SUMMER HOUSE

THE CHANCE TO CREATE A TRANQUIL HOLIDAY HOME FOR THEIR GROWING FAMILY WAS A DREAM COME TRUE FOR LAUREN AND MICHAEL CHARGE

The chance to create a tranquil holiday home in Shoal Bay was a dream come true for this family

I was an opportunity too good to pass up. Almost three years ago Lauren and Michael Charge were visiting Shoal Bay in Port Stephens, NSW, for Michael’s Nanna’s 93rd birthday. At the end of the street they spotted a ‘For Sale’ sign posted outside a rundown 1970s-style two-storey house that faced across the bay. “So often we’ll pass properties, sometimes ones that aren’t even for sale and are full of hypothetical ‘What if we did…’ or ‘Imagine, we could do this or that’,” Lauren says. “But this one was different. It’s strange how you can walk through a place and have such a strong feeling of attachment to it.”

The couple had been looking for an investment for some time that they could also use as a holiday home for their family. They were after a place that would also provide rental income when they weren’t using it, so that eventually it could create enough residual funds to allow them to travel overseas with the kids and worry less about work. The beloved location was a logical place to start, as Lauren and Michael both had family in the area and many fond childhood memories.

“We grew up riding our bikes along the pathways, fishing off the jetty and swimming at the beaches,” Lauren says. They wanted to re-create some of those happy memories with their young daughters. To make it happen they had to embrace family ties even more. Lauren’s parents became silent partners in the project and her brother, Kain Bliss, built it for them through his business, Greenbuild Constructions.

As it turned out, the project became much more drawn out than anticipated. About a month after work began in late 2016 daughter Evelyn, now five, experienced a series of paralysing seizures and was diagnosed and treated for a rare autoimmune disease that attacks the brain and central nervous system causing inflammation. She was given the all-clear in February 2017 and by this stage Lauren was now pregnant with their third child. “Claudie was born that November in the middle of all the pre-Christmas chaos,” she says. “I went into labour at 3.30am and we called the electrician at 5am to say we wouldn’t be able to meet him onsite that day and could we postpone. I had Claudia at 7.30am and we were home and back on the phone and emails by 11:30am. It was madness!”

The delays meant that the couple weren’t able to launch before Christmas and missed the peak period of holiday lettings. “It was a big blow to take,” Lauren says. “It hurt us financially to have to go back to the bank and extend our loan. I remember even just a week out from Christmas being delusional with two kids and a newborn in tow, thinking we could push hard and get it done. We were all mentally and physically exhausted. We were

doing crazy long days and leant heavily on both our families, but even with huge amounts of family support it was unrealistic. In the end we just collapsed into a big heap. We shifted our focus back to spending quality time with the kids over Christmas and came back to it all a little slower in the new year.”

However, when the home was finished in March it became something of a sensation. On the weekends the family weren’t visiting, the property, named Salt, was quickly booked out throughout winter. “We were blown away and so humbled by how quickly it all took off,” she says. “We didn’t expect it to have so many winter bookings and that was our saving grace.”

A big part of the appeal is what they were initially drawn to: the panoramic views across Shoal Bay. “I remember the first time we walked up the stairs, it took my breath away,” Lauren says.

What’s been created with the interiors is just as captivating. “I’m from a graphic design background and have always been detail-orientated, so I can be a bit pedantic about things,” Lauren says. “I’m drawn to things that are older or have a natural patina, a story of a life before. But I found it difficult to balance fresh and natural with functional and durable. I loved the organic faults of the handmade glazed terracotta tiles. Everyone thought I was mad using them for a kitchen splashback. I went as far as to take a sample tile home and leave passata sauce on it for three days before wiping it clean to ensure it would hold up under the high traffic of holiday letting, because who wants to clean while you’re on holidays!”

And, of course, Lauren didn’t want to create anything that was going to detract from the view. “We wanted to keep our interior palette neutral and let the view be the feature,” she says. For more information about Salt, visit saltatshoalbay.com.au. For more on Greenbuild Constructions, see greenbuildconstructions.com.au.

THE BAY Lauren and Michael’s recently renovated holiday house, Salt at Shoal Bay, has panoramic views across to Yacaaba and Tomaree headlands, pictured left and right, respectively. BOARDWALK (opposite) Evelyn, in a Daughter dress, carries an Olli Ella ‘ See-Ya’ suitcase along the boardwalk built from spotted gum. The front nature strip is planted with a mix of succulents and coastal natives, including Dichondra ‘ Silver Falls’ ( Dichondra argentea), coastal rosemary ( Westringia fruticosa) and Crassula ‘Blue Birds’ from Sustainable Surrounds.

KITCHEN (opposite) The kitchen is the first space you see as you enter, so the couple wanted a striking feature that wouldn’t detract from the views. The limited edition terracotta tile splashback in Blanco from Earp Bros complements the Quantum Quartz waterfall benchtop in Alpine White from Euroform. LIVING AREA (above and right) “An open shelf was a nice way to create division between the [kitchen and living] spaces,” Lauren says. An artwork by Lily Nicholson and vases from Tigmi Trading and Keiko Matsui sit above the Rinnai fireplace. Lauren relaxes on a ‘Zephyr’ sofa from Sarah Ellison with Claudia, while Evelyn plays on the ‘Khofri’ rug from Freedom.