1890s slab hut disguised from curb, owners restoring piece of Eden heritage

Reverend and carpenter Michael Palmer, his wife Petra, and their son and fellow carpenter Seb had been restoring the dwelling, following in the footsteps of the original builder who reused and recycled construction materials.

Michael said he had dreams of doing up an old house, and after finding the property at 12 Flinders Street, with an impressive shed they could used for the restoration, he decided the price was right and purchased it.

"It would have originally been a house of four rooms, probably, with a veranda around three sides, they would have had an outside toilet and an outside kitchen, and at some stage through its history they would have built the kitchen [inside]," Michael said.

"Everything's recycled, whether it's the Oregon shingles, the door fronts, the [tree] handles from Nethercote picked from a friend's property, the [bench top] was an old dining table of ours we repurposed. It's got a new life."

During the restoration, the Palmer family uncovered layers of the home's historic heritage beneath the Masonite walls, from original wallpapers hand painted with rose motifs and white lace stencilling, to mid-World War I newspapers used to stop drafts.

Each layer stuck to the one before it, until the original slabbed, board-and-batten walls - sawn from the trunks of felled trees and secondhand hardwood timber - were made visible.

The master bedroom had a feature wall showcasing the vertical timber slabs with the original, scratched saw marks still evident curving upwards and rounding downwards, the textures kept to show the significance of the 19^th century house.

"We have kept one side of every slab wall exposed, but originally you couldn't see a single slab wall, it was all covered, it was a hidden gem," Michael said.

The Federation door frame appeared like something out of a church, suitable for the Reverend who would be calling this place home, while an old bedhead was repurposed to add curvature above a sash window.

Domestic carpets which hid floorboards had been ripped up throughout the home, revealing iron bark, blood-red timber floors in the master, while most of the remainder of the house had tongue-and-groove floors laid at an unknown time.

Both the ensuite and the family bathrooms were renovated to include the rosy reds, soft pinks, and flecks of white quartz from Rosado Travertine tiles which almost appeared like slices of petrified wood or the layered coastline tones of Eden's Pinnacles.

Adding to the anecdotes retold from previous residents, including a "famous party" where the balcony collapsed and was propped up by a gas bottle, or the scribbled note discovered asking permission for a sleepover, the Palmers hope to continue its heritage.

"One of the reasons why we are restoring the place is because we love history and we love preserving history, because when you find stuff like that, it's really special," Michael said with a smile, before his son chimed in.

"It's been super fun, challenging like an old house is, nothing's square, nothing's straight, nothing's plum, reusing timber is a longer process to clean it up. It's been a rewarding build," Seb said.