Building projects you’ll love, and love building together – since 1980.
Project of the month
North Bondi Residence III
This delightful beach home overlooking Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach was in dire need of a freshen-up, a decade after Horizon first renovated it for our clients’ family. The brief was to introduce more light into the home, and make it more relevant to a young and growing family, than the previous layout, which had been a rental for the last ten years or so.
Collaborating closely with interior designers Handelsmann & Khaw, and also having our fashion designer client intimately involved, we set about changing the spaces to create a bright, airy home, with great access between the floors and the rooms themselves. Extensive remedial work was also required to the home that had clearly been extnded, modified and renovated many times in its almost century of life to date. A full refurbiushment of the bathrooms, kitchen, laundry and bedrooms followed, including a new staircase replacing the existing spiral & new smart home has brought it back to become a beautifully crafted, and subtle but elegantly detailed family home for many years to come.
Interiors by Handelsmann and Khaw
Photos by Simon Whitbred
Blog
We are a people business, and therefore, we are always looking for good people to join our team. Interviews for positions at Horizon are always robust conversations, and I enjoy meeting like-minded people that share our values, have a passion for building, and a drive for the pursuit of excellence – irrespective of whether we end up employing those people or not, and sometimes its just a matter of not yet…
I was recently in an interview, which had gone very well to that point, and was drawing to a close. I asked if they had any more questions for us? To my surprise, the candidate asked what the biggest weakness Horizon has. Initailly taken aback, as I had never been asked this in the hundreds of interviews that I may have conducted in the last 30 years or so, I had to briefly collect my thoughts, and then I answered in the only way I know – the truth.
“We’re too honest”, I answered. And then I explained that we often tell people our honest opinion of time, cost and quality up front, which can scare some people away. We have clients and or architects and designers tell us “But XYZ Builders said they can do it for much less”. It’s most often not a fair comparison of apples vs. apples, and our thorough and robust process, and decades of experience amongst our team help to minimise our clients’ risk and allow them to make informed decisions sometimes makes us look “expensive”. It can push people away at the early stages of the journey.
“It’s very easy to win every job if you just tell people what they want to hear.”
Quite often though, clients come back after going through a process with another builder, who after spending more time actually doing their homework comes in at the same or even higher price and/or programme. Sometimes they don’t come back, but we bump into them years later, and admit “you were right, we should have listened to you…”.
Over the years, we’ve employed and collaborated with so many great people, that have enabled us to build robust and sophisticated systems, a high performance culture based on family values, and develop long term relationships with all our stakeholders, in order to give our clients and designers the optimal advice and service, to the best of our ability, whether we think it’s what they want to hear, or not. Sometimes our transparency and organisation scares people away, but we’d much rather that than the alternative.
So in fact, I would argue that our biggest “weakness” is also our greatest strength, one that has served us well for the last 44 years in business, and will do so for another 44, and then some!
Best regards,
David.
Employee of the month
This month we meet one of Horizon dedicated carpenters, Noah Jedwood, who joined Horizon straight out of school, and completed his apprenticeship with Horizon at the beginning of this year. Noah continues to grow and develop his skils and knowledge, going from strength to strength!
How long have you been at Horizon?
I have been at Horizon for four and half years.
What do you love about your job?
Being on a job from start to finish and seeing the finished product.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m working on a house in Centennial Park, it’s a substantial renovation of a home, and we’re pretty much renovating everything – kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms – the lot!
What do you enjoy about working with architects and designers?
Seeing the vision they have come to life.
Where were you born?
Sydney.
What has been your greatest professional achievement to date?
Finishing a house in Paddington, where we had big issues with creating space, and excavating a basement in where we had problems with the water table.
What’s the most useful thing you’ve learned throughout your career?
The ability to adapt and solve problems that may arise. Three people you’d have over for a BBQ?
Donald Trump, Tom Brady, & Buddy Franklin.
Favourite dessert?
Chocolate Brownies. What do you do outside of work?
I go bouldering most afternoons and play cricket on the weekends.
Recent news
We are super proud to announce that we have entered into a new sponsorship with the Jewish Communal Appeal. The JCA is an integral part of the Jewish Community, and we are delighted to play a part in helping them promote Jewish continuity and Jewish identity through its 24 supported organisations, particularly at this time.
2024 Horizon Golf Championship
We are delighted to announce that our annual golf championship will be held on November 14th, 2024 at Macquarie Links Golf Club.
This is the 10th time we have run the event, and we are looking to build on our success from last year, where we raised over $30,000 for the Sydney Children’s Hospital Fountain and Lifehouse RPA. This year, we’re aiming to increase that and pass $40,000!!!
If you’d like to play on your own, as a pair, a team of four, or even better – sponsor the event, please contact us here.
See below a current list of logos of our generous sponsors. All we’d ask is that you consider their services the next time you are looking out for some!
Ice baths are all the rage at the moment. It is believed that after an ice bath, your body temperature rises, and blood flow returns to your tissues. Ice baths may help improve alertness, reduce pain, and decrease inflammation. As a result, they may offer health benefits like reduced muscle soreness, pain relief, and improved mood.
We love this Odin ice bath, where you can be healthy and look great doing it as well!
Under Construction
We have recently commenced on site a very exciting project to bring ten townhouses back to their former glory, with an exciting design by Shand Studio and MPN Engineers. Some of the complexities involved are heritage considerations, as well as scheduling 10 kitchens, 10 laundries, and 34 bathrooms into the tight programme! Our team are excited for the challenge, and looking forward to handing this over to our clients, whom we have worked with on multiple projects over the past decade.
The finishinig touchaes are coming together at our Centennial Park renovation, where we’ve been collaborating with Ergo Architecture, Millard Design Studio and Partridge Engineers for the past 12 months. We have made significant modifications inside this grand home, all within heritage constraints, as well as added another level inside the roof space, and completely rebuilt the garage with a studio on top (much to the delight of our clients’ teenage son!). The new pool and updating of all the landscaping will make this a family home for the ages.
Horizon is proud to be associated with, and give back to the following communal organisations, amongst others!
Horizon – Building projects you’ll love, and love building together.
