11 Warwick Street, North Melbourne VIC 3051

My wife and I built this house a few years ago as owner-builders. It was designed by my father, an Architect, who was closely involved in supervising the construction.

The original perimeter walls of the former factory/warehouse were retained and 2 town-houses built within the walls. The houses were then subdivided; there is no Body Corporate.

The overall building design was informed by our wish to be environmentally responsible and keep our energy bills as low as possible so the walls and ceiling are stuffed with insulation, the windows are double-glazed, the lights are low energy and the orientation takes advantage of winter sun. We haven’t relied on the power of the sun alone; to ensure life is always comfortable there’s evaporative cooling and hydronic heating. You might not notice the heating panels; with the exception of the main bedroom they’re hidden in the skirtings and cupboard ‘kickers’. Siting the bedrooms on the mid level and the living area on the top level was deliberate – it’s slightly cooler for sleeping and rising warm air gives additional winter warmth to the living area and helps keep the heating bills as low as possible.

Storage has been given high priority so there are lots of cupboards. The generous roof storage means there’s plenty of space for all those bulky things that one accumulates.

We enjoy cooking and a great deal of care went into the kitchen design. It’s compact for efficiency and the cupboard layout ensures there’s lots of storage. We like the streamlined look of the integrated Liebherr fridge and freezer set and the Fischer & Paykel DishDrawer. The separate wine fridge means wine is chilled to the correct temperature and close at hand for happy hour on the deck.

We particularly like this part of North Melbourne because of its proximity to the Queen Victoria market and the city as well as the enormous choice of public transport. Flagstaff Station is about 10 minutes walk away and being 1 tram stop from the ‘free zone’ is a bonus! Although the location is so close to busy areas it’s surprisingly quiet and an advantage of being down a small street is there’s no traffic noise. The Telstra exchange building close by wouldn’t win any architectural awards but it’s not noisy.

For visitors there’s free parking in Queensberry and Howard Streets in the evenings, Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday. Warwick Street itself is designated no parking (although it’s been known for some to overlook that restriction!).

There are plenty of good schools within walking distance (it’s in the zone for University High School) as well as all the major hospitals and The University of Melbourne.

In our opinion this is the best position in North Melbourne.

We’re reluctant to sell but we’ve been living overseas for a couple of years and are uncertain when or if we’ll return to Melbourne. We hope the house will be bought by someone who’ll enjoy it as much as we did when we were living here.