Pymble

This was a total renovation of the existing home with only one room being left unchanged. Quite a challenge but the outcome is magnificent.

"When we approached our architect Paul Davies, Alex Goldfinch and Wendy Crane, we had a 1940s double brick architecturally designed home with a provisional heritage listing. Whilst the house aesthetically pleasing externally, inside the rooms were of odd sizes, and there was a lack of fluidity in the layout. The staircases were best described as scary. Our brief to the architect was to transform this well loved home into a larger modern architectural statement, but keeping its exterior spanish facade to comply the heritage listing. We wanted it to last another 100 years before the next owner felt it needed another renovation. 

Andrew Simpson was recommended by our architects who has worked with him on numerous occasions. It gave me confidence to know that if an architect has had multiple positive experience with a builder, the workmanship is bound to be good. From the start, we found Andrew to be responsive and punctual. He understood the brief conveyed by the architects and followed the architectural drawings as prescribed. Where they were areas of contention in the design, he professionally raised it with the architect and engineer. Having been in the business for many years, the experience shows through, knowing which product or technique is best suited for the application. This was particularly important as the house had a lot of old house issues.

As any old house would, the demolition process revealed a few structural gems. Naturally these were dealt with without too much fuss, after consultation with the architect and engineers. We had regular meetings fortnightly to assess the progress of the build and to raise any issues. Andrew utilises a team of quality subcontractors. Most of whom he uses regularly. They in return praise the quality of his workmanship and eye for detail. He was very good with organising tradesman and was able to provide updates with timelines fairly regularly. When the job was completed, he organised for the site to be cleaned up, and the internal areas cleaned. In the post-construction phase, Andrew promptly rectified any defects noted

Our architects were instrumental to the success of this stunning renovation. They took on board what we disliked in the current house and what we needed in the new project. They were able to come up with a great design that ticked every box for us, satisfied the heritage requirements and passed though Ku-Ring-Gai council without any objections. Through their vision, we have an amazing kitchen/living area that can be used for many purposes. We have plenty of external and internal entertaining areas. Externally, it still has a strong spanish influence in the design. They provided strong recommendations when they felt it was best to go the extra mile to achieve a stunning results over a half-cooked job. To their credit, they were right, and the recommendations made a difference. 

Overall, we have been very pleased with our architects and builder in our major renovation project. We would be delighted to recommend them to anyone."

Jerry 

Pymble