Balgowlah Home Renovation
White Street, Balgowlah
Project Overview
The client first contacted their chosen Architects to design their full home renovation project in Balgowlah.
The brief was to fully renovate and modernise the original early 1900s Californian Bungalow. Sleek interiors were desired, however it was also very important to maintain the original heritage character of the residence which is perfectly suited to its premium Balgowlah location.
With the plans in place, the client contacted Ferrari Constructions on the recommendation of two other households in the street who we’d worked with previously. From that meeting we were able to present a detailed quotation which was subsequently accepted and we booked a window in our job schedule. The team was looking forward to the build – it was clever, and thanks to the Interior Design team at Nimmo Nielsen Collective had very high quality interior specifications. It’s always a pleasure to use the very best of products and finishes!
The scope of works included:
- Stunning new kitchen and dining space
- living room extension and new outdoor entertaining space
- Main bathroom & ensuite renovation
- New York style laundry
- Full re-paint inside and out
- New American White Oak floors with premium carpets to the bedrooms
- Structural roof repairs and new terracotta tiles
- Carport renovation
- Ducted air conditioning
- A new skylight and extra storage to the attic storage which the clients love! (More storage is always good.)
Project Snapshot
Client Brief
The clients contacted David Ferrari Constructions initially to discuss the complete renovation of the single level home.
The plans were already designed by the chosen Architectural firm – The Designory.
The construction brief was to completely update the whole residence inside and out. Not a room was left untouched.
Job Specifications
- Externally James Hardies Heritage weatherboards were used which was an exact match to the existing extension completed under 10 years ago.
- A mixture of Trend Quantum Range semi commercial Range windows and doors (in the newer rear extension), and Timber – Western Red Cedar units were used in the older original part of this residence.
- High quality Balmain Oak Floating Floor boards boards were carried throughout the interior living spaces. Premium carpets finished off the bedroom floors.
- The bathrooms were simple but high class. In trend patterned floor tiles were chosen from Tiles by Kate, which really complimented the simpler wall tile choices. Timber feature vanities and shaving cabinets were used, which look fantastic. Frameless glass shower screens are always a great choice!
- Collaboration between FC, The Designory & the team at Creative Projx created a truly stunning kitchen which exceeded expectations. The dark navy coloured V-Joint cabinetry contrasts against the 40mm Caesarstone benchtops. Rose gold door handles and black kitchen tapware completed the picture. Oozing class, this kitchen is a striking combination!
- The laundry was concealed to the side of the kitchen in a New York Style cabinetry setup. The fish scale splashback tiles look amazing!
- A skylight was added to the dark living space which the clients absolutely love. Importantly, the team at FC were able to retain the ornate ceiling design and fit the skylight shaft around the decorative ceiling pieces and cornices.
- Ceiling storage, accessed by an attic ladder, was one of the suggestions taken up by the clients. Space is at a premium in their home so this was a very welcome solution to the problem.
Project Obstacles
Overall the job ran very smoothly, A busy street was an obstacle for the many deliveries and trades, although we are able to work with them each time.
Some small design issues such as exact spacing of windows were solved along the way with minimal fuss.
Major structural inadequacies were apparent in the roof. From the street, the roof looked like the ocean with multiple peaks and troughs. After stripping the roof tiles this was solved by the FC team with a series of new structural beams, purlins and roof struts. We also needed to re build the front gable to match the original look, and change out all V-Joint eave cladding which was well past its use by date.
The original floor substrate was very bowed, with large dips and peaks apparent. This posed a problem for the new floating floors that we were to lay over this. The team spent many hours working on this & were able to straighten the old frame enough to lay our new floors without any problems.
Project Duration
After Snapshot
On completion, this Balgowlah home renovation was a great success & exceeded all of our expectations.
This beautiful Californian Bungalow residence has a new lease on life with sleek finishes added. Absolutely nothing more to do for the clients for many many years. The high quality specifications on this build will ensure many years of trouble free living and relaxing weekends in their new spaces.
Overall a great effort from the whole team including the architects, engineer, tradespeople and clients.
The project was listed in the Master Builders Association housing awards 2018 competition. We thank the clients for allowing us to collaborate with them on this project, and also for being kind enough to write the testimonial below
“To the Team at DFC,
We wanted to take the time to write you this testimonial to thank yourself and all your team for the exceptional job completed at our home in Balgowlah.
We engaged DFC to renovate our home located in Balgowlah. It’s an early 1900s Californian Bungalow and we had detailed Architectural plans drawn up to modernise our home, but importantly we wished to keep the original Bungalow Heritage as well.
It’s fair to say that not only did you meet the Architectural brief, but you managed to exceed our expectations. The quality of all the renovations was first class and the communication of the build process ensured we were completely comfortable at all times during the build.
The finished product has absolutely fantastic and we are proud to call it our home. We found you easy to communicate with and able to bring our vision to life, at one point a simple photo of a Spotted Gum balustrade was all that was required for your team to work out a solution to create that look for us. That balustrade is one of our favourite features of our home!
The team working on our residence were always friendly and produced top quality work, we loved our regular site meetings to check out the progress. We were always impressed at the amount of work that had been completed since last visit, in fact we were able to shave weeks of the contracted time schedule even with multiple changes that we requested along the way. Subsequently we were able to move in just before Christmas which saved us thousands in rent!
We have loved having our first Christmas in our home and would recommend DFC to anyone without hesitation. Our house is now our forever home that we are very proud of.
Please pass on our thanks to the rest of your team.”
Regards,
Magraith Family – White St Balgowlah
