Welcome to Sydney House, a devoted to modernist architecture and design through the prism of our own journey and notes which you’ll find on this site.
Our journey began when wrangling a run down 1960s house with fresh eyes: A Ken Woolley & Michael Dysart designed Pettit & Sevitt Lowline model project home, in Sydney Australia.
We started this site in 2015 as our daily lives are filled with professional commercial work activities and raising a young family.
Our career and educational backgrounds are visual arts, business, technology and media. Intertwined are our interests in urban design, architecture and innovation, and our wonderful friendships with creative people from all walks of life: sculptors, architects, makers, entrepreneurs and everything in between inspire us everyday.
Apologies in advance if you experience any strange Google Ads, this seems to be the requirement of WordPress.
We’ll try our best to keep this updated with all-things Modernism goodness!
Sydney House. 
Hi, lovely to see your site and your process. Unfortunately i’ve tried to link to your instagram but it doesn’t work. I’d love to talk to you as i’m looking at insulating my Ken Woolley / Pettit & Sevitt split level house and am finding it SO hard to get any independent advice. If you would be interested and willing to talk i’d very much appreciate it. Tess
Hi Tess, thanks for dropping me a line! Have you joined the Facebook Pettit & Sevitt owners group? It’s a good source of information. Alastair at Secret Design Studio also specialises in info of this kind for our vintage of houses. For insulation, the only real option is to open the ceilings and walls, insulate and re-seal. If your house wasn’t insulted, I can honestly say it is totally worth it. But it’s a big job and we did a lot of the insulating ourselves after the builder stripped out the old walls.
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. My wife and I just purchased out first home, a P&S in Frenchs Forest, Sydney and it’s such an amazing space. I’m currently sanding, repairing, painting every internal wall while “on holiday”.
We are saving for a renovation and I’d love to ask a few questions if you ever had the time. Your blog has already been super useful in regards to materials, kitchen (love the idea of IKEA planning tools).
Finally, congratulations on your wonderful home. You have done a fantastic job respecting the origins and creating something new.
Dear Lee,
Thank you so much for your kind words! Have you joined the Facebook Pettit & Sevitt owners group? It’s a good source of information. Alastair at Secret Design Studio also specialises in info of this kind for our vintage of houses. By all means drop into that group and ask us some questions, it’s a great place for planning and ideas and even small repairs.