Christmas St, Northcote house for sale after calming renovation
Christmas has come early for family home buyers, with a Victorian gift wrapped in an on-trend renovation hitting the Northcote market.
Not only have vendors Justine and Nick Harvey done all the hard work for the next owners of the four-bedroom house, they’ll also elicit a smile every time they tell someone their new address: 32 Christmas St.
“Everyone seems to know Christmas St,” Ms Harvey said.
“It’s a gorgeous, wide, tree-lined street, with great neighbors and close to High St and all the shops, and All Nations park.”
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When the Harveys bought the property in 2015, for $1.09m, it had a single-fronted facade in several shades of green and a “poky” two-bedroom interior.
Ms Harvey said they had since expanded it on the side and rear to make it a double-fronted, four-bedroom abode with a “pared-back and minimalist” interior that still oozes wow factor.
“Because we were feeling the pinch of being in lockdown, we wanted to create a sense of freedom with big ceilings and lots of natural light,” she said.
“We wanted to make it a safe and happy place.”
The Harveys engaged interior designer Melissa Vukadin and builder JBM Group for the project, with the intention of creating a long-term home for themselves and sons
River, 11, and Vinny, 7.
But halfway through, they decided to make a move to Queensland and have now listed the finished product with a $2.6m-$2.8m price guide and August 21 auction date.
Ms Harvey said “a lot of love” had gone into the building with her husband, a carpenter, doing the landscaping, and building the fence and front and back decks herself.
Ms Harvey, who runs a marketing agency, documented the renovation on Instagram, cheekily referring to Nick as “the hot tradie”.
She said the transition from the original part of the house to the new part made her swoon, too – and she hoped the buyer would feel the same way.
“At the end of the hallway, there’s a big, tall beautiful archway,” she said. “You walk through it and down stairs that fan out really wide, and that’s when you’re in the back room with 4m-high ceilings.
“It’s filled with natural light and when you walk into the area, straight away you feel calm.”
The light floods into the open-plan living, dining and kitchen area via skylights and a doorway that fully opens out to a covered deck and a charming backyard.
The clean, white space features polished-concrete floors and a statement stone kitchen containing Westinghouse appliances, a waterfall island bench, a butler’s pantry, touch-to-open cabinetry and a tiled splashback.
Open fireplaces and Baltic pine flooring have been retained in the four bedrooms in the original part of the house.
The main bedroom has an ensuite and a walk-in wardrobe. The others are serviced by a terrazzo-covered bathroom with a freestanding tub and a double shower. A study and laundry complete the single-storey floor plan.
Jellis Craig Northcote director Sam Rigopoulos said a “completely on trend” fit-out, a desirable floorplan for a family and a prized position within the Northcote High School zone were up for grabs with the home.
“When you put all of that behind a period facade, this kind of offering is super hard to find,” Mr Rigopoulos said.
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