeah, like my builder who's working with me on my current project, he just happens to live next door. Yeah, and so he was like, oh, I can see the lights on at two o'clock this morning, what were you doing? And like I was working, I was doing emails.
00:12:17
Speaker 2: All the question is what are we doing?
00:12:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, it's weird. So yeah, I don't have you know, my friends are always welcome at my house. And as I've got older too, I've sort of made a conscious decision to have less friends as well. Yes, because you're just busy and time ashure, and so I'd rather have less friends. I can sort of count my true friends on one hand now, and I'm actually really happy with that. So I'd rather invest my energy and time in those people definitely, and have really solid quality relationships, yeah than have lots of people. I know lots of people, but they're not sort of the people that I would if I had a problem, I would call on. So yeah, I've just sort of reached that stage where I don't know, maybe it's maturity or slowing down a little bit. I've just made that decision. So I do. I do love just being home and not talking to anybody. That's my relaxation.
00:13:15
Speaker 2: I can't believe Shari solves reno problems in her sleep would be back in a bit. Is there a design trend or an architectural style that you wish would come back.
00:13:32
Speaker 1: I've never been one to follow trends because trends come and go, and it's always something that I said to my students around the country. Don't follow trends, you know, create a scheme that is, you know, if you're renovating a house, particularly if you're renovating for a profit, you've got to renovate to the market, renovate to what the expectation is on that suburb. But yeah, for me, like as I've said, I love, I'm just like psycho obsessed with mid century and so I'll just look for any excuse to go vintage shopping. I go to Palm Springs at least once a year. I almost bought the Elvis Presley Honeymoon House in Palm Spring. Yeah, so I did this. It's a funny story.
00:14:12
Speaker 2: Have we got time, Yes, of course.
00:14:14
Speaker 1: So I went to visit my friend Peter Walsh. He lives in Australia and Palm Springs half the year, so I went to see him and I found out that the Elvis Presley Honeymoon House was for sale. And because I'm like a kid in the candy store with property, so I went and saw the house. But they wanted some crazy price. It was like US twelve million dollars, so it was just way out of my price league. And so I literally just saw the house, loved it, flitted away, flew back to Australia, and then I just watched the listing over the course of a year and a half. So like when eleven million, ten million, nine and a half, like I just kept going.
00:14:54
Speaker 2: Boom boom boom boom boom boom Boom's game show.
00:14:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I was like okay. So then it got down to three and a half million US and then I flew over. I was like okay, gay mind okay. So then I went over, like we did a really detailed inspection of the house, and then I sort of worked out with the currency. The currency wasn't great, so it was going to be like US four point nine million, and I was like, I don't need that house. It would sort of like mess me up a little bit for my investment strategy. I would have had to have sold a couple of properties here in Astraana. I thought, this is really not the smartest thing to do. But I loved the house, and I thought, you know what, it's okay to like, maybe buy a property that doesn't make financial sense. That's not all about return on investment. That's for fun. So and I thought, you know what, I really want to restore this house back to its former glory. There'd been some unsympathetic renovation changes to it, and I thought, okay, I'm the person to bring this house back. So I thought I might rent it out Airbnb so lots of people in America could enjoy the Elvis Honeymoon House. Anyway, cutlong story shop. But I didn't really want to pay three point five because it was like five million dollars and I just thought that would have been I would have had to have sold a really good property here to buy that. And Matt was saying, my partner, Matt was saying you're an idiot, like what are you doing? So what I did is I made this. I got dressed up in all my retro like a beautiful retro dress. I have like all wardrobes full of retro dresses that I've got made out of fifties bed sheets and stuff like that. So I had my one of my beautiful retro dresses, my retro headband, and I made this made two signs. So the vendor originally said no, it's three and a half, and I just didn't want to spend us three and a half. So I made these big signs and I did in big letters it's one for the money, two for the show. Sell me this house, baby, don't say no. And I was literally like shaking the sign and then I made this other signs. I did that little video and then I did this other saying please sell me this house. I will restore it back to its former glory. I will not like rip it apart. I want to share this house with generations to come, that everybody can experience this beautiful house. I'll do the right thing. It's like literally this whole big poster and I literally like stood out the front of the house took photos of it.
00:17:21
Speaker 2: This is like love actually meets Elvis.
00:17:23
Speaker 1: It's crazy stuff, right, And I then sent those through to the real estate agent. He had a giggle and he was like, oh, go send it to So I offered two point four Yeah, and he goes, look, I don't think they're going to do it, but look I'll just try. Anyway, he sent the images the videos, and the vendor said.
00:17:40
Speaker 2: Yes, you're kidding. No, So then what happens?
00:17:43
Speaker 1: So I was so excited. So I'd been dealing with a finance broker and I'd done ten I'd bought ten houses in America for my American show five Day Flip. So he said, Yep, everything should be fine, no worries. You chuck in twenty percent. I think I had to chuck in thirty percent, and then they were gonna lend me set ten percent. I thought, I just pay that off long term, long term. Anyways, I rang the broker all super excited. Yeah, the Elpas honeymoon house. And then he went he processed the loan application and then he literally read me, goes, we got a major problem. And I was like what And he goes, those ten houses that you bought in Minnesota for your American show. They were done under a commercial loan, not a residential loan, so I had no established credit rating in America that we thought I had, And so he said, we can't lend you twenty percent. You're going to have to literally chuck in seventy percent cash and we can lend you thirty. And I just at that time, I couldn't scrape the money up like it was.
00:18:39
Speaker 2: You know, it would have got money.
00:18:41
Speaker 1: And they eventually onsold it to somebody and they just they did not do a good renovation job. But I spent hours, hundreds of hours in the National Archive. I found all the original photos of the house, the House of Tomorrow, and freaking yeah, so I go now every time I go to Palm Springs, I just literally stand out the front of that house still like like some crazy lonely stare.
00:19:04
Speaker 2: Now ladies back again, you know, from Australia. I am learning so much from Scharene. We'll be back with more tips soon. This feels like a really good point to find out your mystery draw item, because that story was so incredible, yes that I am curious, what have you brought from your mystery drawer?
00:19:33
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I love everything from the fifties and sixties and seventies. I would have brought my Chevy in, but I can't fit it on this table right, So is where you go?
00:19:50
Speaker 2: Oh I know what this is?
00:19:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I thought maybe it's a generation gap here between me and I wasn't sure if you'd know what that is?
00:19:59
Speaker 2: Not at all. This takes me back to my childhood.
00:20:02
Speaker 1: That's exactly why I've got it.
00:20:03
Speaker 2: So everybody who's listening, share with them, what have you brought in?
00:20:08
Speaker 1: So I've bought in an original telephone from the nineteen seventy years, so this is before iPhones come out. This is how people used to communicate. Remember the dog do the dial?
00:20:19
Speaker 2: Which have we got the ASMR going here? Yeah?
00:20:28
Speaker 1: And then you wait for that. Do you know why I love this? Because this? Yeah, this is and yellow is my favorite color. So we had this exact telephone, not this particular one, but the exact yellow color when I was growing up. And I remember using this telephone to dial my grandparents. Oh, and so there was something nice about having a telephone like this. Dialing. It was actually fun dialing the numbers, yes, and they're just sort of they're waiting and waiting for them to answer. And because like now we have our iPhones, it's so destructed. I don't know if you're like me, but like I'll be multitasking. I'll be on the phone, like I'll be like getting groceries out of the car or checking something. So you'll go, but you're multitasking, whereas back in those days.
00:21:12
Speaker 2: You had to stay in one spot.
00:21:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, you were just like it was a slow dial. You couldn't move from the kitchen bench, which is where this told. You know, this was always so you were like focused on the conversation, you know, that art of communication back then. And I love this because Peter Walsh gave this to me. So this actually came from a homeowner on Space Invaders when they were decluttering. They didn't want it. So Peter, he knows I love everything from the fifties, sixties and seventies, so he grabbed this for me. He took it back home, he cleaned it like in pristine condition over a couple of days, and then he brought it to set and I almost like weed my pants. So I was so excited.
00:21:50
Speaker 2: This is gorgeous.
00:21:51
Speaker 1: So that's on my big media wall. With all my other fifties and sixties and seventies memorabilia. I love it.
00:21:57
Speaker 2: It is absolutely gorgeous.
00:22:00
Speaker 1: To you.
00:22:01
Speaker 2: What makes a home beautiful?
00:22:04
Speaker 1: I think a space that you can come home and it doesn't have to be glamorous, and it doesn't have to be expensive, and it doesn't have to be large. A space where you come home. As soon as you walk through that door, you go, exhale, I'm just gonna get in my pajamas, sloth around in my pajamas. You know, you don't care what you look like. You've got things, you know, little ornaments that you know that trigger memories, family photos where you just look at those things. Your home truly doesn't need to be glamorous. It doesn't need to be designer. It can be the most simple house but brings you, brings your family joy, and it brings you closer together. That's for me, it's home.
00:22:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, you've brought me joy today.
00:22:52
Speaker 1: So with my crazy story, crazy the best.
00:22:57
Speaker 2: I can't wait to retell some of these. Honestly, it's been so much fun and we can't wait to see more of the farmhouse.
00:23:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be great. So to be finished, hopefully, December seventeenth. Nothing like a deadline.
00:23:11
Speaker 2: Nothing like a deadline. We'll be watching.
00:23:14
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
00:23:15
Speaker 2: I had so much fun chatting with Shari about the farmhouse. Her advice about personalizing color palettes but tailoring the floor planned to suit the suburb is absolute gold. I also really admire the way she separates a motion from the build, but she still has fun along the way. We'll pop some links in the show notes for more of Shuri's excellent renovating advice. If you enjoyed this chat, tell your friends and subscribe to home Beautiful on YouTube or follow us on your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode. We'll see you next time.
00:23:52
Speaker 1: This is an our Media podcast
Speaker 1: This is an our media podcast. I actually solved my renovation problems in my sleep. So like, for example, if I've got something where I'm not sure how something's to get going to come together, I solve it in my sleep. It's really bizarre. Or I'll come up with really great design ideas in my sleep.
00:00:28
Speaker 2: So do you have a notepad beside your bed or how do you I'll.
00:00:31
Speaker 1: Just get up, it's not doing them.
00:00:38
Speaker 2: We're back with part two of my chat with Shari Barber. If you're rejoining us after listening to part one, welcome back. And if you happen to already listen to part one, scroll back up in your feed, listen to part one and then join me here again. So her expertise is in renovating for profit, Shari Barber's current project is more personal. After thirty plus years of buying and selling, she's putting everything she knows, plus a few new lessons learned, into a modern farmhouse located in western Sydney, a place where she spent the first part of her life. This next chapter involves rethinking a six hundred square meter floor plan, why she wakes up at three thirty every morning, and what it's like living next door to your builder. Sheari also shares a wild story about the time she almost bought Elvis Presley's honeymoon home and reveals the greatest property regret of her life. I would love you to take us on an audio tour of the farmhouse as you see it completed.
00:01:40
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:01:42
Speaker 2: So if you walk through the front door and the farmhouse is all ready to go, yep, what does it look like? What do we see?
00:01:50
Speaker 1: Okay, So, as we're walking up to the house, it's long, so it's about seventy meters long the front facade. Yeah, so quite different to most houses, but it's not an overly deep house. The current window the old house had little tiny windows. This house is full of floor to ceiling glass windows. So you've got three point nine meter walls. Wow, and then the ceilings reaching up to eight meters high. Beautiful big gable exposed rafters. Is incredible, big floora ceiling glass windows. It's a modern farmhouse style mixed with modern mid century because I'm obsessed with everything from the fifty sixty seventies. So it's going to have the farmhouse five, which sits the rural, rural sort of acreage property, but mixed with the modern mid century and those two styles work really well together.
00:02:46
Speaker 2: They do.
00:02:46
Speaker 1: It's got lots of earthy colors, so sort of going back, nothing polished, nothing manufactured, so there's no shiny chromes or anything like that. It's all terra cottas, chocolate browns, green colors of the earth. So and it's so beautiful, like there's so many trees and the rolling hills there that I wanted the indoors to feel like, you know, the outdoors coming inside. So yeah, lots of greens. And in fact, I've actually taken my color inspiration from the bark of the trees out there. So I looked at the trees. I think that's a good tip for people, like if they're wanting like a home that feels very relaxed and natural and organic, look to the colors in nature. So I literally looked at the trees, and you know, sometimes how bark pills off trees, it reveals the most amazing colors. So you get like your brown's, your grays, your creams. So I'm using that as the color palette for inside the house.
00:03:50
Speaker 2: What a wonderful idea. So what do you need from this house? How many bedrooms? Do you have multiple living rooms or is it open plants.
00:03:59
Speaker 1: Yes, you've just raised a really interesting point. So it's myself and my hobby living in the house, and then obviously my daughter will live in the guest house. That's her little house, and when she moves out, it will become a guest house. And that's only sixty square meters, like the average size of a granny flat. But on the main house it's big. It's six hundred square meters and it is way too big. Yeah, way too big. It's excessive for what two people need. So we will have a lot of bedrooms that just don't get used. But you know what, it's the suburb expectation. So in that suburb of Molgoa, the average house is between Most houses are between four to five hundred square meters two a thousand square meters in size. So if I didn't build a house, I'm at the lower end six hundred square meters. But if I came in and bought a built a house that was maybe say only two hundred square meters, I would absolutely get crucified on the property value. Yes, it would become a buyer objection. When I ultimately sell, and I will ultimately sell because I never sort of stay in one spot forever forever. When it comes time that I will ultimately sell that property, it'll be a major buyer objection. They'll say, this house is just too small. So it's a shame really, And I sort of thought about that. I thought, well, it's incredibly sort of wasteful sort of building a house. It's expensive to build the house for a lot of it that I'm not going to be using. But I know that ultimately it won't be my forever home. I'll stay there definitely, maybe a year or two or three, I don't know, who knows.
00:05:36
Speaker 2: So that's a really good insight into when you are renovating or building, how do you choose where to put your personality in what you want and what decisions do you make for resale because so often people will just everything painted white and let's just prepare it for sale, but then they might live in it for two years.
00:06:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the big difference between renovating for profit and renovating your own home. Like one is based on return on investment, the numbers, yep, and renovating your own home is based on emotion. So what I tell my students For example, a lot of my students will buy their own home and they'll renovate that first. They'll create equity in that they don't have separate living expenses, so they might live in their renovation project. They might do it a room at a time, or you know, they might live in the front of the house and do a structural add on, altraation extension at the rear. So I always say to them, renovate that home, even though this is going to be a home that you might live in for the next five or ten years. Renovate it so in a way that it's not polarizing in any way. Renovate it to the market. Renovate it so that if something changes tomorrow, you get sick, your hobby get sick, something happens, and you've got to do a shift. That property is easy to sell, but instead to make it feel like your own home, painted the color that make you happy, because paint is such an easy thing to change. Knocking out walls, putting structural beams in, that's time consuming, expensive counsel approval. Don't do that right. So just you know, get it, Get the structure right and.
00:07:14
Speaker 2: The floor plan to suit the area.
00:07:16
Speaker 1: The floor plan. You got to make it functional, You're got to make it practical, So all those basic things you've got to do. But in terms of personalizing it, paint it to the colors that you know make you happy, and then really use styling to you know, the styling things that bring you joy, to make it feel like home. Obviously, I've worked on the show's Space Invaders for the last six years, so we're a decluttering show and I can't love you. Yes, it's very popular, but you know what, a lot of people collect stuff, stuff, and that stuff doesn't make them happy. So I work with Peter Walsh, who I absolutely adore. He's one of my really good friends, and he has a really great saying that everything that you bring into your home should bring you joy and get rid of the stuff that doesn't bring you joy, because otherwise it's just clutter and clutter bogs you down, and clutter is hard to keep clean and makes your spaces feel, you know, not as freeing.
00:08:18
Speaker 2: That's true. Do you have stuff?
00:08:19
Speaker 1: I have no stuff? You know what, since I've been working on Space in that is, I've become very conscious about what I buy now. So I was sort of the sort of person that I would just if I saw something that I love, I'd buy it and not really think about it. And I've never been a hood or anything far from it. I'm that person that sort of has a home that's more like a show home.
00:08:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, let's talk about you in the home and how you live. I'll ask some questions and just tell me the first thing that comes to your mind. So something you always have fresh in your home?
00:08:50
Speaker 1: Fresh fruit, yes, I don't know, boring fresh veggies? Yeah, so I do. Every week. I just go to the supermart. We've got a old fashioned fruit and vegetable shop where I'm doing the property. So I just go and buy a big box of fruit and veggies and literally just go buy a couple of dozen organic eggs and some goat cheese and that's my diet. So I have like veggies for breakfast, normally veggies for lunch and dinner. And yeah, I know it sounds really boring. Obviously I go out.
00:09:23
Speaker 2: So what about things like shoes on.
00:09:25
Speaker 1: Or off, shoes on, work boots on. Yeah, I've always got clumps of dirt around my house because I walk in from sight, particularly when it's been muddy, and you know, I wipe my feet on the map. But often you'll find these clumps of bits, you know, they get stuck in the soles of your work boo, yeah, always swiping those up.
00:09:44
Speaker 2: Do you like to have people over or do you prefer to go to other people's homes.
00:09:48
Speaker 1: I prefer to go out to like venues, like all like restaurants. I'm quite a quiet person. I know probably find that hard to believe, but I'm always talking, like in my job, and so I like being a public speaker, being a TV presenter, being on site all the time. Like literally, my jaws do not stop. I know.
00:10:09
Speaker 2: I hear this more often than people would expect. For example, Darren Palmer, we were having a chat and he said he's an introvert, and I said, how does that work? And he said, well, you know, if I'm filming, I'm behind a camera. If I'm presenting, I'm on a stage, and there's still I'm not with everybody. And I feel that is quite common for people who are in the public eye, that they are introverts.
00:10:33
Speaker 1: Exactly, like out of the same mold it is, And my my hobby is quite social. And then when I get home from work, he just wants to like chin way, and I'm so I'm just like so normally like we jump into bed and then we'll talk, but then I fall asleep like five minutes late. As he says, I'm megaboring. But yeah, I just I love just like quiet, like my the only time I'll get really peace and quiet in my life is I get a bar every morning. So I get up at three thirty every morning. So I'm normally in the bath at four and I'll just sit in the bath for about fifteen minutes and that's my time for me. So I literally, especially in winter when so cold, oh I was like scorching hot. I inched myself in and then I just sit there. So I love that. I just love not having to speak to anybody at that time in the morning. And my brain is like on at that time, and as the days goes on, I get like more dopey.
00:11:30
Speaker 2: That is that why you get up at three point thirty, because that you are, Yeah, the brain's on, the brain's on.
00:11:36
Speaker 1: I actually solved my renovation problems in my sleep, so like, for example, if I've got something where I'm not sure how something's to get like going to come together, I solve it in my sleep, it's really bizarre. Or I'll come up with really great design ideas in my sleep.
00:11:54
Speaker 2: So do you have a notepad beside your bed or how do you.
00:11:58
Speaker 1: I'll just get up I start doing them. So yeah, I'm not like Yeah, like my builder who's working with me on my current project, he just happens to live next door. Yeah, and so he was like, oh, I can see the lights on at two o'clock this morning, what were you doing? And like I was working, I was doing emails.
00:12:17
Speaker 2: All the question is what are we doing?
00:12:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, it's weird. So yeah, I don't have you know, my friends are always welcome at my house. And as I've got older too, I've sort of made a conscious decision to have less friends as well. Yes, because you're just busy and time ashure, and so I'd rather have less friends. I can sort of count my true friends on one hand now, and I'm actually really happy with that. So I'd rather invest my energy and time in those people definitely, and have really solid quality relationships, yeah than have lots of people. I know lots of people, but they're not sort of the people that I would if I had a problem, I would call on. So yeah, I've just sort of reached that stage where I don't know, maybe it's maturity or slowing down a little bit. I've just made that decision. So I do. I do love just being home and not talking to anybody. That's my relaxation.
00:13:15
Speaker 2: I can't believe Shari solves reno problems in her sleep would be back in a bit. Is there a design trend or an architectural style that you wish would come back.
00:13:32
Speaker 1: I've never been one to follow trends because trends come and go, and it's always something that I said to my students around the country. Don't follow trends, you know, create a scheme that is, you know, if you're renovating a house, particularly if you're renovating for a profit, you've got to renovate to the market, renovate to what the expectation is on that suburb. But yeah, for me, like as I've said, I love, I'm just like psycho obsessed with mid century and so I'll just look for any excuse to go vintage shopping. I go to Palm Springs at least once a year. I almost bought the Elvis Presley Honeymoon House in Palm Spring. Yeah, so I did this. It's a funny story.
00:14:12
Speaker 2: Have we got time, Yes, of course.
00:14:14
Speaker 1: So I went to visit my friend Peter Walsh. He lives in Australia and Palm Springs half the year, so I went to see him and I found out that the Elvis Presley Honeymoon House was for sale. And because I'm like a kid in the candy store with property, so I went and saw the house. But they wanted some crazy price. It was like US twelve million dollars, so it was just way out of my price league. And so I literally just saw the house, loved it, flitted away, flew back to Australia, and then I just watched the listing over the course of a year and a half. So like when eleven million, ten million, nine and a half, like I just kept going.
00:14:54
Speaker 2: Boom boom boom boom boom boom Boom's game show.
00:14:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I was like okay. So then it got down to three and a half million US and then I flew over. I was like okay, gay mind okay. So then I went over, like we did a really detailed inspection of the house, and then I sort of worked out with the currency. The currency wasn't great, so it was going to be like US four point nine million, and I was like, I don't need that house. It would sort of like mess me up a little bit for my investment strategy. I would have had to have sold a couple of properties here in Astraana. I thought, this is really not the smartest thing to do. But I loved the house, and I thought, you know what, it's okay to like, maybe buy a property that doesn't make financial sense. That's not all about return on investment. That's for fun. So and I thought, you know what, I really want to restore this house back to its former glory. There'd been some unsympathetic renovation changes to it, and I thought, okay, I'm the person to bring this house back. So I thought I might rent it out Airbnb so lots of people in America could enjoy the Elvis Honeymoon House. Anyway, cutlong story shop. But I didn't really want to pay three point five because it was like five million dollars and I just thought that would have been I would have had to have sold a really good property here to buy that. And Matt was saying, my partner, Matt was saying you're an idiot, like what are you doing? So what I did is I made this. I got dressed up in all my retro like a beautiful retro dress. I have like all wardrobes full of retro dresses that I've got made out of fifties bed sheets and stuff like that. So I had my one of my beautiful retro dresses, my retro headband, and I made this made two signs. So the vendor originally said no, it's three and a half, and I just didn't want to spend us three and a half. So I made these big signs and I did in big letters it's one for the money, two for the show. Sell me this house, baby, don't say no. And I was literally like shaking the sign and then I made this other signs. I did that little video and then I did this other saying please sell me this house. I will restore it back to its former glory. I will not like rip it apart. I want to share this house with generations to come, that everybody can experience this beautiful house. I'll do the right thing. It's like literally this whole big poster and I literally like stood out the front of the house took photos of it.
00:17:21
Speaker 2: This is like love actually meets Elvis.
00:17:23
Speaker 1: It's crazy stuff, right, And I then sent those through to the real estate agent. He had a giggle and he was like, oh, go send it to So I offered two point four Yeah, and he goes, look, I don't think they're going to do it, but look I'll just try. Anyway, he sent the images the videos, and the vendor said.
00:17:40
Speaker 2: Yes, you're kidding. No, So then what happens?
00:17:43
Speaker 1: So I was so excited. So I'd been dealing with a finance broker and I'd done ten I'd bought ten houses in America for my American show five Day Flip. So he said, Yep, everything should be fine, no worries. You chuck in twenty percent. I think I had to chuck in thirty percent, and then they were gonna lend me set ten percent. I thought, I just pay that off long term, long term. Anyways, I rang the broker all super excited. Yeah, the Elpas honeymoon house. And then he went he processed the loan application and then he literally read me, goes, we got a major problem. And I was like what And he goes, those ten houses that you bought in Minnesota for your American show. They were done under a commercial loan, not a residential loan, so I had no established credit rating in America that we thought I had, And so he said, we can't lend you twenty percent. You're going to have to literally chuck in seventy percent cash and we can lend you thirty. And I just at that time, I couldn't scrape the money up like it was.
00:18:39
Speaker 2: You know, it would have got money.
00:18:41
Speaker 1: And they eventually onsold it to somebody and they just they did not do a good renovation job. But I spent hours, hundreds of hours in the National Archive. I found all the original photos of the house, the House of Tomorrow, and freaking yeah, so I go now every time I go to Palm Springs, I just literally stand out the front of that house still like like some crazy lonely stare.
00:19:04
Speaker 2: Now ladies back again, you know, from Australia. I am learning so much from Scharene. We'll be back with more tips soon. This feels like a really good point to find out your mystery draw item, because that story was so incredible, yes that I am curious, what have you brought from your mystery drawer?
00:19:33
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I love everything from the fifties and sixties and seventies. I would have brought my Chevy in, but I can't fit it on this table right, So is where you go?
00:19:50
Speaker 2: Oh I know what this is?
00:19:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I thought maybe it's a generation gap here between me and I wasn't sure if you'd know what that is?
00:19:59
Speaker 2: Not at all. This takes me back to my childhood.
00:20:02
Speaker 1: That's exactly why I've got it.
00:20:03
Speaker 2: So everybody who's listening, share with them, what have you brought in?
00:20:08
Speaker 1: So I've bought in an original telephone from the nineteen seventy years, so this is before iPhones come out. This is how people used to communicate. Remember the dog do the dial?
00:20:19
Speaker 2: Which have we got the ASMR going here? Yeah?
00:20:28
Speaker 1: And then you wait for that. Do you know why I love this? Because this? Yeah, this is and yellow is my favorite color. So we had this exact telephone, not this particular one, but the exact yellow color when I was growing up. And I remember using this telephone to dial my grandparents. Oh, and so there was something nice about having a telephone like this. Dialing. It was actually fun dialing the numbers, yes, and they're just sort of they're waiting and waiting for them to answer. And because like now we have our iPhones, it's so destructed. I don't know if you're like me, but like I'll be multitasking. I'll be on the phone, like I'll be like getting groceries out of the car or checking something. So you'll go, but you're multitasking, whereas back in those days.
00:21:12
Speaker 2: You had to stay in one spot.
00:21:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, you were just like it was a slow dial. You couldn't move from the kitchen bench, which is where this told. You know, this was always so you were like focused on the conversation, you know, that art of communication back then. And I love this because Peter Walsh gave this to me. So this actually came from a homeowner on Space Invaders when they were decluttering. They didn't want it. So Peter, he knows I love everything from the fifties, sixties and seventies, so he grabbed this for me. He took it back home, he cleaned it like in pristine condition over a couple of days, and then he brought it to set and I almost like weed my pants. So I was so excited.
00:21:50
Speaker 2: This is gorgeous.
00:21:51
Speaker 1: So that's on my big media wall. With all my other fifties and sixties and seventies memorabilia. I love it.
00:21:57
Speaker 2: It is absolutely gorgeous.
00:22:00
Speaker 1: To you.
00:22:01
Speaker 2: What makes a home beautiful?
00:22:04
Speaker 1: I think a space that you can come home and it doesn't have to be glamorous, and it doesn't have to be expensive, and it doesn't have to be large. A space where you come home. As soon as you walk through that door, you go, exhale, I'm just gonna get in my pajamas, sloth around in my pajamas. You know, you don't care what you look like. You've got things, you know, little ornaments that you know that trigger memories, family photos where you just look at those things. Your home truly doesn't need to be glamorous. It doesn't need to be designer. It can be the most simple house but brings you, brings your family joy, and it brings you closer together. That's for me, it's home.
00:22:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, you've brought me joy today.
00:22:52
Speaker 1: So with my crazy story, crazy the best.
00:22:57
Speaker 2: I can't wait to retell some of these. Honestly, it's been so much fun and we can't wait to see more of the farmhouse.
00:23:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be great. So to be finished, hopefully, December seventeenth. Nothing like a deadline.
00:23:11
Speaker 2: Nothing like a deadline. We'll be watching.
00:23:14
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
00:23:15
Speaker 2: I had so much fun chatting with Shari about the farmhouse. Her advice about personalizing color palettes but tailoring the floor planned to suit the suburb is absolute gold. I also really admire the way she separates a motion from the build, but she still has fun along the way. We'll pop some links in the show notes for more of Shuri's excellent renovating advice. If you enjoyed this chat, tell your friends and subscribe to home Beautiful on YouTube or follow us on your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode. We'll see you next time.
00:23:52
Speaker 1: This is an our Media podcast
