When Brisbane couple Rebecca and Lee Hardcastle started a kitchen design business five years ago, they aimed to keep it small and personal.
 
However, the temptation to expand Enigma Interiors as a renovation boom started was too much to resist.
 
“We just got so busy that we employed eight tradespeople to do the work, but we felt we had lost the personal touch, so scaled back to four,”  Mrs Hardcastle said.
 
“We much prefer to run a smaller business and feel we can offer better service one-on-one,” she said.
 
The Hardcastles are a part of a booming industry, with Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing Brisbane homeowners spent more than $80 million on renovations in the first three months of this year.
 
This was a 46 per cent increase in spending on the previous quarter, the highest result on record.
 
This weekend, the Housing Industry of Australia will be hoping to cash in on the trend when it stages Australia’s largest home and building expo at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, displaying bathrooms, kitchens and house designs.
 
The expo, supported by The Courier-Mail, also includes a housing hall of fame, a plumbing showcase, green ideas and products, live work demonstrations and the HIA awards.
 
The expo is today and tomorrow from 10am-5:30pm.  Entry is free.

By Madeline Healy
The Courier-Mail
17 May 2003
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