Content Creator and CEO Jenna Rutherford (33) from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada poured her heart and soul into the renovation of her house and added a whopping £600,000 to the value.



When Jenna found out she was pregnant with her first daughter Ashtyn (9) Jenna and husband Owner of Revo Plumbing and Heating Brock Rutherford (39) bought a property from a home builder and once the structure was enclosed with doors and windows fitted they took over and started to finish their home.



Shortly after their daughter's arrival, Jenna put photography on hold to help make their house a home.



A year later, they found out they were pregnant again with Tenley, (now 8) but also had their eyes on another plot of land and decided to go through the building process again.



“Once the doors and windows had been installed we started hanging drywall and doing all the finishing work inside the home,” said Jenna.



“We made the bedrooms larger and gained an additional 1000 sq ft on this home from the previous by building forward and over the garage.



“We built a laundry room rather than a laundry closet and kept it open concept.



“This is the current home we live in. We decided to keep it builder grade because that is what we could afford at the time.



“The builder charged us $200K (£161,158) for the land and framing up to lock-up. After that, we were able to invest another $250K (£201,447) to finish the home which is 3000 sq ft, with the basement it is 4200 sq ft.



“So far, we have invested around $25K (£20,141) in transforming the house.



“A home this size, if completed fully by a home builder in our city, markets for $850K (£684,921).



“We recently had our home appraised at $1.1M (£886,369).



“We had another daughter Emersyn (5) a few years later and then COVID hit shortly after that.



“I found myself needing an outlet so I decided to take my husband's "honey-do-list" off his hands and into mine and start making our house a home, one room at a time.



“I have been able to teach my girls life skills and make our home more inviting and cosy for us and our friends.”



Jenna loves her family home and says it was well worth the investment of time and money to have it as beautiful as it is.



“I am absolutely in love with how it turned out. I feel like it is far more inviting and a place I can relax in,” she said.



“People are always amazed to hear that I did most of the work by myself and the cohesiveness between each space.



“If we are counting from the time we built, it has taken us eight years. However, I have been customising it for three years now.



“We have a two story home with three car attached garage, our footprint is 3,000 square feet plus a 1,200 square foot basement.



“We have unfortunately dealt with basement flooding due to a sump pump failing. It was hard to see our hard work literally go down the drain but we were able to get insurance and fix it fairly quickly.



“My favourite space in our house is the Murphy Bed Room, AKA The Retreat.



“This was one of my first big builds and I only had eight weeks to complete it. This involved building four built-in cabinets with upper shelves, all made from scratch, a custom made window bench, a custom made murphy bed, wall moulding, custom made faux beams, and new lights.



“I love this space because I can easily "retreat" to it during the day for a quick nap on the Murphy bed, sit on the window bench with a good book, or lounge on the couch and get some work done on my computer.



“I don't have an exact breakdown of each space but they do range from $100-$4,000 (£80.58-£3223) for each space/project.”



If you are considering a home renovation project of your own Jenna shares this advice.



“Start small and gain your confidence but also don't be afraid to try new things,” she said.



“Expect things to go wrong sometimes but when they do, allow yourself to shift your mind and keep going.



“My two favourite spaces are the pantry which was about £892.90 ($1500 CAD) and the front room that we call the retreat with a Murphy bed for about £1488.17 ($2500 CAD).”



ENDS