Willoughby's streets are lined with the houses Sydney does best: federation and Californian bungalows in brick and timber, deep backyards, and a generation of young families renovating them room by room. It's next door to my Castlecrag base, and much of my week happens between Penshurst Street and High Street.
These houses reward carpenters who respect them — original picture rails, timber floors under carpet, verandah posts that need replicating rather than replacing with something off the shelf. That's the register I work in: repairs and additions that look like they were always part of the house.
What I do in Willoughby
The Willoughby jobs that fill my calendar: decks and pergolas opening those deep backyards up for kids and weekends, kitchen renovations in bungalows being brought up to date, and boundary fences repaired or replaced as the old timber runs from the 90s give up their posts.
Between the big jobs, the handyman visits: sticking sashes, gate latches, the wall that needs patching before painting. One local crew, one standard, whatever the size of the job.
Floors in Willoughby
Willoughby is also one of my busiest suburbs for floors — sanding bungalow boards back to life, and laying hybrid or engineered timber through kitchen-living extensions where the original boards stop.