This Morningside home is going to auction on Saturday. See how far it’s come.
A HOUSE once considered Morningside‘s ugliest is now a standout in the neighbourhood, after taking style tips from the high streets of Brisbane’s inner city.
“It’s ugly but it’s honest’, was how 37 Windemere Ave, Morningside was described when it listed for sale in 2007.
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The home at 37 Windemere St, Morningside as it once looked.
Current owners Michael and Brooke Sholtz never saw it that way. By the time they found the four-bedroom house in 2018, the scruffy green roof and all that stood beneath it had been transformed.
37 Windemere Ave, Morningside as it looks today.
“When we bought it they had just completed the renovation, so that renovation is 80 per cent of what it is now and when we moved in we added carpets and shutter blinds, we changed some of the light fixtures, put things in there to match our style,” Mr Sholtz said.
The gourmet kitchen has waterfall Caesarstone benchtops, a dual farmhouse-style sink, and breakfast bar.
Then through Covid lockdowns, the couple decided the home could use a swimming pool and Brooke Sholtz put her design skills to work on a pool that feels like it belongs in a five-star hotel but is also perfect for a young family with a step along two sides of the pool for children to play.
The newly installed pool area with Scala Crazy Pave from Eco Outdoor.
“Brooke is a retail designer so she designed up a pool and had that installed. We didn’t want that glass fence close to the pool, and so it feels like you’re at the Calile Hotel and we even copied some of the crazy pavers that they used at the Calile to give it that Mediterranean feel.”
The Calile Hotel, Brisbane.
The pool industry was in the grip of the building boom, and the pool builder they employed already had six months’ of pools locked in.
“We said we wanted it before Christmas so we paid a deposit in June of 2021 and that allowed them to start the work and have it ready in November.”
There are at least nine properties within 500m of the Sholtz’s home that are still at the mercy of a construction industry that is struggling with labour and supply shortages, and escalating costs.
“If you look just down from us, we have two brand new builds on 405sq m blocks but with the lack of building supplies at the moment they’ve been sitting 80 per cent complete for six months, they’ve just been sitting there,” Mr Sholtz said.
There are plenty of buildings under construction in Morningside
“Two down from that is a big 800sq m block has just sold and they’re going to split the block and put two new builds on it.”
The attraction with this pocket of Morningside is its proximity to the Seven Hills Bushland Reserve walking tracks, dog off-leash areas, the playgrounds of Keralgerie Park, and premiere coffee shops.
“It’s really a pocket of Morningside where people have started to realise its value. They used to say it was the pocket of Morningside more toward Bulimba, but with Seven Hills and Morningside taking off, this is becoming one of the more prestige pockets.”
Michael Sholtz grew up on Brisbane’s bayside and bought his first block of land in his 20s. He completed three developments in Camp Hill before deciding it was time to find something to buy and settle in to.
“It was time to relax and take the pressure off, that’s when we moved into this home. There was a lot of hard work in building, selling and making money.”
But as working parents to an energetic one-year-old, the couple is now considering a move back to Brisbane’s bayside to be closer to grandparents.
While they will find a new local coffee shop for their almond milk flat whites on a Sunday morning, finding a similar neighbourhood will be more difficult.
The inside of the home is as light and airy as the outside.
“We’ll miss being able to sit on our wraparound deck and look up at the Seven Hills bushland,” Mr Sholtz said.
The servery bench connects the kitchen to the veranda
“Through Covid we would go on walks up there, it’s a beautiful natural reserve where you can take dogs and we would push Noah on his little bike. And you’ve got the dog park and the kids play gyms which are 150m from the house and down the road is The Blue Poppy coffee shop and on the weekend you’ll see families and crowds of people walking along that road to get breakfast and a coffee.
“Through Covid I think it was those sorts or things that made Covid bearable. It really ticked the box for what people want in a home.”
Shane Hicks and Antonio Puopolo of Place Bulimba will take 37 Windemere Ave, Morningside to auction on May 28 at 5pm.
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