Saving Matilda: The Knockdown Rebuild That Became a Homestead

The agent listed it as a knockdown rebuild. Kristy Tillman restumped it, kept the old miner’s cottage at the back, and gave it a name.

DEVELOPHER: Kristy Tillman
LOCATION: Berwick, Victoria

Have you ever walked through a house the whole market has written off? Turner Street in Berwick was one of those, passed in at auction that morning and marketed as a knockdown rebuild. Kristy’s aunt took one look and called it “the log cabin”.

Kristy saw something else. Behind the tired front extension sat the original miner’s cottage, with its cornices, ceiling roses and a timber leadlight door still in place, and the only structural work it needed was restumping. Five bedrooms, three bathrooms and three living areas, on a block the market was pricing as dirt.

Before BuildHer, Kristy and her husband had renovated four of their own homes and completed a subdivision. Turner Street was their second standalone project for profit since joining. Seven months of renovation and eleven months settlement to settlement, the house had a new name, Matilda Homestead, and an unconditional sale.

Kristy will tell you the sale was the harder than the renovation. She told us the whole story for The Collective magazine, doubts included.

How did you end up with this house?

We’d just missed out on another property at auction, and our agent messaged to check how we’d gone. He mentioned that Turner Street had been passed in that same day, and half-jokingly said, “You could buy Turner Street, it’s a renovator.”

We went and had a look, and other than restumping it didn’t need structural work. The rear of the house was the original old miner’s cottage and the front was a later extension, and I loved the heritage aspect of that older section. It’s not heritage listed, but it had so much character. You just had to use a lot of vision to see through it.

Did you have doubts once you’d signed?

Constantly, for the first few months. Every time I walked through the house I was thinking, “What have we bought?” It turned out better than I could have imagined, but it wasn’t smooth confidence the whole way through. In the end we were able to save her, and I’m thankful for that.

You could have knocked it down. Why keep it?

I don’t think I’d feel the same satisfaction with a new build. It’s a creative outlet for me, and I really enjoy the challenge of designing floor plans that work within an existing envelope with minimal changes to the overall layout. I named her Matilda Homestead because of the beautiful gum trees in the park next door, the kookaburras that would visit the garden, and as a nod to her heritage.

That said, it always comes down to numbers. Not long ago we looked at a property with plans and permits already done. But at the price they wanted, once you allowed for the capital growth and the stamp duty, there was no profit left in it. So we walked.

I love the process of renovating. There’s something rewarding about taking something old and ugly and creating a beautiful, functional home.

Where does the building background come from?

My husband and I have owned and run our business, Inspire Glass and Windows, for eighteen years, making commercial-grade aluminium windows and doors. We’ve somehow survived living and working together, on top of renovating together, and that on its own is a huge achievement. My husband’s a tradie, and lucky for me he just goes with the flow and does what I say. Development runs in the family too, right back to my great-grandparents.

Our first standalone project was in Kuranda Crescent, also in Berwick. We only made a small profit on that one, but it was huge for learning, and that experience translated directly into the value we created at Turner Street. Being part of the BuildHer community and the course gave me the knowledge and the push to become a property developer for real.

How do you manage a build budget without blowing it out?

Budgeting is honestly one of my strengths, and I’m yet to use a contingency line. We joke about playing “guess how much the quote will be”, and I’m normally very close.

When I run the initial feasibility, I start with one overall bucket amount, which is Option B in the BuildHer Feasibility Template. Then a basic spreadsheet breaks it down into smaller buckets for each trade. If one item goes over, I claw it back somewhere else. The stumping went over budget, so instead of re-cladding the whole house we re-clad the front and fixed and painted the rest. The windows go into the budget at cost price through our own business, not retail.

I’m very old school. I hand-draw floor plans to scale and build physical mood boards, and it works for me.

What was the hardest part to solve?

The main living area and entry, without question. I spent many hours drawing and redrawing it, then one morning at three o’clock I woke up with the idea that ended up being the plan that actually worked. Renovation problem-solving doesn’t always happen on a normal schedule.

Once construction started, we lost a whole month at the very beginning because of multiple water leaks under the house that we hadn’t picked up beforehand. We had to fix them, then wait for the ground underneath to dry out before we could even start the restumping.

Every project has its rough patches. What were yours?

Landscaping was probably the biggest one. Externals don’t come as naturally to me as internals, and the garden I was picturing was fully established, which is a look that takes a few years to grow into. On top of that, the landscaper and I weren’t on the same page, and we ended up changing parts of the landscaping at extra cost.

We also had some issues with our tiler. His workmanship was excellent, but his attitude meant he wasn’t the right fit for us, so we let him go towards the end and brought in someone else to finish. Outside of that, our trades were fantastic across the board.

Lesson learned: get a detailed plan and a proper quote, not just a conversation.

You’ve said the sale is harder than the build. Why?

The sales process is the more stressful part for me. You pour all this work into creating a home, and then you have to hand over control of how the market receives it. Ryan and the team at JR Property have been excellent and we used them for both sales, but there were multiple “discussions” around pricing during the campaign, which is fairly typical.

This time I trusted my own intuition and we held firm on our price range. My read was that no matter what price we listed at, offers were going to come in at the low-to-mid end of that range given how the market was behaving. Matilda Homestead sat on the market a little longer than we expected, but we ended up with an unconditional sale, within our range, at the right time.

What are you most proud of in the finished home?

The windows made an enormous difference to the feel of the house. It was quite dark beforehand, so we cut back some of the overshadowing tree branches, and combined with a lighter colour palette and larger-format windows the whole place opened up with light and warmth.

I loved that we kept some of the heritage character while blending it with something more modern. We kept the rear timber leadlight door, which is my favourite feature in the whole house, along with the original cornices in the bedrooms and the ceiling roses. Then we contrasted that with square-set ceilings in the living areas and a modern kitchen and bathrooms.

How did this project feel different to the last one?

This time around I was more relaxed throughout the whole process, especially on the sales side. I’ve learnt to trust myself more, and not to be too hard on myself when things aren’t going perfectly. I’m still learning that I don’t have to do everything myself, and that asking for help isn’t cheating.

My styling improved too. On the last house I’d move a vase around a hundred times, and this time it was down to about ten. I’ve also learned more about what an area actually wants, so I toned down the selections for Turner Street. On the previous house I probably went a little too bold for the suburb.

I’ve learnt to trust myself more, and not be too hard on myself when things aren’t going perfectly.

What’s next for Kristy?

Kristy and her husband are on the lookout for the next site. The plan from here is to “project stack” and run two renovations a year, and they’re open to a renovation with an extension next time. In the meantime, the jobs at their own home in Narre Warren East are finally getting their turn, with a sixteen-year-old son, two golden retrievers, a horse, a highlander cow and three sheep looking on.

From BuildHer

If you keep going to opens and looking at properties, take Kristy’s story as inspiration, or as a sign. The market saw a knockdown, and she saw restumping and a floor plan puzzle, ran the numbers, and walked away from a prettier deal when it didn’t stack up.

Feeling inspired by Kristy’s project and want to start your own, or thinking about renovating for a profit? We’d love to help you! Book a chat with us today.