Jane Harper’s property journey
Author Jane Harper reveals how she went from an apartment in St Kilda to her “dream home”.
Jane Harper is an author who became a household name after the release of her debut novel, The Dry.
She recently sold her St Kilda apartment and moved into a family home in Elwood.
Harper is currently working on her fifth book, which is set to be released late next year.
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Jane Harper at her home in Elwood, Victoria. Picture Rebecca Michael
First home …
It was our first home (2/43-44 Marine Parade, in St Kilda), the first step on the property ladder, and we just really loved it.
We loved living in St Kilda, it was a really fun place to live, there’s always things happening and it’s right near the marina and the beach. It was a really lovely place to come home to after work, that beach setting. I was writing The Dry (at the time), I was doing it in my spare time and on weekends. On nice days I used to sit out on the balcony with my laptop, over the water, that was my favourite writing spot.
Current home …
It’s a California bungalow in Elwood
It’s a family home, it’s got a back garden and it’s near schools and the St Kilda Botanic Gardens.
When we moved in we had a really great gardener transform the backyard space — it’s been really great for the kids, they have space to run around. We did a bit of cosmetic renovating too, we painted and had the floors sanded. That came up beautifully.
We loved living in St Kilda so much so we didn’t want to move too far — we wanted the best of both worlds like the beach and Acland St but at the same time we wanted more space.
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Dream home …
We made the leap from first home to dream home in one go which is something we’re very fortunate to have.
But I spent a couple of summers working on student visas in Boston, America, and have really fond memories there. I’ve always thought I’d love to go back and revisit all those places again — that would be somewhere I’d love to settle for a few months. I was staying in a sublet of a sublet, there was four of us crammed into a one-bedroom apartment with no aircon, so I can imagine if you had a dream home, a big, family home, there it would be even better.
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alanah.frost@news.com.au