Prize home restoration

Mark Gregory took some convincing to take on the restoration of this former prize home but he and wife Vicki have turned it into a winner.

MARK Gregory refused to get out of the car when he and wife Vicki first inspected 5 Julatten Drive, Robina.

“The agent came around to the car window and made him get out,” Ms Gregory said.

“He said, ‘You’ve got to be nuts, we can’t take on a project like this’.”

The BoysTown prize home had been vacant for more than 20 years when Ms Gregory set her mind to saving the property from its “rack and ruin” state. “It was terrible,” she said. “We had to cut down 60 trees because the house was surrounded by trees and we couldn’t see the water.

“The house sits really high and we still couldn’t see the lake, that’s how tall the trees had grown. “We couldn’t live in it when we bought it.” Around two years on and the double-storey Hamptons-style home is unrecognisable.

“Originally this was the best house in the best street, then it was the worst house in the best street and now it’s the best house in the best street again,” Ms Gregory said. “They don’t make houses like this anymore. “Structurally there were no issues because it’s concrete so there were no cracks and we brought a builder on board who said, ‘If you don’t buy this, I’m buying it’.”

Ms Gregory has a soft spot for the huge kitchen.

“Everyone walks in and just goes, ‘Wow’,” she said. “It’s so nice I don’t want to get it dirty.” The couple added a 135sq m deck to the rear of the house, overlooking the lake.

“There is so much birdlife on the water with ducks, swans and pelicans,” Ms Gregory said. “It’s a little oasis in the middle of Robina.” The Gregorys are reluctantly selling their property as family health issues have prompted a move to Canberra.

Ms Gregory said the cherished restoration project would suit any type of buyer, even a couple like themselves.