James Goodlet and Claire Thomas, Business owners of Altereco Design

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Residents of Yarravile, Adventure lovers

Claire: “We met in Canada during the snow season. James is from VIC and I’m from Lake District, England. We had just finished our studies and were living next door to each other. We spent the day together on the mountain and on the second run of the day, James was showing off a bit, attempting a few jumps, he landed awkwardly and dislocated his shoulder. He turned to me and said ‘Can you put it back in for me?’ I said ‘Sure!’ I had no idea what I was doing.”

James: “It’s not the first time I’ve had something pop out of my body. Claire had her foot under my armpit and was trying to pull it back in.”

C: “Keep in mind we had only just met!”

J: “We got the medics in, I was put on a sled and got medical attention.”

C: “I visited him while he was in the hospital. And the rest is history Four months later, we decided to buy a campervan and travelled around North America. It was a pretty good start and a precursor to our business now.”

J: “I have a family history of builders. Dad, his dad and his dad were all builders. However, as much as I enjoyed building, I didn’t want to be on tools everyday. I am handy and thank Dad for it, but enjoy more of the processing and analysing bit.”

C: “James is creative by nature. He will happily leave things to the last minute and seem to still get it done on time. He is the optimist, easily distracted and embraces change. I’m the opposite and like structure and the realist in the relationship. We couldn’t be more Yin and Yang but we seem to balance each other out! We have also set rules; home is home and work is work. No talking of work past a certain hour and certainly no work talk in the bedroom!”

J: “After our time in North America, we went to the UK and lived in Newcastle. I had found a decent job in the construction industry, and Claire was a personal trainer.”

C: “After just one winter, James had enough of the dark and cold winter. It’s almost a bit of a tease knowing it’s summer in Australia. I had never been to Australia before and arrived in 2004. I got a working holiday visa in Sydney and James got a job in the architecture industry. We lived in Sydney for 18 months.”

J: “One of my highlights was designing my parents’ home in Apollo Bay. I got to experiment with what I could build and design. At that point in time, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go on my own. After six months, I was beginning to take on drafting jobs in and around Melbourne due to my contacts within the construction industry. We were renting in Albert Park then, and I was working full time on the dining table.”

C: “I remember driving around in the car to find free wifi before James would click ‘Send’ after finding a neighbours’ signal to send an email.”

J: “I’m not stealing internet anymore! The name Altereco comes from my sustainable approach to design (Eco) and Alter is the other side of myself, and changing things. The business was registered over ten years ago. We prefer to keep what we can. Suburbs like Kingsville and other little pockets of heritage precincts have small sites, and most people have an awareness of not asking for too much. We are here to facilitate and create a comfortable place to live. We don’t design stuff to be flamboyant; we definitely focus on building practical and sustainable stuff. It’s about the longevity of what you’re building. You don’t want to build a kitchen and replace it in ten years. It has to last. It’s also about how big the project is. The smaller it is, the less resource you use. People tend to forget that as it has an environmental impact.

J: “I love it when some people get excited about and embrace the reusability of what we already have. We rip off old roof and flooring, and we would think what we could do with that. It’s hard to get timber that’s dense and strong. It’s also about building a comfortable and energy efficient home. It’s a failure on and negligence of the industry if every designer does not at least consider it. There are still people out there who build for the economy and do not think how land is chopped up.”

C: “After James had completed his parents’ home, we found a place to rent in South Melbourne and I got a job in Asics as a Technical Footwear Advisor. I am a runner, and getting to talk about shoes everyday tied in with my background in Human Movement and my hobby!. I spent six years with Asics, before moving to a similar role with some sales elements with Mizuno. I’ve always been involved in the family business, but now I’m finally on the payroll!”

J: “About 6-12 months ago, it got to a point where something had to give. A lot of my time was getting back to clients, keeping them in the loop, which took away from the design.”

C: ”My role as Client Liaison allows James to focus on the design elements, which is what he does best. Before I joined, we actually sent out an ad for a Project Manager on Seek.com on a Friday night. That night, I turned to James and said, ‘James, you know the ad you put…”

J: “I went ‘Oh shit.’ Something in Claire’s voice that night.”

C: “I said ‘How do you think I’d go at it?’ Truth is, I had been thinking about helping James out. A friend of mine planted the seed, and although I have no experience in the industry, a lot of my role in Mizuno was about developing relationships. I wasn’t the stereotypical sales rep at Mizuno but I managed to be pretty successful at it by developing strong relationships with my customers, so although the industry was new to me there were certainly some transferable skill sets.”

J: “We’ve lived in Yarraville since 2010. We were familiar with South Melbourne and neighbouring suburbs but we couldn’t afford to buy there. I had heard of Yarraville before, and drove across the bridge with Claire.”

C: “We like the community feel and vibe, but it is still accessible to all the things we loved about South Melbourne. We went for four or five auctions but were getting blown away at auctions. One day, our real estate agent – knowing James’s background – told us about this small block of land next to the train line. We ended up buying the land and spent about six months building the house. We were pretty lucky to build and design our first home.”

J: “Up until late 2016, I was still working out of home. I just got to the point where I was focusing a lot of my time doing admin stuff and I knew what I needed to do to get the business to improve. I started looking for office space in the area. This used to be the commercial arm of Sweeney Real Estate. I liked the space, as it had character compared to more traditional offices spaces.”

C: “Without my knowledge, James applied for a tenancy agreement and decided not to tell me. He thought nothing of it until we got a phone call awhile later.”

J: “We were on Kangaroo Island on holiday with Claire and her parents last year. I had to take the call, and when I found out we had gotten the office space, I went to Claire and her parents and said ‘Hey guess what?’ Claire was pretty surprised.”

C: “I was upset, as he didn’t keep me in the loop. It put some stress on our financial situation as working from home meant Altereco was helping to chip away at our mortgage and now we have to pay for the office space as well. Not long after, a close family member got diagnosed with liver cancer and passed away really suddenly. That put life in perspective and I realised having to pay the extra rent didn’t matter any more. It’s just money at the end of the day!”

J: “It took a while to make the space workable, but in April 2017 we finally moved in. Work life balance is important to us both and our team so we made the decision to work nine days a fortnight, and work an extra hour each day.”

J: “Both Claire and I have always been very sporty; both playing competitive football/hockey since our early teens until our early 30’s. When we realised we were too old to be playing team sports anymore – we both took up solo sports. I love mountain biking and have always surfed. Claire is a mad runner and has a few marathons under her belt We both started road biking 18 months ago and spend a lot of our weekend in Lycra these days. We love adventure, and bought a campervan three years ago and use it often. We put a lot of pride and effort in what we do. We love hearing from our customers, and seeing how the space we have created is working well for them. That’s the most rewarding part.”

 

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