House For Sale

1950's Eco House For Sale - Reservoir

Please contact mararipani@optusnet.com.au or call 0425 749 300 (as there is no message bank, please follow up with a text with your full name and I will call you back).

Open for Inspection Times:

Tuesday 16th June, 6pm to 6:45pm.

Saturday 20th June 3:30 to 4:30pm.

Property Location Features:

The house is a ten minute walk to Reservoir train station, IGA , the Maternal and Child Health Centre, the newly built Library (on Edwards Street) and Oakhill Medical Clinic and a 15 -20 min walk to cafes such as Lady Bower Kitchen Cafe, Off the Boat Cafe and Edwards Lake.

A new children's adventure park is underway at Wright Reserve (between Henty and Wright Street), a five minute walk from this Reservoir home. Darebin City Councils Public Realm Unit is available for more information on 8470 8888. 

Reservoir is a suburb of Darebin Council which has fantastic cultural and sustainability programs such as the Darebin Homemade Food and Wine Festival, the Sustainable Communities Program and the True North Festival. Over the years we have opened our home to the public as part of the Sustainable Communities Program, the Darebin Backyard Harvest Festival and the Australian Open Garden Scheme (Now called Open Gardens Victoria).

Property Overview:

This home hosts 5 bedrooms. Three internal bedrooms (one is used as a study) and 2 bedrooms in a separate bungalow. One bathroom, 1 lounge, 1 open plan kitchen and dining, 1 north facing greenhouse, 1 bungalow, 1 bike room, 1 workshop/studio, 1 chook house and run, 1 garden cupboard, 11 raised garden "wicking" beds (water conservation beds), 1 X 9,000L rainwater tank with pump and irrigation system, one beautifully revegetated native nature strip, 1 productive fruit and vegetable garden, 1 native back garden with a well established acacia, 1 solar electricity system, 1 solar hot water system, 1 grey water diverter, 1 fold down attic ladder for large attic storage space, 1 cubby house, 1 monkey bar, various tree swings and grape vine swings.

The house has plenty of natural light. The bathroom is gloriously bright due to north facing clerestory windows and there is excellent cross ventilation throughout. The greenhouse buffers the home from winter cold and reduces electricity bills.

The house was re-stumped and re-wired by the previous owners in early 2000. All renovations carried out since 2003 by current owners have appropriate building permits and certificates. Planning permits were not required. The property has cable telecommunications and traditional phone connection. Off street parking is provided by a greened driveway. The front yard is fenced by a traditional woven wire fence.

Sustainability Features:

·        A north facing greenhouse: which doubles as either a plant propagation area or as a warm winter sun room and takes the chill out of the living room and north facing bedrooms.   Extensive roof insulation batts equivalent to R5 plus air cell under roof tiles. One, 1Kw Solar Electricity System on a "Premium Feed in Tariff"(PFIT). The PFIT is a minimum of 60 cents per kilowatt hour for excess electricity fed back into the grid, retailers then commonly add a further 8c to provide a net tariff of 68cents. Existing properties on a PFIT such as this Reservoir property, are eligible for the 60cent per Kw hour tariff rate until 2024 under Government legislation, regardless of which electricity retailer you connect with. The PFIT is linked to the property where the solar panels are installed, so when moving house the PFIT stays with the property assigned to it. Any house signed up to the PFIT scheme will remain eligible until 2024, even if the house is sold and new residents move in. 

·        We recommend POWERSHOP (you may need to press the Control button on your keyboard while hovering over the link to access the links).

Please see the following link on the Australian Government Energy and Resources Website for details. Energy & Resources.

With energy efficient behaviour change practises we have not paid an electricity bill for five years. See our top five energy efficiency tips at the end of this sale notice (after the photos).

·           -  1 x 300 lt gas boosted instantaneous solar hot water system.

·           -  1 X 9,000 lt water tank with pump connection to garden irrigation system and gravity feed in roof toilet system.

·           -  Double brick walls throughout the house (high thermal mass) and a great sound barrier.

·           -  High performance double glazed windows and French doors from Paarhammer which also provides a highly secure multi-point locking arrangement.

·           -  Grey water diverter to subsurface infiltration trenches in the backyard.

·            -  Ceiling fans in living area and main bedroom.

·           -  A highly productive west facing grape vine which apart from the delicious fruit it gives provides an almost complete block out from the hot setting summer sun.

·           -   An extensive garden which creates a cooler summer microclimate and provides shade in outdoor recreational areas.

Garden Features:

This home boasts a very productive fruit and vegetable garden: grapes, plums, apricots, boysenberries, raspberries, pepinos, quinces, persimmons, apples and almonds.

All of the raised garden beds are wicking beds. This simply means that they are all lined at the bottom, have drainage outlets and subsurface irrigation, to ensure minimum moisture loss. See Costas UTUBE film called Backyard Revolution - week 3 "The Garden Beds" for an excellent explanation of what we have done and or see our own documentation on our blog: villagedreaming.com.au

For those who prefer a more ornamental floral garden then the wicking beds will ensure that your flowers and shrubs are the healthiest and lushest flowers to be found.

Workshop and Bungalow:

The back garden hosts a large workshop which has been used for wood working projects. It could also easily be transformed into a wonderful art studio, a clay potters workshop or as an extensive sewing and felting studio.

The bungalow was originally built to accommodate a large guest bedroom. It was later converted into two smaller rooms which are rented to international guests via two Hosting Agencies: WISH and Discover English.

The original larger north facing bedroom could easily be reinstated, as no building nor planning permits are required for the process to take place.

Please see photos below (it is really hard to capture the front of the house due to all the trees, so I have not provided a front of house photo, but have provided a view of the west entrance to our house as it appears in the summer months when the leaves return).

 - Offers above $795, 000 will be considered. 

North facing double glazed French doors at front of house.

North facing living and dining room.

 Kitchen.

 

Lounge.

Looking into bedroom 1 (currently a study) from the garden. 

Bedroom 1 currently used as a study, looking out into the garden.

Bedroom 2 is south facing.

Bedroom 3 is north facing.

Bathroom with north facing clerestory windows (not visible in this picture) and south facing windows into the native back garden.

Bathroom outside entrance.

Chicken house and garden cupboard.

Chicken run and soil building area.

Workshop.

Raised garden beds (picture taken during previous summers).    

Internal detail of wicking beds.

 Flora detail showing Ficinia nodosa.

Native nature strip.

Flora detail showing Hardenbergia violacea in full bloom on our north facing fence. Flowers in mid winter.

Snapshot of back garden.

Children's play area detail.

Children's swings under grape vine.

West face detail.

West face showing bungalow.

Guest bedroom 1, after conversion.

Flora detail, the garden through the seasons.

Vegetable growing trellis.

Persimmon harvest.

Tomato and cucumber harvest.

Boysenberry harvest.

Grape harvest detail.

Apricot harvest.

Quince harvest.

Quince flowers.

Plum harvest.

Top Five Energy Saving Tips:

1.     Use the gas space heater combined with ceiling fan turned on its winter setting to push warm air from living room to bedrooms.

2.     Set washing machine to turn on automatically during OFF PEAK times and wash on a cold cycle when

ever possible.

3.     Install thick curtains on all windows and install pelmets.

4.     Do the obvious and encourage all members to dress appropriately in winter.

5.     Insulate the underside of the floor boards.

Garden Tip:

                  Water well late autumn early spring to ensure flower production on the fruit trees. Each flower will produce fruit. Net all fruit trees as soon as leaves return to protect them from possums, or they will eat the new buds and shoots.

                  Gardens need water to produce healthy crops. The water used in your garden will produce a cooler microclimate through transpiration and evaporation: let the garden be your 'air conditioning' system.