All language subtitles for Country.House.Hunters.S03E01.720p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN

- From its barren beauty

to lush landscapes,

the Australian countryside is as
beautiful as it is breath-taking.

Many Australians are discovering
rural life and making the move.

So I'm on the hunt to help everyday
Australians find their perfect
country house.

Today ― we are in Beechworth
with Tom and Kathy,

who are looking for the perfect
country character home.

The home is built on granite that
was apparently carved by convicts.

There's so many stories to this
place.

We tour three houses, which all offer
something totally different.

I have a place that used to be the
old blacksmith shed. It was a shed.

Taken the horses out?

- But which house will be
right for our couple?

What do you think you'll do?

- I think we'll definitely...

- Do stay with us.

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Copyright Able

- Welcome to Beechworth.

This is a country town that is
absolutely loaded with character ―

just the sort of place today's
buyers, Kathy and Tom, can't wait
to retire into.

They do not want too much work, but
they would like a little bit of
charm,

and I have three absolutely doozies
for them.

Tom and Kathy have actually been
Beechworth locals before,

so let's find out what is it that has
a hook on their heart and is calling
them back.

- We've been away for 11 years,

and when we came to sell up
our property, really,

it was a no-brainer for
this to be our retirement base.

It's quite a creative area here.
There's a lot of people moving
into town.

- Now, as you can see from their
previous two homes, Tom and Kathy
are both keen gardeners,

and they have extensive experience
with landscaping,

so they'll be looking not just at the
house, but the entire outdoor area.

- There's an environmental element
to running it. We want
sustainability.

We don't want a lot of maintenance.
- Yeah, get the right sort of
garden and plants and stuff,

and you can bring in a lot of
birdlife and just soften an area.

So if we can―
- For what we're looking for.

- If we can find something we like
for around a million, that'd be
fantastic.

We'll take a deep breath
as we say a million.

- Cos that was unheard of
11 years ago.
- Yeah.

- Beechworth is a three-hour drive
north-east of Melbourne.

Its origins trace back to the
discovery of gold in the 1850s,

which ushered in a rush of
optimistic prospectors.

Beechworth also has ties to the
infamous bush ranger Ned Kelly,

who won a brutal bareknuckle boxing
match of 20 rounds in a Beechworth
pub.

With its balance of hospitality
venues, nature trails and
small-town charm,

Tom and Kathy really have chosen the
perfect destination for their next
country home.

Our first Beechworth contender has
been newly renovated in heritage
style.

Its main strength is location,
location, location.

It is just one street back from
Beechworth's main strip.

What will Kathy and Tom
think of house number one?

- Hello, hello.
- Hello.

- Now, I've done a little bit of
homework, and I have found out
that you guys are boomerangs.

You're not boomers,
but you're boomerangs.

- I know. We're returning to our
roots and where we had our children
and a town that we really love.

- And you don't want a lot of work?
- Exactly. We've done big
renovation and major work,

and would like to actually have
one where we can relax.

- Well, you can hear by the odd
passing car, we're pretty much
in the centre of town,

and I found a house that doesn't have
too much work but definitely has
loads of character.

Are you ready to check it out?
- Let's look.

- Yes, please.
- OK, we're just looking.
We're just looking.

- We're just looking. Thank you.
- We're just having a squiz,
all right, after you.

- It's a traditional style outside.
Raised at the front there.

- They've actually kept a lot of the
style of it. They've added to the
cross rails,

and you can see there's a heritage
element to it that's been maintained

and obviously they've worked
with heritage to do.

- I love the smell of fresh
paint in the morning,

and you can tell that this place
is pretty schmick.

It has been freshly renovated, but
it's still an old property in the
sense

that the house itself is over 100
years old, and it was on the site
of an old inn.

I think Beechworth back in the gold
rush days actually had around 54
inns or hotels to stayin.

- It was a good drinking population.

- It was a very good
drinking population.
- Good drinking population.

- My kind of people.
- Dunno if I should say that.

- But you know this place,
is that right?

- Yeah, it was old, green, a bit
forlorn on the corner for a
number of years,

so it's lovely to see these
old houses being brought up

and actually renovated and
repositioned for another 100 years.

It really has for some time needed
some work, and it's lovely to see it
being restored and caredfor, and...

- Modernised.
- Yeah.

- Really well. They've done
a great job on it.
- Reinvented it.

- Well, you can see from this reno
that every appliance is brand new.

I think it's interesting that there
is the connection for a TV but
there's no TV on the wall any more,

because so many people now just use
their computers or their phones,

and you may appreciate the fact that
there's heating and cooling ducted
right throughout.

I would love you to just check out
this place, and when you're ready,
come and meet me in the garden,

cos I've just spotted a little veggie
patch ― not too much work, I promise.

So take your time.
- No picking.
- I can't promise that.

- Here's the master.
- So, what do you think?

- This is great.
It's got everything.

And you've got a walk-in wardrobe,
so that's fabulous.

And an en suite.
- An en suite, yeah.
- Yeah.

- So, you know, it's nice and fresh
and new, and really there's no
maintenance to do

for probably the next 10 years,
which gives us more free time
to travel.

So room for solar?
- Yeah, there's a fair bit
of roof space there, and it's...

A lot of it is facing the right way,
so it'll be a good one.

- What do you think of the garden?
It wraps all the way around.

- Well, it's a fresh palette to
start from, which is always good,

so I think, really, you're looking
at the fences, and you're looking
at screening

and getting some soft, sort of,
vegetation in there and just
taking, probably,

the bounce off some of the fences
and stuff, so just to soften it.

- And is it right that you've
left a really big garden?
- Oh yeah.

- Yeah. Vertical garden, yes.

- We lived on rocks, so there
was a lot of reptiles.
- Hmm.

So it'd be nice to get away from the
snakes and have something in town.

- Oh, simple request. Simple request.
- Simple. Basic requirements.

- So, does this place fit
your wish list so far?

- It does in a lot of ways.
- All the work's done. It's close
to town and all the facilities.

- Is there a but?

- Hmm.

Maybe a little―
- It's probably a bit landlocked for
us, coming from such a big space.

- Yes.
- With big views.
- With big views

and a lot of garden
and space around it.
- Yeah.

And it's got three bedrooms,
so that's good.
- Yeah, if you've got some others,

we'd like to have a look.
- I have two more to go,
so before we go and see them,

just for the fun of it, what do you
think this is on the market for?

- Oh, you'd have to be around the
eight― high eights. High eights?
Eight, nine?

- It's on the market at the moment
for around 875 to 895,

so it's under budget.
- Hmm.
- That's good.

- I think for living in town
and so central to everything

and such a central location,
it's still a good-sized house.

- And with everything done ―
all the work's done.

It's been restored really well, so
what you pay is basically all you
need to pay.

- And I think that you will love the
next two houses that I'm gonna show
you,

so once again, please be openminded.
I'm feeling really good about them.
Let's go.

Up next ― we tour this
breathtaking Victorian,

and later on, we'll check out
a transformed blacksmith shed.
Please, stick around.

I am in Beechworth, Victoria, helping
Tom and Kathy relocate to the area
for their retirement.

Now, we first toured a home newly
renovated in heritage style.

However, it is now time for something
totally different ― a Victorian era
home with an established garden.

Let's check it out.

OK.

This place has some serious history.

It dates back to the 1870s, and in
Beechworth there is a famous
distillery called Billson's.

It went on to great success,
and this was the owner's house.

I think that you can tell that
serious money has gone into the
building of this.

It's built on the most amazing
foundations. Big windows,
soaring ceilings.

What do you think?

- We saw it 26 years ago, but this
is pre-pre-pre-renovation.
- Yeah.

- So I'm really interested to see
what they've done with it.

I think it had so much potential,
and it's a gorgeous spot.
- Yeah.

- Wait till you see inside. Come in.
Oh my God, and the gardens.

- This section was added on in 1911,
so as the wealth grew, as the
family grew,

so did the house.

And here, this is where you can feel,
I suppose, those features of the
double brick. It's silent.

- Yeah.
- It is so calming, and then
you look out on to the garden.

You look up to the Wunderlich
ceilings, the sash windows.

Apparently, every room has a trapdoor
that goes down to the subfloor.

The home is built on granite that was
apparently carved by convicts.

There's so many stories to
this place.

- The really good thing with this
one, it's been restored to the
original style.

So they've kept a lot of the
Victorian features and so on
and built on it,

rather than trying to hide it and
turn it into something new.

- You know, as you walk
through the house,

and as you come into what is clearly
the original part of the house,
this is where you think,

'I'm just a custodian of a place like
this.' There's so much history.
There's so many stories.

This was the original kitchen, when
kitchens were built separately to
the main homestead

just in case there was a fire in the
kitchen, it wouldn't risk the rest of
the house,

which I just think that's a great
story.

So, when you first looked
at the house 26 years ago,
was this connected back then?

- Through a walkway, but I think
this was actually an outside small
veranda,

from memory.
- Right, right.

- The midwinter is sometimes
unpleasant, so having a nice
cosy room and space

that you can spend a lot
of time in is great.

- And I think having a big
Victorian, you actually want
some smaller spaces

that you can move into and use
in different seasons,

and when it's summer, you go into
the larger rooms that are airy and
have an ambient temperature,

and in winter, you come into your
little cosy areas, so, yeah.

- Well, I will let you look at the
sunroom. Have a wander, have a
little look through,

and when you're ready
I'll see you outside.

- Love the sunroom.

- Look at the view into the garden.
It's just beautiful.

- Just sit here in the mornings
and just enjoy that.

- I would do anything for a garden
like this, but I'm not going to
romanticise it,

because I know that you know how much
work goes into a garden like this.

- So easy.
- Oh, you think?

- Compared to what we've
done in the past.
- This is really well established,

so there's a lot less work involved.

- Probably got a 50-year jump on the
last property because of the
established trees, so...

- If not 100.
- Yeah, you're not waiting
for that to come in,

which when you're retiring at our
age, you don't want to wait too
long.

- How much do you think
this is on the market for?

- I think it might be
beyond our budget.
- Double brick in Beechwood.

Yeah, over a mil, definitely.
- Yeah, I know that you
know the market, so, yes.

It is just over your budget,
but just. It's about 1.2.

- It'd be worth it.
- It's worth it.

- Totally worth it.
- It's superb.

So, you're not gonna
find many like this.

Any serious beer drinker who visits
Beechworth will already know of
Bridge Road Brewers.

Which for the past decade has built
a reputation for its range of craft
beers.

I caught up with Ben, who gave
up life in the Austrian Alps

to return to Beechworth and
start his very own brewery.

I love your story, that you head
off to Europe to study winemaking,

- meet a girl...
- Yeah.

- ...slight diversion, and you end up
being fascinated by craft brewing,
is that right?

- Coming back home didn't have the
same kind of beer that I had when
I was in Europe.

I got to bring the girl back but not
the beer, so I had to do something
about it.

- Am I having pavlova beer?
- Yeah, the Magical Christmas
Pavlova Unicorn, actually.

- It's creamy.
- Yeah, it's creamy.

It's on the nitrogen as well, so...
- What does that mean?

- If anyone's had Guinness, you
would have Guinness and seen how it
has small bubbles. It's quite flat,

but very creamy.
- Yeah.
- So instead of carbon dioxide

through the beer, it has nitrogen
through the beer to give a magical
side of the pavlova,so...

- It's magical.
- Adds a texture to it.

- You were living and working
in the most beautiful regions.

But Beechworth had this hook on your
heart, and you came back to start
your business,

and you've know bought the building.
You're just expanding a mile a
minute.

What was it that brought you back?

- Yeah, I think the ease of country
living. There's no traffic lights in
town.

It's five minutes to get anywhere.
We have four seasons here, so it is
cold in the winter.

And it's nice in the summer,

but you get to experience spring and
autumn and winter and summer and all
those things.

We're not missing out on much here.

- Our final property is... Well,
it's kind of a bit of a wild card ―

a blacksmith's shed that has been
converted into an energy efficient
modern-style house.

Will this eccentric home be the one
that wins over Tom and Kathy?

Do you remember the first house I
showed you? I had to apologise about
the occasional passing caror truck.

Well, here...

- Nothing.
- It's just birdsong.

However, I don't want you to freak
out when I say to you, 'Please be
open minded about this home,OK?'

Go with me.
- What have you got for us?

- I have a place that used to be the
old blacksmith shed. It was a shed
that's now a house.

- Taken the horses out?
- Hmm.

- Just come and have a look, OK?
- OK.

- Just come and have a look.
- Open-minded.

- Open-minded.
- Sounds good.
- Righty-oh.

- Well, now that we're in here,
you can see how it once was a shed.
And these beautiful soaring ceilings.

It's different, isn't it?
- Yeah, I love the way they've
kept all the timber.

- All local. 17 local trees
that have been moved in here.
- Wow.

- They go right throughout the space.
The concrete floor, polished concrete
floor, it's all local.

I think there's, like, five different
types of local stone.

And the glitter is actually
tiny shards of mirror.

- Ah, it's so different.
- Beautiful.

- Yeah, it's not something you'd
expect to find here in town,

that's still got the character with
all the big lumps of timber and the
structure inside,

but is a modern home.

- When you have ceilings this high,
you can easily put a mezzanine in.
- Yeah.

- You can have some fun with it. You
can be creative. Is it too creative?

- No. No. Not at all.

And it's lovely to see an old barn
being repurposed in this manner,

I think, and actually using all of
the timbers and the architecture
and the style of it

to actually pump it up to
another level as a house.

- And to me, looking out that view,
if you were sleeping here,
waking up in the morning,

that view would never be the same.
- No.

- Because you would see
the constant change.
- Seasons, yeah.

- Yeah!
- Beautiful.

- Check this.
- Oh, nice courtyard.
- What a courtyard.

- I think you could do a lot with
this, cos you could actually put
a whole lot of greenery

and do more in the courtyard and
make it feel a little bit more
indoor-outdoor.

- Yeah. All the timber structure's
still here and visible.

- And that fountain, the sound of
running water in summer, is lovely.

- It's cool, isn't it?
- It has a tractor seat, so...

I'm not sitting on that.

- So, you couldn't see this from
the road, I don't think.
- What a view.

- No.
- That beautiful view that goes
right across the valley.

- And there's a lot to be said
for borrowed landscape.

- Is that what you call it?
- Yeah.
- Borrowed landscape, yeah.

So you can actually include all of
the canopies of the trees and the
parks,

all the surrounding vegetation into
your environment, which is―
- And it's a good thing.

- Yeah.
- Cos you don't manage it.

- So, if you had a wild guess, what
do you think it's on the market for?

- It'd have to be at the top of our
budget, I think. That mil mark,
something around that.

It's so different and so unique.

- It's just under it's about 100
grand under, around the nine mark.

Now, I know that this is a really hot
market, so have a think about it,

and then please let us know
how you're feeling.

- I think the price is very good.
- Yeah, three bedrooms is good
for family visiting.

- Three en suites is a luxury
in that price range.
- Yeah.

No fighting over the bathroom.
- No, brilliant.
- Which is great.

- Yeah.
- We've had that before.

I've given Tom and Kathy some time to
think through the three homes that we
have toured in Beechworth,

so let's check in again to see
if they have made a decision.

So, did you have a good
chat when you went home?

We had quite a long chat trying
to work out what we wanna do.

- There wasn't one of those three
that you went, 'Nah, definitely not.'
- No.

- So, with that corner house that was
move-in ready, how did you feel about
that?

- It's bedded in town, but it's
probably a little bit too much
in town for us.

Tom's a light sleeper, so I think
we'd notice the road noise.
- Oh, really?

- So, that'd be...
- And what about―
- Other than that, it's spot on.

It's all ready to go.
- I just― That's right.

I thought you really
could just move in there,

- pop your paintings
up and away you go.
- Yeah.

- So, if you're a light sleeper and
you don't like too much traffic
noise,

then what did you think of
the double bricked grand home?

- Oh, that was amazing, that place.

It was just, you know, nice
and quiet and cool in summer,

and, yeah...
- Yes.
- And with that garden.

Is spectacular.

- You seem to really enjoy the story
behind the old blacksmith shed.

You took me by surprise that
you were so open-minded to it.
It was wonderful.

- Yeah.
- So how did you feel about that one?

- Well, I think we've
done an old house.

- Having this.
- We've done unusual houses,

and to have something in Beechworth
that's not old stock and it's not
brand-new stock,

and that middle sort of thing that's
had a quirky conversion...
- Hmm.

- ...is quite unusual and
quite different for this town.

- So, what do you think you'll do?

- I think we'll definitely...

- Smithy.
- Go for the smithy. For the shed.

- Go the smithy.
- Go the smithy.

- Well, I am delighted that you may
have found this future home in this
beautiful, beautifultown.

And I know that Beechworth is famous
for its honey, but I've also brought
you some honey from my farm.

- Oh.
- My mum said everybody
likes honey, so...

- I love honey.
- Oh yeah.
- Really?

- Yeah, yeah.
- Well, this is from my home to you.
- Thank you.

- And we wish you all the best
of luck for your new life in
the country.

Good news, people! Tom and Kathy did
put an offer in for house number
three, the smithy.

And I am thrilled to report
it was accepted. Well done.

We wish you the very best for your
return to the beautiful town of
Beechworth.

www.able.co.nz
Copyright Able 2023.