How to restore and renovate a 1900s terrace home
In Ascot Vale, the pretty single-fronted Victorian terrace owned by Elise Weavers and Sam Russell fits in beautifully with other homes of its era.
However, it’s barely recognisable from how the couple found it in 2020, as an “ugly duckling” sporting some unbecoming features from a previous renovation – brown brick-look cladding, vividly coloured carpets and tiles, and dazzling chandeliers everywhere.
The porch tiles were ubiquitous 1970s brown, and the front landscaping was “concrete on concrete”.
“It was so typical ’70s,” Weavers says. “It was ugly but cool”.
But not cool enough to keep. Weavers, a project manager for a commercial construction company, and Russell, a carpenter, immediately began restoring the two-bedroom front section of the house, uncovering the heritage features that remained.
Under the brown cladding were the original blockwork weatherboards, which the couple were able to restore, and they added other elements appropriate to the home’s c1900 vintage, such as iron lacework and ceiling roses. They replaced the aluminium-framed front window with a more traditional size, and Russell crafted the front door, verandah posts and eaves brackets by hand.
A new build would probably have been easier, they say, but it’s been worth it.
“They don’t make any more of these [terrace houses], so it’s an injustice to knock them down, I think,” Russell says, admitting it initially took “big imagination” to see the potential.
As they dug into the house, it became obvious there’d been multiple renovations done in the past, as the previous renovators hadn’t removed materials – they’d just covered old features with new, making it now feel like working in a time capsule.
“There were just layers and layers on everything,” Russell says. “Even the roof had three layers of different types of tin.” They discovered tram tickets, newspapers and beer bottles from different times in the roof space and under the house.
The couple demolished the home’s rear section to build a modern double-storey extension. Russell took six months off his carpentry role to manage the project, while Weavers drew on her career experience to organise financing, trades, materials and building permits. The extension now holds an open-plan kitchen, dining and living space, with a luxurious main suite upstairs featuring a four-metre gable ceiling.
As a bonus, the couple transformed an old, separate workshop into a tranquil guest house.
Weavers, who also has experience working in architecture and interior design, chose a neutral colour palette for the spaces to enhance the light and foster a sense of calm, while also mixing up the textures of the materials.
The couple lived on site during the project to reduce costs, moving from room to room as they progressed. As you’d expect, it was a messy place to live at times. When going to work, Weavers would don gumboots just to cross the “massive mud pit” of a yard, complete with piles of old materials and rubbish, before putting her work shoes on when she reached the footpath.
“We’ve lived on a construction site for three years,” she says with a laugh. But, compared with the billion-dollar projects she works on in her job, she says it felt “enjoyable and manageable” to work on the smaller scale of this renovation. “I loved every part of this.”
Russell was surprised at how challenging it could be to make decisions while building this house for himself and Weavers – he’s an experienced chippie who has worked on houses throughout Melbourne, but this time he’d literally have to live with his choices. “It’s a lot different when you’re doing it for yourself, because you get stuck on the finer details.”
The couple is now “98 or 99 per cent finished” and have reclaimed their weekends, but enjoying the fruits of their labour might be short-lived: they’ve acquired a taste for reno life and plan to renovate another home in the next year or two.
“We’re already thinking about the next thing,” Russell says. In the meantime, they’re relishing their not-so-forever-home.
“It’s so nice to come home and just walk in the door,” Weavers says. “No gumboots required.”
Update: Elise and Sam have recently listed the home for sale. Check it out below …
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