BUILDER Geordie Toohey played a key role in unlocking Kate Robinson's vision for her Federation home at Maryville.
Kate, a communications consultant, bought the cavity brick house in 2006, enamoured with its period features and the suburb's sense of community.
"I loved the return verandah, the stained glass in the doors and windows, the high, moulded ceilings. It just felt so substantial," Kate says.
"A cheap kitchen and bathroom had been put in but it had fantastic bones and an amazing feel."
Kate wanted to reconfigure and brighten the rear of the house, addressing the kitchen and bathroom in the process, and retain or repurpose as many original materials as possible. However, she struggled over the years "to find the right solutions".
"I had commissioned different plans and talked to a few builders but didn't have the confidence to lock anything in," she says. "When I met Geordie, who was referred by a friend, we just clicked, and I felt like this would work."
Geordie's idea for reusing a bank of stained glass windows was the clincher for Kate. The three sliders, which no longer opened, were in an external brick wall that would become a feature of a new bathroom built on the side of the house.
He carefully transformed them into casement windows and installed two in the new kitchen and the third in the bathroom. He restored the timber lintel above the window cavity and it now supports the large vanity mirror. Salvaged bricks were used for the bathroom and as pavers.
The kitchen comprises Shaker-style cabinetry, stone benchtops, marble subway tiles ("an extravagance I really wanted") and a concealed laundry. Kate bought the cast iron cupboard handles at an antique market in India, and Geordie refurbished them.
"None of them were straight," he explains. A vintage stove has a new role as a pizza oven in the compact, lush backyard.
A last-minute but major addition to the renovation's open-plan kitchen, dining and living room, bathroom and timber deck was a spacious, upstairs master suite. It required submission of a revised development application and provides the property's third bedroom, second bathroom and an impressive, walk-in wardrobe with A-frame ceiling.
The relationship between Kate, her partner, Greg Elsworthy, Geordie and Geordie's dad, John, a fellow carpenter who works for him, developed over the seven-month project in 2020 into friendship.
"I think because it was COVID, we weren't seeing anyone else much, socially, so it was good to see and chat with Kate and Greg every day . . . it helped to keep us sane," Geordie, whose first child was born at the start of the job, laughs.
Kate reflects fondly on the experience.
"Greg and I lived on-site in the two front rooms. We had a kitchen in the hallway and Geordie built us a shower and toilet in the backyard. We just decided it was going to be a positive process and to have some fun with it."
FURTHER READING
Tribute to my dad: Greg Elsworthy
They found old coins in walls and a boot under the floor - perhaps a "ritual object" to ward off evil spirits. Unfortunately, the rear sub-floor had another surprise in store.
"I found the house was sitting on 100-year-old fence posts and bricks stacked on sand so I ended up re-piering it to get a level starting point," Geordie says.
"The digging was by hand as I couldn't get an excavator down the side."
Geordie Toohey Building has recently been recognised for the Maryville project by the regional Housing Industry Association (best renovation/addition between $250,000 and $500,000) and Master Builders Association (bathroom of the year over $35,000 and Young Builder of the Year).
Renovated, the residence retains its substance and warmth. Family and friends are enthusiastically welcomed by groodle Belli and schnoodle Otto, and the furnishings, including art and handmade rugs from overseas travels, are classic and considered.
For Kate, the house is rich with memories of Greg.
A solicitor at The Junction, he passed away in November last year.
"He and I renovated this place together," Kate says.
"I think you've got a couple of choices when you're working with an older-style house: you can either go completely different in the renovation or be sympathetic to the character of the original house, and that is what we tried to do.
"I can't see myself living anywhere else because this is everything I want and it also holds a special place because this is where I was with Greg."
