ONE room at a time.
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This was how Peter Ryan and Lisa Stedman tackled the restoration and extension of their home in Clinton Street, which has won an Orange City Council Cultural Heritage Award.
After 16 months of scrapping, sanding and filling cracked masonry and stripping painted woodwork, the couple has a large, light-filled home rich in heritage details and modern comforts.
Mr Ryan said they bought the 120-year-old painted brick house because of its position near Cook Park and the untapped potential they saw.
Today the family home attracts plenty of attention for its bold exterior colour scheme, which includes lilac and knapsack green standing out from the neutral bagged brickwork and the ornate metal and masonry fence.
However, the transformation inside has been even more dramatic and started with Mr Ryan and Ms Stedman stripping back every inch of woodwork.
“It was all yellow, the whole place was yellow, the walls, the woodwork. It was just a shame, all that great timber and they painted it,” Mr Ryan said.
Apart from a complete paint job inside and out, the home was extensively remodelled with an en suite bathroom and walk-in robe added to the main bedroom and a huge kitchen and family room added at the rear where the house once finished.
The new living area leads onto a new laundry and a third bathroom and also opens onto a covered entertaining area.
The result is a home that caught the eye of the council’s heritage committee.
One of the judges, councillor Neil Jones, said the awards system was an important way of promoting the mix of old and new in the city’s centre.
“A lot of people value that, that’s why they like to live in the CBD,” he said.
“The main thing is that it does give encouragement to other owners of heritage properties.”
Tasteful restoration and rennovation also added value to heritage properties, he said.
Mr Ryan would agree, he said the house had trebled in value on the purchase price 18 months ago.
Ms Stedman said they had done a great deal of the preparation work and all the painting.
Her tip for other owners of old homes contemplating a massive restoration job was simple.
“Do one room at a time, don’t start more than one, it ends up getting out of hand. Do it properly in the first place.”
tony.rhead@fairfaxmedia.com.au
Orange City Council’s heritage award winners:
* Streetscape element restoration
18 Lucknow Street, Spring Hill. Owner : Harold and Evol Watkins.
* Infill development, a new building an an existing heritage streetscape
57 Sampson Street. Owner: Rhana Tudor.
* Adaptive reuse of an existing building
Two winners: 122 Warrendine Street. Warrendine Specialist Centre. Old Dudley Hospital now Pigott Miller Wilson Accountants. Owner: Pearlcalve Pty Ltd – Daniel, Ray and Andrew Miller, Michael and Brian Hayes.
* Best heritage treatment of a commercial building
Two winners: Premises : 171 Edward Street. Owner: Ms Sara King, Timothy Nicholson, Ana Datoc, Michael King. 117 Moulder Street, (Orange Dermatology). Owner: Derek Davies.
* Best landscape/garden design which is appropriate to its environment
Premises : Emmaville Cottage. Owner: Orange City Council.
* Best community partnership project
Two winners: Emmaville Cottage (Rotary Club of Orange). Duntryleague front fence and gatehouse.
* Best improvement to a building which is less than 50 years old
384 Lords Place. Owner: Anh and Tony Vangestel.
* Best work on a heritage building in Lucknow, Spring Hill or a rural area within the district
Wentworth Mine. Owner: Orange City Council.