H O M E
Labour of love BY C L A I R E O ’ LO U G H L I N P H OTO G R A P H Y BY SA N N E VA N G I N K E L
I
n the kitchen of Kathryn Jackson and Tom McGrath’s restored 1920s Newtown home, a large cane elephant head hangs on the wall, the trunk pointing upwards. As they say in Tom’s favourite film, Aussie classic The Castle, in Thai culture this brings good luck. For a number of years as they renovated the house, Kathryn and Tom needed it. On their first visit to the house as prospective buyers in 2015, Tom gently pressed a finger against a wall, and it slid right through. ‘It was totally rotten,’ he tells me. ‘There were problems everywhere.’ The piles were also rotten, the roof was shot, the floor was on an angle, and the house seemed to be sinking. But Kathryn, a production manager at Weta, and Tom, a high school deputy principal, could also see the potential. For a young couple looking for a first home, it ticked all their boxes: central location, big garden, double garage, multiple bedrooms, plus some additional features, such as a pool and a conservatory. And the previous owners had lived there for almost 70 years. Kathryn and Tom decided to take it on. ‘Having a home was always really important to me,’ says Kathryn, who had saved towards owning one from the age of 19. The day I visit is still and sunny, with crickets trilling languidly and tui hopping heavily between trees. An almost otherworldly tranquillity hangs over the property, which is tucked away off a quiet Newtown Street – quiet until their two papillons Stanley and Ronda rush out yipping to greet me. Inside, the house is barely recognisable from the 2015 pictures Kathryn shows me – an entire wall is gone, as are floral wallpaper, patterned carpet, and lace curtains. It is light and airy now, not damp and cold. The newly-painted white walls are dry and solid, and the whitewashed floorboards no longer squelch. A new kitchen and fireplace have been put in and the space is minimally decorated with plants and beautiful, meaningful pieces – Tom’s family’s big wooden dining table, Kathryn’s grandfather’s toolbox as a coffee table, an ornate liquor cabinet built and carved by Tom’s great-grandmother, a framed colour-pencil drawing of their
80
