Your Clarendon: The Cronulla White House

Cassandra lives with her husband and three sons in their Cronulla knockdown rebuild Australian Contemporary Beachside home.

“We have been on this block for 14 years in a 1950s’ fibro home and we’d had plans to renovate, but trying to get council approval was becoming a nightmare and it felt like we were getting nowhere. Then, we noticed Clarendon were building an estate down the road at Green Hills and these homes were going up so quickly and were so beautiful, it got us thinking about taking the project home route.

We realised very quickly that we were going to get so much more for our money doing a knockdown rebuild with Clarendon, than to continue trying to renovate or buy a new home in the area. My only hesitation was that what we wanted aesthetically didn’t match my preconceived idea of what you could do with the facade of a project home. I guess I had in my mind that you had to stick to one colour combination, and I’m personally not a fan of multiple shades on one facade. But, after finding out that there were bespoke options for colours, we were sold.

Once we’d decided, I became obsessed with the process! We knew we wanted all white. It was quite funny telling our Colour Consultant this… Every colour question she asked had the same answer, ‘white!’. She was really onboard with our vision though, and it set the tone for the rest of the build.

I spent a lot of time in the display centres trying to decide on a floor plan. I even ducked into the displays of competitor companies and checked with every builder in the area just to be absolutely sure, but nothing compared. We kept coming back to one plan: the Clarendon Oceanside, it just fit our block and lifestyle perfectly. The only alteration we made was a flip of the floorplan so that the alfresco area lead seamlessly on to our existing pool.

When it came to choosing the final touches, I had accumulated a lot of inspiration. I had heaps of boards on Pinterest, but I also went through the display homes with a fine-toothed comb taking photos of everything I loved, ready for when choosing day came. We were really organised when we arrived for that (I can’t stress the importance of organisation enough here!). It’s a long process because they want to make sure everything has been hand picked - we were there for 11 hours! They made us lunch and everything. We took the Sapphire Inclusions option and took full advantage of the Summer of Free offerings.

The whole process from knockdown to move-in was nine months, and we couldn’t have asked for a better transition. It’s weird because even though we’re in this brand new house, it feels so familiar to me. We have photos of the boys as babies playing in the same backyard, and we love the street and the area… it really feels like I’ve lived here forever.

The media room is definitely my sons’ favourite room. In fact, because it exists we were able to splurge on a new king lounge in one of the living spaces - we knew they would never be on it! But, my absolute favourite place in the house is at the kitchen island bench. Looking straight out onto a beautiful outdoor space while the boys have their breakfast at the bench, that’s my ‘I’m home’ moment.”

Discover our Display Home and Speak to our Experts

Visiting one of our Display Homes, is the best way to start your home-building journey, regardless of whether you are looking to build a new home, or planning a knock-down rebuild of your existing home.

Visit clarendon.com.au for a full list of locations and to make an enquiry or call us on 1800 810 295. 

Take a walk through our Virtual Tours to experience our homes from the comfort of your lounge.

All photos courtesy of Cassandra, @thesuburbanspy