We were excited from the moment we first laid eyes on this little gem of a project in Manly Vale. For our clients, this was a family home in which they planned to raise their two young children in, and renovating their family home was a lifelong dream for them.
The existing residence was a single-storey three-bedroom, one-bathroom house; an original 1960s cladded timber framed house on a battleaxe block. Everything was original in this home including the cypress pine floorboards.
The clients’ aspirations for their renovation and extension were to add an additional master bedroom, and ensuite, and increase the size of their living room as well as their outdoor areas with the inclusion of two beautiful timber decks that merge seamlessly together and a new driveway that has space for two cars. Don’t forget the kitchen, we renovated that too!
Hot tip: If you are working within a budget, marrying new cypress pine floor boards into the old, and then sanding & polishing the entire space is a great way to save on the cost of an entirely new floor. Plus the refurbished floor is a great look and matches perfectly the style and feel of this renovation.
This build is an extension and renovation of the existing internal spaces. Originally the clients went back and forth with the design concepts trying to decide what would best suit their budget whilst maximising the potential of the block. It is so important that this stage is not rushed and that you have a project management team who can be patient while also offering some creative solutions and guiding you in the right direction.* The decision was made to extend directly off the right-hand side of the house as well as the front of the existing dwelling. One advantage to this design was it enabled the clients and their young families to live on-site during 70% of the construction time as the bulk of the work was not invasive to the existing internal areas. This also allowed our clients to hold on to some of the charm of the original home which they adored, as well as utilising the existing structure of the home.
Once the front and side extensions had been constructed it was time to merge the new with the old. It was at this time the clients moved out for a period of two months whilst we made the necessary internal changes & replaced the old kitchen with new. Freedom Kitchens did a bang-up job on this one. The results speak for themselves.
As with all renovations, marrying the new works with the old is really important to get right. The risk here is that if it is not done properly, you can end up with a mismatched, awkward-looking home that isn’t seamless. Tying in the same timber floors can assist in tying old and new spaces together, as can a simple fresh coat of paint!
Another challenge that we came across was that the existing floors were not perfectly level, this made it tricky to marry the new floor into the old. In this instance we were able to join the floors at a door junction between two rooms; which meant that we could achieve a perfectly level floor throughout the new extension whilst also keeping the existing intact and saving the clients a small fortune on remedying the existing flooring. We got lucky here with the new master bedroom wall being in a perfect position to separate the new from the old – oh how we love small wins!
Hot tip: If you have areas of an existing house that are going to be difficult to merge, try to locate a threshold/junction in the form of a wall, bench or step which can be a great way to hide the discrepancy.
* You should never feel pressured into something you are not comfortable with. If you are unsure if you have chosen the right builder or not sure what warning signs to look out for from the beginning, check out our blog on “Warning signs you might have the wrong builder” or, click here to get in touch.
