MILKBAR HOUSE BY KENNEDY NOLAN

Sometimes the construction work of a previous owner offers “gifts” to a house’s next occupants, despite having been undertaken for a different time, in different conditions and with an entirely different agenda. The previous owners of this house on a large block in Melbourne’s North Fitzroy ran a milk bar from the side street and lived in the weatherboard cottage that faces the main street corner. They maintained a large vegetable garden and, over the years, added an assortment of lean-tos and utilitarian service sheds around the perimeter of the site. However, by the time the new owners bought the property, the milk bar had