From an inauspicious start, this home on top of Moyen Hill just outside of Berry, now commands its position overlooking Coolangatta Mountain, the ocean, and the Berry escarpment, with pride. What a challenge to get it there!
This was truly a story of transformation, taking a 1980's bungalow with little architectural merit, mired in a mucky, messy, snake infested muddle - to a spacious, gracious and groovy weekender for a large family.
The first hurdle was everything. There was not one redeeming feature, save for the views from every window. The house was mean and it was in a state of neglect and sad decay and let me say this, it was not a project for the faint hearted. But faint hearted is something I am not. I was so inspired by the position of the house and instantly fell in love with what I could plainly see as its potential.
We set to work gutting absolutely everything we could rip out, chuck out and chase out, including a veritable community of black snakes who were not, are not, happy! The carpets had been pulled out and dumped in the mud outside and our thought there was, be grateful for small mercies!! It meant firstly that we didn’t have to pull it up ourselves, but more importantly, we could immediately see that the concrete slab was in great condition and would be ideal for polishing.
I love a concrete anything!
We reconfigured the bathrooms to create a main bathroom and two ensuites, with a cupboard style laundry in the hallway behind bifold doors. We also reclaimed the garage as a study, raising the floor level to match the rest of the house and replaced the roller door with matching aluminium frame windows. Mostly people want to rip old aluminium window frames OUT, but not us. That nasty little thing called budget… With a new kitchen installed, new curtains and a BEAUTIFUL Philippe Cheminee fireplace now gracing the living area, the interior of the house was now a stunning, relaxed, sun filled home. We needed to turn our attentions outside.
We considered adding a wrap around verandah to the whole house, but in the end decided that that would look like an expensive apology for the lack of 1980s architectural flair. Instead, our architect decided to construct solid pergolas out from each end of the building, front and rear, that would add a little gravitas and take the heat off the house. In other words, provide some distraction by way of innovative architectural intelligence!
By levelling the ground surrounding the house and constructing substantial retaining walls, we were able to include a pool at the eastern end of the house and we ran the rear pergola out at the same distance to give a sense of balance. The result is pretty lush.
Investing in landscape design seems to many to be a luxury they’re not inclined to indulge in, but having spent so much on a renovation, I think it’s a crying shame not to enhance the buildings by creating a garden. The return in value terms is exponential - because you’re creating a home, rather than just renovating a house. If there is a financial barrier, I would always suggest organising the budget to include the garden at the outset of planning, rather than scrambling to find funds at the end from a budget that will invariably be staggering to cross the finish line.
In the case of this property, we planted multiple trees; birch, manchurian pears and a grove of citrus, as well as lining the long driveway with London plane trees. At each end of the house, we planted Boston Ivy that is now spreading over the house like wildfire and giving a spectacular Autumn display. At the base of the ivy, we planted rows of rosemary, and behind the house we constructed raised vegetable beds from railway sleepers. May I say, the peacocks who roam freely love those beds and more alarmingly, shed snake skins have been sighted!
Work on a farm is never finished and we continue to plan and plant more trees in the paddocks surrounding the house to provide not only a visual feature, but also shelter against the elements for the sheep and cows who live here. I love nothing better than a dump - because in a dump, a paradise can be found if you know how to look!
