A walkthrough Eve and James’ modern farmhouse

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Surrounded by the rolling hills of Barrabool is Eve and James Coates’ modern farmhouse — a custom-built Hamlan home for a couple who love the outdoors.

For Eve and James, a move to the country was their dream. Eve has always owned horses. And James wanted the room to move on a country property.

So when a property in the Barrabool Hills came on the market — they took the opportunity. Only minutes from Highton, where they previously had built their first home with Hamlan, their new property in Barrabool came with an “old farm shack” and plenty of space for their horses, pets and a big shed.

“The original house was situated by the road, so people could watch me cooking dinner,” Eve says.

“After four years, it came time for us to build a new house, and we wanted to build it down the back of the property for privacy.”

Eve says they spent those years in the “shack” planning where they wanted to place their new home on the property and planning other infrastructure aspects such as power, water tanks and the driveway.

Eve placed the original home on Gumtree — “I thought why not?” Eve says — and to her surprise sold the house to a woman in Melbourne who transported it off their property for a renovation. With the old home out of the way, their new home started to take shape.

“We knew we wanted to build a single-storey home, as we thought a two-storey home would be too invasive for the landscape and we wanted the home to run along the treeline,” she says.

Eve and James met with Hamlan and knew straight away they had found a builder that truly understood what they were looking for.

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Their acreage home features four bedrooms and two bathrooms home, plus two living spaces, including an open plan kitchen and living, and a rumpus room that leads to three bedrooms towards one end of the home. The master bedroom with walk-in robe and ensuite is situated on the other end of the home.

“The design was just beautiful and long. There were lots of windows, lots of light to maximise the outlook,” she says.

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“High ceilings were a definite for us. We also wanted to bring our own oven, which is a new induction cast iron oven — a hero piece in the kitchen.

“We’ve also used a lot of skylights, as the house isn’t facing north directly. I also love white, but then in contrast to the black fireplace — it creates a focal point.”

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The home also features a mudroom, to keep the dirty boots from trudging through the rest of the house and a massive butler’s pantry that keeps all the appliances (including fridge and freezer) out of plain sight. And like all areas of this home, they have windows to capture the country landscape.

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Eve says their second experience building a home with Hamlan was just as amazing as the first.

“You can stare at plan for hours, but you won’t get anywhere until someone with a sharp eye and attention to detail comes in, and gives you their professional opinion. You can always rely on Hamlan to do that well,” she says.

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“They are the best locally-owned and operated builder. They are so good at what they do and I recommend them to anyone and every one time and time again.”

Having just completed their deck, Eve and James are looking forward to enjoying summer in their new home. And in particular, for the first time, being close to their horses and pet pigs.

“This is the dream,” Eve says. “I can’t imagine us going anywhere else.”

Note: Images are for illustrative purposes only and may include upgrade items, furniture or fittings not supplied by Hamlan.

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