Mal and Sarah’s home is a lovely period bungalow tucked away in a quiet cul de sac in Epsom.  Full of old world charm and with many of the original character features intact it has stood the test of time.

With a keen eye for an opportunity, Mal and Sarah purchased the house with the intention of renovating it to suit their lifestyle and the needs of their growing family.

Unfortunately, their renovation experience didn’t get off to a great start.  They engaged another building company and after receiving concept designs, Mal and Sarah gave the go ahead to progress to building consent plans.  After several months of waiting and hours and hours of phone calls and emails chasing their plans, it became apparent that they had been let down and the building company and their designer were never going to deliver the goods.

After walking through a friend’s completed renovation project, who happened to be a past client of ours, we received an SOS phone call.

The Brief

Mal and Sarah briefed us to deliver a master bedroom with ensuite, a guest bedroom and second living area as well as a good-sized home office as they often work from home.

We reviewed the concept plans provided by the original designer but identified a large height to boundary breach in their design that would have required the additional time and cost of a resource consent.  With careful planning our design managed to avoid this extra cost.

We also found several cost savings by simply keeping the location of the bedrooms and bathroom in the existing house the same and focusing on making a more liveable kitchen and family area with an extension to the rear.

The Solution

With the existing home sitting towards the front of the large sloping section, it provided the opportunity to build a split-level extension off the rear of the house.  The top floor of the extension accommodates the master bedroom with walk-in wardrobe and ensuite while a guestroom and additional living space opening onto a rear deck and garden is featured on the lower level.

The flow of the existing home was also altered to ensure integration of the extension as well as providing a more modern and open kitchen, dining and living area.

The Challenges

• After their disastrous experience with the previous building company Mal and Sarah had justifiably lost all faith in the renovation process. It wasn’t just our job to take over the build, we also had to gain their trust and confidence so we could deliver the dream that had started on the wrong path so many months earlier.
• Mal and Sarah requested a polished concrete floor in the living area of the extension which meant we had to carefully pour and protect the floor while we built the structure around it. Not easy when, not only is it a construction site, but there are also many trees in the vicinity with berries that birds like to eat (and poop).
• Being such an old home the foundations had settled resulting in floor levels that differed quite significantly from one side of the house to the other. Extra time and effort was required to marry the two floors together in the open plan area where the difference would be noticed if not done correctly.

After a shaky start to the renovation process Mal, Sarah and family were very relieved to finally move back home. The renovation provides a stylish more functional family home that now has the space to meet every family members needs.