Our Plans

The Old House

In 2007, a couple in their early thirties named Dave & Nat did what many young couples do - returned to Sydney after a stint overseas, got married and ventured into the property market. We purchased our first home - a 1950's post war fibro 3 bedder with a north to rear aspect in a leafy suburb of the St George area in Sydney. Sure it had 4 different floor coverings, 3 different wallpapers, a tiny porch and pokey living areas, but we knew that over time we could spruce it up and live happily for a number of years.

We proceeded to strip wallpaper and paint the interiors, move some walls to help the flow of the living areas, polish floorboards and lay carpet, install a new kitchen and open out the living areas. The biggest project was building a huge deck. All of this was done with a lot of help from family who we can never thank enough for all their hard work.

Well then along came a couple of kids. Our rate of progress on the renovation front slowed down and we ran out of space faster than we could ever have anticipated.

We met with a local architect and discovered that our budget would be about $150k short of where we needed it to be. So we went looking at project homes.

We started looking at single storey 28 square homes and boy did we like what we saw.

We spent the next 6 months visiting a number of display homes but the one we kept returning to was Metricon.

The New House

We are now building a double storey home that will end up around 42 squares. Welcome to our version of Metricon's Phoenix 38.

Ground Floor

First Floor

Some of the structural modifications we made:-

Ground Floor

• Increased front door to 1200mm
• Added cavity sliders to guest room (originally a sitting room but this will be the home office)
• Added a shower to the powder room and changed the linen cupboard to a separate WC
• Added linen cupboard to laundry and increased benchtop and tiling to run entire length of wall (not shown in drawings above)
• Made the study a little wider into foyer and increased length by removing family room alcove. Changed windows to full sash awning
• Increased width of garage and added door to rear and internal
• Added largest possible stacker doors to rear of dining and family and side of dining.
• Dining room shows a highlight window but we later removed this

First Floor

• Changed Bed 5 to Dressing Room (WIR 2) for the master
• Moved master bedroom door to suit.
• Increased side of ensuite shower
• Added cavity slider to ensuite

We will be adding the outdoor room after handover. For us, having the extended roof over the outdoor room would darken the family and kitchen areas so we decided to add a deck and roof later. If the budget allows we will go for a louvred roof however we will probably have to settle on something a bit more budget friendly initially.