Why Your Approved Projects Might Not Get Built: The importance of early builder engagement
For homeowners, designing and building a house is often a dream come true. After months, maybe even years of planning and designing, they finally receive the approval to start building their dream home. However, the truth is that the majority of approved projects never get built. Why is that? It’s because, as builders, we know that the traditional approach to designing a house often overlooks one crucial component: engaging a professional builder early in the process. In this post, we will discuss why it is critical to engage a builder in the concept design stage and how this can help you avoid common pitfalls and ensure that your dream home gets built.
The traditional approach to designing a house often has its flaws as homeowners tend to engage an architect or designer without consulting a builder early in the process. After months of work and spending thousands of dollars on designs, they finally approach builders to tender the project. Unfortunately, this approach can lead to budget issues, misunderstandings, and the project becoming unfeasible.
Building a home is a collaborative effort that requires the input of everyone involved. That is why it is essential to engage a builder early in the process. A professional builder can contribute valuable insights about the buildability of the design and feasibility regarding budget and timeline. By engaging a builder early in the process, homeowners can avoid costly mistakes and ensure that the project is feasible.
One of the significant benefits of engaging a builder early in the design process is that they can identify potential risks or roadblocks that could impact the project’s success. Furthermore, a builder can also help identify building materials and techniques that can save money and time without compromising on quality.
Finally, engaging a builder early in the process can help homeowners set realistic expectations regarding timelines and budgets. Builders can provide estimates of costs based on previous projects, which can help homeowners make more informed decisions about what they can achieve for their budget. Furthermore, builders can also help identify potential areas where costs can be reduced without compromising on quality.
Involving your builder early in the planning process, effective communication, setting realistic expectations, and trusting your builder are all key factors in ensuring a successful building or renovation project. By following this approach, you can work together with your builder to create a home that is both functional and beautiful and meets your needs and budget. Remember, building or renovating a home is a collaborative effort, and by working together in a transparent and communicative way, you can achieve your dream home. So, embrace the process and enjoy the journey towards creating your perfect home. Happy building or renovating!
Don’t let your dream home remain just a dream, take the first step and reach out to us today.
When is a beach home not a beach home?
Well, arguably, when it’s a shimmering monument to the ultimate in sleek modern minimalism.
Of course, a property like this may will be a beach home in every literal sense if it is in fact a home and it’s located by the beach.
It’s interesting, that the phrase ‘beach home’ generally conjures up in our mind’s eye, everything from shabby beach-chic to Hamptons style classicism, but the trend in pristine, modernist structures has probably now overtaken the quintessential beach home style.
So how do you go about creating your minimalist haven by the sea?
The first challenge is wear and tear, from the less than forgiving coastal elements. We expect to see some worn decking and even a little distressed weatherboard paint on a classic beach house – or at least we accept it as part of the beach-life charm. Sand in the home can be tolerated, surfboards adorning the veranda is all part of the picture.
But none of this sits well in a high-gloss environment, brimming with expensive finishes.
Your builder will be able to advise you of new developments in exterior building materials that are built to withstand the harsh elements of our coastline, while maintaining desired aesthetics.
Bringing the outside in, while keeping it out.
There’s a conundrum! When building a beach home like this, we need to pay particular attention to doors and windows, seeking out specialist materials and highly effective seals and closures.
A trademark feature of the contemporary home, especially when you have expansive ocean views is the acres of glass frontage that reveal the coastline in all its incredible beauty and bring it directly into your home.
For these situations, self-cleaning glass is a must, combined with smart glass systems, which allow you to control the amount of heat and light that comes into your home throughout the day. Read more about this in our blog on green technologies.
If you’re living by the ocean you won’t want to keep your home hermetically sealed to avoid sand getting into your living spaces, so work with your builder and architect to take prevailing winds into account when planning your major openings and external space.
Contemporary homes also tend to feature sleek, and often shiny, premium finishes, like polished marble, metals and gloss carpentry – none of which respond well to the abrasive effect of sand and salt in the air. Happily there are many new and exciting finished to consider that look every bit as impressive, but will maintain their looks for much longer. This doesn’t mean you should eliminate any polished finishes altogether, but use them strategically, knowing they will need more care and attention to keep looking pristine.
You can never have enough storage
Never underestimate the amount of storage a contemporary home requires to maintain a minimalist image. Your builder and designer can help you plan heaps of concealed storage into every room to keep the clutter at bay and create that feeling of serenity a clean and clear environment brings.
If your contemporary home is by the beach, you will need to increase that storage requirement considerably and pay particular attention to the position of your storage.
External storage by every entrance is a must to encourage everyone to shed sandy shoes, towels and all manner of beach paraphanaila before they enter the house. Wet rooms at the entrances, or outdoor shower rooms are also great for making sure that only people free of salt and sand enter the house. In winter, these storage areas double up nicely as boot rooms / cloakrooms.
Décor
Whether your beach home is classic or contemporary in styling, the same basic décor principles apply.
Using a single colour palette throughout the home will make it feel bigger, more open and expansive, and allows rooms and spaces to flow naturally into one another. That doesn’t mean every room will look the same. If you create a palette of 6 to 8 shades, you can turn the dials up and down on different shades to suit the purpose of each room without compromising the flow of your colour scheme.
You can also bring in additional highlights of colour seasonally, with accessories to freshen your look from time to time.
Clever use of texture is also a great way of adding dimension to your home and there are some amazing three-dimensional finishes available now in tiling, wallpaper and decorative panelling.
Taking inspiration for your colours from the environment around your home works brilliantly for beach homes and really helps create synergy between your property and its location. Take photographs of your surroundings at different times of the day and use colour charts to create your palette by matching to the tones of your photos. For softer palettes use shots taken in the early morning or evening, go for mid morning for something more dazzling, or use the landscape in winter for a more muted scheme. If darker, more moody palettes are your thing, sunset shots will help you produce some amazing colour combinations.
Light and bright generally works brilliantly in beach homes, but it’s always to good to have some darker tones in there too, to use sparingly throughout, or more boldly in areas where you want to create a cosy, more intimate feel.
Outdoors
Your outdoor spaces and landscaping should reflect the minimalist feeling of your interior. Gardens will need to maintain a manicured look, so be careful with planting and seek advice from your landscape gardener. An unruly mass of tumbling and abundant blooms may look amazing in a cottage garden, but will look incongruous with the sleek modernity of your building.
Again, explore available materials with your builder and landscape gardener, to create a scheme that is both beautiful and manageable.
So in conclusion, can a contemporary home ever be a true beach home? Absolutely!
So great to get some more amazing photos of our work on this Woolahra project from our friends at Lime Photography.
This incredibly spacious apartment needed a full refurbishment, including significant remedial work, requiring some major demolition of internal walls and installation of structural steel to create airy, open-plan spaces.
At a generous 900 square metres, this spectacular apartment is the size of a large house, with three living spaces, dining room, kitchen and kitchenette, laundry, 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, and a double garage. It’s all very impressive, but the star of the show in this property has to be its vast roof-top entertaining deck with stunning panoramic views over Woolahra and Double Bay.
A FEW CHALLENGES WE OVERCAME
Working on an apartment of this scale is always going to impact upon neighbours, especially those immediately below. We always aim to minimise noise and work with neighbours like this as much as possible to avoid too much inconvenience for them. In fact, in this case, we were invited to carry out some building work to the apartment below as well. Of course we’d like to think that was entirely down to our charm and careful management of the situation, though we’re guessing they were also of the mind “If you can’t beat them, join them!”
Access to the site was also problematic, being located on a very busy Woolahra street with limited parking available. And we had the challenge of getting all materials required up onto the rooftop area. For this we used a Telehandler, shifting payloads of a ton at a time to and from the rooftop, while employing some strict traffic control on the street.
Another challenge was that both our client and the designer, Nic Graham of Nic Graham & Associates, were located overseas, so all project management details and communications needed to be relayed via email.
BEAUTIFUL SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES
The specification for this stunning apartment were exceptional, requiring careful restoration and repair of existing parquetry flooring, beautiful bespoke bathrooms – all six of them, custom cabinetry throughout, and extensive rooftop landscaping.
We also installed a pretty snazzy hi-tech micro-processor controlled lighting and energy management system called C-Bus. This facilitates the configuration of zones in the home for automated lighting, adjusting intensity according to natural light levels.
Marble was used extensively in all the bathrooms, with polyurethane joinery, antique mirror glass and custom vanities.
Other highlights were the Blackbutt flooring, with underfloor heating, stained almost black with ‘Black Japan’ woodstain’ – and some exquisite hand-made lighting fixtures from Beeswax USA.
We are delighted to have been involved in this beautiful Woolahra project and equally delighted to receive these photos to share with you.
What a stunner!
At Sydney Beach Homes, we’re always on the lookout for building products that are both sustainable and have a limited impact on the environment, but they have to look great too – and stand up to the rigours of the environments in which we invariably build.
It has to be said that we love working with natural building products like slate and timber and it’s hard to ignore their natural beauty, but we do understand that with our clients’ busy lives, keeping on top of these things can be an issue. This is especially true of timber decking, requiring maintenance every 6 months, which is not always appealing.
With this in mind, we’ve found a couple of great new building products that we are delighted to recommend to our clients, which are extremely durable and have the looks to match. Both of these home-grown companies make products specifically for the challenging Australian conditions, often overlooked by overseas brands.
MONIER ELEMENTAL ROOF TILES
Monier has re-invented roofing with their Elemental range, which are manufactured from an advanced fibre reinforced composite, originally developed for the aerospace industry. Monier’s commitment to strength and beauty means Elemental’s ultra-modern appearance will enhance your property while truly protecting you from the elements.
It’s so good to see companies like this creating cutting edge products to inspire the creativity of Australia’s architects, designers, builders and families. Its unique aesthetic stimulates exploration with new architectural designs and creative rooflines.
This product is the latest innovation in lightweight composite roofing, with a modern take on classic slate and shingle. Despite its ultra-light weight – 5 times lighter than traditional tiles – it boasts unprecedented strength. The tiles have been designed to withstand ALL the elements the Australian environment may through at us, including harsh sunlight, salty coastal environments, heavy hail and wild storms. It will not rust or dent and will maintain it’s UV colour coating without peeling or flaking.
And they’re cheaper than natural slate.
The Elemental series features an ultra large 1500mm x 750mm panel and a unique 750mm square panel for a contemporary take on the classic look.
We’ve recently selected these tiles for a particular project to achieve the desired Hamptons look of natural slate, but they will work just as well on contemporary styled homes too.
We chose slate grey for this project, but they are also available in 5 other colours.
And these particular building products come with a 30 year performance guarantee – what’s not to love?
MODWOOD DECKING & SCREENING
There are a few composite wood-effect decking solutions on the market, but we have a good feeling about ModWood decking, which uses recycled milk bottles blended with waste wood fibre. Each linea metre of ModWood decking contains around thirty seven recycled bottles and almost two kilograms of reclaimed pine waste, sourced from a certified plantation of sustainably managed pine, in a process that leaves a minimal environmental footprint.
ModWood products will not warp, crack or splinter under normal conditions, and require no sanding, sealing or painting for long term protection. This is a building product that is manufactured Australia and created specifically to withstand Australia’s harsh conditions. They contain a high degree of UV stability and they are highly resistant to weather, moisture and termites.
Underfoot ModWood feels firm and strong, which is very important for elevated decks. A range of colours from a dark brown/black though warmer red tones, to silver grey is available and each colour features a dark intermittent pigment to compliment the grained finish for a more natural appearance.
One thing we love about the ModWood product is that it does undergo some weathering when exposed to the elements, softening over time to a silver grey colour in the manner of natural wood. Boards also have a similar surface temperature to timber, which feels natural to walk on. And as it does not splinter, ModWood is extremely child-friendly, making it ideal for use around pool or spa areas.
It also perfect for creating privacy with screened outdoor areas and contemporary garden features.
The ModWood Marina collection is a bigger, stronger board, designed for marinas, boardwalks, outdoor furniture and heavy duty decking areas. It’s particularly well suited to ecologically sensitive areas, as there are no nasty chemicals that could leach out. It is highly resistant to the ravages of salt air – and it stands up well to heavy foot traffic.
For those living in bushfire zones, there is also a range of Flame Shield options available that are suitable for bushfire prone areas, rated to BAL 40, and all Modwood products come with a 10 year limited warranty.
All in all, two fantastic Aussie products from a couple of refreshingly innovating companies, that the team at Sydney Beach Homes just can’t wait to put to good use for our busy clients looking for a manageable alternative to natural stone and timber.
At Sydney Beach Homes, we’re fans of a wide variety of architecture and decorative styles, which we’ll be featuring here on our blog from time to time. We thought we’d start with the quintessential Classic Australian Beach Home and offer some tips on how to get the style just right.
ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
Classic Australian beach homes, are typically of weatherboard construction, most often painted in white or soft shades borrowed from the coastal surroundings.
Gables are usually high with tiled or Colorbond roofing.
Go for a mix of ceiling heights internally. You might create an upper level in the eaves with dormer windows in parts of the home, while allowing ceilings in some of your living spaces to soar to the rafters.
Be sure to pay particular attention to windows – beach homes should be flooded with natural light, yet have the ability to shield rooms from the heat of the day. And of course, you need to make the most of any amazing views you may have. Coastal homes often locate the main living spaces on the upper levels to maximise the impact of available views, which also has the additional benefit of keeping the bedrooms cooler.
Louvered windows are a great way of capturing a little coastal breeze and filtering it through your home.
BRINGING THE OUTSIDE IN
Interiors should harmonise seamlessly with the outdoors, bringing you closer to nature and its soothing effects, while creating a greater feeling of space. You can get creative with folding, stacking or even garage style doors to open your living areas up to blend with your outdoor spaces.
Here are a couple of beautiful examples, that open the home front and back, effortlessly connecting the pool and gardens with the beach.
Blurring the boundaries of the indoors and outdoors lends itself particularly well to the kitchen.
Allowing your kitchen bench to extend out through a bi-fold or awning-style window to the outdoor entertaining area, creates a handy and sociable kitchen servery. This is a great way to connect the kitchen to the barbecue area, making it easy to pass food and drinks without continually having to move in and out of the house.
KEEPING CLEAN AND TIDY
Australian beach homes generally tend to facilitate a fairly active ocean-side lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean you have to live with half of the beach finding its way into your home.
Thinking carefully about your entrances and the facilities you place there will make your life a lot easier and keep your home a lot neater.
Build in storage areas by your entrance ways, where surf boards, beach toys and equipment, towels and beach bags etc. can be grabbed quickly and easily, and more importantly, deposited on the way back inside without trailing mess and clutter through the house.
Add some shelves, baskets or cupboards to store small items like thongs, sunscreen, hats and shades so you’re always ready to take advantage of an impromptu walk to the beach.
Beachside living can involve lots of larger toys and gadgets too, and they all need a home, so make sure you create ample storage for bicycles, jet skis, kayaks etc. etc. It’s a good idea to install a water source close by too, so you can hose things down before you put them away.
A beach home is the perfect environment to install an outdoor bathroom or shower area. You can make sure everyone is clean and sand-free before they step back in the house. Be sure to make it accessible from the front and the back the property. Having to trail through the house to use the outdoor shower, kind of defeats the object of your ingenious facility.
This clever design (far right) featured in House Beautiful magazine, allows access to an indoor bathroom from the garden.
COASTAL COLOURS
When selecting your colours, both internally and externally, it’s always best to create harmony with your particular environment. There are exceptions, but bright or bold colours can be particularly jarring and will detract from the serenity that is the trademark of a house by the ocean.
If in doubt, you simply cannot go wrong with white. This is the ultimate backdrop for your coastal look. Go for an all-over white on white theme, using contrasting materials and texture to create interest, or blend with sandy and pale ocean colours. White also looks incredibly fresh combined with zingy leafy greens, or if you plan to have a pool, carry highlights of refreshing light blues and aquas throughout your living spaces.
For a twist on the classic opt for deep blues or smoky greys as a base – or sandy coloured natural timber.
Remember, colours that look good on a paint swatch at your local hardware store may look completely different in the direct sunlight. Find place to test your colours and view them over several days under different lighting conditions to make sure you get it right.
Look out for our “Colours of our World” posts on our Facebook page for inspiration – www.facebook.com/pg/sydneybeachhomes/
INTERIOR STYLE
Typical beach home décor can conjure up images of overly twee, beachy styled cottages that almost look like caricatures, but for us, a practical coastal style really doesn’t mean overloading your home with every little beach related knick-knack you can get your hands on, or find washed up on the beach.
Classic coastal living is about serenity, embracing the elements and taking influence from the beach and the ocean. It’s certainly a casual lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean we can’t weave in a little sophistication too.
By adding just a few carefully chosen beach inspired items to a classically stylish design, these become statement pieces and add a welcome accent to the décor.
These elegant images from coastal-style.blogspot.com.au demonstrates this beautifully.
Beach living really lends itself to natural materials and fabrics, chalky paints, bleached timbers etc.
But don’t be afraid to add some contrast as well to avoid creating a jaded, clichéd beach-house style.
Mix in some contemporary pieces and finishes for a little drama and interest as well as the occasional antique or retro item. Beach house style should be personalised – it’s not one look that you must try to emulate at all costs – it should be very much your look and reflect the personality and lifestyle of you and your family.
IN SUMMARY
The key to creating a beautiful and functional beach home – or any home, in fact, is research. If you don’t have a definite idea of the style you want to create, spend lots of time poring through magazines, making Pinterest boards, collecting colour charts and pulling it all together to see how it looks. Once you have defined your colours, it’s a good idea to always take them shopping with you, as it’s really very difficult to keep a colour in your head. This will save a lot of wasted time, buying and returning things that don’t quite work with your scheme.
We just love to work with our clients’ ideas and help bring them to life, adding our own knowledge and expertise to surpass their initial expectations.
If you’d like to see what we can do together, give us a call…
[av_three_fifth min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=” mobile_display=”]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] We thought we’d kick off our blog with a little overview of Curl Curl (or Curly) as the locals call it. South Curl Curl is the Sydney beach suburb we have chosen to call home, so it has a special place in our hearts.
About Curl Curl
Located on Sydney’s northern beaches between Dee Why and Freshwater, North Curl Curl and South Curl Curl beaches blend into a 1.2 km stretch of beautiful sand dunes and surf. In fact, it is one of Sydney’s best surfing beaches, averaging 1.6m waves.
The northern part of the beach has a quiet lagoon that flows into the sea, which is a great area for kids, with its shallow water.
It’s mainly frequented by locals here, so it doesn’t get nearly as busy as the likes of Manly and Dee Why, but it is close enough for a short trip to either one to immerse yourself in a more bustling vibe.
Curly is a real natural beauty with its rocky headlands, sun-soaked beach, wonderful ocean pool and open parklands and reserve.
And we have our more than our fair share of breathtaking sunrises.
Living in Curl Curl
If you live here already, you’ll know just how special this place is.
If you’re looking to move to the beach, this may help you to decide if Curly is the right place for you.
This is a very residential suburb and is dominated by family homes, so it provides a great lifestyle for families. You’ll find very few apartment blocks here – instead, you will see a variety of residences from quintessential Australian beach houses, to contemporary luxury homes, making the most of the incredible views we have here.
The atmosphere is relaxed and casual, with a cluster of neighbourhood shops and cafes, parks, picnic areas and playgrounds.
Ocean fishing is a popular sport, as well as netball, softball and hockey, catered for at John Fisher Park alongside the lagoon.
You’ll find a list of our favourite spots as well as a list of local schools at the end of this post.
Swimming at Curl Curl
Double the pleasure – we have two of everything!!
Each end of the beach has its own surf life saving club, car park, café/kiosk and ocean pool, perfect for swimming laps and ideal for children, or less than confident swimmers.
The beaches are patrolled by lifeguards between September – April.
If you are planning to swim at the beach, make sure you stay between the flags, as there are several rips at any one time, the most notable one being the infamous ‘Garbage Bowl’ at the southern end of the beach.
We are both Patrol Captains at the South Curl Curl Surf Life Saving Club, so we’ll be there to look out for you!
North Rock Pool
This pool is pretty unique, as it is so tucked away into the cliff face, which overhangs the pool one side, and it has two big rocks in the pool itself forming a couple of ‘islands’. It’s also quite unusual to have an ocean pool like this on the northern end of a bay, which can make it vulnerable to heavy seas and swells off the south, so please take care when swimming here – and watch those little ones.
We particularly love this pool. It has a great 50m pool section, marked with lanes at the ends for lap swimming. A wall divides this section from a shallow paddling or wading area with a gradual walk into the water, emulating the natural walk into the ocean.
If, for you, all of this ocean activity is more of a spectator’s sport, just find a spot at Gusto on the Beach, where you can relax and watch the multitude of surfers, body boarders and ocean swimmers negotiate the rolling ocean waves, while sipping your favourite coffee.
Activities
Park Run
Meet up every Saturday at 7 am for the Park Run Curl Curl, where people of all ages come together and run for 5 km – no racing, no pressure – just fun!
The Nippers programme is designed to allow children over 5 to gradually learn about beach and water safety, lifesaving skills and teamwork, while making friends in a supportive environment on Sunday mornings, from October to April.
The North and South Curl Curl SLSCs have been going since 1922 and 1918 respectively and both are proud to report ‘no lives lost’ since their beaches have been patrolled.
South Curl Curl SLSC Nippers
South Curly is a family oriented club – these guys make it really fun and educational.
It’s also a very social club, holding regular Sunday breakfast barbeques on the promenade after Nippers.
Friday evening nippers and sippers as well as Sunday evening sippers are held often during the season.
The North Curly team really wants the kids to enjoy their Sundays at the beach, while developing their skills and they, too encourage all parents to get involved in training – and also as cooks at the weekly after-nippers barbeque.
Gusto on the Beach
Speciality coffee and café fare
South Curl Curl Surf Life Saving Club, Carrington Parade, South Curl Curl
02 9939 5689 Visit Website
Penny Lane Cafe
Fresh house made produce
1/31 Brighton Street, Curl Curl
02 9905 0022 Visit Facebook Page
Cooh Organic Coffee
Gourmet organic café fare
64-68 Pitt Road, North Curl Curl
P. 02 9939 8565 Visit Website
Curly’s On The Corner
Classic café fare with a kid’s corner
77 Pitt Road, North Curl Curl
02 9401 0195 Visit Facebook Page
Playgrounds & Recreation
John Fisher Park Playground & Playing Fields
Fenced in playground next to playing fields
Abbott Road, North Curl Curl
Google places category: SportsActivityLocation
Surf Reserve
Spacious playground behind the sand dunes of North Curl Curl beach
Surf Road, North Curl Curl
Google places category: SportsActivityLocation
Stirgess Reserve
Neighbourhood playground with plenty of shade and picnic tables
9 Stirgess Avenue, Curl Curl
Schools
Curl Curl North Public School
Co-ed, yrs K-6
Playfair Road, North Curl Curl
02 9905 1757 Visit Website
Ocean Secrets only beach-dwellers truly understand
Moving closer to the sea significantly improves your wellbeing. The seaside environment can actually reduce stress and encourage physical activity. Of course, we all feel this, but researchers studying the physiological benefits of coastal living are coming up with some compelling evidence. We’re pretty sure it has positive psychological benefits too.
You might get frustrated when your beach gets busy with day-trippers, but you appreciate the place you call home all the more after everybody’s gone.
You love the beach all year round – you know it’s not just for summer and love nothing more than rugging up for a brisk wintry walk on the water’s edge.
You crave that sense of calm that comes over you when you look at the water. Even being alone at the beach makes you smile in your heart – this is your special place. You somehow feel like this beach is yours and only yours – we all do!
You feel just a little sad for anyone that doesn’t live by the beach and can’t understand why people would choose to live anywhere else.
You can’t imagine life without the continuous soundtrack of the ocean waves.
You know you’ll never be short of something to do.
The sunrises and sunsets seem to look so much more magnificent at the beach – maybe because they are amplified by the ocean.
You take infinite pleasure in the natural delights the ocean has to offer, from rock pools, to sea creatures, to shells, sea glass and pretty stones.
You’re not wild about wearing shoes.
You never underestimate the power and unpredictability of the ocean and you constantly worry that visitors may not have the same appreciation and get into difficulty.
Nothing in the world tastes like fish & chips eaten by the sea, with your lungs full of salty air.
Can you imagine living anywhere else? We didn’t think so! 🙂
[/av_textblock]
0414 562 730
