Imagine buying your dream home. Not just a particularly appealing style of house, but the exact address that had long captivated you. Few can lay claim to achieving that.
Image by Julian Kingman
Surf Coast-based architect Josh Crosbie fulfilled this fantasy last February when he purchased the Lorne modernist masterpiece, Trade Winds, which he had always deeply admired.
Trade Winds was tightly held by one family, and Crosbie has become the custodian, pleasing the vendor with his vision of keeping the home respectfully intact.
Crosbie has embarked on a thoughtful restoration at Trade Winds, and the cliff-side property – visible from the Great Ocean Road – can be rented for holiday stays from July through to September.
The 1965 house, built by Ted Yates, had been on the market for only a few hours when Crosbie saw the listing, called the agent and declared he would be there to inspect it in 10 minutes. He was compelled and determined to move quickly to make it his own.
“I remember saying out loud, ‘that is my house,” Crosbie says, recalling how he fell into reverent silence when strolling through that first time. “I remember walking around, looking at all the detailing … I was absolutely being swept away.
“My heart skipped a beat. The inside was as original and in as good condition as the outside.”
“It is really hard for new houses to have a story to them, to have that dialogue or language, or soul. For a new house to become a home, it’s easier said than done.”
Crosbie says he loves the mid-century design’s “clean, deliberate, purposeful language”.
“Every time I had driven underneath it, I would ogle it and say ‘wow, that is so beautiful’. It was always my favourite house on the coastline.
“Looking up on the hill, the house stands out because it is a long, skinny line that assimilates with the landscape really elegantly, really softly. It disappears into the landscape, and that is why I love it.”
Planning permits came through while awaiting settlement. Soon after, Crosbie assembled some mates to help him restore the home and a respectful, harmonious extension to lend more storage and add a sub-floor bedroom. Garden landscaping was the final touch.
The materials and age required sensitivity and specific materials and skills to maintain its integrity.
“We realised that some aspects of the house are what I would call sacred,” he says.
Among the most delicate projects were the facade, the kitchen, the window frames and joinery throughout, and small improvements, including plaster touch-ups and painting.
The window frames, which surround dramatic ocean vistas, alone required six weeks of attention to be stripped, sanded and re-oiled.
For Crosbie, acquiring the keys to Trade Winds as the COVID pandemic unfolded and his personal life dramatically changed was a sort of salvation. Since then, Josh Crosbie Architects has expanded, opening a second office at Newtown, in addition to the Lorne studio.
“This house was my angel; it was meant to be. It kept me from fleeing to some cold, beautiful part of Alaska,” Crosbie jokes.
Crosbie acquired the original furniture in the sale, which includes Gerald Easdon, Brdr Andersen and Danish Deluxe.
The south-facing position of Trade Winds is graced by a private path to the North Lorne beach. Crosbie describes the views from the home as breathtaking. The house, hanging above the breaking waves that kiss the Great Ocean Road, seems open to the scenery.
“When you walk through the front door, it can really look like it is not real. Your jaw just drops. The windows run from the floor to the ceiling, and wall to wall, literally unbroken, so it feels like you could throw a rock out and it would fall in the ocean.”