Musk’s Steven and Yuliya Wojcicki have been recognised in the annual Housing Industry Association (HIA) Victorian Housing Awards.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The couple, who also run local business Wojcicki Construction, which focuses on custom builds, entered the competition for the Western Victorian Regional Housing Awards with two rooms they had renovated during their own home renovation project.
They were finalists with both rooms they entered in the $30,000- $50,000 kitchen and bathroom categories. While they took home the award for best bathroom, they were runners up in the kitchen category.
Mr Wojcicki has been in the construction industry since 2000. Following in the footsteps of his father, who was also in construction, he worked as an apprentice carpenter before obtaining his builders licence.
The couple, who moved to the region five years ago, have been renovating their old mud brick house since they bought it.
Mr Wojcicki said he had enjoyed preserving, re-purposing and handcrafting elements during the renovation but it meant devoting a lot of time.
“Using older timbers like the rustic, recycled ones we have here require much more skill and a lot more time to work with,” he said.
The kitchen and bathroom, which they entered in the awards, contain many interesting up-cycled elements they have picked up along the way, including blackwood timber from Daylesford’s old saw mill and an old wooden beam from St Kilda Pier.
The awards were judged by professional builders who put a particular emphasis on the quality of the build rather than the style and aesthetic of the final room.