Turning Point

Taking a detour to see a home in a previously unexplored area worked out just fine for this forward-thinking Sydney family.

- Deborah Grant

Julia and Sean Laaman were living on Sydney’s north shore but had their eye on the beach suburbs when they found their home in 2008. “We were passively looking in Manly for the right thing to come along and saw this house in the local paper. The area wasn’t really on our radar, but as we were driving along, I said, ‘Let’s take a left here – there’s a cute place we should look at.’”

The home was a Federation cottage with the high ceilings and period features they were after and plenty of room for their two children: daughter Chynna, now 15, and son Jovi, 13. What it lacked was a family-friendly layout and all the modcons they were hoping for. Not to be deterred, the Laamans planned the property’s transformation over an extended period before completing it two years ago. Their patience was rewarded with a tailor-made home.

That’s not to say the build process wasn’t tricky at times. Years of deterioration meant that builder James Mangleson of JSM Construction had to strip everything back to the timber framework in almost every room. “Nearly every wall, ceiling rosette and floorboard has been replaced,” says Julia. “We just used the bones and tried to stay sympathetic to the heritage of the home.”