It may seem strange to start my renovation story at house 5, but this home was a mammoth project and took our renovating skills to another level. We planned not only to relocate the original house, renovate and extend it on a new block, but to also fully design a new home on the original block in a heritage style, with all the mod cons we wanted in our dream home. All this as owner builders, with my husband travelling away to work and with a strict budget. This was much more than a renovation and it was always going to be challenging.
We were meant to have this home, as we had been looking at a parcel of land at the other end of town and the real estate agent that was marketing it could’t get hold of the owner. I had popped in to pick up paperwork from them and mentioned I loved the Charlotte St area, particularly a couple of homes that were ripe for renovation. He couldn’t believe his ears as the owners of this house below had just asked him to sell it for them. They had only signed the sales agreement the day before and so we put in our offer and purchased the lovely old home that needed lots of work.
The home was built next to a reserve, set on an acre of land looking over a heavily treed creek behind the village of Bangalow. The location was beautiful, however the floor plan was not practical, as an ugly 1970’s brick extension that contained the living area and kitchen had been added onto the lovely old portion of the home where the bedrooms resided. The deck at the back was flimsy and the low roof obstructed the view across the valley. After a lot of thought we made the brave decision relocate the original part of the house to a clean block of land at the entrance of a new estate and bulldoze the brick portion to give us a blank slate for a new home. We had never done anything like this before…
Charlotte 1
Having never relocated a home before it was very scary seeing the home be cut in two with the roof removed, the home looked like it would never go back together again and we began to think we had made a mistake.
Amazingly the house relocation company placed the pieces back together precisely and after a small extension and reno, Charlotte MK 1 turned out to be a beautiful home on a corner block. We added a new extension for the kitchen and family area. The house was lined with original timber panelling which was a little worse for wear. We patched and painted every nook and cranny inside and out. We planted established trees around perimeter for privacy to give the impression this was her original site – she looks like she has been there all her life, though we know differently. We didn’t even have to replace the roof. We just painted it in a fresh coat of the existing colour. We lived in this lovely home while we built Charlotte MK2 and sold her once we moved into our new home.
Charlotte MK 2
So began the new build of our dream home on the original 1 acre parcel of land. We thoroughly researched the style and finishes to suit the architecture of an original Queenslander. As we wanted aluminium windows, we chose a company from Toowoomba in Queensland to make them in a heritage profile. Most people thought they were timber windows, which is exactly what we had intended. We chose a country style kitchen with stone bench tops and they weren’t readily available back then, so we had a craftsman from Coffs Harbour make a terrazzo one for us with a mix of shells and stone scattered through it. We added timber daddo rails and linings on some of the rooms for a traditional look. Incorporating timber floors and choosing a paint scheme that reflected the look we wanted gave us a home that included everything we loved about original Queenslanders.
It was a wonderful process renovating the first home and then building the new one in a traditional style. Though we had issues with one of the tradesmen and juggling 3 children while my husband was working away 4 days a week, I loved the challenge and I have fond memories of the joy in creating something from our hearts, for our family. Charlotte MK 2 still holds the highest sale price achieved for a residential home in Bangalow – Amazing!!!
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