For 30 years, Victorian couple David and Sandi have enjoyed life on their 8 acre property nestled in the Bellarine Peninsular of Drysdale. With a shared lifelong love of horses, their property proudly also doubled as their workplace, boasting first-class equine facilities including stables, paddocks and pens.
Sadly, due to illness in the family the couple desperately needed to uproot their dream life, sell up and move closer to Sandy's mum in northern Victoria. However, with the quirky home resembling more of a Western saloon than a property with potential, it came as no surprise to the team that the couple were unable to secure a single offer despite being on the market for over 10 months. With pressure mounting and Sandi's mother's health deteriorating quickly, it was up to the Selling Houses team to turn this horsey home into a classy country cottage ready for sale.
Overwhelmed by the amount of timber, horse trinkets and quirky add-ons in the house, Shaynna decided to firstly tackle the floorplan. She started by removing the support posts in the kitchen, replacing these with a large structural beam in the ceiling. This ultimately allowed her to merge the kitchen and dining room into one open area. The main features of the new kitchen included stylish stainless steel appliances, new windows and a large island bench which helped to anchor the space and create a contemporary 'farmhouse feel'.
The flooring of this property was dark and mismatched, so Shaynna had it all replaced with light engineered floorboards. This massive change, in addition to a fresh coat of paint throughout, really helped to brighten up the house and create a consistent flow between the rooms.
With the Master bedroom not too dissimilar to the other bedrooms, Shaynna knew she had to make some drastic changes in this space. For added privacy and impact, she first decided to sheet up the glass doors between the Master bedroom and living room. An opening was also made in the adjacent wall to create space for a walk in robe. New sky lights were installed for added ventilation and much needed natural light.
In order to take the bedrooms from 'bunk house' to 'relaxing retreat', Shaynna was very careful with her styling choices- keeping every piece simple and refined. In keeping with this theme, Shaynna selected Luxaflex® Roller Blinds in a white blockout opacity, for the bedrooms and Sunroom.
Charlie's exterior makeover started by focusing on the areas closest to the house. As it was such a large property, he believed this would have the biggest impact, making the home more appealing to the lifestyle buyer. With first impressions crucial, especially for homes on the property market, he first worked on defining the entrance. He replaced the tired pathway, old stairs and some of the existing balustrade with a new path, fresh turf and wider staircase which ultimately added grandeur to the front facade.
The back courtyard was also given a face lift with new privacy screens, light coloured pebbles for flooring, some new herbs and evergreen plants and stylish furniture pieces. Some of the quirky memorabilia items around the property were also relocated to areas less central in an effort to take the finished look of the acreage from 'kooky' to classy'.
Despite high hopes of offers around $1.3 million and lots of hard work by Sandi, David and the Selling Houses team, the pair are yet to receive any offers on their home.
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The products in this episode were proudly supplied and installed by Luxaflex® Window Fashions Gallery Dealer A & B Interiors, Williamstown VIC.
