Home Addition, Ashford
Project Brief
Don and Kathy were after some more room in their beautiful 1920s tudor home in Ashford. They both loved the street appeal of the home and made this a priority to preserve this as well as the character of the home. They didn’t want the extension of the home to feel like it had been tacked on the back of the house so there was a lot of thought put into the design to make it feel apart of the home from day 1.
Our clients were retired and both had strong hobbies and ideals about their lifestyle moving forward. The brief from them was to capture natural light and views of the creek in their backyard. Maintain character of the home. Create an artistic space for Kathy to do her painting and extend the carport to add a roller door and increase their home security.
They were very firm on some details about the staircase and the external cladding. Don added his own mark on the design with raked feature ceilings upstairs and a curved tiled floor downstairs.
Our Approach and Scope of Work
Don and Kathy had already engaged an architect and had a full set of detailed drawings for their project. We had to collaborate with the designer to finalise some details and clarify things with Don and Kathy. They were very comfortable with the level of effort we were going to to ensure their project was being built correctly.
We realised from the start that the biggest concern of the clients was the attention to detail on the things that would marry the new addition to the heritage of the home. We made extra effort to consult Don and Kathy on all of these things throughout the build so that they remained comfortable that no detail was being underappreciated.
Obstacles that we overcame
This project presented many challenges with details and access.
Obstacle #1
Prior to commencing construction and after many hours of examining the plans I noticed some of the details in the design clashing with some of the clients non-negotiables. They were adamant to keep all of their character ceilings un-touched but the plans were calling for removal of them in one particular room. After seeing this anomaly and calling a meeting to discuss this detail, the plans were rectified before any wrongly materials were ordered. Crisis averted!
Obstacle #2
The homeowner was very clear on a preferred subcontractor that he wanted to use for some of the works. We pride ourselves on being a solutions provider and engaged the contractor after ensuring the sub-contractor met all of our strict safety and professional requirements. No problem.
Obstacle #3
This design was very unique in that it was a two story home addition that was about 6m up and only 3m wide. The front facade was a priority to maintain or enhance with the addition of a small dutch gable that was visible from the front. This meant that the roof pitch of the addition had to be 45 degrees to meet heritage requirements and match existing. The roof flashings also called to be scribed so it took a lot of patience and scaffolding to achieve a high quality roof cladding install
The Result
Don and Kathy chose to paint this addition themselves and so they were involved quite intimately throughout the project especially with the finishes. They were so pleased with the quality of the workmanship, it made their painting a pleasure and a breeze.
As the project drew closer to an end they decided to engage us to complete some other updates and maintenance items to the rest of their home to really finish it off. This gave us the opportunity to really add the finishing flare to this project and really provide the turn key solution. We ended up extending their carport and adding a roller door mid way up the driveway. We also replaced some barges and roof flashings as well as repaired the front gables prior to them getting the front elevation repainted.
We got accolades from the home owners because they had such a great building experience and they have since referred us onto many other clients and projects. They have also been kind enough to offer their home as an example to potential clients if they are interested in viewing some of our previous work.
I am still proud to call Don and Kathy friends today and I feel that all our clients would feel the same about us on completion of their project.
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