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Design Dilemma
buckleup2000

The HouzzAU Queenslander club

Luke Buckle
10 years ago
Do you live in or love the Queenslander style of home? This is where you can connect with fellow enthusiasts.

Introduce yourself and tell us a bit about why you love this great Australian style of house. What challenges do you face and what do you love most about this type of home design?
Traditional Exterior · More Info

Comments (2)

  • ladyrob1
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago
    HELP!
    I need ideas for a kitchen reno!
    I live in a very small 1924 miner's cottage. I've been holding it together fror 30 years...literally... making do on an invalid pension and art workshops...otherwise doing all the hard work myself keeping up important repairs and adding 21st century needs like power points, lights in dark places, an electric HWS, an electric stove instead of an old JR wood burner and getting a washing machine that fits inside the back door with a 1/2 tub around the wall in the loo doubling as a wash basin
    Its been a long hard life on my own having run away from a convent... but the house is solid, the community is great and I turned 71 yesterday.
    If I could give myself a birthday present I'd fix the kitchen...but have run out of "Houtzpa" and ideas...and need to do it on a very restricted budget. Would be grateful for any input from all the wonderful "HOUZZERS" I've had so much enjoyment ta;lking to online. and being inspired by...to go that bit extra.
    Desperately need ideas that will make my kitchen an easier place to use...I think they forgot it when they built this house ! Its wedged between the bathroom and the mudroom/loo at the back door just off the hallway...opposite the room that I use as my bedroom but is supposed to be a dining room....I don't need one of those. I built the bench/table/counter and put a hutch together with bits from the second hand shop...it works.
    Would love to get a good easy cooking area going and put the small frig elsewhere than next to the 50 yr old electric stove that's just to disgusting to use even though it still works both of these appliances crammed into the old JR wood stove recess....I am just getting too old and arthritic to be making do in the kitchen.
    The area has possibilities but I can't see them anymore.

    Could a less-worn-out HOUZZER give me a nudge and the benefit of their experience please? I laid the parquetry floor myself so that stays...for the rest...it all works but I'd love it to be easier to maintain and to use.

    I'd be grateful for any ideas at all.
    Paint and colours are not important at this stage.
    Thanks in advance HOUZZERS!
    Below are a few images
  • ladyrob1
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago
    I LOVE OLD QUEENSLANDERS.....emphasis on O L D!
    What a sight, a tall Queenslander...having come into being because of the heat in this State and therefore on tall and not so tall piers...I LOVE these houses but with one exception...and probably because in those days ther were no such things as... LIFTS!
    Nobody thought of the older Queenslander human whose hips and knees are worn out from hard work on the land..or for the little kids and toddlers.....STAIRS, STAIRS and more STAIRS! Beautiful gracious staircases....but....
    Recently a young enthusiastic couple built a magnificent looking replica old Queenslander right across from my place. I watched it go up...and so did the rest of the neighbourhood...well, not criticising the modern builder but I'd rather have a genuine old Queenslander put together with hammer and iron nails!
    STAIRS seemed to have been made into a feature. The land overlooks a waterway that is prone to flooding so the piers had to be quite high....and that meant more treads! I think that maybe the builders were unaware of the need for a landing every...is it eight? steps? The back steps are straight up the rear of the house...no landings....OOOFFF going to welcome your new neighbiurs!
    I would not build a replica Queenslander but if I couldn't help myself I'd install A LIFT and I would invent a feature for going up and down .for the children...and I'd get my inspiration from some of the great Theme Parks that have to comply to strict safety standards.....Then and only then would I build a replica Old Queenslander...But I'd prefer A REAL ONE! .It has been my experience that replicas do not have the strength of the enormous oldies.
    For example: Show me a replica Queenslander with iron cyclone bolts securing the floor of the house to the piers.
    Show me a replica Queenslander where every VJ board in the walls and ceilings is held to the next with hidden nails? Show me one where the framework is all tongue and groove each piece locked into the other.....that cannot be achieved anymore because timbers are not seasoned for between 30-50 years and such building methods would weaken the structural timbers used today...so said the builder who added a veranda to my old place. He took photographs of the joinery!
    I LOVE OLD QUEENSLANDERS...But I'd only buy a really old one and renovate it using old methods and as much old timber as possible...and I'd add a LIFT and a kids "upper and downer" if the steps were to be high.
    One thing above all would deter me from building one from scratch....the unavailability and the expense of genuinely old timber...if it could be sourced..
    A replica would never match the longevity and the methods of construction of the old ones.
    Those times are gone!
    Those homes can never be repeated...only replicated and its not the same by any bash of the nail. You can't buy those nails anymore and its impossible to hire a crew as large as a swarm of ants to build an old Queenslander from scratch. We just do not build like that these days. Meaning no disrespect to the skilled modern day builder who does marvellous things for the modern day.....its impossible to build a genuine old Queenslander for many reasons.
    LOVE and ADMIRE and CHERISH the old Queenslander, BUY ONE if you can and restore it as genuinely as possible.
    We'll never see its like again from any perspective.
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