Ferny Creek handcrafted timber and bluestone labour of love soars – realestate.com.au

A handcrafted three-decade labour of love drew a “mixed bag of buyers” before being snapped up for its northern hemisphere-like appeal.

Six bidders pushed the four-bedroom abode on 1925sq m at 3 Old Main Rd, Ferny Creek, to an $895,000 sale price, topping its $880,000 reserve and within its $820,000-$900,000 guide.

More than 4000 bluestone blocks were individually hand cut for the property, with timber also repurposed by seller Ken Hanson, 62, giving the rustic home a bespoke edge.

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Ray White Ferntree Gully agent Luciano Marcuzzi said a doctor and an IT professional bought the home, with one of them Canadian and “it reminded her of home”.

“They’re going to live in it, redo it and put a driveway at the front on Old Main Rd because you can only access it from the rear at the moment,” he said.

Mr Hanson overhauled the home over the past 33 years, including making the original house two-storey and building an attic on top.

“I worked as a tree lopper for quite some time in the Dandenong Ranges and repurposed logs that would have been used as firewood into the home,” he said.

“I scrounged the bluestones from wherever I could while I was working driving a taxi on the night shift.

“I’d memorise where they were doing works ripping up the gutters — a lot of the time they’d just take them away to the tip.”

Two other bidders would have used the property as short-stay accommodation, with Mr Marcuzzi saying the natural materials, privacy and wildlife were drawcards for buyers.

The property, named ‘Wondalla’, has multiple living areas, a separate studio space that makes up one of the bedrooms, a balcony, porch and deck.

The timber used includes Tasmanian oak flooring, Western red cedar and Queensland red cedar throughout, Japanese cedar for the window frames, blackwood, yellow box and Oregon.

All the timber was salvaged and milled by Mr Hanson.

He said it was sad to leave “but one door closes another door opens”.

“I’m looking forward to going somewhere warmer and somewhere near the ocean, just a change of scenery,” he said.

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