The expensive, unglamorous work that never shows up in a photo, like the restumping, has already been done.
What you get for it is a home that's been looked after rather than gutted. New carpet through the lounge and bedrooms, timber-look flooring in the kitchen, and new sheer curtains and blinds. Look up and you'll see what a home like this had done properly: ornate dentil cornices and Art Deco plaster surrounds on the ceiling lights, the kind of plasterwork plenty of people ripped out and now wish they hadn't.
That's what makes it one of the better entry points into the Mildura market. You're buying at a price that reflects an original kitchen and bathroom, so the value you create when you update them is yours to keep.
3 bedrooms, all with built-in robes, run off the hall, with the bathroom off it too and the toilet separate, which helps when everyone's getting ready in the morning. There's a separate laundry as well, and it all sits on a 612m² block with a tandem driveway and a lock-up shed.
The rooms are the reason it works. The lounge runs across the front with windows on 2 sides, the brick fireplace with its mantle and the shelving built in beside it, and enough floor space that you're not choosing between the couch and a table. Glass-panelled double doors open to the entry hall, and a single door leads through to the kitchen and its meals area, original and honest, with the double sink under the window. There's a fair bit of nostalgia in a kitchen like this, with the table off to one side and everyone close enough to the stove to know what's coming.
Behind it, a covered patio runs the length of the house, with brick-edged garden beds along the edge and room for a table and chairs. Beyond it, the yard is big, grassed and fully fenced, with a shade tree, the clothesline and the shed at the end of the driveway.
San Mateo Avenue puts you in the middle of Mildura rather than on the edge of it. Mildura Primary School is a short walk up the street and the Thirteenth Street shops are around the corner for the bread and milk run. Mildura Central, the Fifteenth Street retailers and Deakin Avenue are all a few minutes away.
Ornate dentil cornices throughout
Art Deco plaster surrounds to the ceiling lights
Enclosed back porch between the kitchen and laundry
2 linen presses in the hallway
Gated access down both sides of the house
Established gardens front and back
Walk to Mildura Primary, minutes to Mildura Central
