There are some amazing locals in the Northern Illawarra.
One of them is Austinmer builder Nathan Gale. Nathan and his company Relyon Constructions has taken out the prestigious Custom Built Home $1 million- $2.5 million category at the recent HIA NSW Awards, AND had their winning Bondi home featured on the front page of the Saturday Telegraph’s Home Liftout.
The home is undeniably beautiful. Nathan says the client runs a travel business, and wanted to capture the feeling of a luxury resort. “The end result was special,” he says, “It achieved a real tranquility in what is a bustling part of Sydney.
“It’s also a small block but we managed three bedrooms and loads of storage space by paying particular attention to detail, so it looks fantastic.”
Nathan says early in the build, the architect left the job, which meant they had to apply the clients changes directly to the project. “Turning verbal requests into reality can sometimes be challenging,” says Nathan, “but we did it!
He says it was rewarding to win considering it was a tough job. “The earth at Bondi is so sandy it was difficult to retain, so we worked super-hard just to get the project out of the ground! The neighbours are built right on the boundary, which also made things complicated, and then there was the parking. Finding one park was a win, let alone parking for four tradies!”
I knew at the beginning this was going to be really cool, and as it turns out, it was! We’ve built countless terraces in the inner west, but this is certainly our grandest design yet!”
Nathan says he couldn’t believe it when he saw the home in the Telegraph.
“I went down the pick up the paper as I usually do. I certainly did a double-take! It made me think that if the home was cool enough to go on the cover, it might be cool enough to win. And we did!!”
Having lived with his wife Melissa and their family in the Northern Illawarra for 15 years, Nathan says there is nowhere else he’d rather be.
“I’d love to get more work down this way,” he says. “There are so many incredible homes being built in the Northern suburbs, it would be great to build something amazing here. But I’m also happy just living down here. You couldn’t get me out. It’s certainly a little slice of heaven!”
