When Tina and Pat found an unfinished, neglected home, they came to its rescue, and it to theirs.
North Richmond is about an hour’s drive north-west of Sydney and is home to the beautiful Hawkesbury Valley, dairy farms and green paddocks. It’s a picturesque area that has attracted many. Tina and Pat stumbled across their home in the area in the most unusual circumstances. It had been partially built and stood unfinished, essentially only a shell. At the time the couple had gone through some major personal and emotional challenges, so when they found the home Tina says it completed them as much as they were to complete it. As they brought it back to life, they found peace, contentment and joy in their own lives.
NEW BEGINNINGS
When they moved in 18 months ago, the house was really only finished to the lock-up stage. “It had no stairs or verandahs and there was no driveway or gardens either,” Tina explains. Knowing this, it’s impressive to see just how much they’ve achieved in a short period of time.
Although the home was originally built about 25 years ago, it remained unfinished. One of the previous owners was infamous for being a bit of a hoarder and lived in the shell of the home for years, accruing building supplies in every square inch and slowly filling the property with mountains of junk. It was in this state that Pat and Tina found it. But they could see through the sad facade, the rubbish and the huge amount of work that needed to be done. Tina says it was simply made for them.
The previous owners had made some adjustments to the place such as enlarging windows, replacing the internal stairs and laying hardwood flooring, however the house still wasn’t finished. And Tina felt that much of the work didn’t suit the home – especially the new modern bathrooms.
They got to work with the massive task of completing the home, which involved a lot of changes both inside and out. Today, the two-storey house has four bedrooms, a study, large formal lounge-and television room and modified kitchen with adjoining pantry and breakfast room. The kitchen in particular was a labour of love for Tina.
A KITCHEN WITH HEART
The previous kitchen was huge and ran more than half the length of the back of the house. Cavernous and unwelcoming (as well as unfinished), it was entirely unsuitable. “It was impossible to furnish because the benches took up too much room and the rectangular dining suite I had didn’t fi t and doorways were everywhere!” Tina says.
She feels fortunate that Pat was happy to let her do whatever she wanted in this room. “It has been a 20-year ambition of mine to build my dream kitchen. I googled ‘French/shabby chic’ images, squirreled away magazine clippings and kept a scrapbook of all the details I loved,” she says. Armed with this she went to Scott Green at Harrington Kitchens, whom she says was simply wonderful and did everything possible to give her the kitchen she had always wanted.
Walls were added at either end of the kitchen to make it smaller, which created a walk-in storage room/pantry as well as a lovely, light-filled breakfast room. “We are blessed with views of the Richmond lowlands from the back of our home and the breakfast room is such a lovely place to eat and chat with visitors. Next to the kitchen, it’s my favourite room in the house,” Tina says. She then worked with Scott to get just what she wanted, which included plenty of open cabinetry, a pot rack over the island bench and hand-painted cabinets.
GREEN THUMB
It wasn’t just the interior of the house that got an overhaul – the garden literally had to be created from scratch. “When we first arrived we cleaned away tonnes of junk from the yard which seemed to take months!” Tina says. There was a huge skip bin in the front yard that had been here so long that the phone number on the bin was no longer in service and the company didn’t exist anymore. Once the rubbish was, the real work began.
Story by Sunny de Bruyn
Photography by Tony Potter
Styling by Kirstin Randl-Katalinic