Canberra’s ‘Raize the Roof’ charity home hits the market

A vision almost 10 years in the making for Danielle and Lincoln Dal Cortivo is about to become a reality.

The Raize the Roof project was conceived by the siblings in 2009, who set about raising funds for charity through building a home from donated materials and labour.

This resulted in a three-bedroom home located at 17 Clancy McKenna Crescent in Bonner, which has just hit the market and will be open to potential buyers from Saturday.

It is set to go to auction on October 20, with proceeds from the sale going towards the Starlight Children’s Foundation and SOS Children’s Villages Botswana.

“Both Lincoln and I had friends who passed away from illness and before they passed away they both received wishes from different children’s charities,” said Danielle.

“My friend Brittany died when she was 21 and after she died I volunteered at an orphanage in Tanzania, and it was in this concrete structure with babies lying on old school gym mats on the ground, and that was not okay with me.

“When I came back I knew I wanted to do something but I just wasn’t sure what that would look like.”

Danielle expressed her desire to Lincoln, who is a builder, and the pair decided to build a house and donate the proceeds to charity.

“We came up with the idea of leveraging off the skills Lincoln has as a builder to build a home and would use the project as a fundraising multiplier, so every dollar in is three dollars out,” she said.

More than 350 Canberra businesses have volunteered or contributed towards the project.

“We wanted to have the project be about community, connection and contribution. It was about how we could get as many people involved and contributing to the project as possible.”

Many years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears have gone into constructing the home.

“It took us three years before we could get access to land, and we ended up getting a block through the government’s land rent scheme,” she said.

“We got the initial plans written up in 2012 but it took a while to start building because of funding and time constraints, as everyone was a volunteer. We didn’t start construction on the house until 2015.”

Lincoln described the home as “a very luxurious and quality house”.

“The block is 654 square metres and the house has a total of 241 square metres of living, and the garage is about 55 square metres,” he said.

“There are multiple entertaining areas, such as decks and courtyards. There is a deck which captures the sun and it’s got amazing views of Black Mountain Tower and the Brindabellas.

“I would say it’s for a family that likes to entertain.”

Danielle said she was completely overwhelmed when she saw the home in its final state.

“It’s a stunning home and it was really moving to see this idea we had so many years ago come to full fruition,” she said.

“I didn’t know what it would look like, I had seen the plans but I didn’t understand how grand, beautiful and stylish it would be when it was actually finished, so when I walked in I was completely overwhelmed.”

The home has also been styled in the Decorate for a Difference campaign – a Block-style competition between five local teams, each of whom tackled a different section of the home. Each team had one day to complete their section with furniture donated by IKEA.

“We wanted more of the community to be able to contribute to the last part of this project, so Decorate for a Difference is a styling challenge where we will be crowning Canberra’s best stylist,” said Danielle.

People can vote on the Decorate for a Difference website for their favourite section by donating money, with one dollar equalling one vote.

The house will be open for inspection every Saturday and Sunday from September 15 from 10am–1pm.