A historical Gold Coast home meets modern family living

Keith Dudman, who invested in properties in both the Gold Coast and Miami, had a habit of naming locations after his closest family members. When he built this particular property, he decided to include his wife Joanna’s name within the front porch’s railing.
Intrigued by the home’s history, Gold Coast renovation specialist Martin Peirone was thrilled when the new homeowners offered him the opportunity to renovate it into a space that better suited their lifestyle. With two children and a dog to keep them busy, homeowners Tony and Jess wanted to work with a company who could manage the project for them. Refresh’s design and build process offered a simple solution.

House renovation specifications

“Tony and Jess contacted Refresh at the early stages of planning and the brief was pretty clear from the get-go”, explains Martin. “They already knew that they wanted to sacrifice the small study, which led to the deck and the adjacent bedroom, to create an east-west flow open plan living area. They wanted to use the second living room as the new master bedroom. To do this, a new foyer needed to be created. Essentially, we were knocking around the interior of the house to form a different layout.”
In addition to the new layout, Tony and Jess wanted to re-clad a section of their house exterior and add in a dog door which would lead out to the patio.
When Martin met with the pair, they already had a design in place. However, Martin and his team worked with them to refine aspects of their design so that it could easily be achieved within their budget. From there, he provided them with a fixed-quote and timeline before assigning his team to the project. 

The renovation build

To establish the new layout, Martin’s team reconfigured the entryway’s front door so that it led to the living room. Walls were removed and replaced with arches, resulting in a unique and spacious living area. They also added large windows and sliding doors to the living area which, along with the new dog door, now lead out to the patio. 
The Gold Coast team also plastered over the home’s existing ceiling beams and matched them to the style of the house. Once they had updated a specified section of the house exterior with weatherboard cladding, they passed the remainder of the project back to the homeowners who wanted to carry out the interior decorating themselves.

The work was completed to a high standard. (There was) great communication throughout and they were always open and agreeable to variations that cropped up along the way

Final result

“We estimated that the project would take five weeks but it came in ahead of schedule in three-and-a-half weeks”, tells Martin. “When the work was done, the whole family (including the dog) were very happy as they were all able to use not only the inside but the deck area as well, due to the new sliding doors.”
When asked what his favourite features of the newly updated home are, Martin searches for an answer before simply stating, “All of it!”.  
“The customers love it and I think it looks really good as well. Now that the customers have carried out the final painting and decorating, I think it looks amazing.” 
Jess confirms this, saying:
“The work was completed to a high standard. (There was) great communication throughout and they were always open and agreeable to variations that cropped up along the way.”
“Historically, it’s one of the most significant houses in the area”, notes Martin, adding: “It was a privilege to be able to work on it.” 

Get in touch

If you would like to discuss your home renovation ideas with a specialist, please get in touch to schedule a free consultation with your local Refresh Renovations specialist.