(Image left: Getty, right: @thebuild_ravenswood)
Aussie comedian Andy Lee and his fiancée Rebecca Harding are deep in the trenches of turning their $8.5 million mansion into their dream home.
Over the past 4 years, the 150-year-old mansion in Melbourne’s inner-city suburb of Hawthorn has undergone a makeover, restoring its classic, historical look with a modern twist.
On Instagram, Andy Lee attempted to explain what the vision for the second building is, stating there will be “a tunnel” connecting the two houses. That’s wild, right? But one small and unexpected feature at the front of their home has just taken all the thunder. What is it, you wonder?
The communal dog bowl
At the front of their house, they want to build a communal dog bowl, a dedicated space for all the neighbourhood pups to refuel during their walks, mark their territory, and even meet new friends. So cute!
“If I can walk you through from the front,” Andy said in his video, “here is the front of the house and what we are hoping we can achieve. You’ll notice a little communal doggy bowl so all the suburban pups can come hang out and pick up.”
While many loved the idea in the comments, some raised concerns.
“Looks great, can’t wait to see it materialise,” said one comment.
“One wowzer thing, communal water bowls for dogs spread kennel cough. Awfully contagious unless water is moving.”
The ‘problem’ that led to 2 houses and a tunnel
As with every renovation, Andy and Rebecca faced a problem when they decided they wanted to extend the mansion.
“The back of the house is its front. You can see here, there’s Bec and the dog looking like she’s getting ready to do her droppies. Anyway, we needed to preserve that and that’s where you’d normally build off for an extension,” Andy said on Instagram.
“The architects had a great idea, which was to build a bit further back, as you can see. So we can have a new building; the river house, a piazza in between, and we can look back at this beautiful heritage house. They’ve also created a tunnel between the two so it’s connected.”
What the house looked like before
While their vision for the rebuild is extravagant and impressive, Andy showed the raw photos of what they bought in 2021 for $8.5 million. There’s no denying it needed quite a lot of work, with graffiti covering the walls, holes in the exterior, and its fair share of erosion.
“This is how the house used to look at the front; it has charm, but we’ve decided to go more in this traditional sense,” he said.
The River House plan
The plans for the second house are truly next-level. It will feature a golf simulator, theatre, gym and bar, among other things. What a dream. Plus, their exterior has been inspired by one very famous statue in New York City.
“As you walk out the back of the heritage house, you’ll see this piazza area and we’ve decided that we are going to clad the newer build (River House) with an oxidised copper like the statue of liberty, so it’ll be a greeny blue and it’ll feel a lot more warmth and hopefully disappear into the sky like you’re kind of seeing here.”
The dream Piazza area
As Andy mentioned, in between the two houses will be an open area for lounging around, entertaining and soaking in the sunny rays, called the Piazza. It looks like they plan to put outdoor furniture and perhaps an outdoor kitchen, making it a functional, beautiful space in its own right where they can enjoy the view of the two houses.
“From the River House side, this is what we are hoping to achieve, which I think is just magic. They have nailed it, they have hit the point where we want to honour the old and enjoy the new and Bec just lost her marbles when she saw this.”
We can’t wait to see how the renovation goes, if there’s one thing we’re certain of, it’s we haven’t seen anything quite like this.
