Buying Property For Dummies Page 12
Ordinarily, the grander versions of the colonial style have survived. However, you may be lucky to find a cottage that has seen better days and that is likely to appreciate with some careful restoration. Features characteristic of this style include the following:
Bluestone base with timber boards or split logs
Fireplace with chimney
Generally single storey
Low verandah under low-pitched, single-hipped roof
Mud or flagstone flooring
Simple plan, sometimes only two rooms
Stone window sills and louvre shutters
Georgian period: 1810s–1840s
The Georgian style stripped the features of the Colonial style back to perfectly proportioned simplicity. Built of sandstone blocks and using quality fittings like sash windows, panelled doors and carved woodwork, houses built in the Georgian period have an elegance that harks back to the Classical style of ancient Greece and Rome.
Most houses didn’t have verandahs or eaves, and the windows were small and regular. New South Wales and Tasmania have some fine examples of Georgian homes (Hobart’s Battery Point and Sydney’s Rocks area have many beautifully preserved Georgian cottages).
Characteristic features of the Georgian style include the following:
Corrugated iron roof
Little use of verandah or eaves
Sandstone or bluestone walls (occasionally rendered)
Simple and symmetrical plan
Small rectangular windows
Timber windows and doors
Victorian styles
When you think of a period home, a building in the Victorian style (named after the queen who reigned over Britain from 1837 to 1901, not the state) is what comes to mind. There were actually three main periods of Victorian style: Early Victorian, 1840–60; mid-Victorian, 1860–75; and the late-Victorian boom style, 1875–92. Many sub-styles were built as well, including the Victorian Mannerist style, the Gothic Revival and the Italianate style of the 1880s.
The reason the Victorian period is so renowned is because the houses were built during a period of unprecedented prosperity brought on by the gold rush that started in the 1850s. That prosperity meant that home owners could afford to spend money on their homes, and wanted their homes to reflect their affluence and their success. Owners also used new materials to decorate their homes, such as cast-iron lacework used for verandahs and fences, and elaborate plasterwork mouldings on ceilings and cornices.
Early Victorian: 1840–60
Features of houses built in the early Victorian style include the following:
Front of the building usually sited close to the footpath
Limited ornamentation
Pitched, hipped roof of slate or corrugated iron
Often terraced (in rows)
Red brick or block fronted (square-edged weatherboards)
Simple, often single-fronted, design
Tall, narrow windows placed in the middle of each room
Mid-Victorian: 1860–75
Features of houses built in the mid-Victorian style include the following:
Decorative brickwork and elaborate lacework
Large and elaborate cornices, ceiling roses and architraves
Multi-framed windows
Use of stained glass beside entry doors
Late-Victorian boom style: 1875–92
Houses built in the late-Victorian boom style (see Figure 6-1) feature the following:
Complex paint and wallpaper schemes
Grand, ornate appearance
Intricate iron lacework and complex tile patterns on verandahs
Multicoloured brickwork
Towers and turrets incorporated into the building
Use of triple windows and stained glass
The climate of ostentation and grandeur that climaxed in the late-Victorian boom style came to a sudden stop in the 1890s when Australia went into a severe economic depression that caused a housing crash. Many years passed before houses were again constructed on a mass scale.
Figure 6-1: Late-Victorian style features an ornate appearance.
Source: What house is that? A guide to Victoria’s housing styles, second edition. Published by the Heritage Council of Victoria and the Building Commission, 2007. Illustrated by David Harvey.
Federation or Edwardian style: 1901–16
Houses built at the beginning of the 20th century adopted some of the characteristics of the Victorian style, but stripped back their grandeur. This style was perhaps the real beginning of the Australian suburban style, with a more relaxed, centralised floor plan and an emphasis on the garden, even in the more modest versions of the style. Whole suburbs in Australia are made up of brick or weatherboard Edwardian-style houses; they’re elegant without being too grand and lend themselves well to renovation.
Features of houses built in the Federation or Edwardian style include the following:
Bay windows
Complex roof lines
Houses set back further from the street than Victorian homes
Red brickwork or square-edged, bull-nosed weatherboards
Return verandahs
Stained glass in front windows
Steeply sloping hipped roofs with wide eaves
Queenslander: 1880s–1940
Positioned high on stilts and surrounded by a large deep verandah that is often enclosed by lattice panels or roll-down canvas blinds, the Queenslander is an ideal adaptation to a hot tropical climate. The style changed and evolved over the years, but has always retained the airy grandeur that is now highly sought after in most Queensland coastal towns and cities. The Queenslander lends itself beautifully to renovation, although watch for termites.
Features of Queenslanders include the following:
Extensive verandahs often enclosed with latticework
Freestanding and elevated on stilts
High-pitched corrugated iron roofs
Light, timber construction
Californian bungalow: 1916–1940s
The basic style of the Californian bungalow was imported from America, but it acquired its own particular Australian suburban style. These houses are usually single storey, with a low-pitched roof and large pillars that support a front verandah and give the house a rather heavy solid appearance. Living areas were generally at the front of the house, with the kitchen and laundry tucked away at the back; for renovators determined to create a living area that flows out to an entertaining area in the backyard, this can create a bit of a challenge. Californian bungalows do lend themselves to being extended, and the creation of a second storey.
Features of Californian bungalows include the following:
Exposed rafters and beams showing from under the roof
Front doors often decorated with leadlight
Interior plan generally featuring a central hallway
Large masonry pillars alongside a wide front porch
Rustic appearance; materials with a rustic, natural look
Living areas at the front of the house and the kitchen and laundry at the back
Shallow, low-pitched roofs
Windows with small panes and arranged in casements
Early modern: 1915–1940s
Early modern styles (see Figure 6-2) include Art Deco, Spanish Mission, Mediterranean and Dutch Colonial. These buildings are the beginning of a more modern style that would evolve into the brick veneer suburban home. Houses are often on single-storey blocks set well back from the street, with side driveways and expanses of lawn with narrow garden borders. They’re usually built of brick with contrasting detailing around porches, windows and chimneys. Many early apartments and flats were built during this period and are today much sought after for their stylish design, large rooms and Art Deco ornamentation.
Features of early modern styles include the following:
Brick or rendered walls
Chrome details on stairs, lights and handles
Curved corner windows and port
hole windows
Simple block shapes
Terracotta tiled roofs
Spanish Mission homes feature colonnaded verandahs, and Art Deco homes feature textured and/or patterned glass in the windows.
Figure 6-2: Early modern style features simple block shapes.
Source: What house is that? A guide to Victoria’s housing styles, second edition. Published by the Heritage Council of Victoria and the Building Commission, 2007. Illustrated by David Harvey.
Modernist: 1945–70
Once scorned by period home buyers, many modernist homes are now becoming prized for their bold geometric style and their open living plans. While these homes can range from modest suburban bungalows to architectural landmarks, they tend to share a few characteristics that set them apart from the average brick veneer suburban home.
Modernist homes (see Figure 6-3) have square proportions tending to the horizontal, flat roofs, vast expanses of glass and a stripped-back style that verges on the austere. They’re often well designed for the modern family with plenty of light and good access to the outdoors.
Modernist homes feature the following:
Design tending to the horizontal
Occasional bold curving elements
Vast expanses of floor-to-ceiling windows
Walls made of geometric shapes
Use of natural materials such as stone and timber mixed with steel and glass.
Figure 6-3: Modernist style features geometric shapes.
Source: What house is that? A guide to Victoria’s housing styles, second edition. Published by the Heritage Council of Victoria and the Building Commission, 2007. Illustrated by David Harvey.
Renovating a period home with sensitivity and flair
Here’s how to renovate a period home with style:
Don’t ‘over-restore’ a period home. Aim to retain the original character of the house rather than making a perfect reproduction of the period style. Perfectly restored homes can look sterile.
Try to use materials that were in use when your house was built, even if they’re modern versions of original fittings. Avoid using aluminium-framed windows in a Victorian or Edwardian home, for instance.
Paint the home in colour schemes known to have been used on houses of your period.
Even if heritage restrictions limit what you can do to the front of the home, you can still often create a more modern rear extension or design an unobtrusive second storey extension.
Make rear extensions sympathetic to the period in which your house was originally built. These additions don’t have to be lavish copies. In many cases, you can adopt a quite contemporary addition that successfully includes a reference point to the original style of the home.
Chapter 7
Renovator’s Dream (or Nightmare)
In This Chapter
Settling into your ‘renovator’s delight’
Finding out what’s involved with making alterations
Doing the renovation work yourself
Hiring architects and building designers
Finding a builder to do the work
Deciding whether to live on a building site
Borrowing the money to pay for your dream
Count yourself lucky if you find a property that doesn’t require too much work to make it lovable as well as livable. Even if the property you find does happen to fit your needs and style fairly closely, you’re most likely going to want to put your mark on it, even if only to freshen it up with a paint job.
A home that requires a fair bit of work on it is generally cheaper to buy than one that has been freshly renovated; you can sometimes find really rundown homes for an absolute bargain. Some people simply love the challenge that the blank canvas of a so-called renovator’s dream represents. However, renovating is a lot of hard work and there are many considerations you need to take into account before you jump into buying a home that needs a great deal of work.
In this chapter, I look at some simple improvements that can make your home more livable and lovable, and I also discuss the different ways in which you can approach the job of undertaking more extensive renovations.
Tackling a Renovator’s Delight
When a home is advertised as a ‘renovator’s delight’, the description often indicates a property that would probably be best knocked down altogether. Unless you have money to burn on a full-scale renovation, avoid these kinds of properties if you’re a first home buyer!
Preferable is the ‘live in now, renovate later’ type of home. You may still have to put up with sagging floors, an ancient bathroom and poky rooms, but as long as the property is basically livable, you can renovate in stages as you get the money together. Ideal is a home with superficial ugliness but structural soundness, and that has a working bathroom and kitchen.
Making the place livable
Simply ripping up all the carpets, polishing the floorboards and painting the walls and ceilings in a light, neutral colour have instantly improved many a gloomy and musty home. If you can get these jobs done before you move in, you make life much easier for yourself. Having to move everything out of a room in order to paint or sand the floors is a major hassle best avoided if possible.
When horrible is delightful
The house my husband and I bought was a classic ugly duckling. Even the removalist shrieked when he looked down the hallway towards our new kitchen area. The sight of orange-patterned tiles on the floor and walls, brown wood-veneer cupboards, an ancient stove and a torn floral blind was hardly enhanced by the ugliest light fitting imaginable. But all this horror was superficial. Over the next couple of months, we lifted the floor tiles, painted the cabinets and wall tiles, and tossed the floral blind and the awful light fitting into the skip, making the house bearable until we could afford to renovate properly.
Two of the most important rooms in the house are the bathroom and kitchen. Some ideas for improving them are as follows:
Bathrooms: The bathroom often needs more drastic work if the layout and fittings are out of date. However, re-tiling, and replacing the old basin with a new vanity unit immediately gives the room a lift. Just replacing a tired exhaust fan can reduce damp in a bathroom.
Kitchens: If they’re basically functional, changing the cabinet doors or repainting the doors, if possible, can improve kitchens. Use tile and laminate primer on laminated or wood-veneer panelled doors to give them a surface that can be easily painted over. Semi-gloss or gloss paint works best on kitchen cabinets.
Replace tiles, or paint them over by using a tile primer product first. A very worn and stained bench top may need replacing. A stove that looks ugly and out of date can still work fine — just give it a good scrub inside and out. If it really needs replacing, buy something that can eventually fit into the swanky new kitchen you plan to build in the future.