Erin Cayless - 1st Apr

Best friends for 15 years, Lana, Erin and Bonnie have seen each other through all the ups and downs of life: meeting and marrying their husbands, starting families (they have nine beautiful children between them) and juggling busy careers. But in 2014, they took a leap of faith together, quit their jobs and created Three Birds Renovations in pursuit of a more fulfilling life working for themselves, doing something they loved and with more family time. Within a few short months of starting out they had successfully bought, renovated and sold their first property.

Fast-forward to today and the trio have transformed nine houses (including 32 bedrooms, 18 bathrooms and 11 kitchens), learned more than they ever could have imagined and poured all that hard-earned knowledge into their online renovation course, The Reno School. Thousands of Reno School students are now designing their homes using the birds words of wisdom. Their energy, passion and vision have swept across Instagram and YouTube, turning the busy mums into social media sensations. Their videos are now watched in over 110 countries and each new project graces the pages of Australias leading home magazine titles.

Their ever-increasing community of aspiring home renovators look to the Three Birds for their daily dose of reno inspo and helpful how-tos.

Lana, Erin and Bonnie live, play and renovate in Sydney. This is their first book.

	Let's make reno magic together!

How it all began ...

I have no renovating experience and no sense of style but Im IN! This was Lanas keen-as-mustard response after receiving a call from Bonnie asking if she wanted to go into business with her and Erin, renovating houses. Thats the short story of how Three Birds Renovations began. It literally happened overnight. But our union and eventual success had actually been 15 years in the making we just didnt know it.

Bon and Ez grew up in the same area and have been best friends since they were teenagers. An unlikely friendship? Perhaps. A case of opposites attracting? Definitely. Bon was a spontaneous, warm, creative extrovert led by the right side of her brain whereas Ez was a self-confessed introvert, a cool as a cucumber left-brained woman who liked to plan everything in advance ... and in writing! If ever there was a case of yin hooking up with yang, this was it.

First go at working together ... success!

Their friendship endured through uni, Erin studied human movement and Bon physical education. After this, they put their friendship to the test by job-sharing a role in event management. You might wonder how a job-sharing caper could work with two such different personalities turns out, pretty great! Their different styles and skills complemented each other perfectly, then and now; Bon designed the creative aspects of the event (in other words, made everything look beautiful) and Ez ran the operational side (i.e. made things actually happen). Little did we know that all of this experience was just a training ground for what was to come. After all, a renovation is pretty much one big event, right?

Then along came Lana in 2002, bursting onto the scene with her larger-than-life personality, loud mouth and all-round sense of fun. She was dating her now-husband, Jason who Bonnie and Erin worked with, and she quickly completed our trio. If Bon is an extrovert, then Lana is a nextrovert. #nextlevel! Lana hustled away in a fast-paced sales and marketing career after completing her business degree and, as it turns out, her skills were the missing ingredient in the cocktail we were brewing.

Happy wife, happy life

Even though our work journeys pre-Three Birds were different, our personal lives are almost identical. Erin and Bonnie ended up marrying two guys called Nathan who were also great mates and played in the same footy team with Jason (before he met Lana). #smallworld #ourworld With every new milestone each of us reached, we created a shared life-tapestry unique to the three of us. Weve clinked champagne flutes at our hens parties and lifted each others wedding dresses in toilet cubicles (as you do). Together, weve celebrated and supported each other through the births of nine children. And, between bubs eight and nine #surprisebaby4forbon Three Birds Renovations was born.

Our business was conceived out of a shared desire to turn our backs on the corporate world and build a life we loved. Even though we had the same desire, we were each motivated by different objectives: Erin was looking for a better work/life balance; Lana was in hot pursuit of a new business challenge and Bon was more than ready to live out her lifelong dream of renovating houses for a living.