There is something quietly beautiful about a house that asks nothing of you. No grand gesture on the street, no performance. Just black charred timber, a layered landscaped garden, and the sense that whoever built this was thinking carefully about how a life might actually be lived.
Designed and built to Passive Haus standards and oriented due north, this is a house built around the logic of comfort and conscience. Warmth is retained in the insulated slab, and double-glazed, thermally broken windows and doors frame rather than be exposed, while an HRV heat recovery system works in quiet tandem with a split system throughout. A 4.2kW integrated solar system and a 20,000-litre water tank plumbed into the house complete a home that carries its responsibilities lightly. Inside, a hyper-ground polished cement floor runs throughout the living areas, with pure wool carpet in all bedrooms. Floor-to-ceiling windows and doors in the main bedroom and living room flood the interior with light through winter, dressed in full-length linen curtains and honeycomb insulated blinds that hold it all in come evening.
The kitchen is the considered centre of the home: a generous stone island bench, blackbutt cabinetry throughout, an integrated fridge and freezer, and a full suite of Miele appliances - induction cooktop with central extractor, wall oven and dishwasher. It looks out over the rear garden, which is zen in character: bamboo, considered and clipped, a sanctuary rather than a show. There is a quietness to the outlook that carries through the whole house.
The open plan living and dining flow through to a north-facing vine-covered deck overlooking the front garden, a room unto itself through the better part of the year, catching the afternoon light as the season turns. The main bedroom continues this relationship with the outside: external access to the deck, a walk-in wardrobe leading through to a well-appointed ensuite with a walk-in shower, vanity and toilet, and a front garden outlook that begins the day gently. A second bedroom has its own external access to a private rear deck overlooking the garden, a built-in desk and considered storage, making it as useful as it is calm. The third bedroom offers built-in robes and the same understated ease. The main bathroom is composed and complete: a freestanding bath, walk-in shower, vanity and a separate toilet with basin, nothing excessive, nothing missing.
The laundry carries the same practical intelligence: a dedicated storage room and external access to the secure double garage, so the working parts of the house are handled cleanly, without interrupting the rest of it.
Outside, the landscaped garden rewards time. The rear is private in the way that takes intention to achieve, bamboo screening, a sense of enclosure, a zen quality that the black cladding of the house only deepens. The front garden flows from the deck and is framed through the living room and main bedroom windows: the vine overhead, the light coming through. A fully automated irrigation system keeps it all quietly in order, and a raised vegetable garden offers something even more personal.
Campbells Creek sits just minutes from Castlemaine, with its schools, oval, independent shops, farmers market and the easy rhythm of a town that has found its footing. This is the quieter edge of it, unhurried, well-planted, and without performance.
A home of private confidence.
