A friend in Karori rang me last autumn in a mild panic. She’d had one landscaper quote her $40,000 for a “tidy-up” and another quote $95,000 for what sounded, on paper, like the same job, and she wanted to know which one of them was having her on. Neither was. I’ve spent years building, rebuilding…

My neighbour in Porirua rang me last winter in a right state. She’d had three quotes for a small concrete patio and they ranged from $4,000 to $11,000, and she couldn’t tell whether the expensive bloke was padding his numbers or the cheap one was about to cut corners. I’ve spent thirty-odd years pricing concrete…

Handing over money was the scariest part of doing up our first home in Papamoa — not the building work itself. When a builder asked for a deposit before he’d lifted a hammer, my stomach dropped. Was that normal, or was I about to get burned? I’m no tradesperson myself, just a first-home buyer in…

I’m Grant, and I’ve spent the better part of 20 years knee-deep in gardens and building sites around Wellington — Johnsonville, Tawa, Khandallah, wherever the work takes me that week. My sister-in-law, who lives up the hill in Johnsonville, is the sort who wants the whole section sorted by Christmas: new deck, retaining wall, replanted…