'I was so naive': The hard lessons this teacher learned during her first home renovation

• Owner: Maths teacher Bianca Rigoni 
• Address: 43 Broome Crescent, Wonthaggi, Victoria
• Type of property: 1940 weatherboard cottage
• Price guide: $690,000-$750,000 

It’s often said that those who teach for a living ought to be lifelong learners themselves so they can inspire the same spirit in their students.

Bianca Rigoni, who has taught maths for over 15 years, put this idea into action when she took on a project in which she was a complete novice – her first home renovation. 

Not one to do things by halves, Rigoni, who lives in Melbourne’s inner north, went all in and bought a three-bedroom cottage in the small Gippsland town of Wonthaggi, with the intention to renovate it and put it on the market. 

Her DIY experience at that point consisted of “nothing, absolutely nothing”. She’d never even picked up a hammer. 

Rigoni began the renovation of the 1940-built house, which she recalls was “a shambles”, in November 2021. 

“I was so naive I just launched into it,” she says. “I didn’t realise how huge [the renovation] would be until I was in it.”

Instead of needing “a bit of painting and change of carpet” it soon became a major, 18-month-long renovation. The house had an awkward and “not very liveable” layout that Rigoni decided to reconfigure, as well as install a new kitchen, bathroom and laundry. 

Understandably, at times it was overwhelming for the rookie. 

“I remember one of the first times going to the property after buying it and I just cried,” Rigoni says. “It was just a case of going, ‘OK, just focus on one thing that you can do. Don’t worry about anything else.’”

And that’s what she did. Rigoni learned how to caulk, how to install insulation, put together custom-made flatpack cabinetry and, with the help of a friend she even made bespoke timber benchtops for the kitchen and laundry using a biscuit joiner. Then there was the painting – the endless painting. 

Work on the cottage had to be squeezed in around her full-time job teaching at a Melbourne secondary school. Driving the 280-odd kilometre roundtrip into Victoria’s south-east became a weekend ritual. 

“On Friday night I’d get in the car and drive down and spend the weekend working on the house, then drive back on Sunday and get ready for the next week of work. It was pretty full on,” Rigoni says. “But at the time I just did it. It was just a job that had to be done.” 

One bonus was spending time in the hilly countryside of the Bass Coast; Wonthaggi is also close to the popular coastal towns of Inverloch and Cape Paterson. The town has personal significance for Rigoni as well – her great-grandparents settled in Wonthaggi when they migrated to Australia from Italy in the 1920s.

“It’s quite beautiful how, in buying the house, I did spend a lot of time in the town that my grandmother grew up in,” she says. 

Under her care, the cottage also retained some of its history. She reused the knobs from the old kitchen cabinetry and allowed the quaint, retro-tiled stove alcove to become a unique feature that adds interest to the light and airy open-plan living space.

Difficult as the renovation was at times – including delays with materials and trades in the aftermath of COVID lockdowns – Rigoni found herself thriving and reconnecting with her own resilience. 

“I hadn’t been challenged for a long time,” she says. “I’ve been a teacher for 15 or so years … [but] in the renovation I just thought, ‘Oh my god, I’m learning. I’m actually learning.’” 

After all the blood, sweat and tears, Rigoni admits she occasionally considered holding onto the house. “You get to love the space and you get to love the house. It is kind of hard to accept that you’ll be losing it, but that’s what you’re doing.” 

Now it’s on the market, she’ll take with her a renewed confidence in her own ability, plus empathy for her maths students now she understands how “horrible and uncomfortable” it can feel to grapple with new concepts. 

“I’m so grateful for the experience of renovating because it’s really made me realise the struggles of my students sometimes,” she says.

SOLD - $610,000

43A Broome Crescent, Wonthaggi VIC 3995

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