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Grand Designs Transformations S02E03
Transcript
00:00While building a dream house is for some...
00:08This is brilliant!
00:09This is where we're up to.
00:11...many others are transforming existing homes.
00:14Got it! Got it!
00:17Smashing down walls, ripping out kitchens and digging up gardens...
00:23Oh, there you go!
00:25...as they reimagine their homes as places to live, work and thrive.
00:30It's gonna be a bathhouse. Why not, eh?
00:33Bathrooms are the hardest thing to renovate.
00:35I'll go turn that off.
00:37Come on.
00:39I'm gonna die before we move into this house.
00:42I'm Anthony Burke, a professor of architecture.
00:46And I'm interior designer Yasmeen Janim.
00:50And in each episode of this new series of Grand Designs Transformations...
00:54...every single person has kind of said, you're crazy.
00:57We follow the makeover masterminds behind two very different projects.
01:02I do question the stupidity of doing something like this.
01:06OK, this is good.
01:12This episode, in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg...
01:15It's so cute!
01:17..a retro-loving couple...
01:19..and it doesn't disappoint.
01:20..oh!
01:21..hope to send their bathrooms back in time.
01:24Gold mosaic tiles, almost Scarface vibes in here.
01:27..but could going vintage...
01:29Yeah, that's it, but there's only a couple of metres there.
01:31..prove a disadvantage?
01:33We might have to pretty much change all the internals.
01:35That is not a good sign. That melted the wire immediately.
01:39What we need to do is make the first one not slip down on.
01:42I'm pulling it all off.
01:43We need help!
01:45And in Adelaide...
01:46How perfect is this?
01:48..a husband and wife team grapple with a 19th century coach house.
01:52I've got a mountain of destruction around me here.
01:55That's the biggest skip bin I could get.
01:56I'm going to probably need three of those.
01:58But could what begins as a magic love affair...
02:01Ooh, I hope that's the right size for our skylight.
02:03..descend into a horror story of gothic proportions?
02:07Are we going to replace the slab or what are we going to do with it?
02:10At the moment, it's like a wound that I have to keep a bandage on.
02:32I love that flower. I like that in our garden, actually.
02:35The purple one?
02:36Hamish and Gabrielle are a couple of medical professionals
02:39who, together with daughter Sophie,
02:41have a love affair for the creeks, gullies and greenery
02:44that surround their home in Burnside on the outskirts of Adelaide.
02:48And our favourite fluffy one?
02:50The blue mist.
02:51Yeah.
02:52We're a family of five.
02:54Three humans and two dogs, right?
02:56And we love Second Creek.
02:58We walk along Second Creek every day with our dogs.
03:01And that is a major, major pull of why we're here.
03:04Look over there.
03:06A reflection, sir.
03:07Yeah, and palm trees.
03:09And it's this love of their surroundings
03:11which led to a life-changing discovery.
03:14For some years, we would walk up the street
03:20and peering through the magical garden, we saw a house.
03:27We didn't quite know what was behind the fence
03:29and, um, quite a hidden gem, really.
03:33I think we both instantly were enchanted
03:37and intrigued by this house.
03:40It was a real sense of mystery, wasn't it?
03:42And more than a handful of times
03:44we would have this conversation,
03:45oh, this is such a lovely house.
03:47Maybe we could buy this house one day.
03:49If it ever comes up for sale, we will buy this house.
03:53And sure enough, in 2021, it did.
03:58They'd fallen for an extremely dilapidated
04:011852 coach house and stables,
04:04once part of the neighbouring estate Ivy Mead
04:07that long since sold off.
04:10Rewind 170 years
04:12and there were coaches and horses
04:14transiting in and out of both sides of this structure.
04:17So that is the challenge.
04:20We're trying to make this extremely liveable
04:23for a modern and busy family
04:26and to make it sustainable,
04:28retaining the history,
04:30not damaging the existing structure.
04:32It's a monumental challenge, I must say.
04:34I was swept up in the romance of it all,
04:37the beautiful stonework,
04:39the romantic garden and the bird life
04:42and the actual project is just huge.
04:47Despite minor works by two previous owners
04:51in the 60s and 70s,
04:52it's now barely liveable.
04:54So I hope their love for this place
04:56hasn't blinded them to the enormity of their task.
05:00Gabrielle, Hamish, how perfect is this?
05:05It's such a wonderful surprise
05:07when you come through the front gate
05:08and you discover this.
05:09That's how I felt when I first walked here.
05:12It was love at first sight.
05:14It's just magical.
05:16The size of the trees,
05:17the established trees around you,
05:19they themselves just have their own kind of grandeur,
05:22which the house borrows from, doesn't it?
05:24Yeah?
05:25Absolutely.
05:26And one really important element
05:27is the Moreton Bay fig tree,
05:29which I think is about 150 years old.
05:31Yeah.
05:32And you look out onto this tree in many other rooms.
05:35It's just beautiful.
05:36For such an old home,
05:38you've got so much great material here to work from.
05:42I agree.
05:43The outside is in great shape.
05:44The inside could do with some work.
05:51Well, it's a bit more barn-like
05:53than I imagined from the outside.
05:55It's very, very rustic and...
05:58Very dark.
05:59A bit dark, unfortunately.
06:01So, this will be our living room.
06:06This is such a wonderful space.
06:08You really get a sense of the scale of the place
06:10all of a sudden, don't you?
06:11This enormous fireplace, too,
06:13just sort of seems to kind of want its own space,
06:15but it's a bit of a cranky old thing.
06:18Whilst it looks quite rustic, it's not original.
06:20Mmm.
06:21I'm leaning on removing the fireplace.
06:23Leaning on losing.
06:25Ah, exactly.
06:27How are you feeling?
06:28Oh, I guess I'm sometimes protective of the legacy
06:33of the previous owners
06:35and the history of this particular fireplace,
06:37even though it's not original.
06:39I can see it's got you a little flustered.
06:40Yeah.
06:41You're sort of like,
06:42I just don't want to hurt her.
06:43I want to be respectful.
06:44I feel quite protective of this place.
06:47Mmm.
06:48I love the tiles,
06:50but they aren't really helping with the light.
06:52I don't love them as much as you, I would say.
06:55They look rustic, but I think they look a little bit more
06:59like maybe a Mediterranean villa, perhaps.
07:02So we are thinking of timber for the floor.
07:06That's quite a big intervention, actually.
07:08Big and expensive, unfortunately.
07:10Big and expensive.
07:11And, of course, once you get the tiles up,
07:13you're not quite sure what you're going to find underneath.
07:15Hmm.
07:16I still want them to have a place in this home.
07:18Yeah.
07:19I love how worried you are about sort of damaging
07:22or taking care of the home.
07:24It's really beautiful.
07:25Yeah.
07:26Of course, you're going to have to fight that a little bit
07:27if you're going to do things like change the floor.
07:29That's the challenge.
07:31It is.
07:32The rest of the house, which includes the kitchen,
07:35plus three rooms downstairs
07:37and another two bedrooms and living area up,
07:39is also in for some major surgery.
07:42What a great find, huh?
07:44With a million-dollar budget,
07:47downstairs will be reconfigured
07:49into a living room and lounge,
07:51main bedroom and study,
07:53with skylights flooding the rooms
07:55with natural light throughout.
07:57On the first floor,
07:58two bedrooms are knocked into one
08:00as the old hayloft becomes their daughter's retreat
08:03with a glass floor helping illuminate the hallway below.
08:06To the west, the old pergola will make way
08:09for a glass walkway that leads to a modern
08:12100-square-metre single-storey barn extension
08:15made from glass, steel and wood.
08:18It will house an extra bedroom on the mezzanine level
08:21and descend into a glorious open-plan kitchen
08:24and living area which gazes out
08:26at the lush greenery that surrounds it.
08:29Championing traditional materials and techniques,
08:32it's a bottom-up reimagining of a beautiful piece
08:35of architectural heritage.
08:37How long are you going to take to do all the new work?
08:42We hope to move in, like everyone says,
08:46before Christmas this year.
08:47And then we're going to build the new bit.
08:49Yep.
08:50So it's going to be staged.
08:51Okay.
08:52Are you excited or terrified?
08:54A bit of both.
08:55Yeah.
08:56I feel like a weight of responsibility to make sure
08:59what we do to the old is appropriate, it's good quality.
09:04We feel like we're custodians, I suppose, of that old structure.
09:07What I've been impressed by is how you've really made a connection
09:12to the story of this place, which gives me a lot of confidence
09:15it's going to be a wonderful home.
09:16Can't wait.
09:17This is such an evocative and romantic project.
09:23It's definitely the kind of building you can easily fall in love with.
09:26But dragging this 19th century stone coach house up to 21st century speed,
09:32it's going to require a massive overhaul.
09:34And I'm just not sure that Hamish and Gabrielle
09:37are both pulling in the same direction.
09:39Add to that their lack of experience,
09:41their somewhat fanciful six-month timeline,
09:45and the who-knows-what problems lurking behind those solid rock walls,
09:50this could be a bumpy ride.
10:00Would it be in two pieces or do you think it'll be one?
10:02Because it's quite long.
10:03One piece.
10:04One long piece.
10:05So continuous.
10:06Yeah.
10:07Holding their hand through this process is builder Peter,
10:09who worked with them on a previous renovation,
10:12but nothing like this.
10:14We'll be replacing it with the glass.
10:16Within this one project we've got, you know, about five or six projects.
10:20We're so hoping for the light to flood through right up here with the skylights.
10:26There's a lot of decisions to be made in a fairly short period of time,
10:29so you've actually got to have some real intestinal fortitude
10:33to be able to start a project like this and carry it out.
10:37Oh, I hope that's the right size for our skylight.
10:41What you actually think when you first maybe bought the house,
10:44what you think you'd like to do to it,
10:46and what you actually end up doing,
10:48you may change your mind two or three times along the way.
10:51And so getting a timeline together is quite a challenge at times.
10:56You know, the fact that we're trying to get in here in November,
11:00we're at the finish,
11:01so the first thing my project guy who helps me,
11:05the first thing he looked at it and said,
11:06well, you know, no chance in hell, but we'll see how we go.
11:10While Hamish and Gabrielle are haggling over what to preserve
11:15and what to replace...
11:22Oh, your coffee pot?
11:24Open it up.
11:25Good.
11:27Melbourne couple Georgia and Mete are having no such trouble.
11:31Yeah, that's a proper punch.
11:33That is special.
11:34They're keeping just about everything.
11:37We're probably going to leave here with a lot more than what we intended.
11:39Two years ago, they paid $1.23 million
11:43for the most unlikely of heritage relics in Coburg in the city's north.
11:48A 1970s do-a-upper with more shagpile than an Austin Powers movie.
11:54Talk about groovy, baby.
11:56We originally saw this house and as soon as we walked in,
11:59we thought, it's this or nothing. Let's do it.
12:01Look at what the microwave does.
12:06Elk. Elk.
12:07I've always been a very retro person.
12:10I was the kind of girl in my late teens and early 20s
12:13that I wore all the little 1950s dresses.
12:16You're a star.
12:18So vintage has very much always been one of my things,
12:20but not the 70s.
12:22The 70s is a very specific era.
12:24I know that my hair is...
12:25Actually, my hair's got fluffier the longer that we've been living in this house.
12:28I swear.
12:29So is mine.
12:30Yeah.
12:31Here you go.
12:32Oh, goodness.
12:33It all comes together.
12:34Falling in love with the retro 70s vibe was their first surprise.
12:38Lesson one.
12:39The second was the huge social media following they've garnered
12:42putting their DIY skills, or lack of them, to the test,
12:46while they've been restoring what's now known as Shag Manor.
12:50I've legitimately Googled how to clean paintbrush, how to clean air gun,
12:54and how to clean spray paint off cat before partner comes home.
12:57What?
12:58Lesson two.
12:59It took us completely by surprise that it was so well received
13:02by tens of thousands of people.
13:04Yeah, being an Instagram interiors influencer was not on my bingo card this year.
13:09Hey.
13:10I know.
13:11About time, huh?
13:12Hey, good things take time.
13:14A year into the project, they've done enough of the house
13:17to make entertaining friends and their huge extended family possible.
13:21I taught him everything he knows.
13:24But there's one important room still to transform.
13:27Well, two, actually.
13:29The bathrooms.
13:30One doubling as a laundry,
13:32and the other a pale pink palace, bidet and all.
13:36Quite the job for a couple of amateurs.
13:39This I've got to see.
13:43I love this house.
13:46It's so cute.
13:48Look at this little ironwork gate.
13:50And, oh, my God.
13:53How thick and delicious is this terrazzo?
13:56Oh, wow.
13:59OK, this is the true test.
14:01Does she work?
14:03Yes.
14:05It's perfection.
14:07Welcome.
14:08Wow.
14:09I just can't get off your doorbell.
14:10Pink 70s.
14:11Very satisfying.
14:13Do the moccasins come with the house?
14:14Irreappropriate.
14:15Do you want a pair?
14:16I absolutely want a pair.
14:18We'll sort it out.
14:19Are you going to let me in?
14:20I've got to see the rest of this place.
14:21Yes, so I'll just come in.
14:22And it doesn't disappoint.
14:32Oh!
14:33While the house is pure 70s outside, the interiors are a bit of a hodgepodge.
14:3850s, 60s, 70s, even 80s, including the kitchen.
14:431950s pure and simple.
14:46Wow, it's the house that just keeps on giving.
14:48Thanks.
14:49And also the gateway to their next big DIY challenge.
14:53So this is the problem.
14:56Aha.
14:57This is, uh, no man's land.
14:59Yeah.
15:00We'd love to turn this into a second bathroom.
15:03So full shower, toilet, basin, and a big closet.
15:08What are you imagining?
15:10So we're thinking what design elements from different areas do we really love?
15:14And glass bricks is one of them.
15:16Right, you're going.
15:17Totally.
15:18We're going all out.
15:19Wow, okay.
15:20The yellow terrazzo on the floor will stay, but the rest is headed for the tip.
15:26With the laundry relocating to the garage, the wall divider separating the loo from what
15:31will be a shower will be ripped out and replaced with very 1980s-style glass bricks.
15:38Small white tiles will line the walls with brightly coloured grout, adding a bit of retro
15:43pop.
15:44Add to that a multi-hued sink, toilet, and some bathroom cabinetry topped off with an
15:50abundance of plants, and this drab little loo-cum-laundry is in for a major 80s glow-up.
15:57There's just one big problem.
16:00I'm, I'm not sold at all.
16:03Good.
16:04We need help.
16:06Because you have this wonderful experience of the 50s kitchen.
16:10To then open the door wide to a typical white subway tile with a coloured grout and a glass-blade
16:17brick wall seems out of character.
16:20You want that continuation of era.
16:22And I think walking into that would really help connect and solidify that period a little
16:27bit more.
16:28So we have to start thinking about 50s-designed bathrooms.
16:31Oh, that becomes fun, doesn't it?
16:32I'm so down to go back to the drawing board.
16:34Yeah.
16:35The bathroom down the hall is less of a head-scratcher.
16:40We love it.
16:41We love the, the blush pink tiles, the gold kind of trimming around the edges.
16:45I'm assuming you're getting rid of the bidet, although I think that's a great thing to
16:49have in any toilet.
16:50We don't really use it as much as we probably should, but what we...
16:56But it would be a pity to get rid of it.
16:59It's the apex of, you know, Italian homes of this era, right?
17:03The only real changes we want to make in here are to the shower.
17:07We want to open it out because it's a little bit pokey right now.
17:10And because it also has all of the grab bars for the elderly, we thought if we're going
17:14to have to remove all the tiles in this corner, what's the most fun extra 80s thing that we
17:20could do?
17:21And like gold mosaic tiles, almost scar-faced bathroom sort of vibes in here.
17:27It sounds like you have way more focus on what you want to do in this bathroom than
17:33that bathroom.
17:34And this is minor works and that's major works.
17:37Yeah.
17:38And what's the budget looking like for this?
17:40Is it still stuck in the 1950s?
17:42We're hoping to spend between 40 and 50.
17:44Okay.
17:45But we're hoping that we can do it cheaper than that, especially because we would really
17:48like to use a lot of reclaimed items, secondhand items.
17:51If we can't find the right pink toilet, maybe we get a new one.
17:55And we've been Googling how to spray in a toilet and coat in epoxy.
18:00Please don't paint your toilet.
18:02I love Georgia and Mete's enthusiasm and up for anything energy.
18:08But bathrooms can be tricky, especially in a property as unique as Shag Manor.
18:14Up to now, almost everything they've done on site has been about restoration.
18:19But with the bathrooms, they're moving into the land of re-creation.
18:24And that can get very kitsch, very quickly, without careful consideration.
18:28Otherwise, the house really could become a retro theme park.
18:33Bring it up.
18:34One, two, three.
18:35Woo!
18:36Got it.
18:37The question, where to start.
18:38Got it.
18:39Thanks to my interventions, they now don't have a plan.
18:40But they do have 50 guests coming for a New Year's Eve party in five months' time.
18:54There we go.
18:55So starting anywhere is a step in the right direction.
18:59We've been so gentle with everything else in this house in the name of preservation,
19:03so it feels so counter-intuitive to go at a room with a crowbar and a hammer and break everything we can see.
19:10Everything.
19:11Yeah.
19:12This house was definitely built to stand the test of time.
19:17It's been very solidly made.
19:19Shag Manor is tough.
19:21Yeah.
19:22You got it?
19:23Yep.
19:24But the demo is the easy part.
19:27Ooh, okay.
19:29Decisions!
19:31When did these come through?
19:32They need to go back to square one in the laundry loo, with the existing yellow terrazzo on the floor dictating the tone for the wall tiles.
19:40I need some help.
19:41Okay.
19:42I think a white that bright is going to make the yellow terrazzo look too dirty.
19:46Mm-hmm.
19:47The rest of the house has such a vibe that we can't have a bathroom that doesn't match when you walk into it.
19:52Do you mind if I put it in a maybe pile?
19:54Yeah.
19:55But match what?
19:56They might have a colour scheme, not so much a design direction.
20:03Two weeks later, Shag Manor solves a piece of the puzzle.
20:08We just made the craziest discovery.
20:11So you know how they're doing the ducted heating.
20:13Well, they pulled off this old vent and on the edge of the vent is the last remaining bit of the original wallpaper in this hallway.
20:26It's more late 60s, 70s than it is 50s.
20:31But look at our favourite tile colours.
20:33And there's our pad.
20:36Oh, my God!
20:37Oh, my God!
20:38Rad.
20:39Yeah.
20:40Let's find the wallpaper.
20:41Next challenge, how to replicate 50-year-old wallpaper from nothing more than a couple of ripped shreds.
20:52700 kilometres north-west at Burnside in Adelaide, it's six weeks into Hamish and Gabrielle's six-month schedule.
21:08And they're already at odds over what stays and what goes in their historic home.
21:13So far, Gabrielle's lost the fight for her fireplace.
21:20Yeah, we've kept all the bricks and we're going to be using them in the garden.
21:26So it's still here in another form.
21:29The floor tiles are under threat too.
21:33I think that they're a bit scratched and chipped and old and don't look particularly clean.
21:42But I just feel that they're a part of the story of the house.
21:46The tiling is actually very unique.
21:48It's something we would hardly see in Australia.
21:52It's very nice to visit a house that has tiles like that and say,
21:55Ah, aren't you transported to Tuscany or something?
21:59But the day-to-day of those tiles I don't think is actually terribly good.
22:13But it seems there's only one winner in the tussle for the terracotta.
22:20I've been jackhammering the tiles yesterday and today.
22:24They're largely gone now.
22:27But we are going to put in some nice timber flooring.
22:30So, you know, it just has a new chapter in its life.
22:39Before that chapter begins, they'll have to remove over 20 tonnes of rubble.
22:44Time and expense they didn't account for.
22:48I've got a mountain of destruction around me here.
22:51That's the biggest skip bin I could get.
22:53I'm going to probably need three of those.
22:55But I think overall it's the right decision because we'll be left with a much more liveable,
23:01cosy, warm, clean surface to live on.
23:07Hopefully.
23:09Hopefully indeed.
23:10The tiles, the tiles.
23:11I think they were bringing some of the outside colours and function of the building, like respecting the actual function of the coach house.
23:24But Hamish, well, he doesn't like the cold.
23:31They're also feeling some discomfort back in Melbourne, where Georgia and Mete's revised bathroom plans are getting a costing overhaul.
23:53So you've got 30 mil before you even hit the concrete.
23:56Yeah.
23:57So we just had our builder come over to revise the quote that he gave us because there are all these new things that we're going to have to go in and re-measure up that might slightly change the designs.
24:10Increase the slip rating for the timber.
24:12With my 50s concept down the drain, the new 70s inspired look for the laundry loo, with original tiles, fittings and fixtures, is already putting some pressure on the budget too.
24:24Do we have to cut the half walls to 1,215 now to fit a listello on the top?
24:29Ideally, yeah.
24:30Yeah.
24:31Everyone always says that bathrooms are the hardest thing to renovate and I 100% realise why people say that now.
24:36I spent the last two weeks trying to find every yellow tile that exists in Australia and there are surprising a lot more different kinds of yellow than I thought there were going to be.
24:45And I'm going in circles trying to do it myself.
24:48George has found a vintage tile shop which has a huge warehouse full of old Italian tiles from the 40s, 50s and 60s.
24:58OK.
24:59I need to check stock.
25:00Physically check stock.
25:01Back there?
25:02Let's go to the museum.
25:03Yeah.
25:04I call it the museum.
25:05We've tried to find vintage tiles that would suit the vibe but it's been surprisingly hard to find the right number of square meterage.
25:12Oh, oh, oh, oh.
25:13Yeah, that's it but there's only a couple of metres there.
25:16Seven and a half metres.
25:17Only seven and a half metres.
25:18That's it.
25:19Only seven and a half metres.
25:21OK.
25:22So the other one will be found.
25:24We need to found it but it will be OK.
25:26You need to find it?
25:27Well, Teresa knows all of this old tile.
25:30She's the computer system here.
25:33Do you know what this one is?
25:34Yes, it's on the wall.
25:40She knows.
25:41Teresa has been here for 50 years.
25:44There was no computers at the time so she used to know where everything is.
25:47She knows where they are, how much there is in stock.
25:51She'll know when they came in or when the last one was sold.
25:54So she's a reference for what we do.
25:57Oh, we didn't go in here.
25:58It keeps going.
25:59Oh, yeah.
26:00That's only...
26:01Oh, my gosh.
26:02It keeps going.
26:03Not even...
26:04This is the first showroom.
26:05That's the original.
26:06Oh, my gosh.
26:07How did you know this is where it was?
26:10She knows.
26:11How insane is it that she knew where those tiles were?
26:17Is that one where they travel?
26:20They're coming and fighting.
26:21Yes.
26:25On site, the sawing, cutting and hammering has begun.
26:31But installing a shower at this stage of the game wasn't part of the plan.
26:36Um, I'll go turn that off.
26:40What happened?
26:41It actually popped off?
26:43It popped off?
26:44Yeah.
26:45That sucks.
26:46Great start.
26:47Great start.
26:48Builds off to a great start.
26:51After a quick mop-up, Georgia and Mete are on a quest to see if their exhumed wallpaper remnants
26:57can be brought back to life.
26:59Even though you've given me the tiniest little sliver of wallpaper...
27:04There's three.
27:05Oh, thanks.
27:07We're generous.
27:08It's very generous.
27:09We can basically scan this in and then reprint the wallpaper here.
27:13We might do a few different colourways to see what works, because we can lighten it and darken it.
27:17Actually, wallpapering bathrooms and powder rooms is a bit of a hot topic at the moment.
27:22It's very popular, very on trend.
27:24It's pretty extraordinary.
27:2650-year-old wallpaper samples in a multitude of colourways in a matter of minutes.
27:32That's hypnotic.
27:33Talk about spoilt for choice.
27:35So, we've got option one, which is your file unchanged.
27:38Yeah.
27:39Option two, we've just warmed up a slight warmer background.
27:43Option three, we've got the full-on linen background.
27:46But back home, Mete is double-checking that the wallpaper is definitely the way forward.
27:53I've recreated one of the walls of the bathroom.
27:57If we're going to go for it, it's going to be quite something, and I would love to just
28:02have a bit more reassurance that it's going to work.
28:07At the Burnside Coach House in Adelaide, Hamish and Gabrielle need plenty of reassurance.
28:19As their million dollar transformation enters its third month, progress is being made on
28:25flooding the rooms with light.
28:28It's spectacular.
28:29Good.
28:30I'm glad you like it.
28:31And once it's finished, it's going to be sweet.
28:33Yeah.
28:34Yeah.
28:35But it's floods of a different kind that are causing concern.
28:44After a recent heavy rainfall, builder Peter found water leaking into the downstairs study.
28:52So the slabs acted like a bit of a sponge.
28:56So now we've got the dehumidifier running.
28:59And then along with the engineer, once he gets back to us with his report, I'm pretty
29:03sure that we're going to have to make another decision about probably going to replace the
29:07slab or what are we going to do with it.
29:10We didn't realise until we had those heavy rains that the neighbour's runoff was coming
29:16into this property.
29:17We're on the side of a hill and it was just running down towards into the back corner of
29:23the house.
29:24It was just so wet out there.
29:26It was enough to stop us from moving forward.
29:31This water is a big issue for this project because it may have cost implications with
29:37an engineer trying to make sure that the structure is sound.
29:41So that may have spill on effects to exactly what we do with the rest of the internal renovation.
29:46So we'll see.
29:48It's all up in the air right now.
29:51Often in a place like this, you don't know what you're getting into.
29:56It looked so amazing when you saw the brochure that came with the house.
30:00But when you actually strip it away and start renovating it, then you actually do discover
30:08other issues that were unforeseen when they bought the place.
30:11Oh dear.
30:12This hidden gem sure has some hidden demons.
30:17Let's hope their love for it is more than skin deep.
30:20Back in Coburg, it's three months into Social Influencers Georgia and Mete's five month schedule.
30:39That means only eight weeks till their New Year's Eve bash.
30:43There you go.
30:44But time's not their biggest problem.
30:48That'll be money, with the laundry loo eating up a lot of it.
30:52So plans for the other bathroom have been scaled back big time.
30:56Is that fast?
30:57No Scarface gold tiles, just DIY minor changes instead.
31:02Like removing these grab rails without ruining the original tiles.
31:06I have faith in the internet that I've been led down the right path on how to do this.
31:12It works in theory.
31:14So I'm going to go from the top so you can just pull it out.
31:18Did we melt the string?
31:20That is not a good sign.
31:22That melted the wire immediately.
31:24Thanks YouTube.
31:26With the Scarface plans now a budget buster, the challenge is giving this bathroom a bit of a lift.
31:32A bargain basement one.
31:35So someone sent us this listing for a Vstossi chandelier.
31:40Which is the same one that we have throughout the rest of the house.
31:43And we want to put a chandelier in the bathroom, call us crazy, and it's the perfect chandelier.
31:50And it's only 200 bucks.
31:53As vintage Venetian chandeliers go, that's a bargain.
31:58These lights can sell for thousands.
32:01Yeah.
32:02I think it looks like a legit one.
32:04I think it's a legit one.
32:05Yeah.
32:06Yay!
32:11It's not their only find.
32:13These came from an old Italian plumber going through their garage and found all of these boxes full of Italian bathroom accessories.
32:22My favourite thing when I found them is that they are wrapped in all of the old Italian magazine advertisements.
32:31Oh, we've got to frame that.
32:33I wouldn't. I wouldn't.
32:39Okay.
32:40Yeah, that's great.
32:41Okay, I'm happy with that.
32:42Love that.
32:43We've done lots of little things to just make it both more cohesive as a bathroom but more cohesive with the rest of the house as well.
32:52Everything we've done has been in service of highlighting what's beautiful about that bathroom.
32:57If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
32:59It's in.
33:00The laundry loo is also benefiting from George's second-hand discoveries.
33:13The family we bought it off was going to use it in their own bathroom reno ten years ago.
33:17They decided not to use it, which is a good thing for us.
33:20It's sort of nice knowing that this hasn't been recently sat on, so this is probably the most recent clean it's had in a decade.
33:29Look how nicely that comes up.
33:34Excited about a 40-year-old used toilet.
33:37That's dedication indeed.
33:40But how to get it to work?
33:42How long was it out of use for?
33:44It's been in a shed for ten years.
33:46Ten years?
33:47There's a good chance all your rubbers are going to be perished, so we might have to pretty much change all the internals.
33:53Being a second-hand toilet itself, it's been sitting in a shed for ten years,
33:58so little things go missing, so it's a bit of a good task to get.
34:03Well, at least they won't need to paint it.
34:07As both our homeowners are finding, bringing the past into the present is littered with unexpected challenges.
34:15People fall in love with the idea of restoration and renovation of an old place without realising just how much hard work it really is.
34:26And that's the problem with Hamish and Gabrielle in Burnside.
34:29They've kind of started to fall out of love with the transformation of their old coach house.
34:34Oh, it's so much easier building from scratch.
34:37It's so much more cost-effective and time-efficient, and you look at Meta and Georgia, and they're just renovating a bathroom.
34:45Right.
34:46Like, and they're already becoming unstuck.
34:49But if you can push through the pain of working with the old bones of the place, the results can be absolutely remarkable.
34:57And this place just proves my point.
34:59Wow.
35:03This feels incredibly 70s.
35:05Yeah, it is.
35:06It's a 70s house.
35:07These are the original bricks, the original mansard roof up there.
35:10They've been in this house for 30 years.
35:13And the whole idea here was to keep the house and just restore it into something actually new.
35:20So you enter into both, you know, the past.
35:24It's all around us, as you can see.
35:25But it feels so fresh and so new.
35:27The new ceilings, new floors.
35:29Well, you can't actually tell what's new and what's old.
35:31And there's the smarts.
35:33That's what makes it so unique.
35:37The staircase in the old place was over in that back corner.
35:39This was one giant room from that glass to the front door.
35:42And this wall right down to that window.
35:45By moving that element into the middle, you've got a beautifully scaled dining space now.
35:49You've got a very snug but very comfortable living space over there.
35:53It's perfect.
35:54Couldn't have imagined it.
35:55Yeah.
35:56Any other way.
35:57And then with the kitchen, similar thing happened.
36:02Oh, this is so good!
36:04Look at this stone.
36:05Wow.
36:06And of course, there's a story behind this.
36:08Used to be kitchen benches all the way around the edge here.
36:11The owners actually hated it.
36:12Actually didn't want to cook in the end.
36:14So by pushing all the storage over there, creating the butler's pantry, getting rid of the old dining room there.
36:20It's so much more simple now.
36:21And the homeowners have actually fallen in love with cooking all over again.
36:26It's so good.
36:27The palette's sublime.
36:29There's three materials.
36:31There's timber, this beautiful Guatemala green stone, and the beautiful blue stone on the floor.
36:38Simple things done very well.
36:41Architects Studio Bright have established a wonderful conversation in this home between the old and the new.
36:48The old windows here, they've been turned into these great Juliet balconies, and this balustrade wraps right around.
37:01And it feels like it was always supposed to be here.
37:02Yeah.
37:03That's what terrifies me about Georgia and Mehta.
37:04They're trying to recreate the past.
37:05No one wants to live in a fake.
37:06No.
37:07Yeah.
37:08My problem with Hamish and Gabrielle is I just worry that their energy and enthusiasm for the entire project is waning.
37:14I hope they can just stay the course.
37:15I know.
37:16Look at what you can achieve.
37:17Yeah.
37:18Trouble is, for Georgia and Mehta, they are going to be the best.
37:21That's what terrifies me about Georgia and Mehta.
37:23That's what terrifies me about Georgia and Mehta.
37:25They're trying to recreate the past.
37:26No one wants to live in a fake.
37:27No.
37:28Yeah.
37:29My problem with Hamish and Gabrielle is I just worry that their energy and enthusiasm for the entire project is waning.
37:34I hope they can just stay the course.
37:36I know.
37:37Look at what you can achieve.
37:38Yeah.
37:39There's some rubbers out there if you want to go grab them.
37:40Being Tom of the essence, we're just going to chuck this one back in.
37:53We've just serviced it so it's got all new components inside.
37:56So, because it's 40 years old, there's no such thing as replacement parts.
38:01Fingers crossed, the valve is good and nothing happens in the future, because if it does, we're in strife.
38:08We're going to finish off.
38:09In a race to the finish, Georgia and Mehta are doing running repairs.
38:14Georgia, I reckon this comes really spot on.
38:17You're hardly going to notice it.
38:18But right now it looks like dental glue.
38:21Yeah, I'm working on it.
38:23And finally they're taking on what will be the hero of the old laundry loo.
38:28Bring this one up for reference.
38:29Their resurrected wallpaper.
38:32One thing I'm worried about is that it's a geometric pattern and that if we get the edge of the
38:38the edges even slightly off, you're really going to notice it.
38:41What we want it to do is for it to drop in the line, right?
38:45Now we need it to be lower down.
38:47Let's get number two up so then we can get a better idea of where things are going to line up.
38:52I'm just going to wrap up there.
38:55What we need to do is make the first one not slow down more.
38:58Yeah.
38:59Woo!
39:00This needs to come that way a bit more.
39:02You can see that that little tiny bit of the semi-circle is less than what it is on the right.
39:08The house might have given them the inspo for this geometric wallpaper, but it sure as hell didn't send it with instructions.
39:16I'm pulling it all off.
39:29At Burnside in Adelaide, it's been eight months since Hamish and Gabrielle started building.
39:35They should have moved in by now, but more heavy rain has meant it's taken months for the
39:40downstairs to dry out.
39:43Tree roots have been discovered growing into the bathroom.
39:47And if that's not enough, the original downstairs slab is so uneven, it's had to be ripped up and laid again.
39:56All this means that the million dollar budget is blowing out by 20%.
40:01And that's taking its toll.
40:06So the building's throwing you some challenges.
40:08Yeah, I mean, last year was the perfect storm literally.
40:12It was physical exhaustion probably because I was spending a lot of my non-working time putting in, you know, 12 hour days.
40:19Yeah.
40:20That type of thing.
40:21I think also probably the project, we found out that it was more complex than we had anticipated.
40:26Yeah.
40:27And then I think, you know, after a while if you have enough negative experiences, your enthusiasm wanes a lot.
40:32Yeah.
40:33You know, even how much you like it.
40:35Yeah.
40:36So, so my enthusiasm dropped as well, I suppose.
40:38Yeah, I bet.
40:39Yeah.
40:40Because it sounds a bit like you were getting to a point where actually it was starting to overwhelm you.
40:42Absolutely, yeah.
40:43Yeah.
40:44I need to keep a fair bit of space between myself and the project and hand a lot of it to Gabrielle.
40:49Yeah.
40:50Because at the moment it's like a wound that I have to keep a bandage on.
40:53Right.
40:54Yeah.
40:55So, what are you thinking about buying this place now?
40:57Um, I have often thought, well, this would be a better project at a different time in
41:01my life because we're so busy right now.
41:04You know, so would this be a better project when I was semi-retired or would it have been
41:07a better project earlier in life?
41:08Maybe.
41:09Yeah.
41:10So, yeah.
41:11Oh.
41:12Rarely have I seen a project start with so much enthusiasm and descend into so much despair.
41:21Hopefully a new year will bring a new start and a new energy, with Gabrielle taking the
41:26reins.
41:28I think, unfortunately for Hamish, the novelty might have worn off.
41:37So, I'm really hopeful that somehow when it's all beautiful and restored and fresh white
41:47paint, that somehow he'll see how beautiful it is again.
41:50I just don't know if that's going to happen, but I'm still hopeful.
41:56It's now unbelievably 18 months since I visited Gabrielle and Hamish at the old coach house
42:19in Burnside.
42:22The project has certainly pushed them to the limit with some unexpected twists and turns.
42:27I've heard there's been some difficult decisions along the way to get it finished.
42:32I'm not sure quite what to expect.
42:39What a relief.
42:41It's done.
42:42Or it looks like it.
42:45The coach house is absolutely glowing.
42:50But that glorious tree canopy that once cloaked the house is gone.
42:56Hamish, Gabrielle, hi.
42:58Hey, how are you?
42:59Yes.
43:00Look at all this.
43:01What is going on?
43:02There have been a few changes here.
43:04Many, many.
43:06Not at all quite as we had imagined.
43:08Yeah.
43:09We had to make some difficult decisions around some of our trees.
43:12They were really badly invading a lot of the pipe work and the water system.
43:17Underneath the house.
43:18Underneath the house.
43:19I know how much that original garden meant to you, so that would have been a tough call.
43:22It was heartbreaking.
43:23But we're replanting as much as we can a native garden.
43:28And we have no modern sort of addition.
43:30I noticed a giant absence over there.
43:33The coach house in itself was a massive enough project.
43:37Yes.
43:38How are we feeling?
43:39Because I know it's been a long journey for you both.
43:42I think it's quite a strange journey because you know we're not even living here.
43:47Hang on a minute.
43:48We're actually moving to Western Australia.
43:50Yeah.
43:51I've got a really positive job opportunity there.
43:54You are full of surprises today, aren't you?
43:56Wow.
43:57We have a beautiful friend and his family.
43:59Yeah.
44:00They are taking care of this place and they love it.
44:02So I feel, it feels right.
44:04Yeah.
44:05So a family is living here, just not your family.
44:07Yeah.
44:08Is that right?
44:09Yes.
44:10Hamish, how are you doing?
44:12I'm doing better now.
44:13I mean, it was hard going there towards the end.
44:15You hit a bit of a low, didn't you?
44:16I did.
44:17I wasn't enjoying it.
44:18I mean, I think I stepped back, Gabrielle stepped forward and we did that kind of dance
44:23a few times.
44:24Nice.
44:25And now I feel like the house is being, you know, completely utilised on a daily basis
44:30by someone that really appreciates it.
44:33I have to say it though, the loss of the trees might have been necessary, but it's also
44:39sad.
44:40They brought a mysterious fairytale quality to the coach house, which is certainly diminished.
44:46Hopefully, the changes inside have preserved the character.
44:50Welcome.
44:51Where did the gloomy entry go?
44:56Because this is the complete opposite here.
44:58So much lighter.
44:59So much better.
45:00I think one of the differences is the skylights.
45:03You put three skylights upstairs.
45:04Makes such a difference, doesn't it?
45:06Like it just elevates the whole room.
45:08I think too, seeing the timbers actually, like on the jams and someone on the stairs there,
45:12just in that state, I think that's just that perfect little nod back to the history and
45:16all that weight of the tiles on the floor gone now with the timber just creating a nice
45:20clean datum to work from.
45:21It's funny, it did have a heaviness to it, didn't it?
45:23Yeah.
45:24Which I didn't realise at the time.
45:25This room really hasn't changed in its proportions.
45:28No.
45:29Just in the way you've sort of managed to rebalance the room.
45:32Yeah.
45:33Nicely, nicely done.
45:35Yeah.
45:36This is the kitchen.
45:39The kitchen.
45:40Well, this is a pretty good outcome.
45:43It's come up nicely.
45:44It sure has.
45:45I think a little bit like the entry too, you know, we're sort of seeing the things sort
45:49of step back to allow just a few little heritage things to step forward.
45:52Nice little balanced conversation going on here.
45:55Do you ever find yourself thinking about the kitchen you first designed, like in the
46:01pavilion, I'm going to call it, the other structure?
46:03No.
46:04I know it's a massive flip in thinking, but we couldn't find a way of marrying something
46:09modern to the existing building.
46:11Mm-hm.
46:12So what we've done is sort of celebrate what we have.
46:14Yeah.
46:15That's fantastic to hear.
46:16Yeah.
46:17And isn't it interesting, you kind of felt like your initial impulse was like,
46:20go big, like take up as much as you think you need, but actually this is probably more
46:25than enough.
46:26We didn't need it.
46:27Yeah.
46:28So we've got a really great kind of moral tale in here.
46:30But we've also got a really beautiful kitchen, by the way, you know.
46:33So from here then the flow is into the living space.
46:36Through here, yeah.
46:37Lead the way to have a look.
46:39The living space.
46:40The living space.
46:41The living space.
46:42The living space.
46:43Walking through the rooms, it's clear the combination of extra light, simple design,
46:48and sympathetic textures has meant that Hamish and Gabrielle have created a warm and cosy
46:54family home, while letting the story of the coach house shine through.
46:59But getting to this point has been far from easy.
47:02It's been a big project in so many ways.
47:05What are some of the most important lessons you've learned here?
47:08Gosh, I had no idea it would be this challenging.
47:11I feel silly saying that, but to undertake a project of this size, it was tough.
47:17And as a consequence, there's a lot of friction that develops.
47:21And I think ultimately, yes, this is a success.
47:26Would we do it again?
47:27Not this particular house.
47:30But we're still proud of what we've done here.
47:32Yeah.
47:33As you should be.
47:34Yeah.
47:35So let's talk about some logistics for a second.
47:37I remember you saying you're going to spend about a million on this, as well as the new structure
47:42next door.
47:43So that's no longer here.
47:44So where did we sort of end up?
47:46It wasn't greatly different, but we did downscale and take off some big items.
47:51And then the timeline was longer as well.
47:54So you've got to consider that.
47:56Because you were going to be in by Christmas.
47:59Yeah.
48:00That didn't happen.
48:01That was six months.
48:02And we are now at, what, two years?
48:04Yeah.
48:05Two years.
48:06What do you put that big difference down to mostly?
48:08Lack of trades, lack of materials.
48:11The fact that there were very heavy rains at that time as well.
48:14So they were trying to work through that in the winter.
48:16Yeah.
48:17So no one thing.
48:18More like death by a thousand cuts sort of thing.
48:20Yeah.
48:21But perhaps, arguably, that ended up with a better result.
48:24A better outcome.
48:25A better outcome.
48:26Yeah.
48:27Look, I mean, this little coach house seems to have kind of presented you with much more
48:31than anyone bargained for, you know.
48:33But, I mean, the happy ending to the story, of course, is you're both sitting here in this
48:38beautiful structure, feeling proud about the work you've done.
48:41And, thank you very much, you've saved the building, made it live on for another 150 years or more.
48:47Which is kind of what you sort of set out to do in the first place.
48:50What a journey.
48:52Wow.
48:53Wow.
48:54I just want to breathe out and go, oof.
48:56I'm ready for my new chapter.
48:58In Western Australia.
49:00Okay.
49:03Let's do this, shall we?
49:09Isn't it funny how life turns out?
49:12From their initial love affair with this place, transforming Burnside turned into a heartbreaking
49:18and back-breaking exercise.
49:20Beautiful.
49:22But they should be proud of the legacy they're leaving behind.
49:25A wonderfully restored coach house that can be enjoyed for generations to come.
49:39From heritage to vintage, I'm keen to see Georgia and Mete's efforts to turn back the clocks
49:52with their bathroom renovations at Shag Manor in Coburg.
49:56From the two-tone brick, the rose bushes, the balustrade, terrazzo, the swan, it's just
50:02all so genuinely perfect.
50:04My question is, can Georgia and Mete reproduce this beautiful sense of nostalgia in their bathrooms?
50:10Because let's face it, reproductions are so very hard to pull off.
50:25Hello.
50:26Hello.
50:27Oh.
50:28Hello.
50:29Oh, damn.
50:30Okay.
50:31Congratulations.
50:32Congrats.
50:33Thank you for the two of us now.
50:34Yeah.
50:35We've got plenty of room inside.
50:36Well, I can't wait to see it because I totally forgot how amazing this house is and how many
50:40beautiful nostalgic details there are everywhere.
50:42Well, we do have a little surprise for you if you open up the little delivery box.
50:47Oh, my...
50:49No, you didn't!
50:51My very own pair of purple shag moccasins.
50:54Thank you so much.
50:56You're so welcome.
50:57Love them.
50:58Can I see inside?
50:59Absolutely.
51:00Come in.
51:02At the start of these bathroom renos, Georgia and Mete had some pretty wild ideas that I
51:07didn't think were cohesive solutions to tie together all the different design eras present
51:12in the house.
51:13I'm going to pop them here and I promise I'll put them on later.
51:16Sometimes less is more and I'm hoping the bidet still stands and they've got the balance
51:22right.
51:23Ooh!
51:25I love that you retained it.
51:28It does definitely have that very 80s, the pink and the gold, the granite, the glass
51:35and the chandelier over the bidet.
51:38It was going to go over the bathtub but they don't do that anymore because people get electrocuted.
51:42Ladies don't meet code.
51:43Yeah.
51:44They don't.
51:45Damn regulations.
51:46I especially love the towel rail holders.
51:48I am so happy that I found them.
51:51It's so subtle what you've been able to achieve.
51:55A lot of people just get a sledgehammer and just start going like this, you know?
52:00Do you want to see our sledgehammer job in that case?
52:02I do, I do.
52:03I want to see it on the other side.
52:04Let's go.
52:05I don't know.
52:06I'm nervous.
52:07I feel good.
52:14Oh my gosh!
52:15This is so wonderful!
52:18Whoa!
52:21I can see how much effort and consideration has gone into this.
52:29I love the mix of materials, the shades, I love the little trims.
52:34And the wallpaper, hello!
52:36Yeah.
52:37Really, it works perfectly, doesn't it?
52:39Yes.
52:41I feel energised.
52:43It's so refreshing to see something that really represents the past and done in such an authentic
52:49manner.
52:51Yeah.
52:52High five.
52:54I'm so thrilled with this result.
52:57The old wallpaper fragment was the perfect clue to this bathroom design, which now strikes
53:02an ideal balance between old and new, and fits nicely with the rest of the house.
53:08Shag Manor, with all her very funky quirks, saves the day.
53:13You don't know how long I've been waiting to have a cocktail at this bar.
53:18And I still can't, but I am appreciating these delightful purple moccasins.
53:25They fit!
53:26They're perfect!
53:27They fit.
53:28And they work so well with the outfit.
53:29Well, thank you.
53:30Now, considering I've got these, I'm assuming you've had some leftover spare change.
53:37So I remember you saying you wanted to spend $40,000 to $50,000 for both bathrooms.
53:42How did you go?
53:43We end up just shy of $40,000, which I'm really happy with considering all of the different
53:48building and design considerations that we didn't really know about before we started
53:53this.
53:54And I think that being second-hand doesn't necessarily mean it's more cost-effective.
53:57No, especially when you take into consideration what you sometimes need to do to vintage items
54:01to bring them up to code.
54:03So for an example, our toilet was only $100, but we spent, I think it was close to $500
54:09for the changes that we had to make to actually make it fit into modern plumbing supplies.
54:14But worth it, right?
54:15Totally.
54:16Oh, 100% worth it.
54:17So you also said five months for both bathroom renovations.
54:21Where did you land?
54:23Yeah, we've ended up pretty bang on five months.
54:25What you've done here really goes against the grain.
54:28The past is bloody brilliant and it's beautiful and there's so many things to learn from it.
54:32And by embalming it, you're preserving this little piece of Australia.
54:36And I really hope other people follow suit.
54:40Thank you so much.
54:45What is this?
54:46What is that?
54:47Oh, is that a dove?
54:50This transformation was all about celebrating the simple things and the best of Aussie suburban living.
54:56Oh, wow.
54:57This is gorgeous.
54:58Family, fun and a less complicated way of life.
55:02Look at this thing.
55:03It's crazy.
55:04I love the colours.
55:05So do we have parental approval?
55:07Yeah, it's amazing.
55:08Of course.
55:09Oh, wow.
55:10It's so fun.
55:13Ladies and gentlemen, let's raise a punch cup to the best bathroom in Kobo.
55:16Yay!
55:17Cheers.
55:18All right, who wants a prawn cocktail?
55:22You can't help but love everything Shag Manor represents.
55:28There you go.
55:29There you go, Dad.
55:30There's a joyfulness about it that's also the perfect antidote to the ideas that good design costs a bomb.
55:37And bigger is always better.
55:39It's good.
55:40That's cool.
55:41I like the light fixtures.
55:42Wow, they did a good job, eh?
55:43They did.
55:44Maybe they can come do our nothing.
55:47I'm voting quality over quantity every time.
55:53I feel today's renovations are really all about resale value.
55:57They're big, white, monstrous boxes that lack any sort of character.
56:02But this is not what's happened here.
56:05What Georgia and Meta have been able to do is preserve history
56:10and actually replicate it through meticulous sourcing, recycling and reusing.
56:17Now that's a sustainable way to approach any renovation
56:21whilst also having a lot of fun.
56:24Seems Kitch might be cool again.
56:40We nailed it.
56:41Cheers.
56:42I can't believe it.
56:43I can't believe it.
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