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Angela Martin: Wow. How was that? I’m Angela Martin, and welcome to number 62 Barnwell Road in Kuranda. I can almost guarantee that you are going to fall madly in love with what would arguably be the most idyllic property that you will ever have seen in your whole life in Tropical Far North Queensland. It is a magical eclectic mix of historic and modern-day sustainability. It was actually one of the first houses in Australia to ever be awarded a 10-star energy rating.
That’s 10 stars. Everything that you see complies beautifully with 10-star energy rating. One of the key things to that was building the house at the highest point on the property. Effectively, me here and you in your new home, we’re standing on our very own hilltop.
With that comes the Breezy’s natural light and with what’s happening in Australia and the world at the moment, that sense of seclusion and privacy. The views. With the elevation, we have the views, 360 degrees, uninterrupted, panoramic views. You are going to fall in love with this property, like you would not believe. Let let’s go in and have an explore.
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Where on Earth are you going to find entertaining area where you can sit, a table big enough for one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, about 10 people, with still room to breathe? Obviously, here in your new home. A little bit of orientation. We’re going to talk about the historic part of the build, if you like, built in 2010, just a little minute.
As we go along front to around the side, we have a guest room, bedroom, laundry, which is a fabulous laundry. We’re going to spend a little bit of time in there. It’s got some amazing energy-efficient, little tricks up our sleeve, if you like. It also is another bathroom, so your guests can use the bathroom, outdoor toilet, and then another bedroom, which is actually been used as a craft room, but it could be a gym, or it could be an office, main living area.
This is where we are going to live, looking at views out there that are just unbelievable. So, our main living area. Then we go through into the Master En Suite. We will have a look at these in more detail. Historic, when the house was built, it was built with as lower carbon footprint as you could possibly get. Of course, we’ll go on about this a lot, because it’s incredible actually, your 10-star energy rating.
The history part is that the peers of the Old Walsh Bridge 100-year-old timbers were actually used in the construction, so the pylons and the bridge, the posts in the house, and then we actually have some of the trusses that you can see. Look at this, this is old, original tar, how amazing is that, from the road bridge. That is the historic part. You can’t change that. It’s integral to the rustic feel of this ultra-modern, ultra-slick property. It really is sensational.
Of course, we have got polished floors, polished concrete, everywhere you look. If you’ve got dogs or you’ve got animals, or you’ve got children, or you just do not want to be a slave to cleaning, this is just unbelievably perfect. That’s the history part. That’s some of the beautiful maintenance parts. Let’s go in there and have a wander through the house.
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Coming to the main living area. The views, as I said before, are the breathtaking, you will never find, you might if you search for the next 300 years, find a property genuinely with 360 degree views. When the house was planned, the current owners wanted to be able to look out of all the windows and see nothing but the glorious hilltops, the rainforest in which we live.
You can imagine we’re standing here, beautiful stone bench tops out our windows, they’re all louvered, they’re all screened, so we’re going to get those natural breezes. We don’t have to worry about the fully air-conditioned rooms that we have. You’ll probably never ever use them, but we can see outside. We can see outside, and you really get that sense that you are genuinely in your own little world, you are, in 6.6 acres on the top of your own little hill.
It’s magical. We’ve got all the mod cons. We’ve got a sliding drawers. We’ve got a Caesarstone tops. We’ve got room space enough for a big fridge. We have got brilliant pantry that is absolutely filled with all the lovely things that you would need to cook those brilliant dinners, overlooking your own majestic kingdom, and of course, a monster of a big gas cooking implement so that you can just, as I said, cook for all your family or your friends.
Everywhere you look, you have lights, natural light, and then the wet tropics, that is just key to feeling good. You don’t want to be in the dark. You don’t want to be in a gully. You want to be up and elevated, and this does it on steroids. You’ll notice too, that everywhere we look in all the rooms we have built-in cupboards. Dusting, a chore that everybody just doesn’t want to do, it’s all gone because your books can be in here, or your little bits and bobs can be in here.
You have room just for your big telly or for your gorgeous statues that you might want to just be looking at. The whole thing becomes living, eating, breathing, you. Lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely. Oh, and this is what I was talking about, 2011 Master Builders, Excellence and Sustainable Living, that really is a big, big deal. If you just put your little eyes up here, we have a mezzanine which has currently just got a daybed, but it could be an office. Again, it could be a gym. It could be whatever you want it to be, you could just have a nice little relaxation nook, not that you need it, because it’s real accessing everywhere.
Another fabulous storage, I’ll put lights on. Wine cellar, fridge. It’s all there to be enjoyed, but check this out. I don’t know which way to point, because it’s like sensory overload.
These, like something of a boat or a ship or some industrial vessel, and they just add a fantastic rustic feel to this ultra-modern but historic view. It’s just brilliant. We’re going to go round and have a look at the Master bedroom. Before we do, just take another little look, if you can, out the back, at your view.
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The thing that you’ll notice the most as we walk about the house, that I mentioned at the beginning, was the natural light. Not necessarily full sun, because of the, remember, the energy ratings, but the feeling of light and space. Back to the project, Angela. We are going to come into the Master wing. We are in the En Suite as we speak. Come through plenty of space, plenty of space for all your clothes and all your shoes and all your storage and all your luggage, when you are able to travel that is.
Look at this. This is a him and her in the shower. Plenty of, plenty of space. We’ve got shower here, we got shower here. What I love is that we do not have a big glass door, again, that makes you feel like a little bit claustrophobic. We’ve got the nice Caesarstone on the benchtop. View, just have another look at the view. You’ve come out you’re own en suite, you’ve come out your own bathroom. That’s what you’re looking at.
Again, we’ve got louvers and our screens. Screened everywhere, louvered everywhere. Imagine waking up in your own bedroom, beautiful big comfy bed to this. I don’t know if you can hear the silence, or if you can feel the serenity, but it is truly, truly- it’s amazing. I know I use that word 1000 times, but it is, it’s quiet and it’s tranquil and you’re looking at greenery and you’re looking at the elements and you feel that you are the only person in the whole wide world. Another beautiful mountain over there. Unbelievable. We talked about the built-in benches.
Again, they stayed, clearly. You have just the ability to show off all your lovelies that you want to look at in the morning or when you go to bed at night. Doors that open up here so you can sleep with the doors open, you can sleep with the doors closed, because, again, you’re completely louvered, nobody’s looking in, they’re just not looking in, and air-conditioning, guarantee, you’re probably never going to use it, but it is there if you do.
We’re going to head all the way back up through those lovely double doors again, and we’re going to check out the other rooms. I keep coming across all these little things that I just have to tell you. We are on our way to the other side of the building.
Tah-dah. Easy pull-out fly screen. We mentioned, all the other windows have fly screens. When you have these big doors open, some people prefer to have no ventilation in terms of beasties coming through. If you wanted to, you could actually just close them. My goodness. You just want to give these a hug. Every single one of them is different, clearly they’re different. They’ve all got their own natural lovelies. Pylons on the Walsh River Bridge, hundred-year-old timber. You really have to just come touch, feel, and then you will get it.
This has been used as a craft room, as a sewing room, but it’s clearly a bedroom or, again, I keep saying this, you could use any of these rooms for what you want for your life. Study, gym, people coming to stay, but we’ve got a little granny flat surprise just over there. This is not such a big deal. We’ve got separate toilet. Have a bit of a quick look in there. That is just really handy when you are either out in the garden or when you are clearly going to be entertaining. Straight through, straight through. This laundry. Now, the first thing you will be able to see is that as we look through there we have three bay shed, and we also have a separate studio granny flat, think Airbnb, think rental.
If we are in the bathroom here, we’ve got lovely frosted louvers, again, huge great big grabbing double shower, built-ins, I cannot stress enough, the amount of covered space that is in this property. As part of the energy-efficiency accreditation, you just wait till you see this. Have a look up here. It is a retractable drying rack. What that means is, if I’m able to pull this out, is that in the way tropics things tend not to dry when it is wet, wet, wet,wet, and you have to use the equivalent of tumble dryer.
Now, if we were to pull this down, love it, love it, love it, you can hang up your bits. You can put the fan on, and your clothes are going to dry fast, absolutely fast, and then, of course, we just pull them up again. How groovy is that? I bet you’ve never seen that ever before. That is just such a brilliant, brilliant feature. Unbelievable.
Now, this is a big room. It feels like a guest wing, but it also has a really calm feel. It’s spacious, it’s not soundproofed, but, of course, it’s silent out there. You’ll have to come in a little bit to really feel like you’ve got soundproofing, but it just feels sleepy, absolutely glorious and, of course, we’ve got some curtains there if you don’t want to look at through the shed, but this, again, is what you are going to be seeing. Let’s just take one more minute to come and have a look here. Sunshine. Glorious, glorious sunshine, breathtaking and priceless.
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Because you may be interstate and not able to travel, I think it’s really important that I walk all the way around the house and not just show you the inside so that you can still buy with complete and utter confidence so you can rewind and look at it again and show it to your family and your friends. That you really are- just you’re here, you’re just physically not here, but you are here. Views, views, views, views, views, panoramic, amazing, amazing, brilliant, beautiful. The pitch of the roof, it’s for the man in the family who like these things. The pitch of the roof, again, helps with the solar design, and that’s about 25 degrees.
The veranda on the eaves, we’ve got about two meters. We’re not necessarily getting full sun and not a lot of internal walls. That also helps. We’re not necessarily getting full sun into the house, but we are getting that beautiful, natural light. If we just have a bit of a quick look down here, we’ve got the 6.6 acres, as I said, and the perimeter, not the perimeter, but the perimeter around the house is actually fenced for dogs. If you do have a couple of little gorgeous animals, or you have children, then it’s just not going to be a problem. Oh, look at the view from here.
We’ve got, again, brilliant Walsh River hundred-year-old timbers, brilliant, polished floors, and that little veranda area. We’ve got herbs and, yes, just nice and easy access to the kitchen. It didn’t incline at the beginning that we had a little studio, a little granny flat. I wanted us to come around this way so you could see just how much infrastructure we do have in addition to fabulous house.
Three bay shed big enough for a horse floor or for boats or for your ram, your RV, recreational vehicle, not that you would actually probably want to go anywhere. I can guarantee, if you are here at the end of the day, and you come up your driveway which is just up here, we’ll have a look at that, into your carport, straight into the house, you won’t want to go anywhere else. You just won’t.
Have a quick look at the size here. Have a quick look at the size in here. We’re actually got solar power as you would expect, and we have a plugin generator. If the power goes out, we don’t have to worry about losing lights or be able to do normal everyday things. We’ve also got a little room there for a washing machine. Again, if you’ve got little dogs or animals, or you want to rent the Airbnb or a little studio, in it goes. Just have a word, have a bit of a look at this gorgeous space. We’ll have a look next door.
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I’m always changing my mind before we go next door into the studio, because we’d actually here, standing here. I wanted to show you the water tanks. We’ve got approximately 75,000 litres worth of water collection tanks. That’s a lot of water. We’ve got a lot of roof, so we can collect a lot of rain. We can also pump from the creek, which is just down over here, but just quickly come this way. We can see how fabulous the water collection facilities are. This way. See the quality of the fence. You can get in and out quite comfortably. The driveway is up here, which- let’s have a look at the driveway as we speak. It’s got an electric gate, watch your head.
You’re not ever going to run out of water. If you do, you can always put in another tank, but it probably means that you’ve got 300 people staying with you permanently. This gives us a little bit of a look at the side of the studio and the granny flat, the house, the view. If we pop a little head around here, Barnwell Road runs this way, and you would drive up your driveway, electric gates, and straight into your fabulous carport, right into the house. This time we are going to hit along and have a look at that studio.
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Come on down. This would be perfect if you wanted additional income, or if you had a relative or teenagers or an elderly parent, that you really just did want them to have their own little bit of luxury and independence. You can see we’ve got a kitchenette, super-duper comfy sofa that should you want to sit on it, it would be amazing. Again, we’ve got these built-ins, really, really handy and hasn’t had little fridges and a massive big bathroom. Go in there, just have a bit of a look and feel that luxury.
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I really hope you’ve enjoyed this fabulous little film of what is just a stunning property at number 62 Barnwell Road in Kuranda. I’m not going to do a big wrap-up. You would have felt and seen everything you need to just imagine being in this amazing, amazing property. One of the key things is that feeling of isolation and privacy, and that is such a critical part of how we now probably need to think about living. Self-sustainability. We are so close to everything. We have got supermarkets, we’ve got post office, we’ve got a medical center, but you really feel genuinely as if you are the king of your own castle.
If you want to work from home, broadband, perfect, mobile reception, brilliant. You are never, ever, ever going to feel isolated. Even though, as I said, you’re in your own little kingdom. The self-sustainability aspect, 10-star rating. Your solar power, your bills are going to be small. You can just focus on all living this lifestyle, a genuine lifestyle dream. Can you imagine the amazing sunsets. That’s west over there, sitting here, the sun goes down, becomes a beautiful bit of cool, and you’re watching the sun go down. Likewise, in the morning in your bedroom, you can, if you want to watch the sun go up.
100-year-old timber, original bolts kept as they should in amongst all the rustic organic tar. There’s just such a low-maintenance, easy-to-live property. Give me a call, Angela Martin, 0403-788-187. Visit the website, angelamartin.tv. Of course, do not forget those million-dollar views. This is going to be the most stunning property you’ll ever have lived in.
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Video of 62 Barnwell Road, Kuranda
