How a couple transformed a rundown holiday home into an eclectic beachside haven

At the end of Jane Dickenson and Jamie Russell-Mudge’s tea-tree-lined driveway in St Andrews Beach is a world all their own.

The rambling 0.8-hectare property – which boasts an abundant supply of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers, plus a slide, trampoline, wooden obstacle course, greenhouse, firepit and outdoor bath – is a home intuitively yet consciously created to mirror their passions and lifestyle.

Dickenson, 42, is a freelance writer, while Russell-Mudge, 47, is a high school design and technology teacher. The couple happened upon the Mornington Peninsula property more or less by chance six years ago, when they were living around the corner.

“We weren’t looking to move. But for some reason I’d said to Jamie that I’d move if we could find a house with a circular driveway,” says Dickenson.

“We drove down this street and we saw that were was a ‘For sale’ sign. And it had a circular driveway. At first we thought it was just land. And then we looked it up and realised that there was a house that they weren’t even really mentioning, because I guess they assumed that people would just pull the house down and use the land.”

Not only did Dickenson and Russell-Mudge not pull down the house, but they transformed the whole property – originally a less-than-functional holiday home which was visited just two weeks a year – into a lively and thriving place that reflects who they are as a family.

One of the most stunning things in a yard full of beautiful things is the stained-glass greenhouse around the back.

It was a project that came about after the couple started collecting stained-glass windows on the side of the road, and then inherited some more when Russell-Mudge’s father passed away a few years ago.

“Jamie wanted to use them in a way that was special,” says Dickenson. “So he just whipped that up one weekend, as you do.”

Russell-Mudge uses the greenhouse for propagating all sorts of plants. At the moment it’s a nursery for tomato, watermelon, sunflower, cucumber, celery, eggplant, zucchini, carrot and lettuce seedlings.

Behind the greenhouse are avocado, fig, lemon, nectarine and nashi pear trees. “We had this vision of a food forest,” says Dickenson.

There are raspberry bushes and plenty of other vegetables in planter boxes, plus all kinds of flowers and herbs surrounding the house.

Russell-Mudge has a large shed where he builds furniture for the house and wooden play equipment for the yard, such as a seesaw and ropes course.

There was also, at one point, an old Bedford bus stationed in the garden, which the couple gutted and turned into a tranquil study space and guest room, complete with a wood-heater fireplace.

On the spacious front deck sits an outdoor shower over a ceramic bath, which doubled as the family’s bathroom when their indoor bathroom was being renovated last winter.

Russell-Mudge added a partial glass shower screen so the wind wouldn’t blow the water away mid-shower, while the forest of tea-trees lends privacy from the eyes of neighbours.

“As much as I hated the really cold mornings getting up and walking outside in winter when we didn’t have the bathroom, there was never a time that I was in the shower that I wasn’t grateful for being outside,” says Dickenson.

“Once you get in, you just feel so much more connected with nature.”

If there’s one thing that characterises the family and their home, it’s a connection to nature and a commitment to indoor-outdoor living. Russell-Mudge, who grew up on the peninsula, regularly surfs, windsurfs and fishes.

“When we got together, his entire world was structured around surfing,” says Dickenson. “I’m sure that’s why he’s a school teacher – so he can do his job and then get home to surf. He’s very lifestyle-oriented.”

And while Dickenson sometimes misses the “towering” gum trees she lived among growing up in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs, she says it’s pretty incredible to have the ocean just a 15-minute walk away.

“I’ve been swimming every day this year,” she says. “Last night we went down to St Andrews Beach, and it’s just magical in those rock pools. You almost can’t believe that that’s just there, and it’s always so quiet. It’s like a wonderland.”

This article is part of a series about Australians who have created their dream homes and lifestyles, brought to you by Set For Life.