New kitchen & dining in Leeming

Cathryn had been living in the same house in Leeming for 37 years. During that time there’d been a few updates, obviously, but they were mainly cosmetic for the kitchen. Like many older houses, Cathryn’s home lacked natural light and the practical flow associated with more modern designs.

The kitchen was too small and it had a very 80’s bar area attached, which was wasted space. There was a lot of dark 80’s brick and a large brick pillar obscuring the view to the backyard. Talking about her house, pre-renovation, Cathryn said, “The house and especially the kitchen wasn’t workable and I really needed it to be more open, light and workable. Which is what John achieved.”

So after 37 years, why renovate now?

Cathryn’s daughter, Kelly, had a large renovation done by 1DC, and Cathryn was able to meet John and his team while they were working on Kelly’s house.  Cathryn said, “I could see how good and easy John was making the renovation for Kelly. There were no hassles. Everything was on time. John’s very easy going. Sometimes it can be a bit daunting dealing with builders or tradespeople but John’s just so easy to get along with and he wants to make everything work for you. I could see that with Kelly. Seeing how it all turned out for Kelly made it an easy decision to get John and his team in to do the work on my own home.”

“It was a good experience. Yeah. It was great. There isn’t anything negative I can say.”

“Before the renovation, to plan it, I had a number of conversations with John and he interpreted everything into building plans. I was working on a budget, which John understood. We did a lot of planning for the kitchen until we got it right. We spent quite a bit of time working out how to do the pantry. I told John what I wanted and we sketched it out on a piece of paper. Then it was a matter of working out how it would be built and integrated into the kitchen. They came back with a design, which I wasn’t sure of, so I said, ‘Can we do it this way?’ because I didn’t want it to look like an obvious pantry. We got there in the end. John was great with that, helping you get everything right. The kitchen was made a lot more workable and a lot larger by extending it into the old bar area. The new design incorporated a lot more natural light. We got rid of the brick pillar and ripped up the 37-year-old slate flooring, which I would never be able to find any new tiles to match, and replaced that with a vinyl laminate hybrid. We replaced the old, heavy, crooked sliding doors, and put in all new cabinetry, which I love. I love my coffee station over there, where I don’t have to have kettles and toasters out on display. New kitchen bench. New drawers. And we put in the new concealed pantry, which is really good. I’m very happy with it. Thinking back to how the house was, it was a really good experience watching the renovation come together. You go from literally a demolition site to a beautiful liveable space six weeks later.”

It took just six weeks? Did you have to move out?

“Yeah, the entire renovation from start to finish took six weeks. We stayed in the front part of the house the whole time. We set up a microwave and a little cooking element in the laundry. It was fine. It wasn’t a huge problem at all.”

“I would recommend John. Absolutely.”

“John was here every day. Workers were here every day. I was never left wondering what was going on. It was the same when I was watching Kelly’s renovation being done. I took note of that, which was another reason I chose John to do my renovation. There’s nothing worse than if work starts and then it all comes to a standstill. It has to keep going, which it did. Hence, it was finished by the date it was supposed to. Everything was done absolutely to my satisfaction. I think it came down to a lot about planning really. Making sure you had your budget which was stuck to. A lot of planning. A lot of working. But John was so good with that side of it. He’s really good to work with and the result is just what I wanted.”