Transitions: Following the kids to the inner city

With their four children now having grown up and flown the coup to city living, Kathy Alcock and her husband Richard, who is the managing director of Bank of America Merrill Lynch Sydney, are looking to follow suit. 

“It’s time to have a change,” says Kathy. The Alcocks have their sights set on the inner city, most likely around Paddington, Woollahra or Darlinghurst where Kathy’s sister moved last year, also from the north shore. “She just adores it,” says Kathy. “She loves the vibrancy and the community.” 

Living close to town would make impromptu catch-ups with the couple’s children possible and would enable Richard to walk to work.The Alcocks are selling their five-bedroom, three-bathroom Warrawee house through Darren Curtis of Christie’s International. The price guide is “early $5 millions”.

Kathy thinks she and Richard might first rent, possibly in the CBD, while they take time to find the right property. After living on a 2000-square-metre block, Kathy is realistic that a move closer to town will necessitate some changes. “It’s not going to be easy getting used to the neighbours on either side,” she says. “But it’s exciting.”

The Alcocks completely reinvented their home at 24 Chilton Parade in Warrawee. After removing a large tree that blocked a lot of the northern light, they knocked out the front wall and installed soaring glass panels and rustic pillars crafted from recycled telegraph poles shipped from the north coast.

Inspired by an image Richard had seen of stonework in an outdoor room, the Alcocks called in their friend Richard Stutchbury, a renowned landscaped architect, and employed an expert to create sandstone columns in their garden.

The job was more intricate than they expected – “he was there chipping away for about six months”, says Kathy. But the result helped to make the garden one of the couple’s favourite places to spend time in the morning sunshine.

“We love just sitting there reading the papers,” says Kathy. It is the area they will really miss most once they move. “I’m sure there’ll be tears shed.”

When the couple’s sons were at school at Knox Grammar their large home was a regular venue for school fundraising functions where hundreds of people could spill out from the living area onto the spacious lawns. The swimming pool and tennis court were also well used. 

The couple had initially chosen Warrawee after returning from Jakarta where they had lived surrounded by barbed wire and security guards. 

Warrawee, 18 kilometres from the CBD, wasn’t their first pick though. “I remember Richard saying to me ‘don’t go further north than Roseville’,” says Kathy. “But occasionally you see a place [you fall in love with]. I just loved the location, backing onto Knox Grammar’s oval.”

At that stage the couple had two young children, and would later add another two to their brood. 

Warrawee proved to be a surprisingly convenient spot nevertheless. Richard could walk 500 metres to the train station and the couple’s boys attended Knox Grammar and could also walk to school.