This will make you feel poor...

For only a cool $58,454,000 you too can live in Sydney - the most expensive suburb in the country in the most expensive city in the world. This is definately how the other half lives... 87 Wolsely Road Point Piper.  Living here you will be sharing your suburb with others like Julia Ross, Malcolm Turnbull, Frank Lowy, John Symond among many many others with too much cash.
This house was valued at only $20mil in 2004 so thats not a bad profit for someone, thought the most expensive in 2004 was a home in Darling point worth $40mil so who knows what that is worth now.

This house has everything you need - 5 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, conservatory, formal dining and sitting rooms, gourmet kitchen with cool room and butlers pantry, gym, pool, sauna and even guest quarter but the most impressive aspect is the location..... I think I could wak up here every morning...but not for $58mil...wow.

This house is for sale by Coldwell Banker of Double Bay and all photos courtesy of Coldwell Banker.

Who Built That!!

Just a nice short one today...  A friend just sent me an interesting link this morning..

http://www.whobuiltthat.com.au/

The concept is that every house is tagged and a person can walk past and search who built it or who renovated it or what sort of materials are used. Kind of like an advertisment for your products.

To quote the website -

"Whether you're building your new home or renovating your existing one, Who Built That is an invaluable tool for finding building materials, tradespeople and home builders.

Simply by typing in the address of a house that you like, you'll be able to find out who manufactured the bricks, who landscaped the garden or who built the home.

As long as the home is tagged with Who Built That (and there will be thousands that are) you'll be able to find out anything you want about the home."

If this gets off the ground I think it will be a great site for people that like to wander around and have a look at houses they like. They will be able to instantly google the manufacturers and designers etc.

Brilliant.

Australian residential architectural styles

I was a little bored today and decided to go for a bit of what I call wiki-surfing. Well I stumbled upon an article that I found very interesting... 

Australian residential architectural styles

and its big brother  

Australian non-residential architectural styles 

Now while neither of these sound terribly interesting I guarantee that you will read through it and marvel at home many different styles there are in Australia. It will make you take a little more time driving down the street as you try to pick out the different styles in your area.

  Here's a little snippet of the photos....

This is a Filigree in Carlton, Victoria. These had a cast-iron screen as a way of shading the house. I like the brick.

Next is an Italianate house strangely introduced by French painters. These usually included a tower of some description and were usually asymmetrical.... This one is the heritage listed Rippon Lea in Elsternwick, Victoria. Built in 1868 by a wealthy Melbournite is open to the public if you want to go have a look. I think they copied the brickwork form the previous house.

Below is a Free Gothic called Ashfield Castle in Ashfield, NSW. Obviously taken during renovations it is one of a number of heritage listed houses in the Ashfield area.  Apparently this style was popular for religious buildings but it also gave architects a little more creativity with the design...

 This cute house is what is known as a Rustic Gothic which developed out of a "cult of the picturesque" which was largely focused on rural images. You can even see how this influenced houses in the 1970's and 1980's. I think this is my favourite.  This is the Rectory of St Mark's Church, Darling Point, NSW

 Probably a style that is a little bit more familiar to alot of readers is the next one - a Federation Queen Anne. They are obviously built around 1900 - Federation.  I have mentioned these style before in my post about Haberfield but this one is from Ivanhoe in Victoria.  Its a small little village that slowly became a suburb of Melbourne.

Staying with a similar style this is a Federation Arts and Crafts - strange name but it represents a movement away from mass produced houses and to 'redisover the human touch and the hand-made'. OK then.They have pebble walls, stone bases and tall chimneys...Its an early hippie house..

 The Federation Bungalow is a house that will be very familiar to everyone who has every been to an older suburb in any of our big cities. These houses were a transition between the bigger Queen Anne and the Californian Bungalow style below.  They were usually a single story house with a large verandah with the roof extending over the verandah. This example is in Burwood NSW. but apparently a great spot to see examples of these is in a suburb called Colonel Light gardens in South Australia..... I've not been there but you never know your luck.

The California Bungalow - built between 1915 and 1940 and modelled on the American style - as the name suggests... they are instantly recognisable by the big pillars at the front holding everything up. This one is in the country our in Dubbo NSW.

 The next style was built around the same time but struck a chord with those that felt a certain nostalgia for old England and that is the style - Old English using a predominantly Tudor style. They are in fact called Mock Tudors or Tudorbethan as well. This one is in Mosman where I am sure it fits right in.

 The last style for my list is Triple Fronted Brick Veneer - which is simply brick on the outside and a timber frame on the inside and this is still the dominant style that is being built today by developers albeit with a few design changes. Even McMansions fall into this category.  They are cheap and effective.

Well there are plenty more styles to look at if you feel like it so click on the links above and get reading.... I myself never knew that there were so many many styles nor how they came to be....very interesting.

Cheers

Relocation Relocation

For years now I have been watching Phil and Kirstie on their show "Relocation Relocation" finding people a home in the city and the country so I thought that I would do the same here..... Every time I watch this show I dream of doing the same thing. A country estate to visit on weekends and a party pad in the city to work from.  Phil and Kirstie normally house couples on quite reasonable budgets .... mine are going to be "If Only.." homes.

One dream home in the city and one dream home a few hours away in the country....

My first home is in Sutton Forest. A few hours SW of Sydney.  Home of enormous country estates housing well heeled from the city. Originally large farming estates first settled around 1830, the sleepy village is little more than an old pub, a church and a few scattered shops though its the places you cant see that make this area what it is. Once the NSW Governor decided to set up his summer residence here in the 1880's all of Sydneys wealthy wanted to have a summer retreat next door.

Sutton Forest went from being a farming village to a holiday resort for the well to do and continues to be...  The area now abounds with big beautiful country homes. Nicole and Kieth are around here somewhere.

RONA LODGE

The home I am showing you today is called "Rona Lodge" and is for sale through a number of agencies (Drew Lindsay, Raine and Horne, Richardson and Wrench).

This home is massive and it has everything you might need for a weekend in the country -

• 5 bedrooms
• 5 bathrooms
• Stables paddocks and dressage ring
• Tennis court
• Indoor heated swimming pool
• Billiard room
• Multiple entertaining areas
• Wood paneled library
• Sitting Room
• Office
• and the list goes on and on and on

At the end of a long gravel drive through manicured gardens this is just the sort of house I could imagine inviting my friends to for a weekend away, drinking Pimms in garden and surveying my land like a nice country squire. I can imagine curling up in front of one of the many many fireplaces at night or reading a book in the library, the sitting room or the office.

Yes this will do me nicely.

Up the gravel drive, past the garden and around the fountain to arrive at the door

 

 

Maybe a quick dip in the indoor heated pool

followed by a drink a relax in one of the many reception areas..

whilst dinner is being cooked down in the enormous country kitchen.....

At a price of around $7.5million i'm sure you can afford a chef.

Now for my city pad....... which is in the toaster building on Macquarie St, Bennelong Point, Sydney.  This is in abit of a controversial building that many Sydney siders would liked to have seen pulled down.  I for one dont mind it for what it is. I cant afford to live there but I'm sure someone can and is enjoying it the way that I would. It is of course withing spitting distance of the Sydney Opera House and walking distance to all the bars and restaurants of Circular Quay and beyond into the city and CBD.

BENNELONG

At more than 600sqm this apartment is bigger than most houses and its all about the views.  It is a penthouse apartment and it takes up most of the top two floors of the Bennelong building. Abit of an entertainers house I'm guessing if you can afford this you wont be having to worry about what time you get up in the morning. You can watch the city light display until the cows come home (on your country property no doubt).

Inside this apartment there is four bedrooms and five bathrooms - and each bedroom as an ensuites. One of the bedrooms form a little self contained flat - for the hired help maybe or maybe you could rent it out for a little extra income to help with the mortgage. All bedrooms have amazing views. And all open out onto a balcony.

The apartment starts on level nine where you enter through the "home office" (also with a balcony) and self containded flat. Then up the beautiful circular stair to the lounge room, formal dining and media room. Behind these is the kitchen and casual dining before disappearing down the corridor to the rest of the bedrooms and ending in the master suite.

These pictures look nice but its not what you are paying for....this place is all about the views and entertaining - there is the Sydney Harbour Bridge on one side and the Sydney Opera House on the other. Views to Government House (again next door to the Governor) and the Botanical Gardens. Views of the city skyline. The terrace wraps almost around the entire apartment and there are mutiple eating and resting area both inside and out.

I think you could have multiple parties at once on the different terraces and just flit between them

This apartment is for sale through McGrath for a cool $12mil.  For that price I'd want a few more floors.

So there you go - for around $20mil you could have an amazing place in the action packed CBD and one in the quaint Southern Highlands.  Phil and Kristie never do houses like these but it sounds like the life for me... If I could just get a few more people to read this blog...

- all photos courtesy of realestate.com.au

Sub-dividing old blocks

Living as I do in the inner suburbs of Sydney, it's quite rare to come across an old house that still has all its land.

It must be very tempting for owners to reap the financial gains that would come from selling the backyard off. Most old houses around my area have done just that. An old house with a much newer one next door.

Well I found one on my travels today.






It looks as though both the house and yard had not been touched in a long time and both could use a little love.

Though it does warm my heart a little to know that someone has resisted the money and would rather have a patch of green.

On the flipside it's also quite disheartening to think that at some point in the future someone will probably buy it to renovate the house and subdivide the block.






I'd like to say I wouldn't sell the land off but who knows.... A block of land in the inner city is worth quite a lot of money....

(This is from Google Streetview BTW)

Haberfield homes

I know there are nicer suburbs and I know there are more expensive suburbs. Some suburbs are near the beach. Some have fantastic shopping or a great nightlife.

Haberfield has none of these thing yet it is probably my favorite Sydney suburb. What is has is an abundance of old federation style homes. All of them under heritage listing. And all just 5min west of the city.





Every turn you make in this suburb you are bombarded with big beautiful homes. All built in the early 1900's by Richard Stanton as a response to the bubonic plague if you can believe it.





Built as "The Garden Suburb" residents must adhere to strict guidelines when extending and renovating. Not sure if I could live like that...






The one thing I do love about it though is what you see when you look abit closer.... Being built around federation there was I suppose a big nationalist feeling in the air so most of the streets are named after prominent politicians and dignitaries and alot of the houses are slyly decorated with Australian emblems.., cockatoos, kookaburras, wattle etc.

Makes for an interesting place to walk the dog. Just don't expect a beer at the pub afterwards...

First Post!!

Hi there and welcome to my new blog.... Over the years I have watched many a real estate show and devoured many a pamphlet on a house for sale. I sit at home and search the real estate websites when I am not buying and imagine how I would renovate a house should I own it and have the money!

Well I have come to realise that I am obsessed with houses so it is time to do something about it. All my thoughts and queries are going to go down in here and hopefully everyone out there can add to it and we can all share our obsession....

I hope you enjoy and continue reading..

Cheers