The kitchen is all mine!

An unrenovated house in Georgetown becomes the perfect home for one Sydneysider who wanted to design the green kitchen of her dreams.

When homeowner Cathy retired, she wanted to find a house she could renovate and turn into a dream home for herself and beloved Scottish terrier Jed.

“When I decided to move to Newcastle I discovered Georgetown, with its friendly vibe and welcoming local community,” she says.

“This will probably be my forever home and while I’ve done smaller renos before, this was my first chance to renovate an entire house from the ground up, without having to make compromises.

“I didn’t want to pay for someone else’s renovation and then still have to make changes.”
Her wish list called for a home that wasn’t too big, with a nice little garden, but it couldn’t have a Western orientation.

“I had light coming from the west in my last house, and I didn’t like it.
“What drew me to this house was the kitchen. It was ugly, but it was a nice big space and I’m a very passionate and enthusiastic amateur cook.”

Cathy had certainly found the ‘renovator’s delight’ she’d been looking for. Not surprisingly for a 1920s home, rising damp was a major issue and the internal walls were in bad condition. There was just one single power point for the entire home and a previous owner had removed all its original features during a 1970s renovation.

Room for improvement

“The ceilings were a mishmash of different things,” describes Cathy.
“There was a ghastly beam across the living area, and the bathroom had such a low ceiling, you had to bend down to get in. Around ten years ago they built an extension at the back, and they may have planned for a laundry as plumbing had been put in. But nothing was finished and there wasn’t even any cladding on the bare bricks of the kitchen walls.”

Builder John Kirton from Nexus Built guided Cathy through the technical side of the renovation while she focused on the interior design and on designing her dream kitchen.

She had initially envisioned a deco-style home. But that would have meant replacing all her furniture which she was reluctant to do.

“That’s when I decided I’ll have no style,” she laughs. “I was just going to make it up as I went along.”
With the kitchen intended to be the bustling, sizzling heart of her home, she turned to the experts from Warners Bay based Lathams Kitchens and Interiors to help with the design.