Wellington & Christchurch
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Pauline Street Home Extension

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Every home needs a ‘heart’ where whānau can gather and entertain, and that’s exactly what the homeowners of Pauline Street were lacking. They reached out to Switched On Building Solutions for support with extending and re-designing their kitchen, dining, living, entrance and laundry spaces.

A 1950s design, Pauline Street’s kitchen and dining spaces were long and narrow and provided the only exit to the backyard, acting like a hallway and causing the family to always be on top of one another. The adjacent laundry also had poor storage and a lot of clutter. The family wanted to create a more liveable and enjoyable home, with a beautiful, spacious ‘heart’ that functioned well for everyone.

The Switched On Building Solutions team worked to bring the homeowners’ vision to life, adding a 30 metre-square extension to create a formalised main entry area and a large open plan kitchen/dining area. The project included re-roofing the entire property, installing new double-glazed joinery into the extended area, installing a new kitchen and laundry joinery, as well as new flooring in the extension and laundry. The team also painted the interior and exterior, built a kwila entrance decking area and moved the overhead powerlines underground to improve the entryway and parking space.

The whānau wanted work to progress quickly, which meant working around the harsh winter elements. The team was faced with an unprecedented storm with extremely high winds that hit while installing the new roof. In the middle of the night, Operations Manager Dave Williams got a call from the homeowners alerting him of a leak. He responded immediately, gathering the people and equipment needed to work in the middle of a blustery stormy night to get the property weather tight.

The team also faced an unanticipated delay on the roofing works, which risked the job exceeding the proposed timeline. Dave responded again by pulling together an ‘oversized’ team for an intensive 2 to 3 week period, successfully getting the project back on track.

Extensions are large, complex projects that can be stressful, but Switched On Building Solutions spent a lot of time up front providing advice and initial budgets to support the client to secure finance. They were clear on how the extension project would be managed and progressed at each stage from the outset. Setting those expectations upfront kept the working relationship healthy through the inevitable trying times on a project like this; it’s never easy living within a work site for months.

The highlight for the Switched On Building Solutions team was meeting with the homeowners in their newly renovated whare. Everyone naturally gravitated to their new stone-top island for a kōrero, while their son was cooking dinner in the kitchen and their daughter was engrossed in her homework sitting in the new lounge space. It was clear that the homeowners’ vision and the execution had been a great success; the area created for them was functioning exactly – if not better – than anticipated!

The homeowners are thrilled with the project results and the wonderful relationship they developed with Switched On Building Solutions throughout their extended time working together.

“Super stoked with the extension and renovation of our home and to say what we envisaged, and that the result met our expectations is an understatement. Thank you Wade and Dave for the guidance, honesty and professional etiquette throughout each stage. Not forgetting the lads on the tools (Mike Snr, Jnr & Jack), site supervisors (Nathan and John) and sub trades. We look forward to using you again for our next project and highly recommend Switched On Building Solutions to anyone out there looking for a trustworthy outfit with high standards of workmanship for their building projects.”

For more information about how we can support your home renovation vision, get in touch!