Until Christmas 2022, Corrina, Dan, their son Koen (13) and Corrina’s daughter Miah (21) had lived in the same old homestead Corrina’s mother had grown up in. Built in 1910, it was (and still is) a classic four-room cottage with a hallway running down the middle set among the vineyards. A small lean-to kitchen and bathroom were added sometime in the 1940s or 50s, built into the wraparound verandah.
The undeniable charm of older houses is found in the flourishes that belie what we often think of as a simpler, more utilitarian approach to homebuilding. Aesthetic features like sky-high ceilings, ornate mouldings and cornices, and rich, jarrah floorboards were once de rigeur.
