Attention to detail key to renovation triumph in Malvern

Author:ahsan

117 Cambridge Terrace, Malvern. Supplied by Williams Real Estate.

It’s been a much loved family home for three decades, and now it’s time for another family to move in and enjoy the grand entertainer Ric Anderson and Rebecca Giles have created for themselves in a stunningly restored Malvern villa.

“It’ll be 30 years ago in January that we bought it and we were married about three or four months after purchasing it, so it was a bit of a wedding present for each other – we fell in love with the place instantly,” Mr Anderson says. “Our kids have been born and raised here, and the only reason we’re leaving is because we’ve got the harebrained scheme to do a total seachange and are now heading down south because I love to surf and that will allow us to enjoy that lifestyle in retirement.

117 Cambridge Terrace, Malvern. Supplied by Williams Real Estate.

“About 14 years ago we decided we wanted to improve the back of the house and increase the amount of accommodation upstairs for our two daughters, and the intention of the renovation and extension was to maintain the integrity of the existing home right around the entire house. So we engaged Pauline Hurren, who is very known for her heritage work, and asked her to make it a seamless transition from old to new, and she did, all the way down to her hand-picking the stone from a quarry at Basket Range.

117 Cambridge Terrace, Malvern. Supplied by Williams Real Estate.

“While she did it at a ground level, we also went up into the ceiling space and, with the use of taller windows, she created a really spacious living area, two double bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. It’s been pretty cool in the past few years, with our daughters getting older they’ve been able to have friends over and enjoy their time upstairs and we can get on with our lives downstairs.

117 Cambridge Terrace, Malvern. Supplied by Williams Real Estate.

“The guy who worked out all those angles on the upper level was here for about six months – it was a long-winded process but worth doing because we wanted to get it right and were planning on being here for 20 or 30 years.”

The home has up to four bedrooms – the master suite on the ground floor and complete with a built-in robe and access to an award-winning luxurious family bathroom with a feature bath and a fireplace. Formal dining and living rooms sit at the front of the home, while an open-plan kitchen, dining and living area sits at the rear, opening to a covered terrace. A spacious living area is set on the upper level, and the home also has a cellar and a double carport.

117 Cambridge Terrace, Malvern. Supplied by Williams Real Estate.

“I’ve been in the wine industry all my life and we’ve had plenty of dinner parties here,” Mr Anderson says. “This house is great for entertaining because that formal dining room is amazing, and we can have brunches and lunches in the back living area, and in summer we spend a lot of time on the back porch enjoying the ambience out there. We’ve spent a lot of time getting the garden up to scratch and have done that all ourselves – we’ve done this from a very personal point of view and hopefully that reflects quality from the front gardens right through the whole house.”

117 Cambridge Terrace, Malvern. Supplied by Williams Real Estate.

Mr Anderson says the home’s layout and location has been perfect for his family and he hopes it will be enjoyed by another.

“We picture the sort of people who might fall in love with this place as we did might be newly married or have a young family and want to take advantage of having a beautiful home in a great location which is so convenient to everything,” he says. “We’ll take our memories with us – and if we had our time again – all those 30 years ago when we poked our head through the fence and fell in love with the place – we’d do exactly the same thing all over again.”