Stephanie Phillips

I have tried to write this review multiple times in the believe that doing so will better allow me to let go and forget. Summary: Mind-numbingly expensive and disappointing experience best forgotten about.Never got to the point of design completion. I wanted to be in the position of accepting the design and then letting the build progress without any changes.The property is a two unit/story (floor each), two driveways property that I wanted to renovate from it's original untouched 1960 beginnings to two quite, low tech, simple, not flash, warm usable units suitable for myself and/or to be rented.Steph managed to get my budget thinking to $450k all inclusive. The layout inside barely changed (same envelope), an outdoor deck/carport was rebuilt, an ensuite added to one unit. The reno ended up costing in excess of $1.8M (excluding the purchase price of the property) being multiples of the budget (that is 400% + over budget). My assumption is this sort of result is common within the industry (my accountant agrees). I did state at the start that I didn't want to live in a multi-million dollar home.My process in selecting the architect was by elimination, checking the overseeing bodies, who did renovations, good fit, checking references (they are the good one's of course, not the forgotten disaster jobs). I started looking in APR2019, selected/signed up Steph in AUG19 for a quoted $22k (non managed option) but cost over $104k! Didn't deliver within the agreed six months (took nine months just for the first consent, the job was then split into two consents against my wishes and to my cost).I believe if I had support in the process to select a builder it would of been very valuable. I did feel overwhelmed (amongst other feelings) during the build and support wasn't forthcoming, the reno ended in AUG22. I believe that the architect (and builder) are unlikely to be proud of this job, in fact everyone will no doubt just want to forget it or pretend it never happened.Tips; If the architect doesn't have what you want (eg renovation) as their first service, they probably don't want your custom, it's not their skill set and won't give it 100% either ie go elsewhere. Don't start the build until the architect has finished and it's through the council. The architect and the builder are the most important suppliers to your job.If your thinking of firing someone, it's probably a good idea (cut your losses and move on). I'm thinking of the builder here (personally recommended to me! after failing to find any builders interested in the job) on multiple occasions as they were mostly hopeless. I had a mantra going in my head for ages for them ('just finish and f*** *ff'). The issue is no one wants to fix up someone else's balls up. Having your house in disarray, firing the 'experts', finding new 'experts', isn't ideal especially when no one wanted the job in the first place.If I were to do another project like this I would hire a project manager and they would deal with the 'experts' and ideally keep it on budget and within the time frame.