A Personal First Home Transformation

Renovated by Simone prior to joining reimagined habitat

This deep energy retrofit in Australia transformed a cold, inefficient brick veneer unit into a warm, healthy and high performance family home — while helping shape the design philosophy that now underpins reimagined habitat.

The project holds a deeply personal significance. It was Simone’s very first home, and the renovation she undertook with her family became the foundation of her passion for healthy, energy-efficient and comfortable living.

Before the renovation, the unit reflected many of the problems still common in Australian housing today. The original building had no insulation, single-glazed aluminium windows, halogen lighting throughout and an extremely poor 0.8-Star energy rating. The home was freezing during winter, overheated in summer and expensive to run.

Determined to create a healthier and more comfortable environment for her family, Simone undertook a comprehensive deep energy retrofit that stripped the home back to its core so the building envelope and internal layout could be fundamentally improved.

Every wall, ceiling and floor was upgraded with new insulation, dramatically improving thermal performance and reducing unwanted heat loss and heat gain throughout the year.

At a time when high-performance windows were barely available in Australia, Simone imported double-glazed uPVC windows from Germany with a U-value of 1.1 — significantly outperforming standard local products available at the time and dramatically improving thermal comfort within the home.

The renovation also carefully reconfigured the internal layout. Without increasing the footprint, the modest two-bedroom, one-bathroom unit was transformed into a modern three-bedroom, two-bathroom family home with improved functionality, natural light and stronger connection to the outdoor areas.

Sustainability and healthy materials informed every design decision throughout the retrofit, including:

• LED lighting throughout
• Energy-efficient appliances
• Water-efficient fixtures and fittings
• Low-VOC paints for healthier indoor air quality
• Livos natural oils used to finish the timber flooring
• A 1.5kW solar PV system

The results were extraordinary. Even after the family grew from two adults to a busy household of four, with Simone also working from home, energy consumption dropped dramatically:

• Before renovation: 21.5 kWh/day
• After renovation: 6.2 kWh/day

The completed retrofit achieved an impressive 8.4-Star energy rating, transforming the unit from an uncomfortable and inefficient dwelling into a healthy, low-energy and highly liveable family home.

The project has since been opened to the public multiple times as part of Sustainable House Day, helping demonstrate how existing Australian homes can be successfully transformed through thoughtful, performance-focused renovation.

The Vermont Deep Energy Retrofit has also been featured in both The Fifth Estate and Sanctuary Magazine as an example of successful sustainable renovation and energy-efficient retrofit design.

More than just a renovation, this project became the foundation for many of the principles that continue to guide reimagined habitat today: thoughtful design, genuine comfort, healthy indoor environments and homes designed to support families for decades to come.