We could blame COVID, the excitement of a new relationship or say we got caught up in the moment but whatever it was that lead us here, we’re now the owners of 94 year old Queenslander house we’d never seen, located 1700 kilometres away, in a town we’ve never visited.
Tucked away at the top of a housing estate our new home rises above the 15-20 year old houses that surround her. She began life as the homestead on the Gold Citrus Orchard, built in 1939 to house the growing family that founded the orchard in 1919.
Back then, typical of a 1930s-style Queenslander there were doors at both sides of the house, one into the kitchen and one leading across the side verandah to the more formal front door. It’s style was less grand than its earlier Colonial-style cousins.
By the time we bought her she had undergone many changes, not all pretty or practical.
When the orchard was sold and carved up for housing, the homestead remained sitting on an 823 square metre block. After the demise of orchard the house was bought and sold numerous times.
The people before us owned the property long enough to remove the side stairs and add a central staircase to front of the house rising up to a narrow deck running the length of the house culminating in covered decks at each end. They swapped a window for a new front door thus creating the more traditional look of Queenslander.
The interior remained untouched, a charming time capsule detailing the design crimes of the 60s 70s, and 80s. A quirky house fit for a quirky couple.
Told it was in excellent condition for a house its age, we poured over the photos, plans and building reports, finding nothing that would prepare us for the job ahead. On paper The Orchard was a gorgeous old house that we could move into and live comfortably without investing time and money on renovations.
How wrong we were.
