Dear Alex, Henry and Team

Thanks for a fantastic job on our deck. It was a pleasure to work with a company that is committed to achieving the best outcome using the most environmentally sustainable methods available, while allowing owners to contribute to the project where possible to keep costs down.

Your honesty, integrity and commitment to sustainable building are second to none.

We talked to other environmentally conscious friends when searching for the right builder for our job, and they told us that Sustainabylt was the only place to go.

Best wishes
Gary and Gayle

A/Prof Gary Luck
Institute for Land, Water and Society

Alex, Sharelle and Sam Stravakos recently rebuilt our home on our farm. We decided to work with them because we liked the way they thought up new solutions to difficult building and design problems; that they were actively environmentally conscious; and that they were not afraid to use new and innovative materials or standard materials in new ways.

Throughout the design process it was always easy to talk to Alex, Sharelle and Sam. They were open to listen to our ideas and comments, and to come up with ways to implement them. Or, if that was not possible, to come up with design solutions that would meet our needs and budget. We appreciated their feedback and ideas and we found them flexible to work with throughout the project.

Another reason we decided to work with Alex, Sharelle and Sam was that we liked their commitment to high standards of workmanship. We are very happy with the quality and finish of our home.

At all times Alex, Sharelle and Sam have been courteous, polite and honest in their dealings with us. Any issues that arose throughout our project were dealt with by discussion and mutual agreement.

We are now the owners of a beautiful and comfortable new home and appreciate all the effort that Alex, Sharelle and Sam have put into making that happen.

Yours sincerely,
Andrew & Maria Palmer
Sandy Creek

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We are writing to express our thanks and gratitude for all your assistance and support as builder/project manager of the stage 1 renovations to our new office building in Wodonga.

As a builder, your high standards and attention to detail were appreciated as we, willing but unskilled, attempted to achieve the impossible in seeing this project through to the point where we could occupy the building as soon as possible.

We are aware that you put other projects on hold to help us to meet our ever increasingly desperate timelines, with each complication and unexpected 'discovery' adding to the workload to make this possible.

We thank you for coming on board when we had been let down by a builder who does not demonstrate the same standards of integrity and dependability as Sustainabylt. Thank you for all you did to 'make things good' with Wodonga Council in regard to many aspects of this project, and for the cost savings you afforded us by asking wherever you could for people to support the project with discounts and donations. That you would do this sets you apart.

For those clients who were inconvenienced by our project, please extend our apologies and thanks for their understanding and patience. We know that you endeavoured to maintain a fair share of time to as many of your works as possible, but our requirements did impact on your other work.

We are now 'in' and looking forward to you being able to allocate time to our stage 2 works as soon as possible.

With kind regards and sincere thanks,

Liz Pogson & Judith McKeown
President & Vice-President
Cooinda Family Support Group Committee of Management

The passive solar design of our house is amazing. With standard building materials and the right orientation Sustainabylt have designed and built us a house that requires little heating and continually surprises us with its ability to retain heat. This is being written in the middle of a Northern Victorian winter, the most comfortable I have ever had, as we only need to turn on the heater once or twice a day for about 10 minutes, and that is in a large, open plan living area. It has been a pleasure to work with reliable, honest builders.
Regards Adam and Elizabeth Brett

Dear Alexis and Sharelle,
Re: stages 1 and 2 of the great Burrumbuttock reno and rebuild

As the year draws to a close, it's truly amazing how much we've accomplished with our old house, and we have both of you to thank for that. Together with the legendary Sam and your highly competent "tradies", you calmly and efficiently took our thoughts, plans and dreams and turned them into reality. With an old place like ours, we all knew there would be plenty of surprises in store, but you both treated each new revelation as a challenge rather than a set-back. Thus, when we removed the century-old iron intending to give the old roofing timbers a once over before attaching the new metal, we found an old-world trampoline instead, ready to give way at any point. Without skipping a beat, you removed all the old roof timbers and set about building an entirely new roof from scratch.

Building a new roof allowed us to reconsider the overall pitch and shape of the roof, and we could modify the original lines slightly to accommodate the planned new section of the house as seamlessly as possible. In retrospect, this was clearly a big set of decisions with major implications, but at the time, we talked through each step and worked through them methodically and easily. Likewise, the archaeological investigations needed to find the old pipes and phone-lines were treated as an exploration rather than a hassle, making the entire build an enjoyable process.

I'm especially grateful to Sam and Alexis for taking the time to show me what they were doing and involve me in each new mission. Whether attaching the new roof, digging drainage ditches, pouring foundations or installing new insulation, you both went out of your way to show me how it was done, explain why, and then tolerated my early attempts to have a go. So, looking back over the first two phases of our project, not only has a great deal been accomplished, I'm now much more confident about my capacity to contribute to the remaining phases.

While we had a fairly clear idea of what we wanted to achieve, we were not aware of just how many decisions needed to be made. As well as being patient with us when we weighed up the pros and cons of various minutia, you rapidly grasped the underlying principles guiding our decisions, suggesting options we hadn't previously considered, or didn't even know existed. The end result is a deep satisfaction in the finished product, reinforced by the fact that we were involved in the entire process. Your attention to detail and quality of finish are both of a very high standard, and I'm confident our house will be around for the next century or two.

Finally, I wanted to congratulate you on your genuine environmental ethic. The words "green" and "sustainable" are increasingly bandied about by various people trying to sell you something, but Sustainabylt is the real deal. Equally comfortable comparing energy ratings and embedded energy coefficients as deciding on where to source best-practice harvested timber, it's clear that environmental principles are the foundation of your business rather than a passing fad. Rather than involving every tiny decision, this ethic underlies the entire project, closely followed by cost efficiency. You found amazing ways to make our funds go further, combining spectacular negotiating skills with dogged determination to continually source materials at competitive prices.
So, Alex, Sharelle, Sam and the boys-thank you. Thank you for everything you've done, but more importantly, thank you for the way in which you did it all. The respect and honesty with which you treated our family and our home has given us new hope in humanity! We would recommend you as builders without hesitation, for massive concept projects, small renovations and everything in between.

Our warmest regards

Dave and Maggie Watson
Burrumbuttock,

When we purchased a narrow little block in the middle of town, we knew there would be lots of challenges to overcome to create our family home. Sustainabylt took it all in their stride and exceeded our expectations. Their creativity, extensive experience, attention to detail and passion for quality has resulted in a home we will enjoy for a very long time.

Sustainabylt's expertise in sustainable and energy efficient building design has been an absolute bonus. This element was initially not a high priority to us, however after experiencing the difference in everyday living comfort (and lower energy bills), we will never look back.

We wish to thank Sam, Kathy, Alex & Sharelle for our wonderful new home.

Gary & Lisa Lee

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