Having spent the last two years renovating our previously neglected garden, we have needed lots of plants.

As the fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez, who recently moved into a modernist apartment he spent two years renovating, said, "You can't just survive on smoke."

Many of them spent the next 15 years renovating their homes with a do-it-yourself zeal for restoration rather than change.

He spent the next couple of years renovating it.

He casts a critical eye over the garden he has spent the past 11 years renovating.

Mr. Price bought a run-down 6,000-square-foot Victorian built in 1892 and has spent 11 years renovating the place, which he called "my showroom."

They spent the first few years renovating the house, then debated what to do with the 150-odd acres of farmland.

In March 2006, Federated closed the Filene's store and spent the better part of the year renovating the space.

He then spent 15 years renovating the car which now goes on display at the Pendine Museum of Speed every summer.

In 2001, Benmosche bought the one-time discotheque and spent the next six years renovating it.