Jane and her husband, Richard, faced a wall of constraints.
Working from home, on an international schedule, in a house they were outgrowing, was interrupting family life. They loved their home and didn’t want to move, but there wasn’t the budget for a costly extension. They looked at backyard pods, but tight access, a small, sloping block and a number of obstacles to work around ruled those out. They explored off-the-shelf prefab garden rooms too, but the options they found were restrictive in design and too difficult to get onto the site.
And then they found the one solution to it all.
“We tried many other companies, but Greenspan were the only ones who could modify their design to fit our space.”
The space squeeze
With two teenage children, Jane and Richard were already starting to feel the squeeze in their three-bedroom home on Sydney’s Upper North Shore.
But bedroom space wasn’t the only issue. Richard works from home with clients who are based overseas. That often means evening calls, which he’d been taking from the makeshift office he had set up in their bedroom.
This wasn’t ideal for anyone. Early evening calls required the family to keep quiet during their time to relax. Late night calls would keep the household awake when they were trying to sleep. And at times, Jane, a shift worker, couldn’t even go to bed when she needed to.
“He needed somewhere away from the house where he could take evening calls and not be disturbed, or keep the rest of the family awake,” Jane explains.
They needed separation, privacy and space. They needed an extra room.
But creating one seemed to come with more problems than it solved. An extension came with a hefty price tag and months of disruption. Moving wasn’t an option they wanted to consider – they loved their home and its location. Adding a backyard building seemed logical, but their tricky block with difficult access and restricted space to put one seemed to rule that idea out at the first hurdle.
Every option came with a problem of its own.
Until one came with the solution.
The growing list
While cost was a huge constraint – a traditional extension would far exceed the budget – it was their site that presented the biggest challenge.
The block sloped from one side to the other, and the backyard itself was small with limited space and restricted access. Between the cost of conventional construction and the practicalities of building on such a site, an extension was off the table from the start.
But surely a detached space in the backyard, such as a pod or a prefab shed or studio, would solve this?
The couple started looking at options. And it turned out that this wasn’t as easy as they expected, either.
It wasn’t just a matter of finding a design they liked. It was finding one that would also fit the small space they had for it. And it was finding one that they could actually get into the backyard in the first place.
They looked at a number of backyard pod companies, but these came as pre-built structures that would need to be craned over the house. That wasn’t just expensive. With power lines running over the house, it was logistically impossible.
They then started exploring prefab garden room suppliers, but these came as set sizes and designs that either didn’t fit the available space or didn’t look the part. One came close, but required them to have their own forklift to unload on site.
At this point, the list of problems was getting longer.
But then they discovered the solution to them all.
“We tried many other companies, but Greenspan were the only ones who could modify their design to fit our space,” Jane tells us.
But it wasn’t just the dimensions that could be customised. Jane and Richard could start from a choice of designs and then tailor the details of the one they liked best to suit their site and style. And best of all, the building would be delivered as prebuilt flatpack panels that could be easily carried into the back garden upon delivery.
Problems (plural) solved.
The turning point
From there, the problems continued to dissolve… and the focus shifted to creating the building that would be just right for them.
“We visited their showroom and it was impressive how our needs were to be incorporated into the design,” Jane recalls. “The staff were very knowledgeable and quickly came up with a design that would fit our small, sloping block.”
The couple particularly appreciated the 3D design software, which helped them to see the building come together before settling on the final design. By experimenting with the many personalisation options available – from cladding and roofing to window and door styles, colours and positions – they could visualise what worked, rather than just imagine.
“They came up with a fantastic solution and design,” confirms Jane.
And this was a Melwood Mod 13.
Measuring approximately 3.6m x 3.8m, the Melwood’s flexible panel system allowed the footprint to be configured to suit the space set aside for it on their site, while giving them the room they needed. Built on an adjustable pier-mounted flooring system, the challenge of a side-to-side slope was, in fact, no challenge at all. And the Mod’s subtle nod to mid-century styling suited the architecture of their existing home.
Every challenge had been met with a practical solution, without compromising on the look they wanted. And Jane wouldn’t change a thing about the process of getting there.
“The team were friendly, reliable and knowledgeable, and I would recommend them to anyone.”
The transformation
Aside from solving the couple’s many problems, there was another benefit to building a detached space in the backyard.
The rear section of the garden had always been its least loved corner. Unattractive and largely unused, it was dominated by a big slab of concrete laid down by the home’s previous owners, an elderly couple who had used it for easy, level access to the back of the property. Practical for them, perhaps, but for Jane and Richard it was simply an awkward, hard expanse that didn’t really serve a purpose, and did little for the look of the garden.
Jane had often thought about pulling it up and returning the area to lawn or planting. But, in what was becoming a familiar theme, the numbers didn’t stack up. Removing the concrete and re-landscaping the space would have meant significant cost and effort, for a corner of the garden they were unlikely to get much use out of even then.
So, rather than spending a lot to gain very little, they found another way to make the space work for them.
The Mod transformed what had been an awkward, underused corner into a purposeful part of the backyard, giving the family an entirely new room and the garden a whole new look.
The separation
Two years later, and the Melwood Mod “has changed our lives completely”.
Richard now has the freedom to work in a separate space that allows phone calls at unsociable hours without disturbing the rest of the household.
For shift worker Jane, this means the rest she needs, when she needs it.
“I’m now getting more sleep and am able to access my bedroom when I need to without running the risk of appearing in a Teams call,” she jokes.
And the separation works for everyone. By having a dedicated space, Richard can detach work from family life. He can come inside for dinner, spend time with the family, then head back out to the Mod when it’s time to work. The rest of the family can relax in the evenings without having to keep quiet when the next international call comes in.
And as a workspace, it’s far more pleasant than cramming into a corner of the bedroom.
“He has room for a pull-out sofa, his standing desk and an armchair,” Jane tells us. “He loves looking out into the garden when he works.”
The solution
But it’s also a space that’s evolved into more than an office.
“We can have visitors to stay, and they have the privacy of their own room,” confirms Jane.
The pull-out sofa means it can double as an occasional guest room for interstate visitors, and the teenage children have already made use of it for sleepovers.
And the best bit of all?
“We also didn’t need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars moving,” says Jane.
That matters because relocating was never something they wanted, despite feeling the squeeze as the family grew.
“We were outgrowing our 3 bedroom house but didn’t want to move as we love our location.”
Because they added a Melwood, they didn’t have to. They gained the room they needed while staying in the house they loved, in the location they didn’t want to leave.
It was a sloping site with limited space that couldn’t easily be reached. An unused corner of the garden with a new purpose. A workspace that keeps the peace. A bedroom that can finally be used for sleeping. A spare room when they need one. A place for the kids to escape to. And, at last, a good night’s sleep.
Many problems, yes.
But all solved by one Melwood.
| Design | Melwood Mod 13 |
| Size | 3.6m x 3.8m |
| Add-ons | – |
| Cladding | Board and batten |
| Doors | Double sliding in white aluminium |
| Windows | White aluminium |
| Roofing | Surfmist Colorbond® |
All measurements are approximate.
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