This blog describes the sequence of events for the building of our new home in Melbourne, Australia. We haven't engaged a builder, but are taking on the role of "owner-builder" ourselves, which means that we are project managers and we engage sub-contractors for the parts of the project. NOTE: To be an owner-builder, a Building-Technology course at a TAFE is recommended (Tertiary Education Institute).
posted by Steve at Sunday, December 10, 2006
This site is a member of www.houseblogs.net
Above: Coolattie, a Melbourne home built during the transition from Victorian to Federation.
You can find a summary of Australian architectural styles at:
7 Comments:
I own a real Victorian Villa in Newcastle City Centre in the UK and I have to say, your place looks fantastic! Everything looks perfect in your place. New or not you've used great materials and it is how well they age that really gives the house character. Mine is a little too aged!!!. I love your place! Paul.
I hadn't noticed your comment until now! 2009! Thanks for your thoughts. I would imaging the Victorian designs "down here" are a deriviative, to some extend, of those in the UK. - Steve
If some actual builders were as good as you are. Further detailed write-up on "Cooattie" is here
SEE
http://boroondara.vic.gov.au/freestyler/files/Review%20of%20B-graded%20buildings%20Vol%203.pdf
And this may take few minutes to upload.
Sample reads as follows:
'....
History
Richard Guthridge, described in the 1890s as a gentleman (retired), acquired land from the Victorian
Permanent Building Society and commissioned the construction of a ten room brick house there in
18962. Son Richard M. Guthridge, himself an architect and possibly the designer of the house,
assumed ownership in 1902, and remained there until c.1908.3
Little is known of the architectural career of Richard Guthridge Jnr. He was in the office of WR Butler
before commencing his own practice in 1895.4 Graeme Butler notes that Guthridge designed brick
warehouses, mainly in King Street, Melbourne, including one for Gutheridge and Co. in Goldie Alley,5
while the Miles Lewis Index of Australian Architecture identifies him as the architect for a number of
brick villas in the late 1880s and 1890s.6
The house appears to have been divided into flats for a period in the post WWII period, but was
converted back to a single residence by owner D H Hume in 1957-8 7 In the process, renovation
works were undertaken at substantial cost (3,600 pounds). The property was subdivided in 1977 with
the rear (north) section of the original grounds forming a new allotment.8
Substantial additions and alterations were undertaken in the late 1980s and 1990s.
(G Butler, Camberwell Conservation Study 1991, additional research by Lovell Chen, 2005)
Description & Integrity
Coolattie (also spelt Collattie), the house at 29 Canterbury Road, Camberwell, is a large villa in red
brick dressed with stucco. The footprint of the house appears to have remained virtually identical to
that shown on the early MMBW Detail Plan No. 70 (of 1905) until the construction of rear additions in 1986-7. These additions included a sun room at the north-west corner, and the construction of a first
floor addition over the original bedroom.9 Additions and alterations are thought to have been
undertaken in the 1990s, however the exact nature of these has not been established.10 The two
verandahs were rebuilt in 2001; it is not clear whether these were constructed to match the
original.11
Notwithstanding the fact that the house has undergone a series of alterations and additions, it remains
broadly intact in terms of its original presentation to the south and west. The original house presents
a large-dimensioned, but domestically scaled, exterior to the Canterbury Road – Stanley Grove corner.
This is dominated by a return verandah on a three- course bluestone base with tiled surfacing, cast
iron columns and lace valance, and a bull-nosed roof clad in corrugated galvanized steel. The roof,
hipped and clad in its original slate, is separated from the verandah roof and supported with an
emphatic set of timber brackets. The south elevation terminates at the south-west with a corner
emphasized by a canted bay near the corner and by vermiculated quoins at the corner itself. In a
characteristic Federation composition, the return verandah is framed by two projecting wings, one to
the west housing the living room, and one to the south which houses the dining room. The dining
room divides the main verandah from a smaller bedroom verandah to the south-east. The dining and
living room wings each have a brick and stucco bay treated as a breakfront, housing two full- height
windows with stilted segmental arches that spring from a molded string course. These arches are
built up with dichromatic brick and surrounded with plaster molding. Dichromatic brick is also used to
form quoin patterns at the corners of these bays.
The keystones in each wing are .... '
We would love to ask you where you had your window sills made please?
Our email address is pjkat@bigpond.com,
Thanks in anticipation,
Jan
Your house is absoltely incredible. I am a sydney-sider with a particular interest in late victorian residential architecture, but the examples which still remain in sydney are few and far between compared to melbourne.
I only just noticed your blog now, and was wondering if you could post some images of the completed works? I would be particularly interested see the final result. Tis a shame that a tower was not in the budget, but i think you have created something quite special.
richard malvern guthridge "retired" to summerleigh lodge, healesville, {possibly being the architect}. he married one of the three barnett sisters who ran the guest house through to the 1940's.
richard guthridge died at summerleigh lodge 25.1.1929, having married barnett some six years previously.
he is buried in the boorondarra cemetery.
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