Watch Love It or List It Australia now to see what Kieran and Riley did with this home.
Matt fell for the house the minute he clapped eyes on it and his love has only grown stronger for it as the years have gone by.
“I fell in love with it straight away,” Matt says. “I felt at home here.”
He likes the property’s homely, lived-in feel and is very happy living in Melbourne.
Natalie is sick of the dated ‘50s kitchen, drawers that always jam and not having enough storage space – which with a family of five is hardly surprising.
“Everywhere I look there’s things to fix, I like character but not falling to bits!” she says.
“The girls are getting bigger, too, so we’re starting to need more space.”
Natalie is also feeling a strong pull to Brisbane where a lot of her family and friends live.
Andrew Winter and Neale Whitaker hosts of Love It Or List It Australia take a look at the property and offer their advice.
List it: Why now is a great time to sell
The three-bedroom house is located in Coburg North, a popular suburb in Melbourne’s north and is currently valued at $850,000.
Revamping an older home can be costly and time-consuming, especially if you’re not a dab hand at DIY.
This kitchen is dated. Picture: Love It Or List It Australia.
The median price for a three-bedroom home like this one is currently $786,900.
A decent renovation and boosting the number of bedrooms from three to five could push the value of the house up to $1 million.
Matt and Natalie have enjoyed many happy years raising their three young daughters in the house – but the question is, can it continue to grow with them or have the family simply outgrown it?
“People have to move on,” says Winter, who feels the family are better off selling rather than trying to transform this home.
“To me this house, other than the living room, doesn’t have a single redeeming feature,” he says.
Love it: This could be their forever home
But Whitaker says the house could still become a forever home, with the right kind of renovation.
“There’s a lot of clutter and the current layout is like a maze,” says Whitaker.
But ever the optimist, he adds: “It could be a five-bedroom house.”
Not a jamming drawer or loose cupboard hinge in sight. Picture: Love It Or List It Australia.
The home has some great existing period features and isn’t short on character or natural light, so there is potential for a dazzling makeover.
Natalie and Matt have a budget of $120,000.
Top of the list is a new kitchen, another bathroom, sensible storage, a more practical layout and a bedroom for each of the girls, plus a guest room.
“I can envisage a beautiful, modern and functional home,” says Whitaker.
“But it’s going to be tough,” he admits.
Adding more bedrooms would add value over time. Picture: Love It Or List It Australia.
Reworking a clumsy floor plan and opening up the existing space would completely transform the home, adding flow, space and light – not to mention much-needed extra bedrooms and bathrooms.
“I’m going to try and give them a little bit of Queensland in Coburg,” says Whitaker, who believes the whole family could be as head over heels for this home as Matt is.
