The heritage listed 1904 house had undergone numerous renovations over the years. Our clients, wanted to upgrade the existing house, add in a secondary garage, add a small studio space and upgrade the landscaping with a reasonable but modest budget. We gave them a sketch design that met their brief which they were happy with but in seeing the true potential of the site we went out on a limb and gave them another option demonstrating the full potential of the site and opening their eyes to a new way of living. Not really having greatly thought of the alternates or possibilities, our clients were blow away by the proposal and it snowballed from there. We basically reworked the whole house and reoriented the spaces to accommodate a growing family and a more modern lifestyle that was specifically tailored to our clients. The final budget ended up significantly higher but our clients could see the real value of what we were proposing and were happy to revisit and increase the budget. I truly believe it?s an architects job to go above and beyond to help our clients realise the true value and potential of their site. Often clients are unaware of the possibilities or, might need a little nudge to help them to reconsider any preconceptions they might have. At the end of the day, clients engage us for our opinions and experience but a house should first and foremost be for our clients, not our egos. These were dream clients too, nearly everything we threw at them (within reason) they t...