SEA CHANGE

WHEN A FAMILY MOVED TO SYDNEY THEY CREATED THEIR DREAM COASTAL HOME

- JANE PARBURY

Serendipity struck just as Annabel and Thomas’ building plans were going through council’s approval process. Right next door, a wonderful property was being built by Alex Stritt of Stritt Design & Construction. “The house is amazing, and we really loved the builder, so we asked him if he would build ours,” says Annabel. “When they finished, they just moved the fence and all their building stuff next door and pretty well started on our house straightaway!”

It was a dream start to the knock down and rebuild project that the couple, originally from Melbourne, were about to undertake after living in their single-storey 1950s weatherboard cottage with what Annabel describes as “higgledy-piggledy little rooms”, for more than four years.

Annabel was pregnant with the couple’s elder son Tristan when she and Thomas first moved to Avalon, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, back in 2011. The cottage they found then was a far cry from the graceful, family home that now stands in its place, but the pair could see the potential of the block. “It was flat, with a north-facing backyard that backed onto a reserve, and you could walk to the village,” says Annabel. “It had palm trees lining the side which I really loved, having lived in a little terrace house in Melbourne, and I thought ‘Wow, this is just amazing!’. The location really sold it to me.”

After the birth of their younger son, Ciaran, the pair engaged architect Andrew Barnyak to plan their new home. With council approval granted for the two-storey Hamptons-style property, and with the build well underway, Annabel could turn her attention to the fun stuff, with help from interior designer Janette Stritt.