Vere Street

This is the family home of Jeff and Rachel. They bought the property as a young family with two kids, with the intention to meet the needs of the family as the kids grew. As a heritage property, they wanted to keep the features but wanted it to be modern at the back to get as much light in as possible. 

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Having previously done a DIY renovation, they were excited to get this extension professionally done. As clients, every element of the project was considered and attention to detail was very important to them.

As clients with previous experience doing renovations, Jeff and Rachel stressed the importance of getting the details right. Their plan is for this house to be their family’s home for a long time. Any build has so many decisions to be made, which is when challenges generally arise and budget blowouts happen. Challenging elements of the extension had to be worked out early so that changes could be made to save the budget blowing out. 

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The transition between the old and new was important to get right. It was important for Jeff and Rachel that this worked and had to be finished off with great attention to detail.

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The subflooring and getting the base right to get it up to standard to enable a seamless transition was very complicated because once we started on site, we found that the subflooring and the base was not in a good condition.

To avoid budget blowouts, we assisted Jeff and Rachel to save thousands of dollars in polished screed concreting by scheduling the pour the feature concrete as part of the main pour. 

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The initial condition of the floor to the existing house was very bad but we managed to have it restumped in a very narrow space by tunnelling under the house and getting it up to standard. 

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As for the transition, to keep it as seamless as possible, we worked out how to make the space work without having a door between the old and new to keep the transition seamless. The line of sight down the hallway from the front door of the house emphasises the smooth transition and guides your eyes straight to the light at the end of the modern extension.

There was enough work for us as the builder that was challenging that we worked out with the architect and the clients early and through those conversations we were able to make changes and save costs. 

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The transition between the existing heritage and new modern extension of the house was the biggest element of the build to get right.  We think the balance is right, they are clearly different spaces, the transition is smooth and the line of sight from the hallway from the front door is inviting.

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Rachel describes walking into her new home: “It was so nice to come in here and see the space, it came together so well. It was a wow moment to come in and it has just felt so nice from the beginning and we’re just so grateful that they had it in their hands and they've been able to give us the home that we were wanting and we can now enjoy it. We’re just very thankful that it was worked out the way that it has.”