Inspired renovation wins MBA award

Inspired Building Group’s renovation of a four-bedroom townhouse in Lawson, with plans designed by Tim Zuber from Quattro Architecture, won the Master Builders ACT 2022 award for ‘Renovation/Extension less than $250,000’ – and it’s clear to see why.

Working within the building’s existing footprint, Steve Kolak from Inspired Building Group says the brief was to make better use of an underutilised garage space to create an open plan living area and enhance the home’s liveability.

“The townhouse had a long tandem garage, and part of the brief was to shorten the garage and extend the living area,” Steve says.

“We pinched one garage space and included that as part of the living area … We added a new window in the former garage space and made the ground floor more open plan.”

With Tim’s design, the living area was increased from 174.02 to 188.12 sqm and the garage decreased from 39.11 to 25.01 sqm.

While Steve says he is extremely proud of the whole transformation, his favourite aspect is the open-plan kitchen.

“There was a wall with walk-in pantry and we demolished that and made that one big open space,” he explains.

“We moved some doorways and added a bathroom downstairs. We reconfigured the existing powder room and toilet and reconfigured the laundry to create a new bathroom and a laundry that made better use of the available space.”

A striking feature of the new bathroom is the custom vanity the client sourced from a Melbourne company, along with a solar skylight and a custom glass shower screen.

Steve is also proud of “the little details that probably aren’t seen” – such as a custom cavity sliding door unit and the kitchen bench support featuring spotted gum legs. But wait, there’s more!

“The client also wanted an outdoor entertaining area so we built a timber deck off the living area.”

The 25 sqm deck flows seamlessly from the open plan living area via the oversized commercial aluminium glazed sliding door unit that was built on site.

Read the full story and see more photos online at canberraweekly.com.au