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By Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] I [/dropcap]t was a project of Grand Designs proportions – without the cheerful reality checks of host Kevin McLeod – but Luke and Nat Taylor have finished their transformation of a derelict Warrnambool property with stunning results.

Bluestone has followed the Taylor’s progress since they first bought the property at 220-222 Timor St in 2012 and it has been with more than a detached interest.

[box]Bluestone subscribers: click here for full set of photos.[/box]

The 1850s building (the earliest surviving commercial building in the CBD) was once owned by Bill and Mildred Goodall, my grandparents, and sold to the Taylors on behalf of my mother, Jean.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] F [/dropcap]or reasons that are too complex and probably too personal to explain here, the two-storey, heritage-listed building was in extremely poor condition and had been that way for many years.

Yet while the interior was a calamity, the sandstone structure was solid and the 165-year-old building opposite Swinton’s supermarket had what is often described as “good bones”.

The richness of its history was also not in dispute and very little of the original structure had changed, it just needed the right people to give it a new life.

Enter the Taylors.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] L [/dropcap]uke and Nat set about restoring the front of the building first, to engage a tenant (now Biba hairdressing), generate some income, and revive the shabby shopfront to its former and original glory, right down to what Heritage Victoria identified as its original paint scheme. (You can read about the first part of the restoration here.)

The second chapter involved demolishing all of the non-heritage listed outbuildings (although salvaging and reusing a lot of the materials) and extending the main building to accommodate side-by-side apartments designed by local architect Mathew Morse: one for the Taylors, and one as short-term accommodation.

But those two paragraphs I have just written don’t go even close to capturing the sheer enormity and physicality of achieving this dream.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] I [/dropcap]t took a full three years and Luke, a lawyer by profession but I suspect a tradie at heart, spent countless hours working alongside the dozen or so professional tradies and multiple friends and family members who came and went as the project slowly progressed.

“I must admit, there were times that I cried from sheer exhaustion,” Luke says.

“I pushed myself to the limit both physically and personally and I found out the limits of my capacity,” he adds, and this is from a guy who competes in triathlons and Sufferfest.

There were barrow loads of debris to remove, barrow loads of cement to pour, hundreds of nails to be pulled, huge sandstone blocks to be dismantled and stacked, floorboards to be removed, stacked and sanded …. and on, and on and on it went – and that was before the internal fit out began.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] T [/dropcap]he end result, however, is breathtaking and surely worthy of an architectural award in the future.

What was once a dark and damp space has been opened up to the light, with an open-plan interior and huge windows overlooking the back yard.

Massive sandstone blocks have been recycled and repointed into sturdy fences (bricklayer Barry Knowles, take a bow), floorboards have been refurbished, bits of tin and old paintwork left exposed, and even scraps of newspaper stuck to the original walls.

“We really love that it is a combination of the old and the new, that was very important to us,” Nat says.

The couple and their children finally moved into their new home in the week before Christmas.

When the project began, Nat and Luke had a two-year-old son, Lewis, and a baby on the way: Lewis is now 4 and Penny is two.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] E [/dropcap]ach of them, in their own way, has been involved in the restoration and renovation, although Lewis, for one, is glad the project is over.

“When we asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he said ‘for us all to be together’, because I had spent so, so many weekends and late nights down here,” Luke says.

There were more tears – this time of joy – when the family spent their first night in their new home, knowing the job was done.

It is a redundant question, but I still ask it: “knowing what you know now, would you have still taken it on?”

“Yes” they both nod.

“But I couldn’t do another one,” Luke adds with his crooked smile, and Nat, I have to say, looks relieved.

[box]In case you missed it, catch up on our story about the little shoe found under the floorboards during the renovation and how it led to a Warrnambool war hero.[/box]

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[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] L [/dropcap]ate last year, Bluestone Magazine captured the transformation of 222 Timor St, Warrnambool, from a derelict heritage-listed building to a wonderful, character-filled space that was ripe for a new tenant.

And while the building is still not completely finished – owners Luke and Nat Taylor have plans for an apartment and residence on the top floor – it has started a new chapter in its 164-year history with the arrival of the upmarket hairdressing salon, Biba.

It is the first Biba to be opened outside of metropolitan Melbourne and marks a return to Warrnambool for owner, Mia Nicolson, who had previously worked at Paris Hair and Beauty in East Warrnambool.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] M [/dropcap]ia has made a conscious effort to capture the character of the old building, while adding some very modern and funky touches.

There is a vintage barber’s chair (picked up from the Mailors Flat secondhand store), a heavy work bench from Melbourne, and old wooden boxes from Ponting Bros that Mia found in her grandmother’s stables, but also an eye-catching, off-beat mural by local artist Felix Pilling that dominates one wall of the colour bar. Recycled leadlight glass enhances an antique window in the same room.

“Biba salons have an industrial look, so I have added some of those industrial features while also linking in to the heritage aspects of the building,” Mia explains.

The series of photos below capture the full transformation. The Biba images were taken by talented graphic designer and photographer Sinead Murphy who has kindly given us permission to reproduce them here. (You can find Sinead’s website here.)

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Secrets of an old shoe 

[box] Bluestone Magazine recently brought you the story of the rejuvenation of 222 Timor St, Warrnambool. This week, we tell the story of one fascinating find during its restoration.[/box]

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A99E90;”] O [/dropcap]ld shoes, perhaps more than any other item of clothing, have the power to tell stories.

What is the story behind a single shoe discarded by the roadside? Did it land there by accident, through misfortune, or part of prank?

We throw old shoes over powerlines and tie them to wedding cars, and we refer to shoes in our folklore and our fairytales: “if the shoe fits, wear it”; Cinderella and the famous glass slipper.

Old shoes are personal. They hold an imprint – a literal footprint – of their owner that cannot be replicated and makes them so hard to throw away, especially when they were once worn by a loved one who has also gone.

Some shoes can outlive us, surviving for centuries beneath the dirt and rubble of demolished homes and ruined cities until they are at last unearthed by new activity.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A99E90;”] A [/dropcap] shoe that had been hidden for possibly more than 70 years was recently found at my grandmother’s former property at 222 Timor St, Warrnambool, opposite Swinton’s supermarket. It was the house in which my mother spent a large part of her childhood.

It is also one of the oldest commercial buildings in Warrnambool and is believed to have been built around 1850.

As we wrote about earlier this month, the building recently passed into new hands and its long-hidden secrets are being slowly uncovered: a hidden doorway down to the cellar, shoebox-size windows that had been boarded up and wallpapered over, and a child’s single leather boot that had been placed under the floorboards.

The boot is about 18cm long, with tacks around its sole and seven pairs of metal eyelets securing a cloth shoelace.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A99E90;”] I [/dropcap] thought it might have belonged to my now 89-year-old mother, but when I showed her the boot, she suggested it had most likely been hidden under the floorboards by a boot repairer – a Mr Long – who had rented part of the property from her father in the 1930s.

My mother told me she had read an article in the Reader’s Digest about shoe superstitions, including the placing of a shoe under floorboards for good luck. I couldn’t trace the Reader’s Digest article, but an online article by British shoe historian June Swann confirmed that in Britain, in particular, it was not uncommon for a shoe to be hidden somewhere in a house to bring stability and good luck to the household.

Hiding a child’s shoe – in either a wall, chimney or under the floorboards – was also believed to increase fertility.

Perhaps Mr Long, if he did hide the boot, hoped it would bring prosperity to his business. Or perhaps it wasn’t Mr Long at all, but a previous owner of 222 Timor St who stowed the boot away for good luck.

The full story is yet to be revealed and the boot, of course, is holding its tongue.

[box] A version of this story first appeared in the Warrnambool & District Historical Society newsletter, Warnimble, April 2013. The new owners of 222 Timor St, Luke and Nat Taylor, plan to hide one of their children’s shoes in the restored building…for good luck. [/box]

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] A [/dropcap]fter years of decay, the old piano shop opposite Swintons, in Warrnambool, is being brought back to life by a young lawyer who has taken on a restoration project of monumental proportions.

Luke Taylor, and his wife Nat, bought the double-storey, derelict building at 222 Timor St more than 12 months ago with the intention of turning it into an investment, but what they didn’t count on was just how much hard work would be involved, or how much they would come to love the old place.

“At first it was very much about building an investment for the future, rather than being passionate about restoring an old building, but that has completely changed,” Luke said.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] A [/dropcap] turning point was when architect Peter Brooks, from Heritage Victoria, visited for an on-site assessment of the property, which is listed with the National Trust and Heritage Victoria as a significant building. Where most saw a decaying hulk that had to be restored from the ground-up, Peter saw an historic and precious gem.

“He was blown away by it,” Luke explained. “There are basically so few properties like this that are still in their original condition and have not been modified or altered in any significant way. Peter’s enthusiasm and excitement about that was infectious.”

The sandstone building is the oldest, intact commercial building in Warrnambool and dates back to around 1850. It has had many lives since then, including as a piano repair shop owned by my grandfather, Bill Goodall, who bought it in 1932. It was largely because Bill never had an spare money for renovations that the building has remained unchanged, perhaps apart from the wallpaper: Luke removed nine layers from each of the rooms.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] L[/dropcap]uke and a group of skilled, local tradesmen have spent countless hours since February slowly bringing the place back to life, and it has been backbreaking work. Floorboards have been lifted, replaced and then the old ones recycled. Barrow loads of dirt and dust and debri have been removed. Leaks have been plugged, walls re-plastered, windows replaced…and on it goes. And then some.

“The tradesmen have been amazing, because everything was crooked and had to be made square again,” Luke said.

Luke has taken only two weekends off since taking on the project, including one weekend when his second child, Penny, was born.

“I have spent so many hours in the building, and because I have spent so much time there, on my own, I have really come to appreciate it and feel the emotion of it,” he said.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] I [/dropcap]t is this emotional connection that has pushed Luke through what he calls the “dark times,” when the job ahead seemed overwhelming. He has also applied the same disciplined approach that he uses for his triathlons – one step at a time.

“It has been a huge challenge, a huge amount of work, but we are breathing new life into the building. It may look plain, but it represents an era and reflects that time,” Luke said.

The bottom storey of the building will have a tenant by the end of this month, but it will be another year before a residence and a serviced apartment upstairs are complete. Luke is determined to see it through.

“The way I see it is that if Nat and I can do this, what can’t we do?”

[box] 222 Timor St, Warrnambool had been painted cream for many years, but this was not its original colour. The new salmon-pink and burgundy facade reflects the original colour scheme that was uncovered by peeling back layers of paint. Pig’s blood was often used to tint paint in the 1800s, reflecting a step-up from the whitewash used on working class cottages.[/box]

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