217 Glenlyon Road, Brunswick East VIC 3057

We purchased this house in 2009 after always dreaming about owning a two-storey brick terrace in inner Melbourne. We were living in North Carlton and out walking our beloved staffy X to her favourite spot Methven Park and stumbled across a FOR SALE sign outside the house in Glenlyon Rd Brunswick East. To be honest, our first impressions weren’t much – the house was in desperate need of some TLC back in those days. It had received a 1970s makeover complete with kitchen and bathroom, short skirting boards and shagpile carpet.  However, we saw great potential in the house and loved the sense of space with the high ceilings, the facade, huge dining room, north facing rear yard and views to the city from the upstairs balcony.

We conducted our renovation in two parts. The first part was to basically strip the house of skirting boards, architraves, carpet, old blinds and light fittings. We replaced and polished the floors, installed reproduction Victorian skirts and architraves, painted throughout, replastered and rewired.

The second part consisted of two extensions. First, an upstairs bathroom was added and we knew we wanted this to be spacious. Second, we extended the rear of the house and added on a second bathroom, large kitchen and entertainment deck. We loved hydronic heating and wanted to have this, the heat is lovely and the brick building holds the heat beautifully. At the same time it takes a long time for the summer to find its way in and when it does the evaporative cooling and split system means you can always feel comfortable. Finally the house of our dreams was complete!

We have loved living in the area. Brunswick East is so close to the city of Melbourne and well served by public transport.  We thoroughly enjoyed eating and drinking at the many cafes, restaurants and wine bars. The Alderman, Mr Wilkinson, the Quarry Hotel, Small block Café, Woodstock Pizza, 400 Gradi, Zia Theresa, Thai Nee Cafe, Temple Brewery, Gelo Bar etc.  with new exciting opportunities opening up all the time! We loved being able to walk out of the house with a bottle from our under stairs cellar and walk 150 metres to Lygon St! There are many excellent providers of organic meats and vegetables and international foods. We loved visiting Mediterranean Wholesalers in Sydney Road and Enoteca Sileno in Lygon Street.  Glenlyon Road is also very close to Barkly Square which has had a fabulous renovation and hosts two supermarkets, Kmart and other shops. Glenlyon Road is also very convenient to inner western suburbs such as Moonee Ponds, Essendon, Ascot Vale and Flemington. During our time we became members at the Victorian Racing Club Flemington and the Moonee Valley Racing Club (just down the road).

Being dog lovers, the area has several fabulous dog parks close by. Our staffy X loved meeting other dogs at the local ovals and we also made some nice friends through our daily walks.

The house is close to a number of excellent local and private schools. We are sure that you’ll love it as much as we did and hope you finish off the backyard with adding a wood-fired pizza oven to the house!