I'm just going to ignore the fact that I haven't written anything here in, oh, FOUR MONTHS and proceed onwards...
On Saturday we bought a new house. Not just any house (apparently fourth time's a charm?), but a Robin Boyd-designed home - the Arnold house, named after Kelson and Ann Arnold who commissioned the house in 1963. We purchased it directly from the Arnold's kids after Ann's death in April this year.
The first house I ever lived in is about 200 metres up the road. It feels a bit like coming home and a bit like going backwards, but I know first hand that Warrandyte is an excellent place to grow up. We can see the river from every room in the house (besides the poky little bathrooms), have plenty of land for my grand plans of chickens and beehives and a robust vegie garden and a pizza oven and a mountain bike track, and are only a short walk from the bakery, the river and the playground. It is a two-minute drive or 15-minute walk from my parent's place.
To be honest, we didn't buy it because it is a Boyd. We bought it for the above reasons, but we can appreciate the history and significance of the home. People have done their PHDs on this house! It is magnificent. True, it needs heaps of work (No insulation anywhere! No storage in the bathrooms! No laundry!) buy god knows we love a project.
Above you can see some original photos of the house, and below are ones from the real estate agent of what it looks like today.
The first thing to do is insulate the ceiling, as there in nothing in there at all. As soon as we get access, we will rip down the Cane-ite ceiling tiles, shove heaps on insulation in and add a few downlights, then replace with new softboard tiles in exactly the same way. The house is full of hard surfaces, so while using MDF would be cheaper, softboard will absorb sound too.
We are planning on replicating and echoing Boyd's design as much as possible, especially in the kitchen and garden, whilst improving the functionality of the house.
I'm feeling in limbo at the moment... my mind has already moved house, but we still have to go through the process of tidying up our Coburg house and preparing it for auction in mid-February. The next six months are big for our little family - moving a house, selling a house, renovating a house, beginning childcare for Jed and kinder for Archie, more work hours for me (finally!) and a big phase of growth for the business. Fun times ahead!
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