I'm the person whose engineer called the house "the problem child."
I renovated personally. Like most renovation projects, it did not go perfectly. There were unexpected costs, timeline surprises and moments where I genuinely questioned why we started. One of those moments involved opening a wall for an extra window and discovering a structural problem that cost around R90 000 we had not budgeted for.
I came out of it with a better home and far more knowledge than I went in with. And when friends, clients and acquaintances started asking for advice — not for a full designer or project manager, just someone they trusted to help them think clearly — that is where this work started.
I don't replace your architect, designer, builder or estate agent. I help you make better decisions between all of them.
Background
Karina Esterhuizen is a qualified Property Practitioner with the Agency Property Group, Cape Town. Her background spans real estate, interior work, Production Design, Graphic Design, photography, art direction, project management, tourism and both short-term and long-term rentals.
When she is not talking about property, budgets or layouts, she is usually selling homes, juggling motherhood, working on her own renovation ideas, ticking off unfinished to-do lists and reaching for another cup of decaf coffee. Yes, we know.