Marvellous Margaret

Approach from Margaret Street

Big thanks to Siri for drawing my attention to this fantastic house at 26 Margaret Avenue Montmorency. I always love listening to RRR's radio subscriber-thon and it seems like a lot of their listener base is out at Monty these days. It had been years since I had been there so on Saturday MR(who is afterall, a Monty High alumni) and I decided it was time for a re-visit to Were Street including the Secondhand Shop and this rather exciting house.

Dining area

Open breakfast bar to kitchen - One of my favourite parts of the house!

Designed by one of the founding architects of Clarke Hopkins Clark and built in 1965 the house is in excitingly original condition. The only addition is a large family/rumpus area that is built on to the Western side of the house in a sympathetic style. There are so many design elements to love in this house. The timber lined ceilings are just beautiful. Then there is the open plan kitchen in pure white laminate, the original light fittings, the amazing purple-red bricks, the huge North facing windows, the bedrooms with original cork boards and desk and the original bathrooms. I also noticed this great detail where the extra tall interior doors are painted a dark colour, as is the fixed panel above - making the doors seem as though they are full height. There is also the very spacious garden afforded to a home on a 2921sqm block.

The 'Good Room' - Formal lounge room complete with built in bar and open fireplace.

High room doors with fixed panel above - Original cork board, lighting & timber lined ceilings.

Master bedroom with original (?) silver wallpaper. All images courtesy Morrison Kleeman

 You could have knocked me over with a feather when the agent said she was expecting the price to be somewhere in the $800,000's! I guess that's about right for a small-ish original house in the suburbs but it sounds pretty darn good value to me!

Steel Yourself

On the market for just a brief period of time, this cracking house at 292 Lower heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe East recently sold (for over $1,000,000!!). The architecture is credited to John Timlock c.1961. Not familiar with his work and Google is not giving me any leads on him. Pretty conservative externally I guess - not exactly ground breaking for the 60's but it certainly has charm and mid-century character.

 Regrettably, I didn't get a chance to check it out while it was open for inspection. I would have loved to have seen the original 'American Steel' kitchen and that sleek brick fireplace.

Love a kitchen up on legs and a sink with an angled fascia. They don't make 'em like this anymore!

Paneling - You guys know how I'm a sucker for timber paneling!  All images courtesy Barry Plant Ivanhoe