Fast home rebuild for Dyer family of Yellow Rock

Two days after Jeff and Felicity Dyer of Yellow Rock lost their home in the October 2013 bushfires, they drove down to Penrith looking for a shed and happened to walk into Paal Kit Homes in Emu Plains.

By Christmas the following year, they had moved into their new house.

After seeing Paal’s Camden display home, the couple decided instantly that they liked it and didn’t bother looking at any other homes. They added a workshop and double garage to the standard design.

“It’s a great house. We’re very happy with it and wouldn’t change a thing,” Felicity said. “In fact, our new home looks similar to the one we lost, a timeless rendered design that was built in 1965.”

The fast replacement was helped by the fact that Jeff Dyer and his relatives include carpenters and builders. “Four Dyers worked on the home – Jeff, his brother Greg, and his two nephews Drew and Kurt Dyer – so it was a family effort.”

Buying a kit home with all the materials supplied also made for a trouble-free rebuild, she said.

“The Camden is quite a big house, but everything was straightforward and went very smoothly, once we had the slab laid. We used trades help, including a roofer and a renderer recommended by Paal, and they were all good.”

More than 200 homes were destroyed in Yellow Rock and nearby Blue Mountains towns in the October 2013 bushfires – about 80 of these in the Dyer’s own suburb.

Felicity and Jeff lost more than 30 years of possessions and memories. They lived with family in nearby Winmalee while they rebuilt their lives.

“Losing a home is traumatic. It definitely helped our recovery that we are in our new home so quickly and that the rebuild went so smoothly. Not everybody around us is so lucky,” she said.