This is a story about a major renovation of my family's own dream home. Follow me in my search for the perfect home sourcing finishes and fixtures, altering floorplans and dealing with trades people. Fingers crossed it's going to be fun!


Friday 1 February 2013

A Brief History


In 1890 Matthew Lang, a Mayor of Melbourne, ordered the construction of a mansion to be known as The Point. It was a large estate that encompassed a few streets here and the mansion sat perched on the cliff with wide bay views. The estate was subdivided in 1953, the original mansion demolished to make way for modernist flats and the only thing that remains is the old caretaker's cottage.


'The Point'
Image courtesy of State Library of Victoria



We have been told a wealthy Melbourne town family who may or may not have been linked to the Ripponlea Estate purchased our block and built their beach house to use as a holiday home. My husband and I bought this home in 2007, and after a small fix up to make it liveable we moved in September 2009. It's a gloriously solid, double brick late 50's home with the Colonial and Georgian influences typical of the date for this area. Next door was built a smaller version of our house for the family's mother in law, but that has unfortunately been demolished in the past  2 years and redeveloped.


Our house now

Our home has had a few 60's wrong doings, mostly the ghastly conversion of what was a terrace overlooking the bay upstairs into a flat roof hot box room. But the original house is (was) beautiful. It still retains the original panelling down the wide hallway, waterfall crystal and brass chandeliers (so 50's Hollywood), and of course shiplap surrounding the fireplace, one of my favourite features!

More on that next time!







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