Do it once and do it right - it's the mantra of all good renovators.
Even if it means a project takes twice as long and costs three times as much as expected, as is the case with University House.
The mid-century jewel, one of Canberra's most iconic buildings, is now set to reopen some time in 2026, a full six years after the infamous hailstorm of 2020.
But house master Peter Kanowski hopes the wait will be worth it, with the grand rooms restored to their 1950s glory, and major upgrades throughout the building, including lifts, period furniture and major artworks.
The violent storm that tore through the capital in January 2020, just weeks after the embers of the Black Summer bushfires had burned away, and a couple of months before the world was stymied by COVID, created the most damage in parts of the Australian National University campus.
The hailstorm cut a relatively narrow swathe across Canberra's inner suburbs, but still wrote off thousands of cars, shattered countless skylights and windows, and caused major damage to infrastructure on the ANU campus.
University House, the heritage-listed campus hub that was opened in 1954 by the Duke of Edinburgh, was one of the most high-profile victims, and will likely be the last to emerge fully repaired.
But thanks to its mid-century building standards, complete with a vast and warren-like Cold War-era bomb shelter running under the whole structure, it will likely be the last one standing should the apocalypse eventuate.
Still, Cold War-era plans for perceived nuclear threats were no match for the 12-minute hailstorm.
Professor Kanowski said insurance claims settled in November, 2021, but the figure has since spiralled from $30 million to around $90 million or more, and the three-year project is now looking more like a six-year one.
"That's a significant challenge, of course, for everybody involved - for the insurers, for the university," he said.
"[It's] mostly because once the work started, it became clear that there were 70 years of renovations to attend to. And that doesn't mean that the maintenance hasn't been satisfactory, but with an old building like University House, the requirements to comply with contemporary building regulations aren't triggered unless you undertake a certain scale of repair. In the past, we didn't ever undertake that scale of repair. Now we are.
"And so it's not only the external parts of the building that have got to be fixed up, it's all the internal parts as well."
The original plan had been to bring the building - which is a boutique hotel as well as student accommodation and ceremonial hub - back to the state it was in when the hail hit, but University House had been poised to embark on a massive renovation process leading up to its 70th anniversary this year.
These were overtaken by the hailstorm, and have now been subsumed into the massive restoration project that includes all of the challenges of maintaining and enhancing the building's heritage character.
"The buildings and grounds are heritage-listed, so the university has obligations to the nation," Professor Kanowski said.
"We've had a lot of work from the heritage architects with the Department of Climate Change Energy Environment and Water ... with the builders to then translate that into feasible building work. And that has added time.
"But on the other hand, it's the responsibility we have to maintain that character building, which is one of its greatest attractions."
The work is being carried out by Melbourne architects Lovell Chen and Canberra construction company Hindmarsh.
Professor Kanowski said the grand re-opening of the building would hopefully do justice to the role University House once played in the capital as a stellar example of mid-century design and flair.
When it first opened, the Sydney Morning Herald declared it was to be "a museum of contemporary art".
The Brian Lewis-designed building was a post-war statement of landscape design, art, sculpture and furniture designed by Fred Ward.
And at a time when there was little art on display in the capital - the National Gallery of Australia was still 28 years away from opening - it was an early standout for its extensive art collection and stylish fittings.
Over the years, it has hosted legions of distinguished guests, graduate students and public service riff-raff.
