Customer Experiences - The perfect home for a growing family

The Smith family knew they would run out of space as their children grew up, but they just didn't want to move. The Solution, Starting all over again.

The Smith family love living in their home in Miranda - the kids are happy at the local school and friends are close by. Mark works for the NSW Police Force and Louise is cabin crew for Qantas and so living near Mascot airport is very handy.

Although the original house was fine for a family with young children, Mark and Louise knew they would need an extra room later on when the kids became teenagers. After looking at a few other areas, however, they realised they didn't want to move.

They contemplated renovating but this would also have meant extending the home - an even more expensive project than moving, they discovered, so they began looking at various builders and with a clear budget in mind they narrowed their choices down.

The Bellevale Series of homes from the Clarendon Residential Range stood out as their favourite and the Bayview home in particular had everything they were looking for. Good sized bedrooms, plenty of casual living areas including an upstairs rumpus for the kids.

The Smiths already had a lovely pool in the backyard which they were keen to keep and so after much "homework" they decided to proceed with the Bayview. They kept the design but chopped the back room off the design in order for the house to fit on the block.

"It was a little daunting having our home knocked down but we were so looking forward to a home where everything was brand new plus all the extra room," says Louise.

"We found somewhere close by to rent and, although we knew it was only temporary, it was a little crowded at times with the kids bunking in together but you just have to remember that it's for short time. In our case, it was just six months."

The whole building process went relatively smoothly and the Smith's customer service person Melissa Mcgee was always willing to chase things up and find the answers to their questions.

"We really appreciated being kept in the loop," says Louise. "The construction side of things was also smooth. It was handy to rent nearby so that we could see our home's progress but you can't get too obsessed with it all. You still have to continue with everything else going on in your life."

Louise says that it was fun picking the tiles and the colour scheme for the house and thinks they did a pretty good job for people who are not experts.

"The range is quite good and we received excellent from the colour consultant. The day we got the keys was very exciting and the kids were a little overwhelmed because the house seemed 50 big compared to where we had been renting.

"They have had to get used to having their own bedrooms again but that didn't take too long and they love having the upstairs rumpus to play their games in and watch their own videos."

It was really special for the Smith family to spend Christmas 2005 in their new home with plenty of room to entertain family and friends, Louise reports that there is still some decorating to do but says that this will give the family time to live in the home for a while before making some of the decisions.

"We have now been in for a while and it still seems extremely spacious. Of course we now have more large rooms to furnish so it will probably take some time to complete the interior decorating, but that is probably a good thing because it will give us time to live in the house and work out where to put what.

"We are very glad we went with the decision to knockdown and rebuild and were relieved that the whole process was relatively simple. Most importantly, the end result is a home that we love and are proud of and we feel secure now in the knowledge that it will cater for us and our children, both now and in the years ahead,"