THE PERSONAL
touch
To say this new home build is a labour of love is an understatement. The owners have done most of the work themselves, right down to the furniture. STORY & PHOTOGRAPHY: NICOLE THOMSON Family home: Gavin Law, Kate Hartley and their dog Billie at the front of their new house.
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“Whenever we had the money and the time we did it bit by bit.
Two years later, the final touches are being put on the build.
At the time of writing, the house was about three to four weeks from being completely finished — a long way from where the project began.
avin Law and Kate Hartley purchased their 0.8 ha Echuca Village property in November 2019 with the intention to build a traditional, country-style, Queenslander home.
Gavin, owner-operator of Gavin Law Carpentry, and Kate have been working on their house when they are able to — as is often the case when working on your own home, their project gets put behind their customers’ projects. “It’s been sort of a ‘when we can’ situation because it’s our own house,” Gavin said. 4 // OUR HOME // AUTUMN 2022
“Now we’re near the finish line, we’re just smashing it out.”
“We bought the land early 2019, and we drew the plans up ourselves, with a couple of alterations along the way,” Gavin said. One of the alterations has been to an entire side of the house, rearranged to better suit their needs. “You look at the plans, and then what it looks like internally now, it’s very different,” Kate said.
