Surfers Parade, Freshwater

A newly renovated house, with a front yard that still belonged to the old one.

At Surfers Parade in Freshwater, a picket fence, an uneven brick driveway and tired Viburnum hedges stood between the street and a home that had just been brought up to date. The clients, with young kids, wanted the front to feel finished, safe to play in, and set up for the beach just down the road.

We started at the boundary. The picket fence came down and a rendered masonry wall went up in its place, topped with a 1.2-metre vertical hardwood batten fence and a sliding gate finished in the same battens. The gate closes the yard off so the kids can play out front, and slides out of sight when it’s open. An L-shaped batten bin bay sits just inside it.

The old brick driveway was replaced with a concrete base and tumbled Belgian bluestone cobbles.. The pattern carries through to the Brussels Blue limestone path along the side of the house. A Spotted Gum deck now extends the front porch, stepping down onto the cobbles in two wide platforms.

With the hedges gone and the lawn raised, the yard became a place to be. A hardwood screen runs along the boundary, and beneath it sits a hardwood-clad bench and an outdoor shower built from hardwood, recycled railway sleepers and copper, standing on its own limestone pad. It’s the first stop after the beach. Cor-ten steel edges the beds, a raised bed of recycled sleepers sits beneath the front window, and subtropical planting softens all of it.

The clients wanted the front of the house to finally match the inside. That’s what we built.