The Sully's Beach House Renovation

Sully's has been loved as a family and holiday home for many years. The current owners purchased the property in early 2023. An estimated eight month renovation turned into eighteen plus months, and more dollars than initially expected. With no professional trade backgrounds, we relied on general knowledge, advice from friends and colleagues, and You Tube. 

We are pleased to share the Sully's Beach House story with you.

Early Years

Speaking to various local tradesmen during the renovations, neighbours and former owners, we have heard lots of memories of the house.  

The original house was likely constructed around 1960 and was one large room which encompassed what is now the living area, kitchen, owner's cupboard and main bedroom. At this time the laundry, shower and toilet were external to the main building. Our current neighbour's father was one of the original owners and laid the concrete floor that is the current main bathroom. The family has a photo of his mum standing underneath the melaleuca tree with a fish they had caught on the beach. 

The entrance steps came in directly to the double doors which open toward the driveway, and we found relics of these steps when renovating the deck. The builder we engaged to do the bathroom even has a photo of him as a young lad standing on the steps. We've heard a story about when what is now the main bedroom was a storage area including a motor bike, drums of oil and other unlikely items.

The owners prior to us are to be commended for the major renovations to the property in the 1990s turning the building into the footprint you see today. They lived here for many years and have wonderful memories of their time at the house. These owners added the deck, designed and installed the unique sail feature and enclosed the two back bedrooms.

Our Renovation

It started with restumping the house. A bathroom refresh turned into a major renovation when we discovered termite damage. We bought tiles for the bathroom, and went back a day later to buy more tiles to cover the exposed concrete in the two back bedrooms and hallway. The deck, a key feature that sold us on the house, was restored through lots of sanding, banging of nails and several coats of decking stain. We stripped back the exterior paint and fully painted the house inside and out. The beautiful old doors were stripped back and restored. What we thought were little jobs turned into bigger jobs as we uncovered more that we wanted to restore, and Bunnings, the local Mitre 10 and the waste transfer station, became our favourite haunts. Purchasing furniture was a highlight after 12 months of glamping on blow up mattresses and camp chairs. It was two full years before we enjoyed a week at the house without working. We are now able to tackle the remaining renovation jobs more slowly, but we still have more to do!