A two-stage transformation of a classic brick two-storey home in Frenchs Forest. Stage one is complete: a re-worked facade, a new entry, and renewed interiors. Stage two, a ground floor extension, is on the drawing board.
The owners came to us at the end of 2024 with a solid two-storey brick home and plans for more than one project could sensibly carry at once. Rather than force a choice between renovating and extending, the project was shaped into two stages: transform the home they live in first, extend it second.
Stage one is now complete. The front of the home was re-built around a new entry, the facade re-worked in white cladding against the original brick, and the interiors reconfigured and renewed, with structural alterations opening up the plan along the way.
Stage two, a ground floor extension, is being worked through pre-construction now: scoped and priced, with approvals to come before any contract is signed. The same home, the same team, picking up where stage one finished.
The defining decision on this project was made in pre-construction, before any contract: not what to build, but in what order. Here is how the two-stage structure came together for Frenchs Forest.
How Pre-Construction WorksBefore anything was signed, the project was priced as an extension, as a renovation, and as both together. Seeing those numbers side by side is what let the owners choose an order instead of guessing at one.
The owners chose to renovate first and extend second. Stage one carried the internal reconfiguration, structural alterations and the new face of the home; stage two, the ground floor extension, waits its turn rather than stretching one project too thin.
Stage one ran under its own development approval. Stage two is following the same discipline: its approval comes first, and no contract is signed until it is in hand. The pre-contract work is already done, so when the approval lands, the stage is ready to move.
Because stage two was scoped and priced while stage one was still on site, the second half of this home starts with the drawings, the numbers and the working relationship already in place. That is the quiet payoff of staging done properly.
Where stage one started: a solid, dated two-storey brick home, with the first frames of its new front face going up and the saws already out.
The new front of the home framed up against the original brick. From here the old facade starts its retreat behind the new one.
The roof structure over the new front extension, seen from above, tying the new spaces back into the original roofline.
The finished metal roof over the new work, sitting alongside the original terracotta tiles. The aerial view tells the staging story in one frame.
The new entry: a covered portico and a timber front door where a garage wall used to set the tone. First impressions were a big part of this brief.
Inside, the reconfigured plan gets its character pieces: full-height sliding doors on a brass track, timber joinery, and daylight pulled in from above.
A finished bathroom from stage one: vertical tiles, a fluted wall-hung basin, matte black tapware and an arched mirror. Quiet, warm and built to last.
Stage one complete · Stage two, the ground floor extension, is on the drawing board
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