Michael was smitten on the spot. With a torch to navigate, he plunged his way into its innards. 500 square metres of building, two parcels of land with separate titles and more work needed to salvage the place than we ever could have imagined...The Forbes building had been around for generations of families living and working in Beverley. The original wooden shops were photographed in 1919 at the dedication of the War Memorial across the road. Sometime after that, the building was reconstructed in brick. Then in 1929, DH Forbes bought the building, extended and renovated it. Tenants had included a rural supplies shop, tea rooms, hairdresser, bakery, deli, dressmaker, drum depot and more recently, Helen had rented all four shops for her second hand business, prior to her moving into real estate.
The building was nominally for sale. The owners in 2010 had thought they could buy it, renovate it quickly and turn a quick buck. They had no intention of living in town and were annoyed at the intrusion of the locals who kept popping in, wanting to know what was going on.The amount they wanted for the shops was beyond our financial capabilities, so we had to walk away...
But the building kept drawing us in. Over 18 months, Michael visited the building, explored it, dreamed about it, drew it, longed for it. I thought the Forbes Building was a disaster. The amount of time, effort and money seemed insurmountable. Then it was on the market again, still more than we could afford, and went under offer. Michael was utterly miserable but was resigned to his fate.
In the meantime, Michael had put his old family home in suburban Perth up for sale. We decided to buy a little dump of a house in Beverley with the idea of renovating it and renting it out as income. And so, we waited for the sale to go through....
Except the sale of Michael's house fell through. So did our contract to buy the other cottage in Beverley. And magically, fantastically, unexpectedly, so did the sale of the Forbes Building...
We were elated and terrified. Michael's Perth house went under offer, again. We waited, Michael holding his breath, for that property to become unconditional. We were sure somebody else would snap up the Forbes Building in the interim. Part of me was willing anybody else (!) to buy the building so we wouldn't be stuck with a potential nightmare!
I walked through it again, trying to imagine what Michael could see. Then, much to my amazement, I saw past the piles of rubble, the disintegrating walls, the doors that led nowhere, the rising damp, the smell, the cavernous cracks. The soaring pressed tin ceilings were beautiful, the wooden floorboards were salvageable and there was enough space under the main roof to hopefully renovate without the need for extension. The so called "residence" - a one bedroom solo unit - could have minimal improvements in order to rent it out. At last, I could glimpse its potential. Not as clearly as Michael could, but enough.
We put in an offer. Helen convinced the owners to accept. Somehow the miracle happened. The Forbes Building became ours in July 2012. We had an indoor BBQ to celebrate! Most of our friends thought we were quite mad.
Then the work started. Power connection. Dave the Brave, our electrician, found ancient wiring, a burnt out meter box and the remains of a long departed cat in the ceiling. The job was mammoth and expensive. But gradually, all our extension cords disappeared, each shop had its own meter and electricity became a reality. Until the roof leaked and fried the new meter in Shop 4!
Michael's trips to the roof were frequent. He cleaned and hosed and repaired and siliconed. Gradually, the leaks were stopping. The building started drying out. The cracks expanded!
Filling, bogging, plastering and painting the internal walls never ceased. Once one crack was repaired, a new one appeared without warning. The cracks also opened or contracted depending on the season. The back door in Shop 1 jammed due to the movement of the building on multiple occasions. Michael planed that door again and again and had to move the handle and the lock because they just wouldn't line up anymore.
Some of the cracks were so wide I could put my arm inside the wall. We repaired the first two shops, painted them, polished the magnificent jarrah floorboards in one and installed a floating laminate floor in the other. A window was resurrected from behind plaster in Shop 2 and the fireplace restored. The change was jaw dropping. Both these shops were rented out.
Michael was itching to begin work on Shops 3 and 4, which was to become his metal art gallery. Fate and the building had other ideas. The external wall had to be reinforced before it collapsed. Michael and Dan the Man, our brickie, spent 3 days in mid summer replacing broken bricks, mortaring and then rendering the wall to reinforce that end of the building.
Then Gary, a long time friend of Michael's needed somewhere to stay, urgently. They worked non stop on the residence for 3 months to make it fit for human habitation. The bathroom (Black Hole of Calcutta) was painted, tiled, received a new toilet, a hot water system and a laundry trough. The Hallway to Hell had its demonically dreadful wooden floor relaid, covered in lino and painted. Doors were fixed. A pot belly stove was installed. The ceiling stopped falling in and received a well deserved coat of paint. The windows were fitted with new panes. The bedroom window even had a flyscreen! The walls were all painted, the smell more or less disappeared and the residence became Gary's home for a year. We all agreed the place needed much more work, but at least it was no longer a complete hovel.
Ideas kept bombarding Michael's brain. We knew we wanted to renovate the wet areas to provide decent facilities for our tenants. And so, Michael's gallery creation was put on the back burner once again. This time, he needed to excavate an underground water storage tank directly behind the wet areas.
This tank was a relic of Beverley's past, used for water storage prior to the town being connected to the Kalgoorlie water pipeline in 1909. Michael managed to put his camera through a porthole at the top and photographed the interior. We knew it was big, we just didn't know how big. And he was sure the tank would be lined with bricks, which he wanted to recover for our boundary wall.
We learnt how big when excavation began. The tank was 4.3 metres deep and 3.8 metres wide. It was lined with 2 layers of bricks. Michael, Gary and another friend Steve moved the bricks out by hand. It was an insane, monumental task and took all of March. By the end of the excavation, Michael was utterly exhausted and already very sick with "walking pneumonia".
Michael spent nearly all of April in hospital. He almost died, I believe, twice. His survival is testament to the fantastic medical, nursing and ancillary staff at Joondalup Hospital. He tottered home, still on IV antibiotics. A further 2 days in hospital at the end of May reminded us about the fragility of his recovery. A trip to his beloved Goldfields in June assisted with the renewal of his well being. Further drugs were added to his regime and for the first time since his illness, at the very end of July, Michael is feeling alive and eager.
He has started work on Shop 3 with the help of Gary. Marlene, the proprietor of the divine East End Studio in Shop 2, needs more space and we want to display some of Michael's sculptures. Our dream for his gallery has become a priority again. And so, with a bit of luck, a lot of work and very creative use of money, we hope to finish both Shops 3 and 4 and have Michael's metal art gallery up and running by December. Wow!
Come up and see us sometime, when you are in Heavenly Beverley (apologies to Mae West!).
During excavation of the water tank, March 2014.
Looking forward to the completion of Michaels gallery. Loving all the creativeness in town!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your very positive feedback. You are my first comment! I'm excited.
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