Original subtitles

[Sibella] Historic houses across Australia

are at risk of being lost forever.

[dramatic music playing]

They're links to our past, and should be saved.

In this series, you'll meet families facing the challenge of a lifetime.

[grunts]

Here we are, dumb and dumber. [laughs]

Half a million dollars on this? Are we mad?

They'll quickly realize the sheer scale of the projects...

Not quite what I meant.

...as they restore these ruins to family homes.

I'm Sibella Court.

I'm a designer, author, lover of old houses and restoration.

I'm passionate about old buildings and the need to save our history.

To succeed, our families must learn dying heritage skills

and stick to budget.

-He just likes to spend the money. -Bastards, bastards, bastards.

Oh, Jo! No, don't!

It's a slow train wreck.

[Sibella] Can they rescue their slice of Australia's history

before it's too late?

This is Restoration Australia.

[theme music playing]

[contemporary instrumental music playing]

[Sibella] Tucked away in the picturesque hills

near the spa town of Daylesford in central Victoria

is one of the State's most iconic ruins.

Abandoned for 80 years,

its future rests in the hands of a very courageous couple.

Marnie Ireland and Dale Fuller

want to turn three crumbling heritage-listed stone buildings

into a family home.

Hello! Anyone home?

-Hello. Pleased to meet you. -Hi. You too.

-This is Dale. -Hi, Dale.

-This is Gilbert, our new addition. -Wow, the new little one.

-[Marnie] Part of the workforce. -[laughter]

They will be pretty quickly anyway.

-So, welcome to the old Stone House. -Thank you.

[Dale] And as you can see, plenty of work to do.

[Sibella] It's impressive from the drive up, though.

It looks gorgeous.

I can see the appeal, but it does look like it's in ruins.

-[Marnie] Some people call it ruins. -[laughs]

-Beautiful ruins. -Restoration project.

Oh, yeah, long way... Long way to go.

[Sibella] And there's a scattering of houses. Are you working in stages?

[Dale] Yeah. We've got the Blacksmith's out the back.

We'll have a crack at that first, then the granny's cottage,

and, um...and then this main one.

[Sibella] And then the main house, so this is the last stage of the project.

[Marnie] And the idea is that we'll learn in each of the smaller ones

as we wade through, and what we learn...

You'll be experts by the time you get to this part.

Absolutely. Exactly. There'll be no excuses.

-Do you wanna show me around? -Love to.

-Shall we start at the Blacksmith's? -Might as well.

[Dale] That's where we're gonna start. It's the simplest one.

[dog barks]

[contemporary instrumental music playing]

[Sibella] There are three stages to this major restoration.

The first is the one-room Blacksmith's Shop

to which a small modern extension will be added.

Stage two is Granny's Cottage.

It's a large cellar with one room above.

Stage three, the Old Stone House, is a two-storey building

which will eventually become the family's main home.

The first goal is to restore the small

but run-down Blacksmith's building.

These structures are now classified as unoccupied,

so they must meet all the regulations required for a new building.

Until the Blacksmith's is finished,

all Dale, Marnie, and Gilly have for a home is an old caravan.

Go and have a squiz.

Well, welcome to the Blacksmith's.

-Stage one. -Nice.

And this is exciting because, um,

we think we'll be able to get a crack on in here pretty early.

And we're just doing the final stages of getting the building permission.

That will mean we're out of the caravan.

We've got beds, but most importantly, toilet and shower.

[Sibella] And this is the smallest structure?

[Marnie] Yes. Once we're in here,

we can be established and really comfortable on-site.

The van's nice, but a toilet and a bath, and...

-Sure thing. -Yeah.

[Marnie] And this will actually be quite a modern-looking addition.

That's, uh... We've picked out some claddi ng

that we think will enhance the look of the stone.

So you guys are going to do as much of the work yourself

and learn from people who know.

That's it, and because its so small, it's doable,

and the idea is that we would be in here hopefully before winter.

That's possibly not going to happen, but we'll be on-site pretty soon

and comfortable in this small structure.

And then we'll be able to really focus on...

getting ourselves on to the main game.

But this is testing the water.

[contemporary instrumental music playing]

[Sibella] So that's the cellar down there?

Stage two is more adventurous.

It will eventually give them a comfortable base

to tackle the main Stone House.

So this is Granny's Cottage.

This is Granny's Cottage, and we aim to be in here pretty quickly.

This... The Blacksmith's is obviously the interim,

but this will be comfy living.

[Dale] The biggest problem is this wall.

And you can see the rafters, I suppose,

that it's literally probably over a foot.

-[Sibella] Oh, it's really moved. -[Marnie] Yeah.

This is the reason for the hard hats, this wall.

We're a bit worried about it, and...

So we might be doing some structural work

while we're doing sheds and the Blacksmith's,

just to try and shore this up.

[Sibella] Will you actually move this wall,

or will you take it down and build it back up again?

[Dale] We assume we'll have to do that.

There was a lot of discussion around, can we jack it into place?

When we talked to the structural engineer,

he pretty much said, well, that's not gonna work.

[Marnie] Little features like these little alcoves, we love those.

They're the types of things we wanna preserve,

'cause they're the character of the buildi ng.

-And maintain. -Yeah.

That and the shingle roof on the inside.

[Sibella] The shingle roof is beautiful, isn't it?

[Dale] We're not sure yet, but hopefully we can retain that, that's the aim.

[music continues playing]

[birds chirping]

So, the cellar downstairs, will you be curing meats down there?

Uh, that all sounds really good,

but we...we're really keen about the space, the area.

We want to turn it into a livable space, if we can.

That'll be interesting in relation to the water flowing through,

how we're going to manage that.

We're... We're working through, I suppose.

[Sibella] The old Stone House has had a hard life.

A previous owner lost patience with authorities telling him

how to manage the property,

finally resorting to explosives to make a point.

-It's not bad in here. Just be careful... -Whoops!

Yeah, I was just gonna say, be careful of a few of those floorboards.

Wow! Lucky you've got the horseshoe for good luck there.

-Exactly. -That's it.

So this is the final stage of the whole project.

-Yeah. The main game. -[Sibella] Stage three.

[Dale] We'll be doing structural work, but when...

-[Sibella] I can see that. -[all laugh]

[Dale] When you're talking about doing the bits and pieces,

that'll be more like year two to three, or something like that,

if we... as we hope.

[Marnie] And this is what was called the ballroom,

but I probably wouldn't be jumping around too much in here

just at the moment.

It sounded like it was right up and through to the '60s or '70s

that they literally had regular parties or some sort of events.

[Sibella] That'll make the whole place have a fantastic feel,

- all those memories and stories. -[Marnie] It's got a vibe, yeah.

And... I just think the whole building has a beautiful vibe about it,

and that's possibly part of it.

[contemporary instrumental music playing]

[Sibella] The Gervasoni Homestead was built during the late 1800s

by Carlo Gervasoni, an Italian migrant

who fled political upheaval and economic hardship

to seek his fortune on the Victorian gold fields.

This area became home to several thousand miners,

all hoping to strike it rich.

Many of them came from the same Ticino region

on the Swiss and Italian border.

[Italian folk music playing]

Many settled permanently,

with their culture and traditions living on in this part of Victoria.

[cheering and laughing]

[Sibella] Dale and Marnie will do most of the restoration themselves,

as they only have a budget of $400,000

modest given the scale of work,

and three years to finish the project.

They haven't known each other very long.

They only recently married,

and a restoration of this scale would test the best of us.

I can't help wondering if they've been caught up

in the romance of it all.

[enchanting instrumental music playing]

And while they both share a passion for restoration,

what possessed them to pay $300,000 to take on this particular property?

I think you're incredibly brave to take it on,

but I can see what you guys see at the end of the project.

When we were first going out together, we looked at properties,

and we had this list of things, what was our dream property, and...

Um, ruins was one of them, rock escarpment and a creek,

and we've got all of those things.

[Sibella] Well, congratulations.

[Sibella] There needs to be some basic infrastructure in place

before they can start work,

and every bloke needs somewhere to store his stuff.

[Dale] We were looking at trying to place the shed somewhere

that wasn't, you know, screaming out at everyone.

-[Sibella] Too much of an eyesore. -[Dale] Yeah.

[Sibella] They've already poured the slab for a very large shed,

which will have quite an impact on the location.

There has been things stolen from the area.

-So y ou need a good lock-up. -It's security.

It's lock-up, it's good shelter.

[Sibella] Well, it is a beautiful spot up here,

and I can imagine it when it's all finished.

Uh, it's gonna be great, but, yeah, long time to go yet,

but, uh, we love it, it's a beautiful spot to be.

[Sibella] It is a beautiful spot,

but with winter approaching and all you have

is an old caravan, a portaloo and a camping shower,

life's not going to be easy for this family.

I'll follow their journey for two years.

By that time, they plan to be living in Granny's Cottage,

and have work well underway on the Stone House.

[folk music playing]

An important part of moving into a community

is keeping the locals onside.

Dale and Marnie have made a good start,

having already formed a friendship with their neighbor Mauri Gervasoni.

[Mauri] I'm thrilled to death that there's somebody doing it up,

and I wish 'em all the best of luck,

and I hope it, uh, it turns out as good as what they might dream of it.

They... They're really brave to have a go at it, I reckon.

[music continues playing]

[Sibella] Mauri sold them the property,

and it was his grandfather, Carlo, who built it in the mid-1800s.

Even though none of the Gervasonis have wanted to live in it for 80 years,

this is the first time it's been sold outside the family.

[cheers and applause]

We would have liked to have done it up, but it just got too big,

you know, too big a job.

[contemporary instrumental music playing]

[engine revving]

[Sibella] With the ambitious schedule they've set themselves,

the prep work starts straightaway.

Dale and Marnie want to be out of their caravan

and into the Blacksmith's as soon as possible.

Dale will be full-time on the restoration,

while Marnie will work to pay the bills.

[blade whirring]

This site hasn't been touched for decades,

so they need a bit of infrastructure to help them get started.

And with the help of his dad, Dale's building an outdoor living area

to make themselves a bit more comfortable.

[Dale] Okay, get a shed there, get the power there,

so then the sexy stuff,

like actually having a crack at the... the Blacks mith's and the...

and the building themselves will happen.

[Dale] I grew up with machinery.

I've always had a liking for working with wood,

building furniture and those sorts of things.

[Sibella] With these skills and his parks-management experience,

Dale will be an asset to the restoration.

So these are the main reed beds...

[Sibella] And Marnie's experience in environmental engineering

will also help them stay on track.

I was the poo princess for the early part of my career,

and so I'm loving doing the waste-water treatment.

[music continues playing]

[Sibella] But it's not all work and no play.

Country living has given Marnie a chance to fulfill a childhood dream.

[Marnie] The menagerie now stands at one donkey, two Highland cows.

We have seven chickens, six normal, one psycho.

Two ducks, one fish, a dog, and we're not sure whose dog this is.

-So we may... -[Sibella] So maybe...

[Marnie] There's a potential another half dog that's arrived.

[Sibella] While a decent-sized shed is essential to their plans,

I'm not sure about this one.

It's where they've put it that worries me,

and it's not gone down well with the neighbors.

[Marnie] Pretty sure there's been a complaint

about the shed that we've built and that it denigrates from the site.

[Sibella] And some members of the local Gervasoni family

aren't happy about it either.

I am disappointed that there's a big shed in the view.

For me, the magic of that property was the space around it.

I think they could have positioned the shed better.

It really dominates the landscape a bit.

I don't know why it's worrying them, because... that's a great shed.

But, uh, it's a lot better than just letting the building disappear.

I'd love to see that shed gone.

[Dale] Everyone's got an opinion about the place,

and we're happy to talk to people

and find out what their opinions are and that,

but at the same time, kind of, we bought the place.

[Sibella] Before any major work can start on the Blacksmith's,

there's a mire of paperwork and inspections to wade through.

[man] You need to compact it with either a vibrating compactor or...

[Dale] We're using that rock as the base of what will be the floor level.

Yeah. For this one, I just need to see the reo and the mesh.

Make sure you compact your sand.

[Sibella] So there's a lot riding on this council inspection today.

[Marnie] We really hope it goes well today ,

because if it does, everything starts to fall into place,

and we move forward from here.

Okay, just do your receipt, and it's all done.

-Thanks. -Thank you.

[Sibella] They've ticked some of the right boxes this time,

and they're one step closer to moving out of the caravan,

but they're not there yet.

So I need to see it all formed up, the sand's been compacted, the membrane,

the mesh is put in at the right height,

and your expansion joint around.

[thunder rumbling]

[Sibella] Winter's arrived, and it's not pleasant.

With the approvals taking much longer than they thought,

they're already slipping well behind schedule.

And winter in a caravan with a baby is not my idea of fun.

[Marnie] I reckon we're probably two to three months behind

where we would have liked to have been.

We crank up the heaters and we close the caravan door.

We're quite cosy in here, actually, um...

The showering and the toileting is still a bit of a challenge,

so that's the next focus,

'cause I'm a bit of a big fan of a hot shower.

So, at the moment, it's go into town and find a counter meal

and buy a shower at the same time. [laughs ]

[contemporary music continues playing]

[Sibella] Four months later, with the permits finally in place,

work officially begins on the Blacksmith's.

[Marnie] Big day today, after a few false starts.

We've got everything lined up

for the first concrete pour into Blacksmith's.

Originally it was going to be stumps and floorboards,

but when we dug down, we realized

there was no foundations at all holding the walls up.

[Marnie] There's been lots of milestones along the way,

but this feels like a significant one. Doe sn't it?

[Dale] It's a major milestone in relation to that.

[Marnie] It was nice to move on from putting in septic tanks

and laying electrical conduit that you can't see

but costs a lot of money. This...

We feel like we're into the actual restoration work now.

[Dale] It gets your blood going for a few minutes,

and then she all sorts itself out.

A lot of the building work from now on, the framing up,

they even tied up with the roof,

all those things will be able to proceed.

Come on, I'm nearly there. We're halfway.

[music continues playing]

[Sibella] Ordering more concrete than you think

you might need is a good idea,

and in this case, anything that's left over

goes towards finishing the pathway around the shed.

[Marnie] This kind of is the dream, because stuff's happening.

What isn't the dream is when you're sitting around twiddling your thumbs

or you haven't got a sign-off to proceed

'cause of some small, little oversight,

you got the wrong reo size or something like that...

and that puts you out another two or three weeks.

This is stuff happening, so that's the dream.

[Sibella] Stuff is happening, but is it happening fast enough

for Marnie's plan to be in the Blacksmith's by Christmas?

[Marnie] You did say a little while ago there's a possibility,

and seeing that slab going in, good chance, good chance.

-It's a crock. The, um... -[chuckles]

It's not gonna happen.

That happened so easy, half a day's work. [laughs]

[Dale] It's the last week of November. We haven't got a hope.

I might talk to Santa though, I think. [chuckles]

Come on, buddy.

-That's nice. -That's perfect, mate.

-Oh, well done. -There's Mum.

[Christmas music playing]

[Sibella] Christmas came and went, but not in the Blacksmith's as planned...

although Santa did provide a hint of what's to come.

[enchanting instrumental music playing]

The new year brings with it a burst of progress,

and very quickly the Blacksmith's, with its small modern extension,

begins to take shape.

[music continues playing]

Scattered throughout this area are examples of the architecture

the original Swiss and Italian settlers brought to this region.

Their strong tradition of building in stone

has led to many of the structures surviving to this day.

-[Sibella] So this is Lavandula? -Yes.

It's nice to have an almost completed product

to give us ideas and inspiration.

[Sibella] Was it built around the same time as your house?

[Marnie] I believe so, and when you have a bit of a look inside,

you immediately see, kind of, some similarities for us,

like the big lintel above the massive fireplace.

[Sibella] While they wait for more building approvals,

Dale and Marnie look for inspiration

at a restored Swiss and Italian style farmhouse just down the road.

This is a cosy little bedroom.

-It's intimate. -Very much so.

We might end up with lining boards

somethi ng like this upstairs in Stone House.

[Sibella] Lavandula was built around the same time as the Gervasoni homestead.

It was restored 20 years ago,

with the interior stone walls left exposed.

Current energy-efficiency requirements no longer allow this,

so Dale and Marnie will have to line and insulate most of their walls.

So you won't see the stone on the interior of the building?

-Again, not. -Only parts of it.

-[Marnie] As a reveal. -[Dale] And the wall...

Some of the internal walls, it'll show those up as well.

[Sibella] Insulation is not only mandatory,

it's essential in this climate of hot summers and cold winters.

It's one thing Dale and Marnie aren't scrimping on.

[Marnie] There cannot be too much insulation,

as far as we're concerned.

[Dale] So hopefully we'll be pretty snug.

[Marnie] The whole building has to have its energy-performance rating,

so this, uh, level of insulation is what we had to do to get to that.

[Dale] It's not that often that we're here together doing stuff.

It's just a luxury today that Marnie's mum, Heather, is here,

so she's got Gilly, and so we'll take advantage of that,

and we'll try and do what we can.

[Marnie] We have a lot of boring conversations

about what job's coming up, what skills need to be on-site,

how many people need to be on-site.

Are you sure you can't be more pathetic?

Are you sure you can't be more annoying?

[Dale] When we're discussing things,

we do have a quite different way

of lookin g at things quite often and say...

Basically I'll have thought I've described something very succinctly,

and Marnie's kind of scratching her head,

-saying, what the hell am I talking about. -I have no idea what you're talking about.

And so, lately, we've been having conversations around,

we both don't understand what each other's talking about,

and we actually have to be very clear, down to the base level.

[Marnie] We're in trouble once we finish this.

- We'll have nothing else to talk about. -[Dale] Ye ah.

Can you reach that one t here without falling? [laughs ]

[contemporary music playing]

[Sibella] A year since my first visit and six months over schedule,

Dale and Marnie have finally moved into the Blacksmith's,

avoiding another winter in the caravan.

-Well, hello! Come on in. -Hi, there. How are you?

-We're great. -Good day, Sibella.

Hi.

[Sibella] You're in!

We're in, in the nick of time. Winter's just kicked in.

So, um, we're very happy to be in, and it's very lovely and cosy in here.

[Dale] It was, when we can, get the hell in here, then worry about--

-[Marnie] Move in as quick as possible. -[Sibella] Oh, yes...

Seriously, if you wanna feel like

you're living in luxury and opulent surrounds,

live in a caravan for a while. [laughs]

Puts everything into...

We're like, "Let's not put too much stuff in here,

"let's have some space"

-It feels great in here. I love this. -It does.

[Sibella] This was a bit of a stroke of genius of yours, wasn't it?

[Dale] Uh, we had a talk with the local builder,

and it was, yeah, we do have a stash of timber back at Dad's place

and a fair few floorboards, so we thought, uh, we'll give it a crack.

The color goes perfectly with the walls.

[Marnie] Yeah. And it ties in the old bit with the new bit,

with continuing it through.

It's nice that you haven't moved everything in,

so you guys feel like you've got a bit of room to breathe.

We pretend, at the end of the day,

after we're tired, mucky and disgusting,

we're going down to a little B&B

and staying overnight in our little B&B.

[Sibella] Someone else is looking after you. [laughs]

We've got our beautiful bed, and we've got our beautiful bathroom.

[Sibella] The Blacksmith's has given Dale and Marnie

the extra space and comfort they've craved,

but they're still lacking a kitchen.

So, last time I was here...

[Sibella] The metal cladding on the extension

creates an industrial, retro look that I like.

It's low-maintenance, but it's not been easy to work with.

You and Terry did a great job putting it on,

but it took a long time, so you're kind of going,

"Well, they could have been doing something else."

So I think if we do do it over there,

we'd look closely at the professionals come in and install it.

And with the wooden doors and things,

and using things like the brass fixtures...

hopefully it doesn't look like a government building.

[Sibella] I don't think it looks like a government building.

That's nice of you to say.

The stone houses take you very much away from that look.

[Marnie] And it's very much making a difference

between what is clearly old and what is definitely new.

[music continues playing]

[Marnie] Determined to catch up on their schedule,

they move straight on to stage two, Granny's Cottage.

[machine blades whirring]

[Sibella] Dale and his father, Chug, hope they've come up with a solution

to straighten the structural wall that's close to collapse

using a combination of scrap iron, props and jacks.

It looks a little bit dodgy, but if it's successful,

it could save them $20,000,

the cost of a stonemason demolishing and rebuilding the wall.

[rattling]

[slow guitar music playing]

[Sibella] With such old and neglected buildings,

Dale and Marnie face a number of challenges on this restoration.

It's not just the ravages of Mother Nature

that have taken a toll on this property.

Vince Gervasoni, a previous owner, also played a part.

He reacted to arguments with heritage bodies

by blowing up the back of the Stone House and ripping up the drains,

causing serious structural damage.

He said to me one day, "Would you blow that down?"

I said, "I'm not going to blow it down. It 's part of me old history."

And he said, "Well, somebody else will."

You'd think it was a joke, but it wasn't really a joke.

[Sibella] And it's no joke for Dale and Marnie,

dealing with the aftermath of Vince's actions.

[Sibella] So this is looking a little more secure than last trip.

Uh, what's the method behind... Not the madness.

[all laugh]

Oh, the attempt is... I mean, yeah, the wall's a fair way out of alignment.

There's no issues with that.

Some of the local theories are that you wet the wall down

pretty much in slow motion, and try and jack the wall back in place.

Go about 10mm, 20mm, something like that,

um, let it rest for a while,

as in a few days to a week, something like that,

then go slight a little bit more, let it rest.

The mortar is clay and it's lime and that sort of stuff,

and it's not like cement, which has one bite and that's it.

Supposedly it'll resettle.

[Sibella] It's a long shot, but given the amount of money they might save,

it's definitely worth a go.

[Dale] There's no doubt any engineer or builder or stonemason would say,

"No, you should rebuild it."

We're willing to give it a crack and have a go

and just see what happens.

[Sibella] It'll be a few weeks before Dale and Marnie know

if they've successfully straightened the wall.

[slow guitar music playing]

[man] This is where they found gold originally in Yandoit.

This is an example

of one of probably hundreds of shafts in the area.

You can imagine digging through this...

[Sibella] With another break in building activity,

Dale and Marnie take the opportunity

to learn more about the history of their area.

The biggest nugget that they found in here I think was 28 ounces.

-That's big enough. -Yeah, its big enough.

[Sibella] Neighbor John Coombs, also a Gervasoni,

has invited them onto his property

to give them a picture of what life was like during the 1850s.

The promise of the gold rush brought Carlo Gervasoni,

the homestead's original builder, to this area.

Like most miners, Carlo didn't make his fortune from gold,

but he wasn't one to waste an opportunity.

[John] He had a dairy business in Hepburn,

selling dairy products to the miners.

Fresh food was very hard for these guys to get.

So he'd bring his cheese and milk and butter, and Italian sausages.

So he made his money, really, out of the farming side of the business.

So, how many of these would be on your property?

-Uh, hundreds. -Hundreds?

-Yeah. Yeah, hundreds. -Don't go walking at night.

No. Well, everyone's careful, and we haven't lost anyone yet.

[Marnie laughs]

[Sibella] At Granny's Cottage,

the attempt to straighten the leaning wall seems to be working...

[hammering]

but it's not the only challenge.

Dale and Marnie want to use the cellar as their bedroom.

That requires an elaborate drainage system

that will hopefully keep all the water out.

[Marnie] Our engineer has pretty much over-designed everything,

so, I think, even if you had a torrential downpour,

the pipe sizes are large enough to cope

with a fair amount of water coming in.

[Dale] Once we get to pour the slab, we're basically going to have a hob wall

that goes above the level of the floor about 100mm-150mm,

right around the edge about 100mm in from that wall,

that pretty much any water that does come from the outside

will actually come in, hit that wall

and it'll be draining back through to the drain as well.

[Sibella] Almost two years into their extremely ambitious schedule,

the romance of this project is wearing thin.

Not surprisingly, some cracks are starting to appear.

[Marnie] It's just two years of camping essentially,

and I'm sick of filth and mess.

You just cannot keep up there, neat and clean, it's impossible.

I think it'll be so good when we're in here,

just because we can move some of the furniture in here

and we can get organized out there and, um, it'll be clean.

[Sibella] Adding further stress is money.

The contract for Marnie's job, their only source of income, has ended.

[indistinct conversation]

[Marnie] I think we need at least another $200,000 to complete the Stone House

and work is harder to find at the moment.

[Sibella] And they have no choice but to spend some of their precious funds

to stabilize the Stone House,

which is in imminent danger of collapse,

and this type of work doesn't come cheap.

Until Marnie finds more work,

their budget and stress levels will be under a lot of pressure.

[contemporary music playing]

To boost morale, I'm taking the two of them for a treat,

and it's something that may help inspire Marnie

with an idea she has for the property.

There's not much gold left in these hills, but there's plenty of this stuff.

Some people refer to it as liquid gold,

and it's become a very important part of the local economy.

[Sibella] And if Dale and Marnie can tap into this market,

it may help boost their plans for a bed and breakfast on their property.

So, would you think of building something like this in the future?

I think this would be a really nice addition to the Stone House.

The cellar lends itself to this perfectly in the Stone House.

It's already got the water.

That cellar's my personal space. Keep the hell out of it, basically.

-It's a man cave! -Yes, it is.

Well, if nothing else, you can use this as a retreat.

It's been lovely.

[machine blades whirring]

[Sibella] Soaking up the local mineral water

seems to have reinvigorated Dale and Marnie.

They're straight back on the job,

throwing all their remaining money at Granny's Cottage.

With the drainage system in the cellar complete,

it's time for the concrete slab to be poured.

But they won't know if it's watertight until it rains.

By then, they'll probably be living in it.

Preserving the original timber shingles is crucial

to the integrity of this restoration.

It means creating a new roof on top of the existing one,

using insulation panels to fill the gaps.

For Marnie, it's always been about a kitchen and a decent shower.

[Marnie] This is the new bathroom in Grann y's...

and we've not tried to make it into an old-fashioned bathroom.

What we've tried to do is complement the building

and the feel for the building.

So I've splashed out a bit on my tiles, which I love.

Got some recycled timber that we'll make a nice cabinet out off,

sit a porcelain sink on. Got the toilet ready to go.

Once that's done, it's all good for the plumbers

to come in and just connect us up.

We just want to be in a house with a kitchen.

That's what's driving us, not necessarily weather now,

just that we're over shed living.

I think in terms of life balance and health and all that kind of stuff,

we're talking about slacking the pace off a little bit.

I reckon we'll probably be in here 12 to 18 months,

and then, um, be in a pretty good place

to be looking at moving into the Stone Hou se.

[Sibella] In just six months,

what was a flooded ruin is starting to look like a house.

But more importantly, have they managed to save the wall

that was close to collapse?

So last time I was here, you'd just braced this wall.

Yeah, slow process.

But it's straight.

[Sibella] I had some serious concerns whether this method would work,

but it has, and triumphantly.

[Marnie] But the engineers have been out n ow,

and sort of seeing it re-pointed and back in place,

perfectly happy with it,

think it's a perfectly structurally sound wall.

[Dale] Oh, it's saved us a lot of money as well, to put it bluntly.

It, um... It was potentially gonna cost us upward of $20,000 to rebuild it.

And you've kept the authenticity of the wall.

Absolutely. 'Cause this wall and this wall will always be exposed,

and they're the soul of what the building's about.

-These are like your showcase pieces. -Yeah, they are, totally.

It's a triumph. It's a-

-Dale's wall of triumph. -[Sibella] Yeah. It looks fantastic.

This is looking a little bit different.

Yes, it's getting tantalizingly close, isn't it?

[Marnie] Yes.

[Dale] It's starting to look like a house, compared to what it was.

The first night we slept in here, remember?

Yeah, the day we signed the contract with Mauri,

Mauri met us down here, he'd lit a little fire in the fireplace,

and we had a little inflatable mattress that we camped on,

and it went down during the night and it got down to about minus five.

And the wall kind of looked like it could collapse.

And then... Oh, the dog spewed up on the bed

at about four o'clock in the morning.

-[laughs] -So it was all good stuff.

It was awesome, yeah, totally awesome.

[Marnie] We got a really cheap kitchen on eBay.

-So we bought it for $3,300. -No!

It had been a $30,000 kitchen five years ago.

It fitted perfectly.

[Sibella] These two have achieved so much in such a short period of time,

but I sense it has come at a personal cost.

Mind you, we've been flogging ourselves the last few months.

So we've been working at an unsustainable pace,

we couldn't continue, I don't think, the Stone House

at the same pace we've been working at the last few months.

It's a balancing act of...

we certainly wanna keep the pace going

and we still wanna get the Stone House fin ished as soon as possible,

but we also need to have a work-life balance.

-[Sibella] So, is this Chug's work? -[Marnie] Indeed it is.

-He's done the handrail. -This is another online bargain.

[Sibella] They've made good use

of recycled materials throughout this building,

and, by a stroke of luck,

the timber staircase they also bought online is a perfect fit.

You've kept some of the original stonework exposed here.

-Exiting our wardrobe. -Wow!

-Yes, coming through the cupboard. -Yes.

I think I was looking at knee-deep water in here last time I was here.

[Dale] Yeah, the dig. 300mm to 400mm of crap out.

So do you feel like you're close to finishing?

We're feeling tantalizingly close,

but also know that all these last bits are fiddly and--

-The detail. -Yeah, take time.

[dog panting]

[contemporary music playing]

So, what have you got up to in here?

We're possibly a bit ahead of schedule than we thought we'd be

because we've had the stonemason come and do a lot of the structural...

[Sibella] With everything they've had to deal with,

I didn't expect much work to have started

on stage three, the old Stone House.

So we've done a lot more of the structural stonework

than we'd planned to up until this point.

[Sibella] For the past few weeks,

a stonemason has been meticulously repairing and rebuilding

the structural stonework.

[Marnie] So this is a bit of Paul's masterpiece,

the massive, big kitchen hearth, really, isn't it?

Yeah, the old fireplace. They would have cooked in right inside there, and...

Yeah, he's done a good job of it.

[Sibella] But quality craftsmanship doesn't come cheap.

So far it's cost them $40,000, eating into their dwindling funds.

If we run out of money, and we may well run out of money,

we wanted the structural work done,

'cause you can come back and you can do your, you know, building bits...

-Internals and woodwork. -That's right, exactly.

[Marnie] But now we're really comfortable.

It's solid, it's not gonna fall down.

If we have to put the brakes on,

the real structural, the core stuff's done .

So, this looked quite different some time ago.

Yes. So this hole was pretty much the scen e,

the main scene, of the gelignite incident.

[all laugh]

But it will become our new staircase access.

[Sibella] Great. So you're utilizing, uh, his blowing-up incident.

His gelignite incident has done us the wor ld of favor,

'cause getting regulation stonework...

But we had an already-made hole.

[Sibella] Dale and Marnie have made a significant dent on this restoration,

and if their money holds out, and that's a big if,

there's still a good chance they could hit their three-year deadline.

[Sibella] With their third winter approaching,

the final push is on to finish Granny's Cottage.

And it looks like our trip to the local mineral springs has paid off.

There's another concrete pour...

this time to support a spa, a wise addition for a potential B&B.

And courtesy of Dale's dad,

pieces of old railway line are being used to support the deck.

[metal clanking]

[Dale] I personally don't class the decking as part of the Granny's build.

It's like landscaping outside, pretty much. And, uh...

So, yeah, we're already starting to do those extra added things.

I don't know if we'll ever finish, to tell you the truth,

but it'll look pretty close, I think it looks pretty close now.

[machine beeping]

[Sibella] On the all-important financial front,

Marnie's found another job, but it hasn't eased the pressure on Dale.

[Dale] There's plenty of times when Marnie will be saying,

"Oh, looks like we can move in sooner," and I'd have to be, "Nah, back off."

[laughing]

Things are gonna happen, things are going to go wrong.

Let's just aim for that, not raise hopes and, you know...

And so, yeah, there's a bit of that sort of argy-bargy.

[machine whirring]

[Sibella] A key task to restoring any stone building is the re pointing.

Dale is preparing a mix

similar to the one used by Carlo Gervasoni 150 years ago,

which was mostly mud from the property.

This time he's adding sand and lime for extra strength.

It's quite easy to make, but applying it is a very different matter.

It's extremely time-consuming, and there's a lot to do.

[Mauri] You work on a little area, you finish it,

and you've achieved your goal for the day,

and then you move on to next bit.

It's a privilege to be involved in it.

I'm the great-great-grandson of Luigi Gervasoni,

and, uh, I remember this building from when I was a young boy.

[Sibella] With the first of the winter rain

turning the site into mud,

Marnie's not waiting any longer.

-Ready? -Yeah.

[Dale grunts] Back if you can.

[Sibella] Finished or not, she's moving into Granny's Cottage.

Hey, how come I'm doing backwards?

[exhales sharply] We'll swap here.

-Can you just keep with it? -Yeah.

-You all right? -Yeah.

[Marnie] There is... There's mice everywhere out the re,

it's filthy, and I'm just over slow-cooking and barbecues.

So, there'll be a lot of stir-frying happe ning. [laughs]

But just to have cleanliness and an inside kitchen

is just...it's exciting.

[slow guitar music playing]

This is my last visit,

and I'm really intrigued to see where these two are at,

considering all the challenges they've had to face.

It's almost two years since I first visited Dale and Marnie.

Back then, they had a budget of $400,00

and three years to complete the restoration.

So at this point, stage two, Granny's Cottage, should be completed.

On the outside, other than

the decking to complete and some more re-pointing,

it's looking pretty good.

-So, you've moved in? -We have moved in.

-Whoo-hoo! -Wow!

-It's pretty nice, isn't it? -It's really good.

So, we lie in bed, thinking we're living in a magazine,

looking out at our beautiful views, kangaroos hopping past.

[Sibella] From a dark and flooded cellar to this in just six months

is quite an achievement.

Dale made a bed-head out of the mesh that pushed the wall back in place.

I remember when you were up there, winding it.

Yeah, it's all symbolic of representing what was there.

We'll try and remember, but...yeah...

[Sibella] All the effort that you put into it.

And this is really just stage two

before you move into the big house.

[Marnie] I don't think we'll go any furthe r now,

it's so comfortable here. Done.

From the Blacksmith's to here-

-Oh, you start from... -[both] ...the caravan.

Exactly. Start low and everything just seems like a step up.

[Sibella] Luxury.

It doesn't seem that long ago that this was full of water.

It originally had a foot and a half of water in it

when we bought it, big change. But...

[Marnie] Slimy water, green.

[Sibella] I remember it was sort of green, wasn't it?

[Marnie] A really nice shade of green. That's why we did the walls green.

[laughter]

-Nice. I do love this ceiling. -[Marnie] They're beautiful, aren't they?

[Sibella] It's the personality of the whole space.

Yeah, we still do just lay around and look at things

and go, "Isn't it beautiful?"

[Sibella] I was worried that by lining the stone walls

they'd lose the cellar's original character,

but that's definitely not the case.

With a toddler, a second bedroom would have been useful,

but they'll have to wait until they move into the Stone House for that.

Well, this works well, you know, for a large room.

But compared to their room in the Blacksmith's,

this has given them a lot more space.

The next... The next exciting bit is the s tairs.

[Sibella] The staircase they bought online

has been ingeniously finished by Dale's dad

using old hay rakes as the balustrade.

A total cost of $200, and it's beautiful.

Wow, you look well and truly moved in.

-[Marnie] We're in, we love it. - [Sibella] You've got a kitchen.

I have got a kitchen,

and I'll be sitting on the couch just looking at my kitchen in awe, going,

"I love this kitchen, I love this roof, I love this space."

[Sibella] I love this space too,

and when you've had to cook in a shed for a couple of years,

it must be heaven.

Apart from the kitchen, another online bargain,

they've used either the original materials or similar recycled ones,

and the overall effect is stunning.

Even though they also had to line the walls in this room,

they've been able to retain enough of the original character.

And most importantly, they've managed to preserve and make a feature

of the original shingle roof.

One fifty years old, it's still an integral part of the building.

This room was always intended to bring the outside in,

and the original barn doors

have been cleverly integrated into the new build.

Do you want to look out through the doors?

-Sure! -See the space.

The reveal, the reveal!

[birds chirping]

-Wow, it's impressive, isn't it? -Yeah, it'll be a good view.

It's gonna be awesome.

I can just envisage what this is gonna look like

once the deck's in, but over a short two years,

what you've achieved is incredibly impressive.

Time for a pat on the back, I'd say.

Oh, ta, but you don't notice when you're here on a daily basis, but...

Yeah, you sometimes need someone to come along and say,

"Yeah, this is what you've achieved since last time we were here..."

You think, "Oh, yeah, all good."

And you can imagine what this is gonna be like

and the link between the two buildings.

And from here on in,

I think the rest of the project, the Stone House itself,

the really challenging parts are done.

[Dale] Ah, I think so, that's glossing it over a bit.

It's still a build, so you'll always gonna have...

Oh, there'll be challenges, but we'll be in a beautiful... Granny's...

-Comfortable. -Comfortable surrounds, exactly.

-It's a job very well done. -Thanks, Sibella.

[Sibella] From the beginning, you sort of tossed around a number, $400,000.

Have you stuck to that budget?

I think we need at least another 200 to complete the Stone House.

If we were being conservative, you'd probably say three.

We're ideally wanting to spend 400, but thought we could put ourselves

not under too much pressure with five.

So this is where we're currently going,

"Well, what does it look like if it's six?"

The valuer for the bank valued this property

after we had completed Blacksmith's, put in all of the services,

built the shed, um, at 320, something like that,

and we purchased from scratch with no works done for 300.

So we'll probably put about $300,000 plus of our money into it,

and they're basically saying that's worth $20,000 extra

than what the value of the property was.

[contemporary music playing]

[Sibella] After spending so much time and money,

to have a valuation of just $20,000 more

than they bought the property for is a huge blow,

especially when they still need a couple of hundred thousand

to finish this project.

Have you considered the worst-case scenario

that you won't be able to refinance?

[Marnie] We consider that quite a lot. [la ughs]

If that happened, we'd obviously have to slow it down,

and it'd be, "How far can we go with Dale just working on it by himself?"

Then we throw into the mix, well,

what other ways can we get money in the door,

and that starts to look at a B& income.

So over the journey, have you learned anything

about yourselves or each other that you didn't know?

Dale likes to have curtains. I'm not that fussed about curtains.

Oh, that's an example of,

I'm not that happy to be bare-assed out in the breeze.

Yeah, you know?

But I think what we also do know now is, uh, how we complement each other.

There's no way I would have been able

to take something like this on without someone like Dale.

-And all his skills. -Absolutely.

And I think that's probably why we work well as a team.

-Yeah, I think so. -[laughter]

So, have you enjoyed the overall journey?

I have.

I mean, we've dwelt on some of the challenges,

but... to get to this point has been great,

and I think from this point forward,

we're really excited and gonna enjoy it even more.

[Dale] Yeah, it's all been good.

There's plenty of ups and downs and those sorts of things,

but overall, yeah, it's been great.

[folk music playing]

[Sibella] Restoring one iconic ruin would be

more than enough for most people,

but Dale and Marnie took on three,

and all the history that came with that.

It's not been an easy ride, but it's been a rewarding one,

and one they're now sharing with the local community

and the Gervasoni family.

The story's not over yet for Dale and Marnie.

There's still a long road ahead,

especially when it comes to financing the rest of this project.

But they're a very determined and capable couple.

[cheers and applause]

And I have no doubt they'll finish this restoration

some time soon, and I look forward to seeing it in all its glory.

[music continues playing]