Escape to the Hills with Aleks and Tarra’s Coastal Inspired Eastwood 36.

Spend a few minutes scrolling through @_oureastwoodbuild and you’ll quickly be inspired (and in awe) of Aleks and Tarra’s dreamy, double-storey family home.

After years of living 15kms north-west of Sydney’s city centre, they began to realise their family of five needed more room to move as their school-aged children were growing older and wanting their own space.
They toyed with the idea of buying an established place, but knew that ultimately, they’d never be completely happy with the layout and design of existing properties on the market.

Deep down, they knew building would provide them with the flexibility to create the home they’d always envisioned for their family.

As a child, Tarra would often spend weekends visiting her Father up in the Hills and it was over these years that she developed a soft spot for the area’s laid-back lifestyle and community feel.

At the beginning of their search, Aleks and Tarra started to look at house and land packages and developer’s releasing land across the region to see what would work for their family’s needs.

It was the developer’s big vision for the Hills area; new schools, shopping centres, parks and sporting facilities and small business opportunities that sold it for them in the end.

“Aleks suggested building to me and I just thought, you know what? Let’s do it! We didn’t even really think it through, we put our name down for blocks we were interested in and we happened to get one of the blocks we liked”, Tarra says.

Initially, Aleks and Tarra had placed a deposit, gained council approval, and completed their home’s selections with another builder; but after experiencing the devastating loss of Aleks’ Father, they soon realised they weren’t dealing with the kind of company they wanted to be building with and they no longer loved the floor plan the original builder had designed for them.

After days, nights and weekends of going back and looking at floor plans, standard inclusions and customer reviews, Aleks and Tarra came across Simonds. They decided to head into a Simonds Display Centre where they met with a New Home Specialist who made them instantly feel right at home and listened to what they were looking for in a family home.

As big entertainers, it was the functional layout of the Eastwood 36 design, particularly the kitchen, dining and living, that initially caught Aleks and Tarra’s attention.

Due to the slope on their block, a split level was incorporated into the design, leading from the entrance through to the living area, where you’re then met with soaring 3.6m high ceilings.

The result is a light-filled, airy heart of the home that opens out to the backyard through large stacker doors, creating a beautiful indoor-outdoor flow.

Along with the perfect, open layout of their communal area, must-haves for their family home included a rumpus room for the kids, a butler’s pantry, plenty of storage, a freestanding bath in the master ensuite and a guest bedroom with a powder room for visitors.

Upstairs, the master walk-in robe was moved to behind the bed, creating space for a grand ensuite with a freestanding bath, shower ledge, rain shower heads, double vanity and stunning floor to ceiling tiles.

According to Tarra, she was able to have full reign over the interior choices, as long as they added a theatre room for Aleks. And while Aleks likes to take credit for the choice of the terrazzo Castello Silver Fox Matt tiles in their master ensuite, Tarra assures us it was all her (but she’ll let him have it!).

With such attention to detail in styling every corner of the home, it’s hard to believe they hadn’t always envisioned a coastal look for their home. It was only after a few Complying Development Certificate (CDC) and council approval setbacks with their planned darker selections, that they were inspired to go from ultra modern interiors to more of a relaxed and contemporary, coastal feel.

When asked if they had one tip for anyone looking to embark on the building journey, it’s work out what you need and want in terms of design and layout and look for a floor plan that will suit this vision.

Also, don’t be afraid to ask questions, personalise your floor plan and upgrade your selections. For Aleks and Tarra, they wanted to make sure they loved their internal selections and were able to splurge on features they really wanted.

They took advantage of style promotions on offer at the time, which meant they saved big on a range of features, from a driveaway and dimmable downlights to flooring, Caesarstone benchtops and floor to ceiling tiles.

After just over a year spent living in their new home, Aleks and Tarra have big plans for a grand alfresco with an outdoor kitchen, BBQ and lounge to suit their love of smoking meat, homemade pizza and bread. But for the time being, they’ve enjoyed taking time out to celebrate big milestones in their new home, like hanging beautiful decorations and having friends and family over for stress-free Christmas celebrations.

Overall, if they were to give one parting piece of wisdom, it would be to try and not stress too much throughout the journey. “If there are any issues at all, that’s what you have a Customer Relationship Coordinator for; they’re there to help and sort it all out for you. Try and enjoy the process, at the end of the day, you’re going to have a beautiful home” Tarra says.

For more design inspiration, home organisation tips or to take a closer look at all of their beautiful selections, follow along at @_oureastwoodbuild