Johanna Lyle: Olympian and Siesta Home founder lists Brunswick home
Olympic snowboarder Johanna Lyle and her husband, Josh, are selling the Brunswick house they revived from a “very rundown” state.
When the avid renovators snapped up the 15 Barningham Street property in 2014 — for $865,000, according to CoreLogic records — it was “virtually unliveable”.
Now, after completing a two-phase overhaul, they have $1.525-$1.625m price hopes for the three-bedroom home’s February 6 auction.
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The Lyles — who both work in the housing industry these days — are selling to move on to their next project.
“We’ve renovated a few houses, four in maybe the past six or seven years,” Ms Lyle said.
“Once we finish one, we just want to do another one.”
After retiring from a professional snowboarding career that had her compete in the 2006 and 2010 Games in Turin, Italy and Vancouver, Canada respectively, plus World Championships, Ms Lyle founded interior styling and online homewares business Siesta Home.
Her husband runs Metro Steel Windows as well as a property maintenance and fit-out business.
Ms Lyle said the Barningham Street house had “cracks in the walls”, a fully “concrete” backyard and was “really dark” when they took it on.
“We restored the front, including the veranda, replaced the roof, put in a new front garden, put a big extension on the back to make the house open plan with a pool and an outdoor area for entertaining, and landscaped the whole back garden,” she said.
“We also put in a big electric gate out the back so you can park your car there.”
They did this over two stages, with the most recent additions like the pool, alfresco deck and updated bathrooms completed last year.
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Ms Lyle named the backyard as her favourite feature, noting it was “a great size for Brunswick” and had been enjoyed by their children, Nixon, 10, and Maelle, 8, and kelpie, Syd.
She and Syd were regulars at the Small Axe Deli around the corner, which was a stop on their daily walk around the neighbourhood’s parks.
She added the house offered easy access to the city, via trams at both ends of the street and the nearby Brunswick train station.
Jellis Craig Brunswick director Rob Elsom expected the “quiet street most people in Brunswick wouldn’t know about” to be a selling point, along with the “timeless” renovation.
He said the property had been immediately popular, with 72 groups — many of them young families and couples — inspecting it during its first open for inspection.
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