Although she was initially reluctant to retire, Jenny Paul found her sea change, and a quaint cottage filled with history, in the NSW coastal town of Milton.
AN OLD SCHOOLMASTER’S HOUSE AND ORCHARD IN NEED OF REPAIR WAS AN IDEAL PROJECT FOR A HESITANT RETIREE.
SITTING AT HOME recovering from surgery on her hand, landscape designer and horticulturalist Jenny Paul had an epiphany. The 62-year-old had begun envisaging her retirement and quickly realised that pottering around her small cottage and garden in the beachside Sydney suburb of Avalon just wouldn’t cut it. “I’m a worker,” she explains. “I thought, ‘I’m absolutely going to be bored’.” That light-bulb moment set Jenny and Allan, 71, her partner of 10 years, off on a search for the perfect country retreat. It needed to be rural enough to satisfy Jenny’s yearning for wide-open spaces, close enough to Sydney to entice friends and family to visit them, and near enough to a beach to ensure the couple could continue their daily swimming ritual. In 2014, they found the ideal scenario in the charming town of Milton on NSW’S South Coast, where lush dairy pasture rolls into white sand beaches. However, finding the right property took a little longer. After negotiations on their first choice of home fell through, Jenny decided to rent a cottage in Milton (Allan heads up a technology company and travels extensively, so they also have a base in Sydney), which allowed her to scour the area for a gem. It took six months, but she finally struck gold. “I would walk past this one property and say, ‘Why can’t I find a place like that’,” Jenny recalls. “And lo and behold, it went on the market!” The property was located where the local Croobyar district school once stood — the school was demolished in the 1940s, but the site retained the 1880s schoolmaster’s house, a small building updated in the ’70s with an attached garage and loft apartment, along with another tiny cottage that was originally the Milton Hospital laundry. The historic homestead set on a hectare drew a crowd of Sydney sea changers to the auction, but not a lot of bids. “A vendor bid and then we put a bid in and that was it,” says Jenny. “I didn’t know if I was happy — I was actually terrified to be honest, because I was thinking, ‘What have we done?’ But there’s just something about this property,” she muses. “It’s got a soul, and it’s breathtakingly beautiful looking out across the fields.” Jenny’s trepidation was valid — all the buildings needed a major overhaul, thanks to wear and tear, and several unsympathetic renovations in the ’70s and ’90s. Add an “incredible” but neglected orchard to the list, and Jenny had all the work she had hoped for, and then some. Luckily, her experience working on construction sites meant she was well equipped for the job, and she enlisted friends and colleagues Christina Prescott, an interior designer, and architect Jim O’brien to oversee the renovations. They started with the loft and the small cottage, now dubbed The Stables, to give friends a home away from home >
and allowing Jenny time to plan the perfect makeover for the schoolmaster’s house. “I’m really pleased I didn’t rush to do the house because having two years to discover the impact of summer heat and winter winds, and how we interacted with the whole property helped us to get the best result,” she says. Previously dark and dreary with just two small bedrooms, the schoolmaster’s cottage was transformed into a light and comfortable home in 2017. A generous two-storey extension has tripled its size, with an open-plan kitchen and living room at ground level and a large master suite above. The extension involved an enormous upheaval — the entire home’s floor was jackhammered to remove two layers of tiles and a top-up slab was poured to ensure a seamless connection between old and new — but Jenny was determined not to lose the building’s character, including elements such as V-board panelling and dormer windows. Restoring the original brick fireplace’s facade was also high on the list. “We really wanted to keep that country charm, but with some modernity,” she explains. Her brief to interior designer Christina was to keep it simple. “I wanted it to be comfortable enough that people feel that they can come in and put their feet on the couch, but gee, I hope they don’t put their feet on the couch!” It’s mission accomplished with the bright, revamped house decorated in a peaceful palette of natural tones and textures. A built-in daybed below a picture window framing the countryside is Allan’s favourite nook — and even Jenny’s “menagerie” of 20 chickens feel at home. “It’s not unusual if someone leaves the door open here they’ll come in and lay an egg on my bed!” she says with a laugh. A keen cook, Jenny revels in her kitchen and vegetable garden, but maintains she’s too busy to spend much time relaxing, as she’s now opened up the loft and The Stables to guests looking for a self-contained holiday. “I decided it was silly having all this accommodation and leaving it empty,” she explains. “I set it up and it took off like wildfire.” Just like their steady stream of visitors, Jenny and Allan are fully embracing the coastal country lifestyle. The day begins with a swim at the beach seven minutes down the road with their border collies Molly and Tui in tow, before Jenny heads into the orchard to harvest whatever’s abundant — figs, apples, nuts, berries — then to the kitchen to whip up a batch of jam for guests. “It’s a really busy life, I never stop,” she says. “But there’s nothing nicer than sitting down under the fig trees, or on the front verandah with a glass of wine at the end of the day. It’s absolute bliss.” For more information about The Old Schoolhouse, visit oldschoolhousemilton.com.au. To read more about Jenny and Allan’s kitchen renovation, turn to page 80.
“There’s just something about this property. It’s got a soul, and it’s breathtakingly beautiful looking out across the fields.”
Jenny was determined not to lose the building’s character, including elements such as V-board panelling and dormer windows.