Restoration Australia on ABC – One of the few remaining two-storey timber weatherboard spec homes built in the heady days of Victoria’s 1880’s post-gold rush population explosion is a lost cause heading for demolition.
That is, until Jess and Paul see it as a potential home for their young family.
But the task ahead is herculean. Unloved and unoccupied for forty years, the old place is leaking, crumbling, and invaded by wall-splintering vegetation in almost every room. Over recent decades, the building has also developed an alarming tilt and is and literally sinking into the ground. All manner of building ingenuity is needed to make it even remotely safe to live in.
Paul and Jess want to save as many original 1880s features as they can, like the elaborate plaster ceiling roses and mid-19th century cornice work. But, at every turn, they face potential disappointment.
As the old lathe and plaster walls are stripped away, the extent of the challenge they’ve bought into becomes even more apparent.
The entire ground floor timber frame is twisted, and brick fireplaces have developed leans that threaten to take the house down.
The couple also contend with modern fire and building regulations that threaten to make their dream of restoring a near-original into one giant heart-breaking compromise.
Production credit: A Fremantle production for the ABC. Supervising Executive Producer: Brooke Bayvel. Executive Producer: Michael Collett. ABC Executive Producers: Madeleine Hawcroft and Jo Chichester.
Restoration Australia on ABC and ABC iview – Thursday 20 June at 8.00pm
TV Central ABC content HERE
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