During 1998 after obtaining his builders licence, Martyn designed and built a first floor brick veneer addition in the middle of an existing brick veneer cottage at Frenchs Forrest.
The design goal here was to create and extend the country theme and engineer the work such that it was located centrally for symmetry and balance. The retained section of the lower roof wrapped around the upper addition, creating a repeated theme in the upper roof and breaking up the height and scale of the new second storey.
“Martyn designed and built our addition with the utmost degree of precision and perfection, he has truly surpassed our expectations and would highly recommend him to anyone who requires special attention to detail creating their building requirements”
During the above two projects, on the weekends as a sideline activity, Martyn also re designed and built a timber sports cruiser from a Heartly designed hull. After he first set out to just repair the back transom, he soon realised the whole back of the boat needed re-building.
Using his finely developed carpentry skills in curve laminated plywood, maple and teak, he also hand crafted and re-designed the super structure for a more traditional and nautical look.
After re building the decks, the back metre and a half, the cabin top, upper planking, fit out and painting, it was time to launch her for a sea trial.
The curved repeating theme of the front railing, forward lower cabin window and side cabin trim flows gently down towards the aft of the vessel over the tangent of the circular red and white life tyre to create a nautical focal point, disguising the bulk and scale of the upper cabin top which provides the necessary internal head clearance for the galley kitchen adjacent to the upholstered drivers station.
Upon the sea trial, as expected, she performed superbly and stood up to the rigorous forces and water pressures which truly bears testimony to the level of skill and craftsmanship possessed by Martyn Calleia.
In order to enjoy his weekends after finishing the boat, Martyn took a break from freelance designer building and went back to building and supervising for a company he served part of his apprenticeship with.
One such job involved major additions and alterations in Glebe to a semi detached Terrace House where Martyn then became hooked on attic conversions. As a specialist, in order to run a viable designer-building business without a lot of the varied designs associated with suburban renovations where everything was possible due to a lack of strict heritage guidelines or control plans involved with Terrace Houses.
“Martyn's workmanship and professionalism has resulted in a house we now enjoy enormously”…..read more