In a quiet corner of Brunswick, Steph Hughes and Mia Mala McDonald are creating their first family home. When Steph moved in seven years ago, it was a share house for four. “I was in my mid-20s, looking for a place to live, and it was the cheapest, cheeriest house I could find,” she says. “We were all old, old friends and there was a lot of revelry.”
Over the years, friends of friends have moved in and out of the sprawling house, leaving behind typical share-house debris: miscellaneous tents, flotsam bits of mail, and the occasional mysterious wall stain. One by one, flatmates moved on and, a couple of years ago, Steph’s partner, Mia, moved in. “At that point there was hardly
