PLOTTING THEIR ESCAPE

Separated by distance and a pandemic, a woman’s dream of relocating a historic home to the countryside of her youth was a passion project

- ARE MEDIA SYNDICATION

ISLAND TIME Laird and Tilly in the kitchen, which was a dated mess when they bought the building.

Julie and Sean Granger’s home, which was divided into two pieces for the move, at its new site. Julie and Sean wanted the house to look like it had always been there.

Standing on a narrow, dusty road in a picturesque hinterland, Julie Granger’s heart was in her throat. Half her dream home, a 1900s historic house, was on the back of a truck, precariously crossing a creek over a single lane bridge. “We were watching to make sure it wouldn’t fall off,” the barrister explains.

Timber homes, such as this classic example, are common in the subtropical region of her childhood. “I love old houses, their history, and the architecture,” says Julie.

For years, Julie had been searching the websites of companies specialising in relocating and repiling this type of house “in the hope one day the dream might become a reality,” she says. Then, in 2019, Julie and husband Sean found a home in the holding yard of a removals firm. “They buy houses and put them up for sale on their website,” Julie explains. “Then they move them.”