Andy Lee and Rebecca Harding are set to be the new lord and lady of the historic Ravenswood manor in the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn.
The couple bought the 150-year-old property for $8.5 million in 2021 and are now in the process of turning the crumbling mansion into their dream home.
“Mum saw a story about the house on the news – she filmed it off the TV and sent it to me with the message, ‘I think I’ve found your new home’ as a joke,” Andy told The Australian Women’s Weekly.
“We were out looking at another house, and sort of joked with one another, ‘Let’s drive past that weird place your mum showed us,’ and by chance it was open,” his fiancée, Bec, added.
“We stepped inside and looked at one another like, ‘Whoa … ’ We both had the same feeling – that feeling people tell you about when they find the perfect property. Something just felt so right and we’d never had that feeling before.”
The mansion, which is known locally as Ravenswood, occupies a prime position on the Yarra River with its own access to the water.
However, while the property comes with a desirable location, generous block size and desirable heritage features, the house had been sitting vacant for more than a decade before Andy and Bec snapped it up, and was in dire need of a restoration.
But the amount of work needed to restore this historic property to its former glory hasn’t seemed to put off Andy and Bec, who even got engaged inside the house.
After 10 years together, Andy chose the Hawthorn property as the location to propose to Bec by getting down on one knee while pretending to get something out of the marble fireplace.
The couple later posted to their renovation Instagram account with a picture of them sharing a romantic picnic in the garden with a red ring box clearly visible on the rug.
Now the renovations have officially begun, and you can bet that we’re watching every second of this exciting project.
The history of Hawthorn’s Ravenswood mansion
Located at 18 Yarra Grove, Hawthorn, Ravenswood is one of several impressive Victorian properties in Hawthorn’s exclusive Rookery Estate precinct.
The property was built in 1876 for a ship’s chandler named Alexander Tough, and at the time looked like an extremely grand home with a wrought iron balcony with columns, frieze and balustrade, as well as sash windows and a romantic arching trellis in the front garden.
The veranda was sadly removed by one of the home’s previous owners, and the lower floor windows have since been converted to doors.
Even in its state of disrepair, the property’s generous 1950 square metre riverfront block, eight bedrooms and unique heritage features offer obvious potential for a transformational renovation.
With the original baltic floor boards, open fireplaces, floor-to-ceiling windows, slate roof and high ceilings still intact, the home is certainly a renovator’s dream come true.
And it seems like Andy and Bec weren’t the only ones to think so, with a reported 80 parties viewing the home before its eventual sale.
“We had a lot of interest from families looking to do a more simple restoration through to grander schemes,” listing agent Antony Woodley of Jellis Craig shared with realestate.com.au.
After two years of planning and receiving council approval for their renovation plans, the works have finally begun.
Andy Lee and Rebecca Harding’s plans for the historic Hawthorn house
Andy and Bec have been open about their plans for the property, even posting a picture of their desired outcome on Instagram for the audience following them on their renovation journey.
With the help of the architects from Flack Studio and Visioneer builders, the couple are planning to turn Ravenswood into two separate properties connected by an underground tunnel, with the plan to live in the newer build.
“We gave the architects a few broad rules,” the pair shared on Instagram, “1. Honour the old house. 2. We’d like to live in the new.”
“Flack Studio came up with this. The historic house sits proudly on its own and will be restored. The new part makes the most of the river views. All connected underground below the piazza.”
According to News.com.au, the intended works will cost the couple an additional $5 million, with their plans including a 97sqm main bedroom, as well as a pool, theatre, gym, golf simulator and reported ‘waiting room’ for guests.
The renovation progress
Since starting their renovations, the couple have been sharing the journey with 153,000 followers via their dedicated renovation Instagram account.
The interior
While boasting some ornate heritage features, the interiors of the home have needed a lot of work, with the couple even sharing that parts of the ceiling have been falling down.
“Due to the chimney being removed and never replaced, rain water has poured in causing the ceiling to collapse,” the couple shared on Instagram alongside a picture of Andy and their dog Henri, who has been getting some “joy” from jumping in the rubble.
A few weeks later, Andy shared another post of the property’s caved in ceiling with the caption. “I guess we’ll save some costs on demolition if the house continues to demolish itself. Just arrived to see more of the ceiling caved in.
“Even Henri seems a little perturbed by it.”
However, the couple recently shared an update after they discovered some incredible original beams within the ceiling in the upper floor of the house.
“The ceiling plaster was so water damaged that it all comes out exposing [these] incredible original beams that most likely came from Norway as ship’s ballast,” the couple wrote on Instagram.
“I guess we can now say the house is “made in Scandinavia” which sounds rather fancy.”
In another update, Bec shared that they had cut in a front door and some windows on the street side of the building, and that they are planning to add a spiral staircase in as well.
The plans also include removing some of the walls on the upper floor of the property to create a new layout that will make the most of the floor-to-ceiling windows and their view to the garden.
Some of the couple’s followers have expressed their disappointment about some of the renovation choices, which include removing an original staircase and some of the original fireplaces.
The couple have, however, maintained that they will be keeping some of the home’s unique features, including this ‘widow’s window’ porthole, which “is not staying” in its current position but for which they will “find a place” somewhere else in the home.
Andy and Bec have also shared the more unique curiosities that the renovation has unearthed, including seaweed in the roof, which at one point in time was used for insulation.
The garden
When Andy and Bec bought Ravenswood, the property’s garden was wild and overgrown, while arguably beautiful to look at. A consultation with a landscape gardener revealed that “most of the trees and bushes on the property were dying given no one had lived here for nearly 40 years”.
For this reason, the couple have decided to remove a lot of the original garden and start planting from scratch — with the exception being this gorgeous oak tree, which they’re saving.
“This huge oak was a must keep for us!” Andy and Bec wrote on Instagram. “It looks like the giant monster from Stranger Things reaching down to grab Bec and Henri in winter, but is stunning in spring and summer.”
The couple shared that they have decided to buy “all of the trees now so they can grow off site and we’ll have mature trees when we move in”. These trees include Jacarandas, Oaks and Yellow Gums.
Another recent update to the exterior of the property is the couple’s driveway, with Andy shared that they have “10 trucks a day taking the rock away”.
We’re certainly excited to see what they do next.
This article originally appeared on Home Beautiful and is republished here with permission.
