Life got in the way of one couple unlocking the full potential of their family home
WORDS JESSICA MAIRS PHOTOGRAPHY CHRIS WANES
Donna and Dean Adams moved into their 100-year-old home in the suburb of Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, 17 years ago, eager to get going with a renovation project. But they put their plans on hold while their careers took off and they had two sons, Ben, 14, and Max, 12.
By 2018, and with the boys on the cusp of secondary school, the idea of adding an extra floor to the bungalow and remodelling the separate rooms into an open-plan layout became pressing. ‘Everything was falling apart,’ says Donna. ‘The rooms were small and the toilet was next to the dining room.’
A firm of architects drew up plans, but Donna, 48, who works in tech sales, and IT architect Dean, 55, found the proposal difficult to visualise. To get a better idea of how it would look they asked architectural designer Jeffrey Baikie from a different practice to create a 3D model, which enabled them to realise they were unhappy with the layout. At this point they asked him to take over the project. ‘The model posed questions for Donna and Dean,’ says Jeffrey. ‘As a result, the staircase came further towards the front door, which provides more space for the bedroom at the front of the house and the TV room below.’
The staircase has a flight of open risers so that the rooflight above brightens the front hall. Getting its dimensions right was crucial. ‘Dean is tall and the minimum clearances for a staircase would have meant him hitting his head,’ says Jeffrey.
The neighbours were planning to renovate at the same time, so the two projects were designed by Jeffrey, built by the same contractor and run in tandem. The exterior of the new first floors mirror each other, preserving the symmetry of the original design. Donna and Dean’s home has a small section of weatherboard cladding, while their neighbours chose render, but the sides of both houses are painted pale grey with white details, and the roofs have basalt-coloured shingles.
The timber-and-steel frame of the first floor cantilevers, creating slightly more space above than below and almost doubling the area of the family’s house from 87sqm to 162sqm. There’s room for all three bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs.
Donna and Dean chose to sacrifice having an attic in favour of generously high ceilings
