Residing in their Verbena Avenue home for 12 years, the McIntyre’s decided it was time to renovate to accommodate a growing family.

After engaging an architect to draw up plans, they contacted ETA Constructions to help them transform the dark, damp area under the house into a light and airy parent’s retreat and family break-out space with a large entertaining deck.

Ezra explains: “The owners wanted to convert unused space within the existing home into a functional sanctuary using materials that would aid natural heating and cooling.”

The house is on a sloping block so one of the first challenges was to address the poor drainage that was causing a mould issue in the downstairs area. ETA Constructions excavated the high side of the house and built a block retaining wall with waterproofing and drains to divert water around the house rather than underneath it. Once drainage was no longer an issue, full excavation and demolition commenced.

The house was supported with props to allow a new opening to be created. An excavator was then brought in to carve away soil and old construction materials to provide a fresh canvas on which to build.

As you can see from the images, we dropped the floor height considerably by excavating under the existing foundations and creating new underpinnings for all the footings. With the new space set to have high ceilings, all ground works including pipework for the master ensuite were carried out before the pouring of a new slab floor embedded with river pebbles. Special grinders and polishers were brought in to grind the surface smooth to create a luxurious, hard wearing polished concrete floor.

Where there used to be an unusable laundry and storage space with poor airflow, now there’s a fresh, bright and airy master bedroom, ensuite, walk-in wardrobe, plus a spacious family room/parent’s retreat with adjoining storeroom. Bi-fold doors along the full width of one wall were added to the family room and a large deck was constructed. This area is now perfect for entertaining family and friends or simply reading a book, studying or enjoying a movie.