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| Island home |
| Dream of living the island life? This family has done it - and all on a shoestring budget! |
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Rebecca visits a family who have chosen to leave the city for a bush lifestyle. Having dreamt of a waterfront property without the Sydney price tag, they found a block of land on Scotland Island on Pittwater north of Sydney Harbour and set a building budget of $150,000. The owner Matt, a musician with act Trapazoid, did most of the work himself using nearly all recycled materials including the support structure which he salvaged from the dismantled Penny Arcade in Sydney's Luna Park. The result is quirky yet practical at an affordable price.
To stick to the decided budget the family went owner-builder, used as many friends as possible in the trade and bought the materials themselves second-hand. Matt also made a lot of the furniture including the kids' bunk bed, some stairs and the bookcase. A friend lent them a wide barge for 3 months which enabled them to transport all the materials, rather than having to pay for a local barge service. In the end they were only over budget by $10,000, which was the cost of the deck. Matt quit work to build the house and spent the next 4 months on it full-time but spent 12 months prior collecting building materials.
The best find was eight 'free' curved oregon trusses that were being discarded from the Penny Arcade at Sydney's Luna Park. Five of the trusses are in the front of the house as support beams. The other three make up the kitchen bench, a music desk in the recording studio, book ends in the living room and a dining room table.
Iron bark posts from an abandoned woolshed were used for the living room floor. About 100 years old, "they needed to be seasoned so were milled and stacked for a year with batons for air circulation. Otherwise if I laid them too early they would expand."
For the roof and ceiling, they used corrugated iron because it's fast to install and relatively cheap. They lined it with batts so it doesn't get too hot. The corrugated iron Matt used for the kitchen and living room cupboards was actually the cover sheet that came with the delivery. It's thinner than the roof material and is perforated with holes. So again he was able to save money while creating something funky yet functional and attractive.
The dark wall in the living room dividing the lower and upper sections of the house is actually big pieces of plywood. Matt levelled the edges and washed with them with paint finishing it off with a clear sealer. "That way you get a paneled look, colour and still see the grain. Some people comment it looks like velvet"
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More Info
Architect: Stephen Crosby, Stephen Crosby & Associates, ph (02) 9960 7762
Carpenter: Richard Rutherford, Ingleside NSW, ph (02) 9913 8584
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Disclaimer
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