Restoration Australia S7E03,
Restoration Australia - Season 7 Episode 3,
Restoration Australia Season 7 Episode 3 ,
Restoration Australia ,
#RestorationAustralia
Restoration Australia - Season 7 Episode 3,
Restoration Australia Season 7 Episode 3 ,
Restoration Australia ,
#RestorationAustralia
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Big city life can be exciting and rewarding, and of course, brutally expensive.
00:11If you're saving a deposit for your first home, it's downright cruel.
00:14But what if you look beyond the city limits and into the regions?
00:18Plenty are, and they're finding their opportunities and horizons are widening.
00:24Finding beautiful homes for much less money, filled with character and promise.
00:31It might mean saying goodbye to the big city lights, but it also means saying hello to
00:36epic night skies, beautiful fresh air, and a stronger, sweeter sense of community.
00:47I'm Anthony Burke, a professor of architecture, passionate about buildings of the past.
00:53This is incredibly impressive.
00:55And what they can tell us about better ways to live in the future.
00:59This is very confronting.
01:00It's a ruin.
01:01It is.
01:02Join me as I travel the country, meeting homeowners embarking on the challenge of a lifetime.
01:08Restoring homes from the 1800s to the swinging 60s, looking to balance our rich cultural
01:14heritage with life in modern Australia.
01:23In the serene central west of New South Wales, some evacuees from Sydney's Red Hot real estate
01:37battleground are trading war stories.
01:39Well, you couldn't pay me enough to go back now.
01:42Like, now that I've moved out here from Sydney, like, my brother is still there and he's paying
01:47like a thousand plus bucks a week rent for a little, little parcel of land.
01:54It's a townhouse, like, and I just think...
01:56These mates are the faces of a phenomenon.
01:59Young professionals fleeing the big city property market, seemingly out of control and endlessly
02:05out of reach.
02:06Are they liking it so far?
02:08Love it.
02:09But what they bought out here, like, for what they could buy for the same price in Sydney,
02:13you'd get a one bedroom apartment, I think, and they just bought, like, a five bedroom
02:16house.
02:17Wow.
02:19There's emergency worker Chris, Sydney born and raised.
02:24West is best.
02:25Yeah, I do like that, bud.
02:27West is best.
02:28I've always been a city person throughout my entire life.
02:31I was born in the city, I didn't really know anything about country life, I really didn't
02:35know anything past west of the Blue Mountains, like, that's all I knew growing up in my entire
02:41adult livelihoods, the city.
02:42There's lots of different career opportunities out here now too, isn't there?
02:45Yeah, that's exactly right.
02:47They're a bit more flexible with their rostering.
02:50And there's paramedic Mel from Sydney's west.
02:53So Sydney was my life.
02:54My family are all there, everything that I know is there, I've got friends there, and
03:00I always thought I would live in Sydney and country was never on my radar.
03:05They thought Sydney was their future, but the prospect of a comfortable home in Australia's
03:10most expensive market was a mirage.
03:13Yeah, I just feel sorry for those people trying to break into the market down there.
03:17Oh, it's impossible.
03:18You do really have to sacrifice your life to work.
03:22You've got to like work to live just to be able to pay the mortgage.
03:26So Mel and Chris each went bush, beyond the Blue Mountains and into the state's central
03:31west.
03:32They found a place called Orange.
03:35Then they found each other and a different way of life.
03:39The first time I came to Orange, it was snowing.
03:42I'd never seen snowfall before.
03:43And when I was driving down the highway, I saw white roads, white trees.
03:47And I'm going, wow, this is just a different part of the world I haven't seen before.
03:51And yeah, and I just took my breath away coming to Orange.
03:55Orange is a beautiful town.
03:57It's got so much to it.
03:59Cafes, wineries, great local produce and good services.
04:04Orange is a thriving regional centre of nearly 60,000, bumped recently, in no small number,
04:11by settlers like Mel and Chris, fleeing city prices and pressures and traffic and tolls
04:16for quiet country roads, big skies and wide open spaces.
04:22We really love going outdoors and connecting with like untouched places.
04:25That's what really connected us, adventure, getting out and about.
04:30It is a long way down.
04:32Check out the view from here.
04:34Yeah, it's gorgeous, isn't it?
04:35It's beautiful.
04:36Yeah.
04:37I'll be joining you shortly.
04:38OK.
04:40Mel and Chris' work is testing and often confronting.
04:43Mel and Chris unwind in many of the quiet and beautiful places a stone's throw from
04:48town.
04:49I think being outdoors really just fixes you.
04:52It restores you somehow.
04:55It just makes you feel calm and happy.
04:59The outdoors were readily accessible and for Mel and Chris, the indoors became affordable.
05:05A home of their own became possible.
05:08And not some charmless, mass-produced project place, a big old rambling slice of history
05:14where you could just about abseil from the ceiling.
05:18We always wanted a heritage house and when this house in Orange came up, we just got
05:22drawn to it.
05:23Like, bluestone footings, old sandstock bricks, location.
05:27We got lucky on auction day, it became our house.
05:31The figure is a three-bedroom Edwardian in the heart of town.
05:35Mel and Chris bought it in 2021 for $596,000, the price of a postage stamp-sized apartment
05:42in an average spot in the big smoke.
05:45What we love about the house is its ornate original features, such as the sawtooth bricks,
05:51the tessellated tiles, the pressed tin.
05:54The high ceilings.
05:55The original wood floors and doors.
05:57Mantle pieces.
05:58Mantle pieces, yeah.
06:01All this is a mark of craftsmanship of the past, like, why let these things go?
06:05Things were built to last back in the day and you know what, a hundred years later,
06:08this house is still standing.
06:12It is still standing, but the knees are wobbling and the hips are creaking.
06:17This is a very original old house.
06:21It needs a lot of love, but we'll give it love.
06:23We'll bring it back to its original form.
06:25The country around Orange is an absolute fruit bowl.
06:32It's great for growing all sorts of produce, except oddly enough, oranges.
06:37It's too cold.
06:38It's grown into something of a celebrated wine region in recent years and that's brought
06:42with it a growing gourmet culture as well.
06:45Orange is pretty cool.
06:47It's also got a strong backbone of beautiful heritage, lovely old commercial buildings
06:53and houses and a thriving restoration and renovation scene.
06:58Now, Chris did a design degree before becoming an emergency worker and Mel has a passion
07:04for period homes, but they're both new to restoration.
07:08This old house that they've bought is their very first assignment and I'm not sure if
07:12they realise what they're in for.
07:17We have a love for the heritage in it, for its design and just the feel of the house.
07:23It just gave a good vibe, but at the same time, it's overwhelming because we're out
07:28of our depth.
07:29We've not done this before.
07:30We're not experts, but I'm ready to do this.
07:32I just want to get started.
07:34Yeah, we just want to get stuck in and start transforming this house.
07:38Beautiful.
07:39Hey, Chris.
07:40Hello.
07:41Hi, Mel.
07:42Hello.
07:43How are you?
07:44I'm great.
07:45Welcome to Orange.
07:46Thank you very much.
07:47Welcome to our new home.
07:48What a beautiful little house.
07:50We love it.
07:51We love it.
07:52So gorgeous.
07:53There's so many beautiful little details already.
07:54It's so proud on the street, don't you think?
07:55Yeah.
07:56It's very ornate.
07:57Yeah.
07:58It's got a lot of historical features.
07:59They certainly don't make them like they used to.
08:00No.
08:01Is this a kind of building you've always wanted to restore?
08:02Has that been in your blood forever?
08:03We wanted a house like this.
08:04Yeah.
08:05We just weren't expecting the big project, but we're up for it.
08:06You're right.
08:07We're up for it.
08:08So, look.
08:09I mean, some of the details you've got to work with then.
08:10I can see Edwardian details everywhere.
08:11Things like that star up there in the gable.
08:12I can see some pressed tin.
08:13Yes.
08:14Up there on the side of the hood there.
08:15There's some great window surrounds here and things, and your veranda.
08:16You've got the beautiful wrought iron frieze there, and the bracketing, and the veranda
08:17posts.
08:18Yep.
08:19Yeah.
08:20I mean, one of the things that people need to know about this house is that it's not
08:21just a house.
08:22It's a house.
08:23It's a house.
08:24It's a house.
08:25It's a house.
08:26It's a house.
08:27It's a house.
08:28It's a house.
08:29It's a house.
08:30It's a house.
08:31It's a house.
08:38One of the things that people need to remember is that that period, there was so much going
08:41on, and it's not like it's a clean line between styles.
08:44They kind of overlap.
08:45They overlap a lot.
08:46Yeah.
08:47And so you get a bit of this filtering through, so that's something nice to play with, actually.
08:50Yeah.
08:51You can call it Edwardian, or you can call it Federation.
08:55Proud red brick houses like this sprung up across the new nation in the opening years
09:00of the 20th century, taking an architectural lead from England and embellishing that style
09:06with Australian themes.
09:08Wow, this is really Edwardian, actually.
09:11There's a lot of detail and decoration, starting with the front door.
09:14Yeah.
09:15Look at this.
09:16This is magic.
09:17Beautiful.
09:18I can see in here, even in the glass, the coloured glass, of course, which is totally
09:20appropriate to the period, but I can see, I think, some flannel flower up in there.
09:24Yeah.
09:25So Australian native flora appearing in the decorative stuff around the house means you're
09:29in that period where we're celebrating Australian nationalism, which is great.
09:32You know, it doesn't say the UK.
09:34It doesn't say anywhere else.
09:35It says, here we are.
09:36We're proud Australians, you know.
09:37So it's really nice.
09:38I would say that's really worth trying to keep.
09:40That's something we're definitely keeping, and we'll be restoring this doorway, entranceway,
09:45to what it originally was.
09:46Brilliant.
09:47I would have insisted.
09:48I'm glad to hear you say that, truly.
09:50Up in here, too, this pressed tin.
09:52That's what really wins the house over.
09:54It's pretty full on, isn't it?
09:56Yeah.
09:57It's a house of pressed tin.
09:58Yeah, right.
09:59It's a symphony of pressed tin.
10:00It's throughout the whole house, and in every room is a different pattern.
10:04Just to make it easy.
10:05Yeah.
10:06Yep, that's right.
10:07Adds a bit of character.
10:08It's amazing how elaborate they got with the technology around pressed tin, because, I
10:11mean, the history of that started in Australia around the 1820s, but then it became very
10:16popular in the turn of the century because it was a cheap alternative, cheaper alternative,
10:20to all that plaster work, which was very expensive and very hard to do.
10:23But as a consequence, it got very elaborate.
10:26So you didn't just have ceilings.
10:27You had coving.
10:29You had archways.
10:30You had freezers.
10:31You had ceiling roses, all in pressed tin.
10:33So there's a lot of busy texture that you're going to need to manage.
10:38The bedrooms of Bega, and there are three, are big and spacious, but in urgent need of
10:43attention.
10:45The living areas have seen a lot of living.
10:48The walls are smoke-stained, cigarette smoke-stained, and over the years, maintenance has gone by
10:53the wayside.
10:55Look at the size of that fireplace.
10:57We actually think this must have been the original kitchen with a wood-fire stove in
11:00that fireplace.
11:01I reckon it looks like it's built for use.
11:05This was the original kitchen until a later owner moved the kitchen out here into this
11:10narrow addition.
11:12The lean-to is also home, or was home, to a pokey bathroom and laundry combo.
11:18This is something we're definitely getting rid of.
11:20It's actually officially hideous.
11:22It's pretty disgusting.
11:23It's very cheap.
11:24So everything from this wall, there, to the backyard, it's all gone.
11:29Great.
11:30So some of these that were once here will be in the new build.
11:32Yep, it's gotta go.
11:33Begone, horrible extension.
11:37Bega sits on more than 500 square metres of land, so there's plenty of room for Mel and
11:42Chris to play with.
11:44But how will they honour the old and sympathetically usher in the new?
11:51From the front, rotten, unsalvageable timbers means that bull-nosed veranda will be demolished
11:56and recreated, while inside, the kaleidoscope of stained, pressed metal ceilings will be
12:02repaired, or more likely, replaced with precise recreations.
12:07Floors will be stripped and polished, the original kitchen will be repurposed as a dining
12:11room, and Mel and Chris will hunt for a period wood-burning stove to heat it.
12:16The rear bedroom will become a spacious new bathroom.
12:19The extension will more than double the floor space, with a large, open-plan kitchen and
12:24living area, a master bedroom, a large ensuite bathroom, and a study.
12:29From the outside, Mel and Chris want their completed house to be absolutely seamless.
12:34The extension will be built with bricks matching the original, and a course of bluestone will
12:39run along its base to match Bega's authentic bluestone footings.
12:44There's a fair bit of sleight of hand in this project.
12:48You've not done restoration work before?
12:51No, not to this extent.
12:52Okay, I'll paint it a wall.
12:54That's a great start.
12:55Yeah.
12:56We definitely need expert help, though, with this sort of work.
13:00We've got some good builders as well that are up for the challenge, so we have absolute
13:05faith in them.
13:06Yeah.
13:07For now, the budget is $550,000.
13:09Okay.
13:10It's a bit higher than what we'd initially planned, and higher than our initial quotes.
13:15However, with a lot of the changes and difficulties in sourcing materials and trades, the price
13:21obviously has had to go up.
13:22Yeah.
13:23But at the end of the day, we're going to have a four-bedroom house with a great new
13:27addition out the back and a beautifully restored existing section here for about $1.1 million.
13:32Yeah.
13:33Am I getting that right?
13:34Yes.
13:35Yeah, $1.1 million, around that.
13:36We're hoping.
13:37In eight months' time?
13:38Yes.
13:39Yes.
13:40In the middle of a building boom?
13:41Yes.
13:42With trades being scarce and supplies being held up.
13:43Famous last words from us.
13:44You are correct.
13:45No, I think it sounds wonderful.
13:48You've got a great project here on your hands.
13:49I love the fact that you've taken on, actually, a really complex, but modestly scaled, but
13:54complex build.
13:56And you're kind of finding your way into it, and you're really listening to what the building
13:59is starting to tell you, which I think is the best thing you can do.
14:02Yeah.
14:03Can't wait to see where this goes.
14:04Yeah.
14:05Yeah, me too.
14:06Yeah.
14:07Great.
14:08Even before they bought the house, this was a bold adventure for Mel and Chris, breaking
14:16out of the city, meeting, making a new life together, meeting new friends, navigating
14:21new jobs, and adjusting to the rhythms of a regional centre.
14:25But all that was just a prelude for what's to come, because when two rank novices take
14:31on a renovation and restoration project like this, there'll be a whole new suite of tests
14:36and pressures and surprises.
14:38And I am worried about their plans to apply the design template of the existing building
14:44to their extension.
14:45Imitation may be considered high praise, but not when it comes to heritage practice.
14:51And you do not want to end up with a clumsy, unfortunate reproduction.
14:54Day one, and the angle grinders are screaming.
15:13As the team, led by builder Sam, jettisoned the ugly add-on at the rear of the house.
15:17Yeah, it's starting to take shape, and she's starting to come apart, which is exciting.
15:21It would have been quite a grand house back in its day.
15:24There's a lot of beautiful parts to it.
15:27Once this goes, we'll be able to see...
15:30Yeah, it looks like we'll have plenty of space to build with.
15:32Absolutely.
15:33Like, it's actually quite a large extension once you look at it from here.
15:39Old weatherboards are coming off.
15:42The roof's coming down.
15:46And as more of Beaker's bones are revealed, Sam's relieved.
15:50There's been no water damage.
15:53There's been...
15:54The floors haven't sunk.
15:55It's in unbelievable condition, considering the age.
15:58Everything's solid.
15:59And lucky for us, there's not too many spiders, so it's gonna be an amazing project.
16:09Windows are generally dusty, brutal affairs, but it's not all wanton destruction.
16:18There are some delicate moments of gentle persuasion, for good reason.
16:24A lot of the stuff we're trying to use again, the bricks, bluestone, original features of
16:30the house we're trying to keep.
16:31So the boys are working on one of the original windows at the moment, and they're doing the
16:34best as they can to take it out in one piece so we can hopefully repurpose that and use
16:38it either somewhere in the house.
16:39It doesn't just get thrown away in the skip bin.
16:46Repurposing materials and fittings would normally be a really useful way to preserve and highlight
16:51the DNA of the original house.
16:53But in this case, there's a danger it might all just get lost in the effort to closely
16:59model the new on the old.
17:01Textbook heritage practice aims for clear delineation between old and new.
17:06A lot of people, if they're doing a renovation like this, will try and keep the new part
17:11of the build very new and keep the old part original, but Chris and Mel's style, that's
17:16just not them.
17:17I think how they're going about it is really going to work, and we certainly don't want
17:23to be putting something up that's going to be an eyesore.
17:26It's not bad.
17:31And that's one with black fleck in there as well, see if that's got a better colour to
17:34it.
17:35It looks a lot darker, I think.
17:38Out front, Mel and Chris are down to a final pressure round of pick a brick.
17:44That one or?
17:45Yeah, no.
17:46That one.
17:47Well, I don't know.
17:49They're determined to blur the lines between the past and the present.
17:52They want the extensions bricks to perfectly match those of the original house.
17:57Got a lot of fleck.
17:58That's not bad.
17:59That's actually, do you think it's a bit red though?
18:03They've decided sourcing accurate recycled Federation bricks is going to be too time
18:08consuming and too much of a lottery.
18:11They're going to make their own.
18:13All right.
18:14I think we found our brick.
18:15We found our brick.
18:16It looks a really good brick.
18:17I'm happy about that.
18:20Nice.
18:22The quest for the perfect period match lands here, Gunnedah, 300 kilometres north of Orange,
18:30where this dramatic little brickworks has ridden the twists and turns of Australia's
18:35bricks and mortar obsession since the late 19th century.
18:40It's highly mechanised now and draws from a rich vein of shale types and clays in and
18:47around the Liverpool plains.
18:51So a brick's just not a brick.
18:52Each brick's got its own character.
18:54It's like a cake, you know, it's like an art form sort of thing.
18:57So when someone makes a wedding cake and they look at it and they've iced it up and
19:00it's just absolutely beautiful, that's like coming to work here every day.
19:06It's a great experience and one that we treasure.
19:09Plant manager Mike has accepted Mel and Chris's challenge to bake up an order that's as close
19:14as possible to Bigger's originals.
19:18So the speckles that you see in Mel and Chris's house are iron speckles that came out of their
19:23clay naturally.
19:25So we've got to now try and mimic that.
19:28So we do that by using the fly ash out of our fires, place it into the clay and then
19:34the colour's created right from the mixing process.
19:37We blend the clay together, we put it through the pressing process and then we've learnt
19:42over the years which way that brick can be stacked.
19:45Whether it's on its edge, whether it's on its flat, whether it's open so the fire can
19:49go around the brick or whether it's sealed up so it's like a fusion, so one face fuses
19:55to the other.
19:56So this creates the black speckle with the carbon so it's internal combustion and that
20:01colour is then enhanced by the firing process.
20:08Mike sounds more like a prize winning pastry chef than a brick maker, lovingly describing
20:13ingredients and an exacting process and proudly showing off the star of his kitchen, the downdraft
20:20kiln.
20:21So these are the homestead bricks that we're looking at today.
20:26So these bricks are placed in this position with a second block sitting on top.
20:33This block creates weight to help with the fusion firing to create this colour.
20:38The hot air rises to the top of the roof, we have a flue system in the floor which is
20:42connected to chimneys on the outside and the hot air sits at the top of the roof and gets
20:48drawn down through the bricks into the flue system and out through the chimneys to create
20:54what we call this downdraft kiln, which is a very traditional type of firing process
21:00because this really creates the character.
21:06So as his cakes go into the oven, the expectant brick baker has to wait and see if his recipe
21:12will rise to the occasion with the right colour and fleck.
21:24Back in Orange, work has split into two divisions.
21:29Builder Sam's leading team renovation, forging ahead with a massive concrete pour for the
21:35new build.
21:36So today's a big day, the weather's perfect, we've had to move a hundred tonne of dirt
21:40out and bring in about 80 tonne of fill, but we're here and we're pouring and this
21:45is really going to set the base for us to keep things moving along for Chris and Mel.
21:49You're really going to be able to see the new size of the house, how much extra space
21:53they're going to get out of this.
21:54As you can see, we've pretty much taken up the whole yard.
22:00It's pretty clear from the expanse of this pad, the extension is extensive.
22:06Is it going to overwhelm the original house and gobble up too much of the old backyard?
22:15Inside Baker's old shell, the other half of the equation, team restoration, is currently
22:20a one-man band.
22:22Chris has begun the arduous task of stripping the layers and layers of paint applied over
22:28the years, starting with the doors.
22:31As you can see, it's a pretty disgusting colour, but also this is the age of the house,
22:38there's bound to be lead paint in here and that's something which we wanted to remove
22:41as well.
22:42So we wanted to change the colour, remove the lead paint, but also with this house being
22:45over a hundred years old, I reckon we're going to find some nice old growth timber underneath
22:49here and some nice natural grains.
22:51Their budget of $550,000 is tight as a drum.
22:55So where they can, Chris and Mel will do the work themselves.
22:59And with their experience, that means this kind of work.
23:03Pretty boring.
23:04And with all the old stuff that opens and shuts in here, getting the treatment, pretty
23:09repetitive.
23:10It's kind of therapeutic.
23:11It's like mowing the lawn, you see it as a big job and then once you get it, you look
23:15at the end results and you just go, not a bad job.
23:19And hopefully we have a nice, beautiful, natural door at the end.
23:25Chris and Mel are having to tag team their restoration effort.
23:31Because they're both shift workers providing vital services to Orange and the region.
23:36I do love my job, working as a paramedic for New South Wales Ambulance.
23:42It's a very busy job at times, but I get to help people in their times of need.
23:47And every day is different.
23:48You never know what jobs are coming.
23:50So it's a very rewarding job.
23:53Emergency work is demanding, often draining, and the hours are unpredictable.
23:58It's rare for this couple to be together, on site, tackling tasks and solving problems.
24:04The builds are very busy.
24:06It's like a full time job in itself.
24:08I wish I had more time to be there and restore more than what we have.
24:14But both Chris and I work full time.
24:16We've been taking on extra shifts where we can just to help pay the bills and get ahead.
24:21So life is hectic, we're burning the candle at both ends, but I think that's the way we've
24:27always lived.
24:28So, no matter how tough the work-life balance gets here, Mel and Chris are prepared to deal
24:33with it.
24:34For them, the payoff is a dream home they really couldn't hope to create back in the
24:40big city.
24:41There's absolutely no time to stress about it.
24:43It's just time to enjoy and work hard and embrace it, because at the end it'll be worth it.
24:52Four months on, the project is very much a tale of two speeds and two halves.
25:01Out the front, the veranda is being dismantled.
25:04The original ironwork is coming off for restoration and will be reinstalled when the rotten timbers
25:10are replaced.
25:11With Mel and Chris taking on as much overtime as they can to pay the bills, progress inside
25:17the original shell, their work zone, is slow.
25:21But out the back, it's a different story.
25:23The building team is rattling along and as the extension continues to grow, the scale
25:29of the new build is even more evident.
25:32They're bolting a hell of a lot of space to the back of Bega.
25:36And while inside the framework and materials look startlingly new, outside the effort to
25:41blur the lines between the original house and the extension continues.
25:47The bluestone is pretty unique to orange, so we're trying to get this back as close
25:52to the original foundation as, in appearance, as we can.
25:58Stonemason Josh and his team are splitting and shaping recycled bluestone to clad the
26:03bottom rows of the new brick walls, so Bega's original bluestone footings appear to extend
26:08all the way below the new build.
26:12We're trying to just sort of fake it, if you want, to make them look a bit the same.
26:17But in the process, we have to cut down and chip away at a lot of these rocks to make
26:21them suit.
26:22So we can make it look as close to the original as we can.
26:26Josh will need to summon all his craft skills to ensure this doesn't end up looking like
26:31a faux footing.
26:32Josh, how high are we going with the bluestone?
26:35Just one course?
26:36Just one course, yeah.
26:37Okay.
26:39These were the original foundations of the old kitchen and laundry and veranda area,
26:45but we found a second new use for them for part of the house, so otherwise these would
26:48have all gone in the tip or been used somewhere else.
26:51No, it looks pretty good.
26:52Really nice feature.
26:55Mel and Chris obviously love the original features of their house, and it's easy to
27:00see why they think replicating them in their extension is honouring that heritage.
27:05They want their completed house to look Edwardian front to back, certainly from the street.
27:12But architecture is a statement of the times, and in and around Orange, you can read those
27:17times like the rings of a proud old tree.
27:21It really is a truly extraordinary Australian landscape.
27:26Always home to the Wiradjuri people, as you can imagine, this area really changed significantly
27:32when settlers arrived in the early 1800s.
27:37Australia's first payable gold was discovered just outside of Orange in 1851.
27:42There's a minehead right there.
27:45The gold rush changed everything, of course, with migrants and many hopefuls all flooding
27:50in, seeking their fortune.
27:52So the population boomed, and in the 1870s, Orange got a railway, and the town never looked back.
28:03Up on the corner here is the courthouse.
28:08Look at that neoclassical façade, brilliant.
28:11And there's beautiful Robertson Park.
28:13Look at the rotunda over there, the fountain.
28:17Towards the end of the 19th century, the gold money had started to fade, but agricultural
28:22success had taken over, and consequently, the houses started to reflect that aspiration.
28:28And at that time, the Edwardian style became very popular, just like Chris and Mel's place.
28:35The Edwardian periods between 1901 and 1918 in architecture, and in Australia, we call
28:41it Federation as well.
28:43What you're looking for are things like red brick with white pointing, beautiful timber
28:48work around the verandas, which now wrap around one side of the house, and slate roofs and
28:53little bullnose hoods over the windows.
28:56There's your bullnose, and look at that ornate valence over there on the veranda, those turnposts.
29:01Fantastic.
29:02Gorgeous little house, that one.
29:06Every one of these homes is an integral piece of the town's historical mosaic, each with
29:11their own story.
29:13Mel's keen to discover Bigger's origin story, but she doesn't have the time to conduct her
29:18own deep dive into the record books.
29:21So the Orange Historical Society has done it for her.
29:26We've done a bit of deep researching and found out a little bit more than we knew.
29:31Volunteer Bob has been leading the case.
29:34So your block of land is initially owned by a follower by the name of Joseph Mulder.
29:43In 1817, Englishman Joseph Mulder found himself transported down under for, among other things,
29:50the high crime of nicking a silk handkerchief.
29:53He was effectively pardoned eight years later.
29:57When he came to Orange, he was given a block of land in Bathurst at Kilso and a cow.
30:03And within a few short years, entrepreneur Joe had turned a cow paddock into an empire.
30:10Biggest landowner around Orange, almost, as you can see, he owns two thirds of the land
30:16around Orange.
30:17Okay.
30:18Mulder was quickly powerful and influential, instrumental in the push to cleave early Orange
30:24in half, divided by faith.
30:26Mulder was a Protestant and the powerful Protestant Catholic thing did split the town into temporarily
30:33for 24 years between 1888 and 1912.
30:37And we had two different councils, two different shopping areas, two different police stations,
30:42two different fire stations.
30:43It's great history, isn't it?
30:46Wow.
30:47Like any big wheel who shaped a town, Mulder got a street named after him and that is where
30:53Bega was built.
30:54So they think that our block is from a subdivision from that block of land.
30:58Exactly.
30:59Your block of land is in that East Orange block of land.
31:01We found out that your home was built by George Herbert Wiley in 1915 and it was built for
31:08Mr and Mrs Baker, who had a total of 10 children.
31:12Nice.
31:13That's great history.
31:14Yeah.
31:15So it was very, very good doing the research.
31:17For me, it feels like the final piece of the puzzle, the history of the house, the story
31:21behind the house and why it is where it is.
31:24Sorry, thank you so much for taking the time to research it and find out this interesting
31:29history for us.
31:31But here's the thing.
31:32That was then and this is now.
31:35We're not a newly born nation beginning to celebrate distinctive flora and fauna and
31:40putting our own slavish spin on English architecture.
31:44But Melancholia is a very different place.
31:47By mimicking Bega's period motifs, blurring the lines between the 1900s and the 21st century,
31:53there's a big risk of winding up with a cheesy mess that doesn't pay tribute to the original,
31:58but diminishes it.
32:00We'll see.
32:07But Mel and Chris are all in on replicating Bega's period features in their new addition.
32:15And when it comes to the pressed tin ceilings, they are quite literally going over the top.
32:20So once the sheet's tacked off, then take the lifter away, make sure it's all nice and
32:26straight and finish it off.
32:28All over the top.
32:30Tin man Tim is lining the sky with the stuff.
32:33There's quite a bit of new tin going in this house in different patterns and different
32:36styles, which suits the existing part of the house that's got pressed tin in every room.
32:42There's quite large quantities that we're using here.
32:45Generally speaking, you might do one or two ceilings within a house, but this one is quite
32:50a large job.
32:51So you just have to break it down and just work on each room individually and not get
32:55too overawed of what the quantity that's going in.
32:59Each ceiling will feature a different motif, and in some rooms they'll meet up with a pressed
33:04tin cornice in a different pattern.
33:07And it's not just ceiling.
33:09So we're here in the en-suite, we're going to do the walls.
33:13So through this front section we're having a panel called wildflower, runs through, steps
33:18up into the shower on both sides.
33:21This wall here, both above and below the step, will be lily.
33:25There'll be pressed tin splashbacks as well.
33:28It's one thing to honour the heritage features of the original house, but this is something
33:32else altogether.
33:34It's going to be a riot of embossed surfaces, a tidal wave of tin.
33:39How much is too much?
33:42That's looking cool.
33:43Don't ask Chris, he can't get enough of it.
33:47The pressed tin is looking sensational, it's meant to burst out and pop.
33:50So when you go into new sections, people who continue going to have snap necks, they're
33:54going to go constantly look straight up and go, wow, what a ceiling.
33:58So that's what we wanted it to have.
34:09I enjoy getting my hands dirty as part of our project, why pay to get someone to do
34:23it when you can do it yourself.
34:26Mel's finally found some time away from her busy paramedic rounds to focus on the house.
34:31And this job couldn't be more of a contrast.
34:35This is just one of my tasks to do on the house.
34:40The slow drudgery of wallpaper removal.
34:43Chris is sleeping after his second night shift.
34:47Shift work is something Chris and I have done for a long time and it's what we're used to,
34:52we don't know life any other way.
34:55I guess that means that I'm here on my own doing this today, which is fine because when
35:00I'm at work, Chris will be here doing his little tasks and projects.
35:06The plan is to paint some of these walls and re-paper others.
35:11It's a relief there's no talk of pressed tin.
35:23Six months on and with the pros out the back steaming ahead with the addition...
35:28OK, so we've still got a bit to do.
35:31I'm wondering how the time poor amateurs are faring out the front.
35:35Mel and Chris, you there?
35:36Yeah, we're here.
35:37Hello.
35:38Hey, there you go.
35:39Hey, Anthony, how are you going?
35:40I'm great.
35:41How are you guys?
35:42Good.
35:43Really good.
35:44I can see you are absolutely smashing it down there.
35:45Yeah.
35:46It's been lots of progress, that's for sure.
35:47Yeah.
35:48Lots of work.
35:49Not so much progress out the front here.
35:50Can we get a look in?
35:51Yeah.
35:52Let's go have a look.
35:54Well, I can see there's still not much happening in here.
35:59What have you been up to?
36:00Yeah, so what we can do, we try it ourselves.
36:03So I've stripped all the lead paint off all the architraves and all the original doors
36:07in the house.
36:08So yeah, glad for all the lead paint to be gone.
36:10Yeah.
36:11Yeah.
36:12The wallpaper's gone.
36:13Take that off.
36:14Yeah, so apart from that, we're in a bit of a holding pattern in the original part of
36:17the house.
36:18We're waiting for a lot of the wiring to be done.
36:20It's usually just doing the shell of the whole house, and then obviously the wiring, plumbing
36:24all happens at the same time.
36:26After revealing this wood trim, I saw it's a beautiful wood trim and all that, I'm going,
36:31I've seen more formal houses being having this exposed wood trim with their doors and
36:36their architraves and all that.
36:37I'm just wondering, what do you think?
36:38Do we just keep this look or just give this a nice good sand and we stain it and make
36:44it really make the wood pop, or do I go about painting it again?
36:48I think to be consistent with the period of the home, you're probably going to need to
36:53paint that.
36:54Yeah.
36:55When I think of Edwardian, I think of, again, a bit of pattern on the walls, but always
36:59skirtings, architraves and so on, having a colour which, you know, picks them out in
37:03the room somehow.
37:04Oh, okay.
37:05I love timber.
37:06It's very easy to fall in love with that.
37:07But I think to be consistent with the house, you're probably going to need to sort of think
37:11about a coat of paint.
37:12Okay.
37:13Yeah.
37:14How about the pressed tin?
37:16You know, this is the one thing about your house which is quite remarkable.
37:19There are so many specific patterns in different rooms.
37:22Every room almost has its own signature, which is really, really interesting and also a lot
37:26of texture that's brought into the house.
37:28Well, we've carried that through, so every room has a different pattern.
37:31Yeah.
37:32I mean, too much?
37:33I mean, you certainly haven't been shy about the pressed tin.
37:36No.
37:37It's following through with the original build, so it's just the continuation that we planned
37:41on doing from the start.
37:42Yeah.
37:43Yeah.
37:44It's, I think it looks good.
37:46I don't think it's too over the top.
37:47And hopefully once it's painted, just the same white colour throughout, it should just
37:51sort of blend, hopefully.
37:52Yeah.
37:53So, the brief was to have the new part of the house matching the old, so we continued
37:57that on as well.
37:58Yeah, okay.
37:59Yeah.
38:00The 12-foot ceilings in the original house are made for pressed tin.
38:04At that altitude, the busy embossed finish is muted.
38:08Out the back, the ceilings are lower.
38:11I can't help worrying Mel and Chris are going to end up being pressed in by pressed tin.
38:21The project is fast becoming a carnival of old being renewed and new made to look old,
38:28a swirling kaleidoscope of materials from then and now.
38:35The original ironwork removed from the front veranda has been blasted and primed.
38:42We've got about 15 to 20 pieces of fretwork that come in from Chris and Mel's place.
38:48When they came in, you know, they were quite weathered.
38:51You know, they're over 100 years old and by the time we're finished with them, they'll
38:55look brand new.
38:56They're going to look a million bucks.
38:57They're getting a couple of Edwardian coats before they take pride of place framing that
39:02bullnose sun trap.
39:04Restorer Glenn's never seen this kind of detail before.
39:07You know, we would have done thousands of pieces.
39:10But the standout cred to this one is the intricate design that they've got.
39:14I've never seen one with a pattern quite like this.
39:17This is a very beautiful pattern, to be honest with you.
39:19Now, this one's really quite stunning.
39:33It's a decent size extension, this one.
39:35Yeah, with about 9000 bricks in it.
39:37The new bricks for the extension, commissioned to precisely match Bega's old bricks, are
39:42impressing Bricky Michael.
39:43He's done a good job matching these bricks.
39:46It has a lot of different colours because you've got a lot of purples, a lot of blacks,
39:49a lot of whites.
39:50But once you mix them all together, they look pretty awesome, really.
39:54But mixing is one thing, matching is another.
39:57Michael has to merge the new, precisely dimensioned bricks with the imprecise, higgledy-piggledy
40:04handmade array laid by his 19th century counterparts.
40:08And you can see too, they're all different sizes.
40:10Like, say, that one's a bit thicker than this one.
40:12Obviously, this one's probably be thicker than this one.
40:15And you've got your different lengths too.
40:18That's why we can't match the gauge with the original stuff, just because the bricks are
40:22so much smaller.
40:26While the original house is double brick, the rear is veneer, a cost saver for sure.
40:31But this is also about creating an external impression.
40:35Mel and Chris don't want anyone thinking this is anything but Edwardian, front to back.
40:41Getting it right is going to take longer than scheduled.
40:48These relatively small pressures on the build and the budget have been quietly multiplying
40:53and are pooling into a bigger drama.
40:56I've just knocked off for the day, funnily enough.
41:00Mel being a fellow shift worker, she's just starting on shifts.
41:02So there is times where we're just like shifts in the night, like we pass each other fleetingly
41:07and we just say, how's your day going?
41:09How's your day going?
41:12It's brief hellos and goodbyes, but there is a bigger conversation demanding to be had.
41:18With a build like ours, you can't not think about budget and people who say, oh, they're
41:22well within budget or they're expected, they're full of shit, OK?
41:27There's always going to be things which are happening, which are out of your control,
41:29which are out of the builder's control, which happens unexpectedly.
41:32Pressure is something you have to deal with and acknowledge.
41:36And if you let that get to you, that's when things start getting bad and things start
41:41getting out of control.
41:42Like, there's always opportunities for Mel and I to do extra work to get on top of things.
41:46Or there's always, in a small country town like Orange, you always find mates of mates
41:50who know a tradie or who knows a person who's willing to give you a hand.
41:54And that's something which I've come to learn and love about Orange.
41:59Oh, wow.
42:00Look at all the stoves in the shed.
42:01There's so many to choose from.
42:13With spare time all but non-existent, even their country walks have to have a project
42:18purpose.
42:19Look at all these stoves.
42:20I mean, that's what we wanted.
42:22Mel and Chris are hunting for a wood-burning stove to replace the one that used to chug
42:26away in the original kitchen.
42:28They're now turning into a dining room.
42:30Wow.
42:31Look at this one, Mel.
42:32Well, there's a couple of beagers here, Chris.
42:33I like the idea of getting a beager one initially because it says beager on the stove and that's
42:38the same name as our house.
42:40Yeah.
42:41That'll be cool.
42:42But, I don't know.
42:43I mean, we can keep this one in mind.
42:44It's the right size.
42:45But I just think that it looks a bit art deco-y and it might not be the right era for the
42:50house.
42:51They're spoiled for choice.
42:52Food owner Justin is a wood-stove rescuer and he's arrived from his workshop to help.
42:57I honestly don't know what one to choose.
43:00How many did you want to buy today?
43:02Well, I don't know.
43:03We said that we needed something for outside.
43:05What do you think if we have a wood-stove outside as well for barbecues and things?
43:10I think it's a pretty cool idea.
43:11Yeah.
43:12A lot of people are putting them in outdoor entertaining areas.
43:14What do you think?
43:15We were going to buy one stove, weren't we?
43:16We were going to buy one stove.
43:17And now we're walking away with two stoves, you think?
43:19Yeah.
43:20Well, we can maybe do a deal if you pick up the two, so we'll see how we go.
43:22All right.
43:23Sounds good.
43:24Just like the tin ceilings, these guys don't seem to know when to stop with the period
43:28stuff.
43:36Speaking of tin, 10 months on, Bega's big backyard has been almost entirely capped in
43:42sparkling new corrugated tin.
43:45You can get a real sense of the comparative enormity of the extension from up here.
43:50Down below, work inside the original house has finally caught up, and Mel and Chris have
43:55passed their baton to a team of tradies, now driving to the finish line.
44:00It's go, go, go.
44:03But there's always time to stop and savour some delightful detail.
44:06How's it going?
44:08Yeah, pretty good.
44:09So far, so good.
44:11These gorgeous tiles have been carefully removed from the front veranda and will now take pride
44:16of place in this big bathroom converted from an original bedroom.
44:20I think it'll be great.
44:21Are you having fun with it?
44:24Yes.
44:25Yeah, we are.
44:26Old stuff is being restored, new stuff is being made to look old, and now old stuff
44:31is being relocated in new, old spaces.
44:34Feels like a very complicated instalment of Back to the Future.
44:47Spring is rolling in, and out here, it's a slow but beautiful awakening as the countryside
44:54takes its time shaking off the torpor of another blanketing winter.
44:59It's a great time for local producers.
45:01Everything's beginning to buzz and blossom, and it's also time to unveil the old Edwardian
45:06that's been growing anew in the heart of Orange.
45:10Just about bang on two years since work began, will Mel and Chris' front-to-back period
45:15celebration look sweetly seamless, or a little unseemly?
45:41Hello, Anthony.
45:42There they are, two proud, happy homeowners.
45:44G'day, Chris.
45:45G'day, mate.
45:46How are you?
45:47Good.
45:48Mel, look at what you've done here.
45:49Yeah.
45:50This is beautiful.
45:51I'm thrilled with it.
45:52I have to say, I had some doubts, but this is looking absolutely wonderful.
45:57You doubted us?
45:58Really?
45:59Well, there's a lot going on here, but I think for me, what's most impressive is the whole
46:04picture.
46:05You know, it's not too busy, it's not too kind of like crazy and unbalanced, actually
46:09it is exactly what you kind of want.
46:11Your fix.
46:12It is so much nicer for it.
46:14Oh, nice.
46:15Lovely.
46:16It fits like it's meant to be.
46:17It was a lot of hard work and effort, but I'm loving the results we got from it.
46:20We've loved everything about it.
46:22Mel and Chris start their Edwardian smoke and mirrors show from the get-go.
46:27The bullnose veranda is standing proud again on freshly recreated posts.
46:32The tin is spanking new, while the original lacework is back from the spray shop and popping.
46:39The tessellated tiles are new for the veranda and the footpath, but it's the same pattern
46:44that the original tessellated tiles were on the front.
46:46Brilliant, brilliant.
46:47Yeah.
46:48So you've really tried to be as authentic as you possibly could be, right?
46:51They got it right back in the day, so it's only fair to follow on with their good work.
46:56So the original tiles, we did something really special and we put them inside Anthony's
47:00and I can't wait to show you.
47:01The front door's calling.
47:02Yes.
47:03Let's go have a look.
47:04Let's have a look.
47:10Despite early hopes, the front door has been replaced with a ring-in from another period home.
47:17The original door we had was too knackered to be used.
47:20Gotcha.
47:21So we had to restore an old door.
47:22Okay.
47:23It's more than a hallway, isn't it?
47:24I mean, the scale in here, it's big enough to accommodate these artworks.
47:27It's more like a gallery.
47:28Yeah.
47:29A bit more regal or something.
47:30Yes.
47:31Yeah.
47:32And there's a sense of scale in this hallway now.
47:35Definitely.
47:36It's not dark and dingy anymore.
47:37Absolutely not.
47:38I mean, that's the big transformation, right?
47:40Yeah.
47:41This is a triumph.
47:42This is great.
47:43Arrayed above are twinkling examples of Mel's dedication to period prospecting.
47:49One original light has multiplied, leading the eye down this broad boulevard.
47:55There was a lot of fun finding those, but I did saw store original lights from old houses.
48:01I mean, that's heroic.
48:03I'm seeing at least six from here.
48:05And there's some in the bedrooms as well.
48:07And all over the state we've gone for these, Anthony.
48:09I was going to say.
48:10We couldn't find all six in one place.
48:11No.
48:12People would only have one.
48:13Then another person across the state would have another one.
48:16So we've been all over.
48:17They're very hard to come by.
48:18That would have taken forever.
48:20Also on high, those pressed tin ceilings in all their busy iterations,
48:25crowning the generous, lofty spaces of the original house.
48:29Including the now deeply blue living room.
48:36The blue is a very committed kind of colour choice.
48:39It is a consistent blue.
48:41I would have normally expected maybe a couple of highlight colours or something,
48:45a bit of variation.
48:46But I suppose you're getting that from the mural.
48:48Is that how you're feeling?
48:49Look, I just want it dark and moody.
48:50You do want to sort of get snug.
48:52Yes.
48:53You want to sort of sit down and have a quiet chat with someone.
48:55Yeah.
48:56This does invite an intimate conversation, doesn't it?
48:58Yeah.
48:59The choice to paint the entrees and the skirting boards.
49:03Yeah.
49:04You went with my suggestion.
49:05We did go with your suggestion, and I'm really glad we did that, actually.
49:08Yeah.
49:09I was covered in paint stripper for a few months there,
49:11but got it done, and they turned out great, actually.
49:13Yeah.
49:14Lots of work.
49:15Lots of work, but I'm really happy with it.
49:17In between all the grunt work and the shift work,
49:20Mel and Chris have managed to find time to contemplate
49:25comprehensively raid antique shops and online portals for period gear.
49:30Their restored working stove sits snugly in what's now the dining room.
49:39It looks fantastic there.
49:40It almost looks like it was there from the very beginning,
49:43from the get-go.
49:44Yeah, it does, doesn't it?
49:46But a core story of this restoration is reuse.
49:52More tessellated tiles.
49:54Yeah, more tessellated tiles.
49:55These are the original ones from the house.
49:57What, from the front porch?
49:58From the front porch.
49:59Oh, fantastic.
50:00So that would have been a completely painful job
50:02to have to remove every single tile and bring them in here.
50:05Yeah, our builder nearly had a meltdown doing this,
50:07and yeah, he got there at the end, but it was a mission to get them down there.
50:10I bet, I bet.
50:11And then that door over there?
50:13Yeah, that door is also from the front of the house.
50:15I thought I recognised that.
50:16Yeah, that looks great, that whole barn door thing going on over there.
50:19So you've got this real thing going of being able to find new homes
50:21for all of these elements.
50:22Almost nothing has been thrown away.
50:24Nothing.
50:25That's right, everything can be repurposed.
50:26Great.
50:27Yeah.
50:28To the back.
50:29Let's go.
50:35This is the part of the house, of course, the new part.
50:37This is the ceilings dropping down a bit now.
50:39Yeah.
50:40So the press tin, and I know you've limped right into the press tin
50:43all through here.
50:45I've got to ask, how are you feeling about it now?
50:47Because there is a lot of it.
50:49You certainly noticed it with the ceiling heights a little bit lower.
50:53Yeah.
50:54It seemed a lot at the time.
50:55Yeah.
50:56But painting it dulled it down a bit,
50:58and then I think once you put furnishings and things in,
51:00it didn't stand out as much.
51:02Yeah.
51:03I wouldn't have it any other way, though.
51:04We love an Anthony.
51:05Yeah, that's what I'm looking for, yeah.
51:07Because I know it goes from here,
51:08and it's right through the rest of the house, isn't it?
51:10It's the character of the home, and every room,
51:12like in the original part, has a different pattern.
51:16I've even got it in the splashback behind the oven over there.
51:19I mean, I keep looking around and finding it
51:21in places I don't expect to see it.
51:23Yes.
51:24So this is a love affair.
51:25Yeah.
51:26Yeah.
51:27I don't think you can overkill with it.
51:28It's great.
51:30The sprawling extension has bitten hard
51:33into what was once a sprawling backyard.
51:37Low maintenance is good for us right now with a busy lifestyle.
51:40So it's enough for an outdoor area,
51:43but not too much for us to have to do a lot of work.
51:45Yeah, and you've got some great quality space inside,
51:47so there's the trade, you know.
51:49But now we're here,
51:50has the front-to-back Edwardian replication come off?
51:54I can see it all through here in the bricks.
51:56You've worked really hard to match the brick colour,
51:59find the right bricks,
52:00gone hunting for those things as well.
52:02You've got the detail of the dogtooth coursing up there.
52:05The bluestone foundation is there.
52:07So all those things you've brought all the way through.
52:09Do you worry about that where the old house
52:12and the new brickwork starts?
52:13Do you think you would have?
52:14I notice that.
52:15Done it again, done it differently?
52:17Maybe, yeah.
52:18Maybe just use the original brick for that side
52:20and then the bricks that we sourced elsewhere.
52:23But, you know, we've matched it quite well
52:26considering they're a new style of brick.
52:29Still, when they took this on,
52:31Mel and Chris were fresh from the big smoke,
52:33newbies to orange and complete restoration novices.
52:38Not anymore.
52:40There's always trepidations and apprehensions
52:42as to, oh, it's a major move in your life
52:44and what am I doing?
52:46But actually, we're loving it.
52:47We've been here for a number of years now
52:49and country life, yes, really agreeing with us.
52:54The house was a big, hard job
52:56and not all of it was fun.
52:58And I'm going, oh, there were some late nights,
53:00there were some stresses, which is expected,
53:02but I've learnt so much about it.
53:04We learnt so much about the history
53:06and how people lived back in that time.
53:08It wasn't just about building a house.
53:10It was a journey and a story in itself.
53:12Yeah, it became a passion.
53:13It did.
53:14Yeah?
53:15Yeah, it was a fun passion.
53:16It was a great adventure and it was worth it.
53:18Yeah?
53:19Yeah.
53:20So in terms of time,
53:21you gave yourselves a very ambitious eight months.
53:24That was a big call.
53:26That was a big call.
53:27It was a big call.
53:28It's taken you, what, 16 months?
53:30For the build.
53:31For the build?
53:32Yeah, but as the house evolved,
53:34we saw more things that we'd like to have happen,
53:37which delayed it,
53:38and then obviously us restoring and doing bits ourselves
53:40also took time.
53:41In terms of budget then,
53:43you had $550,000 as your number.
53:47That's what you were going to spend.
53:48What did you spend?
53:49We're looking at about the $650,000 mark.
53:52Okay.
53:53Yeah.
53:54Oh, so that's...
53:55It wasn't too bad.
53:56Yeah, not too bad,
53:57but it's a good chunk of change over
53:59where that extra cost come from.
54:01Then our restorations,
54:03all the stuff we bought to add.
54:05We didn't think it was going to be
54:06that much dearer for a restoration,
54:09but what I'm finding now is
54:12old and restoration is expensive.
54:15I guess the thing that's most impressive to me
54:17is that you found the energy and the passion
54:19to go and find all of the little pieces of this story
54:22from all over the state,
54:24and now everything in this place has a story,
54:26is contributing to the bigger picture,
54:28and it feels like you've been able
54:30to stitch all that together just beautifully.
54:33We've gone back to 1915, I think.
54:36Yeah.
54:37And to me, look, that's a beautiful house.
54:39Yeah.
54:40Thank you for that.
54:41Congratulations.
54:43Yay, we did it.
54:44Yeah, we did it.
54:52Hello.
54:53Hi.
54:54It's beautiful.
55:00So we did the pristine everywhere, Mum,
55:02all the new lights.
55:04So all this is the new extension of the house and all that?
55:07I'm very happy.
55:08Yeah, it's nice, isn't it, Mum?
55:10Big job, but we got it done.
55:12Anything we pulled down, we either reused ourselves
55:14or we sold it to people who will reuse it.
55:17We didn't want to throw anything out.
55:20Yay!
55:24Chris and I would like to thank you all
55:26for coming here to help us celebrate.
55:28Thank you so much for all your love and support.
55:30Here's to all of us, and here's to Bega.
55:33Cheers!
55:34Cheers!
55:44What's not to like about what Chris and Mel have done here?
55:47They haven't just restored and extended their old house.
55:51In moving to Orange and escaping the cost and chaos of the city,
55:55they've upscaled their entire lives.
55:57They've created a very sweet spot for themselves,
56:01and now all that's left to do is to enjoy it.