The Story of 15 Parliament Street

Show Notes

Join us this week as we change things up a bit on The Property Pod - In this week's special episode, we go full Better Homes & Gardens on this thing and John takes the time to interview Jen, the owner of a stunning Property in the Heart of Sandy Bay, 15 Parliament Street.

Listen in as Jen speaks with such passion and joy about the journey the property has gone on over the years and the amazing amount of thought and detail that went into the renovation of this stunning home.

What is The Property Pod?

A fun and accessible look into Hobart and Tasmanian Property with 4one4 Property Co. Real Estate Agents, Patrick Berry and John McGregor

Jen
Though we did design the kitchen around the tiny little entry and exit point from the dogs, the doggie door. And boy, did they make use of it. So it's it's quite cute. You'll be cooking in the kitchen and just in and out. They come at their leisure. So I do hope that that delivers lots of joy for the new owners.

Aaron Horne
Going what we're going to I know you're listening to the property on. All right, guys, welcome back to the Property Pod, your weekly engagement into the real estate here in the Hobart marketplace. I'm your host Aaron Horn, and it gives me great pleasure to not introduce the boys today. We're going to have up a little bit different. I've kind of been promising this for a few weeks now.

Aaron Horne
We were sitting on a a lengthy interview that John had done, and I said, I think it'll make a really good podcast episode, guys. So yeah, pretty cruisy week for John and Pat this week. Well better heavy lifting for John when he when he did the interview but even more heavy lifting for me putting it together. It was fun to put together.

Aaron Horne
It's a it's a cracking story kind of the narrative behind one of his recent listings at 15 Parliament Straight. So the heart of Sandy Bay a really, really amazing property and a really amazing storyteller to go along with it. So what we've done is I've put together a podcast episode, something different and something new. You know, it could be a big hit.

Aaron Horne
People could love and say This is way better than what you guys do every other week, or it could be a massive flop. And yeah, it'd be really fun to know. So let us know what you think. If you listen along our up, some comment singing and pop some things email us at I don't know, the podcast email is able to find a way to contact us.

Aaron Horne
I'll look into that and let people know, but yeah, just something different, something fun. Let's see how it goes. Audio quality might be a little different to what we normally have. It was recorded on site in a different studio, so hopefully the audio play plays well for anybody listening along in their car or in their neighborhoods that are watching the video.

Aaron Horne
Definitely recommend watching the video. There's some really interesting footage in there of the house being shown off in all its glory. So what I might do is just try to do J-Mac over in Sandy Bay talking about Parliament Street with a wonderful, wonderful owner and yeah, an amazing property. So listening to the probably put this week and let us know what you think at the end.

John McGregor
Well, Jim, this certainly isn't the first time we've been in this situation. You know what? What is it with you and Andrew finding these beautiful old homes, doing them stunningly and then moving 5 minutes later?

Jen
Madness, sheer madness. We won't be doing that again. Yeah, I think we have a love and fascination with old homes and kind of bringing them into the modern era very gently. But I just can't drive past them. I just absolutely adore them. And we just seem to always finish right at the moment that life takes a little bit of a left turn and we have to wish them goodbye and pass them on to the next person a little bit better than than we inherited.

John McGregor
A little bit better is probably an understatement with one.

Jen
Yeah, yeah. This has been a long road.

John McGregor
Because when was how long has it been since we from day.

Jen
One, we've had this house about four years. And when we bought it it hadn't been touched probably in about 50 years. So the kitchen had purple cabinets, blue floors. It was extremely small like it would have been because this house was built in the 1880s. So the kitchen was kind of that size and other components of the kitchen were actually contained elsewhere in the house would have been external.

Jen
So the building and all kinds of quirky things like that. So it took a lot of vision when we first walked through there was a lot of walls in places they don't exist anymore, lots of tiny little rooms and compartments where it wasn't always clear what the function of that room was in the first place. And we kind of had to stand in the rooms for those moments and envision those walls coming down and things opening up and light coming in there.

Jen
What will this be next time?

John McGregor
What was it? Because I mean, when we when we bought this is a bit unconventional because it never went to market was through you know, personal relations that you had. Why this 115 Plymouth Street?

Jen
I think it was two things. One, it was a location. Location. It's just I couldn't have mentioned anything better when I found out that there was this house off market available on Parliament Street of all streets. I just felt like I'd hit the jackpot because it's the center of everything. I walk everywhere because this place is so convenient.

Jen
It's just walkable to everything. We're 15 minutes to Salamanca, 10 minutes to the Utah's Sandy Bay campus. It's just so convenient. Not even 5 minutes to the Sandy Bay shops. What more could you ask for first? And then the second thing that won me over was when we walked up to that beautiful 1880 front door with all the original hardware.

Jen
And it's just very ornate with the lace where it's just so beautiful. And you and I swung open that front door and that grand hallway opens up with the polished floorboards and the high ceilings and being double wide. And it just felt it's this tiny little saving cottage on the outside. It looks and looks so small. But then you open the door and all the rooms and the grand your kind of just unfolds.

Jen
Before you and I was sold on that moment.

John McGregor
Yeah, I know it looks quaint from the front, but this is 100% a family home.

Jen
It's, it's probably been actually a bit too big for just Andrew myself and two tiny little dogs to absolutely fit a family. So we have four very large proportioned bedrooms and the main bathroom is stunning and fantastic. And then we also have an en suite that that suits the extremely large master bedroom. So four bedrooms, two bathrooms, perfect for any family that wants to take it.

John McGregor
Can you tell me about the en suite? Because I just love, well, the access for one and to the way that all the, you know, the pipes and stuff have all been exposed looks stunning.

Jen
Yeah. So we kept the original staircase. That was a source of much debate, but in homage to the House, we did keep the original staircase, and the en suite is kind of a tucked away little secret gem. So you do have to go up the staircase to get to the en suite. But I think it's worth that little bit of effort because it really delivers.

Jen
We designed a what I call an inside out bathroom. So all of you to full copper piping that would normally be tucked in behind the wall. It's been brought forward and you can see it, it's exposed. And the other thing that we did throughout the House, upstairs in the en suite, but also elsewhere, is when we knocked down some of the walls during the renovation, they were logs and plaster walls built during the 1800s and I hand scrubbed each and every one of those laws and pulled all the nails out and we used those laths to create wainscoting and other features throughout the house.

Jen
So we reclaimed and recycled that material and used it as like a soft kind of timber touch to soften surfaces where.

John McGregor
So what's changed since?

Jen
Half of the house is still perfectly original. It still has all the wainscoting and architraves and beautiful cornicing and ceiling roses and all those things that you'd expect of a house of this era. And so all we did was some touch ups and replace some of the things that had been changed out in the 50 6070s and put them back to original.

Jen
So two of the fireplaces one which we can see just over my shoulder here, had been swapped out. So we put them back in. So there's two fireplaces from the 1800s that are now back where they belong. So that was really nice being able to do that to the house. So the front half of the house, otherwise it kind of is as it was, which is nice.

Jen
Yeah, the back half of the house is basically from the kitchen and the master bedroom and the en suite has gone over a complete overhaul. You would not recognize the before and the after walls have come down and everything's been changed out. But we've tried to do it in the most tasteful of way that it is all kind of with a bit of a heritage flair, incorporated all bits and pieces back into the house as much as possible.

Jen
So it doesn't look, there's not a sharp change between the old and the new.

John McGregor
Yeah, yeah. And that's where it's like even you see that in the bathroom in the bedrooms, the tops, because you've carried a lot of these things with you from home to home and main and kept all those beautiful pieces that are irreplaceable just to then feature in this house as if looking like they've always been there.

Jen
Yes, we really have. So I think two of the things that made me the most excited were one of the houses we owned previously, which was from the 1870s, had some incredible veranda timbers from when the veranda came out. And we've incorporated those into the kitchen, into our kitchen bar area. And so here's these 150 year old enormous hand-carved veranda timbers with little four leaf clovers carved.

Jen
And at a time when we didn't have power tools, that kind of transports me back in time. And I can envision the people who who did that were woodworking and now it's my gin bar in the kitchen and the back part of the house rather than putting up white weatherboard. So we actually had the back of the house in some gorgeous deep gray slate tiles.

Jen
And if you go out and have a bit of a close look, you'll notice each of those tiles has two holes punched in them and the sides are quite rough and raw. And you might wonder why is that and where do they come from? The reason they look like they do is because those tiles aren't 150 years as a slate roof on another property and one system that we owned.

Jen
And we took about 8000 of those tiles off the roof by hand. They took us about 12 days and I lugged those around from Launceston to Hobart, much to my husband's chagrin. And he wanted to throw them out. And then I said, No way. And, and so we climbed the exterior of the building in them and they're absolutely stunning.

Jen
And it's amazing to think that all of that slate almost certainly came from Wales in the UK as ballast in the bottom of a wooden tile ship in the 1860s or 1870s. And here they are, cladding the back of this building.

John McGregor
I've never seen the bathrooms that you designed because you even were able to recycle those into there as a little, didn't you?

Jen
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. We have the slate is featured in the bathrooms, if not most of the bathrooms. And it kind of keeps that heritage flare because they are a little bit kind of rough around the edges and imperfect. But when you know the story, the heritage behind them, it just sits there seamlessly in the house.

John McGregor
So I guess then that's the interesting part then. I mean, like you said, you've been here for four years, but the process to get to this end game was something else.

Jen
And that is an understatement. Yes. Yes. Getting the the renovation approved in true Hobart City Council was a monumental challenge that took an incredibly long period of time. And so some fortunate. So we'll get to enjoy this beautiful kitchen and and the master bedroom and other parts of the house that we barely had time to enjoy ourselves because that process was so prolonged.

Jen
There's some really funny stories like not that long ago, perhaps 18 months ago in the middle of last winter, folks might remember last winter was pretty rough. We had the wettest winter in 70 years or something like that. Please think of me in those moments because there were no walls or ceiling in the kitchen. We had buckets everywhere and blue tarps, and we were sitting on this very couch in about ten degrees, shivering, and I washed so many loads of dishes in a bucket under the stairs outside in that backyard in freezing cold temperatures.

Jen
It was a celebration when I could finally do sort of.

John McGregor
Now it's a two. We didn't have to worry about being cold because for every install sign and cooling system, yes, the system above you can see it.

Jen
Yeah, yeah. That's such a great point. Those are the things that you can't see that this house delivers on. Absolutely. So the things that we did where we in the renovated part of the house, we put in all double glazing. The floors, the ceilings and the walls have all been insulated to an very, very high standard. There's also solar panels on the roof.

Jen
So the house has extremely low power consumption power bills and we installed central heating. And so you can't see that. But boy, oh, boy, does it deliver.

John McGregor
Now, I do want to talk about this kitchen because it feels like it should have always been here to start with. And obviously with the extra bits like it talked about and there's a couple of it's a little hidden secret as well because you didn't want the little ones to feel left out.

Jen
That's right. Yeah. Yeah. That was really fun working with the architect to place our family, our children, which are two ducks and sausage dogs at the center of the home and the rebuilt it. So we did design the kitchen around a tiny little entry and exit point from the dogs, the doggy door. And boy, did they make use of it.

Jen
So it's it's quite cute. You'll be cooking in the kitchen and just in and out. They come at their leisure. So I do hope that that delivers lots of joy for the new owners.

John McGregor
Well, and then, you know, with that, too, I mean, with this with the deck that you've extended across, is it even during the cold days we still got we've always end up with the door open. You can hear that softer and that soft air coming through with the birds chirping. Like it just creates an incredible atmosphere.

Jen
It's amazing. I'd say at least six months of the year we have those triple stocking doors open and as you say, we kind of live in the mixture of indoor outdoor on that huge, beautiful deck. And we listen to the sound of the running water from the pond and the birds singing. And it is really a beautiful lifestyle.

Jen
It's like an urban oasis in the middle of the city. We do feel really tucked away here.

John McGregor
It's amazing because with that garden, too, there's always forget all the plants that you tell me about, but they all have a very distinct purpose that I right from the center, all the ones right along the fence line through to the back.

Jen
Yes, yes. We very, very strategic and intentional in our planning. So lots of the trees are planted to bring privacy over time to these bamboos, it'll grow to probably about eight meters. That'll give lots of screening. It's kind of about the three four meter mark at this point, about halfway. There's lots of fruit and vegetables and stuff in the garden.

Jen
So there's raspberries, there's three fruit trees and plums, figs and apricots, and there's various flowering plants as well that are famous for flowering winter versus flowering summer. And so it brings in the wildlife, the birds and the bees and other creatures throughout the year, and make sure that out there the trees don't drop all the leaves in summer.

Jen
And so you've got that sense of kind of like nature and greenery, 365 days from the year when we bought it, it was just one one big continuous strip of lawn and it really needed an overhaul. But I could again see the possibility and the vision of having a two car garage plus additional space off the side of that.

Jen
I mean, where does that exist in sandy valley? It just doesn't got a very large driveway with turning circle. We've got additional parking at the back. In addition, we've got lawn, we've planted numerous fruit trees, approximately 70 native plants. We've got rosebushes and raspberries and raised garden beds and just about everything you could possibly need, including an enclosed greenhouse.

Jen
So whether you're a green thumb or you just appreciate having a little bit of fresh produce in your home and it delivers on all those things, including if you like cars and you want a bit of a workshop. We've got that to.

John McGregor
Go with it. And that's the thing, because it's not a garage, it's a workshop. I know when when you walk down, it looks like just a small garage, but then it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger until the point where you realize actually this you can back a truck into this thing, you know? And with the fact that there's a winch sitting up there, it really has the capabilities that then, like you say, is it this doesn't exist.

John McGregor
And anybody I like, I know, I mean, with as a parting thought, you know, what is it about this that you're probably going to miss the most?

Jen
Oh, gosh, really? Just about everything, even from the silliest of things like it was an absolute journey and a lot of fun trying to figure out what we were going to call this house. So when we moved into the house, the house didn't have a name. And, and I really felt like in a house of this era should have a name.

Jen
And so we discovered that up until about 1910, 1915, this House was really famous for being the destination to purchase whiskey and not just any whiskey, but Whitehorse branded whiskey. And so the house is now named Whitehorse House. And so that's where the name comes from. And I do, yeah. Little memories like that will stick with me. And I think I will always miss those kinds of memories.

Jen
And just the sheer convenience of this home, just having an urban oasis that is close to absolutely everything. It feels like it shouldn't be because it's just so private and secluded. It feels like you should be out in the bush.

John McGregor
And I guess that's the reality of the situation where, you know, if you're looking for this central location that's, you know, unlike anywhere else with all those extras, there's only really one place where you can find it, you know? And that's this one. Yeah. You know, we've.

Jen
Just kept talking about it because now I don't.

John McGregor
Want. Yeah, sorry.

Aaron Horne
Well, there you have it. That is a new style for the property part. I'm not sure how the people out there feel about it. If you like it, if you think it's better to stop Jim talking all the time, actually talking to them and get really get a word in he yeah he missed out on a lot of it's so amazing having someone else that could tell the story of their property so well and how about those little dog doors?

Aaron Horne
A very special treat. And as I said, if you watched the video, you would have seen the dogs tramp singing and doing some little tricks as well. So something new for the property part this way. I hope our listeners enjoyed it. Yeah. Pop a like a share pop some comments in wherever you can and and let us grow the property but if you did like it, let us know so that we can know to do more things like it.

Aaron Horne
If you didn't let us know as well and will happily never do it again yet. Thanks for listening along and we will see you all next week. Back with a regular episode of podcast. Unless you've decided that they never want to be seen again and we'll have to do interviews every week. All right. Let's see a bite. You have been listening to the property, both recorded and edited by 414 media house in conjunction with four one for Property Code.

Speaker 4
This podcast is general information only and the thoughts abuse expressed is the opinion of our panel and listeners should always seek, then use their own investigation into any topic we discuss to ensure they fully understand their own situation.

John McGregor
It does not constitute and should not be relied on as purchasing, selling, financial or investment advice or recommendations expressed or implied. And it should not be used as an invitation to take up any agent or investment services. No investment decision or activity should be undertaken on the basis of this information without first seeking qualified and professional advice.