Jarratt Hadid

Most Sydney homes can carry a second storey house extension, but that answer only holds once someone has looked under the floor and inside the walls. Footings, wall framing or brickwork, and the existing roof structure decide whether the build is straightforward or whether it needs underpinning, new steel and reworked load paths. A structural engineer's assessment, not a floor plan, is what settles it. Cost follows the same logic. Two homes with the same 80 square metre addition can land a...

Plan kitchen renovations in Sydney in the order the trades work, not the order the showroom shows you. Cabinetry and stone are the last decisions, not the first. What comes first is the wall you want moved, where the waste pipe sits, and whether the switchboard can carry an induction cooktop. In older homes around Coogee, Randwick and the Inner West, most cost surprises come from behind the cabinets. Lifting old floor coverings in a 1930s semi or a 1960s walk-up unit can turn up patched...

Small Bathrooms Can Still Work Hard Many bathrooms in older homes and apartments around Coogee, Randwick and Bondi are on the compact side, and a well-planned renovation can often make a small bathroom feel noticeably more usable without moving a single wall. The gains usually come from layout, fixture selection and smarter storage, not extra floor area, which can be good news for your budget and build time, though the right approach will always depend on the specific layout and condition of...