Inside the Old Bakehouse, now a family home

ITS quaint facade may display its history, but it gives little hint to the sprawling family home within.  

Once the Old Bakehouse, the Bassendean home now serves as a four-bedroom, two-bathroom residence with a below-ground pool and self-contained studio.

Its owners bought the property about five years ago and took care during renovations to retain its original character features.

They added a studio adjacent to the pool and fitted it with a bathroom, built-in barbecue and pizza oven.

“We just love the big leadlight back windows overlooking the swimming pool, and the big family block,” the owner said.

The 1012sqm block has subdivision potential, with the opportunity for two street frontages.

The owner said the neighbourhood felt like a little community.

“The kids go to school locally and I work locally,” she said.

“We used to have the whole school class over at the end of school year for a swim, which was great.”

She said the property was ideal for entertaining in summer.

“The pitched room overlooking the pool is my favourite feature. When you sit in there, with the height of the ceilings and the view, it’s just really peaceful,” she said.

The residence has polished jarrah floors, bathrooms with federation tiles, an ensuite to the main bedroom, wood heating, reverse-cycle airconditioning and decorative cornices.

The property is a short walk to the Swan River and about 11km from the city.

BASSENDEAN
Auction: Saturday, September 12, at 11am
122 West Rd

Four-bedroom, two-bathroom character house with study, al fresco entertaining area, pool, self-contained studio with bathroom, built-in barbecue and pizza oven, on 1012sqm.
Agent: Julie Pedulla 0419440093, Altitude Real Estate 93883911

Source  :  http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,25998702-5013239,00.html

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Brighton Estate in Butler – One of WA’s biggest construction site

Butler is said to be the biggest construction site outside the mining sector.

The Brighton estate is more than halfway complete, now offering more vacant lots for a total of $8.4 million. The largest block for sale is almost 16,000sqm in Captiva Approach, near Lukin Drive which is $3.25 million. Property developer Nigel Satterley said this block would be zoned mixed business allowing for multi-purpose use.  Another site overlooking the park in Brampton Avenue which is 6664sqm mixed used lot at $2.1 million.

Mr Satterley said the North-West-Metropolitan sector is the third fastest growing area in Australia for housing.  In the Brighton Estate there will be 6300 residential lots and eventually a population of 28,000 people.  It is the biggest project ever to be lodged under the WA Planning Commission’s Liveable Neighbourhood community design codes.  The plan includes 55 parks, artificial lakes, shopping village and community facilities.                                                                                                                     

The other lots up for offer are : 

• 5335sqm on Chipping Crescent, zoned business $1.1 million.
• 3553sqm on Kingsbridge Blvd mix of commercial and residential use classed as centre zone $790,000.
•  More information call 9562 0422 or 0418 953 659

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Perth woman witnesses Michael Jackson’s death

TWO Australian women on a bus tour of Hollywood stars’ houses have told of the chaotic scenes as they accidentally witnessed the King of Pop’s final exit.

Helen Battaglia of Alfred Cove and her friend, Sally Wilson of Melbourne, were on a Starlight bus tour when their driver decided to show them Michael Jackson’s mansion.

“We turned into where Michael Jackson’s been staying and as we came round the corner we saw a fire truck.”                                                                 

“The driver said ‘Oh there’s a fire truck here, there’s a bit happening’.”

Ms Wilson said the bus pulled up in front of the gates of the mansion while photographers milled around the entrance.

“All of a sudden the gates open and out came the ambulance while paparazzi were all running and banging and trying to take photos in the back of the ambulance,” she said.

Ms Battaglia said the scene became chaotic as Jackson’s staff fought to block the paparazzi from grabbing final pictures of the dying star.

Ms Wilson said passengers on the bus had no idea what they were witnessing.

“It was all happening. We weren’t sure who was in the car at that stage,” she said.

“They were just yelling out and then the ambulance took off and two black SUVs came out of the driveway and followed it.”

The women said photographers dashed to follow the ambulance.

“The paparazzi were running towards our bus saying ‘go go go’,” Ms Battaglia said.

“They got in a car and took off driving erratically, chasing the ambulance,” she said.

“I couldn’t believe what was going on. It was surreal.”

As their bus then left the scene, the driver paused to speak to a local woman who sells maps to the stars’ houses.

“She was crying on the phone and the bus driver stopped and said “Mary, what’s going on? Is it him?” Ms Wilson said.

“She was wailing and crying but she couldn’t talk, she just said “Yes, it’s him. It’s Michael.”

The two women were feeling flat after their brush with celebrity death.

“Today we’re a bit sad about the whole thing,” Ms Wilson said.

The event lent a bizarre and tragic twist to a celebrity-filled day for the two Australians, who were staying at the historic Hotel Roosevelt, once home to Marilyn Monroe and Clark Cable.

Earlier that morning, Ms Wilson ran into Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as they were leaving the hotel.

“That was about 10.30 in the morning. I was just walking down a corridor with no one else there and this door flicks open and there’s Brad and Angelina,” she said.

Source  :  www.news.com.au

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See through the rebate debate health insurance

The strategy :  To work out how the changes to the health insurance rebate affect me.

I suppose it means I’ll be paying more for my health insurance. That’s the gist of it though it will depend on whether Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull delivers on his threat to block the legislation. As you may have picked up from the federal budget, the Government needs to find savings to fund higher pension payments.

One proposed measure is means testing the health insurance rebate, which currently allows you to claim a tax rebate of 30 per cent of the cost of your health insurance if you’re aged under 65, 35per cent if you’re 65 to 69 and 40 per cent if you’re 70 or older.

Most people ask their health fund to reduce their premiums to take account of the rebate rather than paying the full premium and claiming the rebate in their tax return. For someone under 65, a monthly insurance premium of $250 could be reduced to $175. That won’t change if you earn up to $75,000 if you’re single and $150,000 for families. But if your income is higher, your rebate will be reduced or cut out altogether.

How will that work? Let’s look at singles first. If you earn $75,001-$90,000, your rebate will be reduced to 20 per cent. If you earn $90,001-$120,000, the new rebate will be 10 per cent.

Once your income exceeds $120,000 you will be ineligible for the rebate.

For families, the combined income limits are $150,001-$180,000 for the 20per cent rebate, $180,001-$240,000 for the 10 per cent rebate and the rebate will disappear altogether once family income exceeds $240,000.

All income thresholds will be indexed to wages and will be adjusted for families with one child in the same way that thresholds are already adjusted for determining whether you have to pay the Medicare levy surcharge if you don’t have private health cover. The threshold is currently lifted by $1500 for each dependent child.

The Government says the definition of your income for the rebate will be the same as for the Medicare levy surcharge. Challenger’s head of technical services, Alex Denham, says this definition is changing from July 1 to include your taxable income, reportable fringe benefits, salary sacrificed to super or any personal deductible super contributions made and net investment losses. So higher-income earners won’t be able to use strategies such as salary sacrifice to get or increase their rebate.

Would I be better off dropping my health insurance and paying the Medicare levy surcharge? The proposed measures also include a rise in this surcharge precisely to stop this sort of behaviour.

The 1 per cent surcharge will rise to 1.25per cent once income exceeds $90,000 for singles or $180,000 for couples and to 1.5 per cent for incomes exceeding $120,000 or $240,000. That extra tax may cancel out any savings from dropping your health cover.

MLC’s head of technical services, Andrew Lawless, says a better option may be to make changes to your policy, such as increasing the excess you pay before claiming on the cover or reducing cover on ancillary benefits. However, to avoid the surcharge you must have hospital cover with an excess of $500 or less for singles or $1000 or less for families or couples per calendar year.

When will the changes come in? Not until July 1 next year, so you have time to check the final details if the measures are passed and weigh up your options.

It’s worth noting that the Medicare levy surcharge income limits will be indexed from their current levels of $70,000 for singles and $140,000 for couples to the new $75,000 and $150,000 levels at this time.

Source : www.watoday.com.au

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Builder first, then buy block

I WAS at the Mandurah City Soccer Club as a sponsor recently and, after a conversation with some members, it was apparent there is some confusion regarding building a new home, what is included, what to look for in selecting a block and the process.

With constant changes in the Building Codes of Australia (BCA), you cannot afford to take anything for granted.

I will try to shed some light on the process in future columns, to be published in the Mandurah Coastal Times.

I have extensive experience in the building industry. I started as an apprentice carpenter and sub-contractor. From there, I ran my own building firm and then went into sales and management for one of the largest building companies in WA.

My wife and I relocated to Mandurah six years ago. and I currently work for Danmar Homes as Peel regional manager.

I look forward to this column being of some assistance to all prospective new home buyers. Now for some quick tips:

Firstly, always select a builder before you purchase a block.

Ask if the builder builds to the standards of BCA. Their advice can save a lot of money and frustration.     

If you start right, the chances of problems down the track are limited.                                                                         

My next column will deal with the advantages of house-and-land packages.

To ask Barry a question, phone 9534 8844 or email barry.dye@danmar|homes.com

 

www.inmycommunity.com.au

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