'A special sort of nostalgia': Meet the 28-year-old saving for a house by drawing yours

Georgia Norton Lodge loves houses. She loves the sentiment behind them; the nostalgia attached to them.

In fact, Norton Lodge loves them so much she’s saving for one of her own by drawing other people’s.

In 2014, the now 28-year-old was working full-time as a graphic designer when her creative director noticed some of her scribbles on a little bit of paper.

“My mum is very creative, she is always painting new things around our house and learning new crafts, she is incredible. So because of [her] I’ve always been a drawer, since I was very little. Though I never fancied myself as any good,” she says.

“It was actually my first creative director who noticed my scribbles and pushed me to draw more.”

Quietly, Norton Lodge began to draw more and more, before she realised she had a knack for capturing homes.

“I started drawing houses for my sister’s first book cover,” she says.

“The book was based in Annandale in Sydney, where we grew up, so I decided to draw it. I drew my own house first. As each brick was laid and each chimney grew, I kind of thought to myself ‘hold on, this is pretty cute!’

“So I showed my friends and family and they all wanted me to draw their houses. It didn’t take too long for friends of distant cousins to start requesting – so I build a website and launched Georgia Draws A House.”

While juggling her full-time job in graphic design, Norton Lodge receives commissions to draw of houses around the country, requiring just a two-week deadline and a home address.

“Being a graphic designer can be demanding, illustration is my way of keeping sane and staying true to the maker in me.

“Juggling is what I was born to do – last year while working full-time and building Georgia Draws A House, my sister, Zoe Norton Lodge, and I also released our first children’s book, Elizabella Meets Her Match [written by her, illustrated by me’.

“Side hustles are great pocket money and ever since I’ve been committed to moonlighting with them, I’ve got closer and closer to my house-saving goal. Drawing houses to buy a house sort of has a ring to it, doesn’t it?

“I would love to buy a home [at] the end of this year, but realistically some time next year. I’m a terrible saver, which is why having Georgia Draws A House as a side hustle is so important – multiple revenue streams help the savings grow.”

Norton Lodge says her work is the kind of drawing that elicits huge emotion from those who are attached to the homes.

“People respond beautifully. I get emails, texts, love letters and photos of smiling faces. Happy tears are not uncommon and they’re so special.

“People already know home is where the heart is, I believe when they see their house in its childlike, wiggly-line purity it makes them feel a special sort of nostalgia.”