The setting is a heritage listed garden on a 7200m2 site. The mature exotic trees include Deodar cedars, Japanese maples, a liquid amber and a Japanese Zelkova, most about 100 years old.

The house was built as a doctor’s surgery and residence in about 1895 with major additions in 1925 and 1965. Little had been done to the building, or the garden, since then. It had five main entrances and a rabbit warren of rooms and corridors internally. The bathrooms and laundry had not been renovated and the kitchen was split between 2 rooms. There was no flat area of open space adjacent to the living areas. And, in the short term, no heating or insulation.

The task was to transform the former surgery into a family residence. Some of the aspects of the transformation include:

. the waiting room addition was demolished allowing for the restoration of the pre 1965 street front facade

. a main bedroom suite with a sitting area, a generous ensuite and a walk in wardrobe

. 3 additional generous sized bedrooms

. two informal family rooms: one for children and one for parents. The formal living room remains.

. good access from the kitchen and family room to the exterior spaces

. a kitchen centrally located in the house and configured to have generous bench space and storage with an adjacent walk in pantry. The kitchen receives direct morning light from the east and diffuse afternoon light.

. an informal meals area near the kitchen and a separate formal dining room

. a laundry with large storage cabinets

. generous storage in the bedrooms and throughout the house

. the western verandah extended to protect the house from afternoon summer sunlight

The garden area has had an arboricultural assessment and landscape strategy developed by James Martens-Mullaly of Tree Logic Pty Ltd. This gave clear guidelines for the rejuvenation of the heritage parts of the garden. Some large native Australian trees with no heritage significance were allowed to be removed at the rear of the property.

Using this report landscape designer Prue Metcalfe used her skills to develop “a comprehensive planting design … incorporating many significant and heritage trees into a lush, private and tranquil garden that reflects the heritage and history of the residence and existing gardens, giving it the appearance that it has always been there.” Her design also incorporated:

. a wider loop driveway

. conversion of some existing driveway to garden area

. full onsite turning of vehicles

. commencement of the landscape development plan

The council planning permit process took 11 months: there was an extensive report from the council heritage consultants, our detailed response, two onsite meetings with ten people standing around and one with both the Director and Manager of Planning at the council. Much of the discussion revolved around whether we could move the main entrance of the house to the facade facing the street and whether we could demolish parts of the 1920s addition that were not able to be seen from the street. Eventually our arguments prevailed and a permit was issued with no significant changes to the design originally submitted.

Here are 10 photos to show the context before construction began. Click on each thumbnail to get a larger image.

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Here are some photos showing the construction process of the house. The garden is going to take longer to be fully established.

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