We (myself, photographer Eve and filmmaker Paris) had the great pleasure of spending a day with shoemaker Jess Wootten and wine buyer Krystina Menegazzo recently, at their beautiful little home in Gordon, which is a tiny town about an hour west of Melbourne. The pair have been here just one year, and both hold jobs in the city, so spend half their week here, and half in a small apartment they rent in Melbourne. They’re both country folk at heart, having each grown up in rural areas. Both have always been keen to settle somewhere outside the city, whilst maintaining just enough proximity to make the commute to work bearable. After searching for around eight months, they found the perfect spot.
The town Gordon was founded in the early 1850s, and was one of the main stopovers on the way to Ballarat during the Goldrush era. Jess and Krystina purchased their little miners cottage here in February last year. Dating back to the 1860’s, this little weatherboard house was desperately in need of some serious TLC, and luckily, it found just the right owners!
Jess and Krystina are an industrious pair – within the first two hours of receiving the keys, they had pulled out all the carpet and soft furnishings in the house! They proceeded to undertake a cosmetic but pretty major DIY renovation of their home – pulling down an internal wall to open up the kitchen and dining room, removing a false wall to reveal the original fireplace hidden behind, and demolishing the falling down deck to make way for a new one. New (salvaged) windows were installed to maximise the green views, floorboards were polished, and every room painted. In the spring, a vegie patch was planted, and in the summer, a little greenhouse was constructed at the bottom of the garden using all recycled materials.
The interior of the house is informed primarily by the two brick fireplaces, the original timber floorboards and the classic (tiny!) miner’s cottage proportions. ‘This isn’t a large house, so our choice of interior decoration has been minimal, so as to not overcrowd the space’ explains Jess – who, at over 6ft, often has to duck his head under the low doorways here! He and Krystina wanted their home to be simple and light, with a focus on the functionality of the kitchen and dining areas, because they both love to cook.
The pair have furnished their home with much loved second hand furniture, handmade details and gifts from friends and family. Treasured pieces include the mahogany standup piano – ‘a great find from a lovely chap named Tony Boadle in Ballarat who restores, services and sells secondhand pianos’ says Jess. Krystina has been playing the piano since she was six years old, so having one of her own is a dream fulfilled.
Jess and Krystina also love the work of cartoonist Michael Leunig, and have a collection of his work. They are particularly fond of an original Leunig drawing which was a wedding gift commissioned by Jess’ family last year – it depicts Jess and Krystina sharing a glass of wine, with their dog Billie under the table. (This artwork is not seen in our photographs but features in the video below!)
‘Gordon is a hidden gem. It’s a great little creative community. It’s peaceful. It’s the rolling hills. It’s the greenness. It’s also just about an hour from Melbourne making it very easily accessible’. says Jess. ‘I love the extremes in weather. You definitely know what season you are in, whether it be a warm spring with abundant flowers, or a freezing cold winter with a bit of snow falling. Fortunately for us we also have the best neighbours in the world, which makes spending time here pretty nice’.
Great to see Jess & Krystina’s property finally! They’ve done a wonderful job of bringing life/charisma back in to an old property. What a beautiful home.
Love this – such a thoughtful and resourceful way to decorate. (P.S. ‘Goldfish era’ made me laugh – late night typo?!) x
What a beautiful video. I love the slices of life it depicts; from putting the needle on the LP through to stoking the fire and the kitchen fry up. Well done Paris
Hey TDF Crew!
What a great job, thanks so much for coming to visit it was an absolute pleasure and you’ve made our wee home look like a place i’d rather be :) the video is really special, thanks Paris, and the words and images are beautifully crafted and capture the place wonderfully. thanks Lucy, Lisa, Eve and Paris. Krys, Billie and I are chuffed!
Thanks DF for this lovely house. It’s great hearing the details about the time people invest in their homes, and to appreciate that a lot of hard work and resourcefulness goes into their creation.
Danielle: You say that “…to wake up today to find that you [DF] are now planning to cover country life too really sucks… I’m no threat to you…”
The internet is a big place. It is possible for more than one website to document the gems and joys of regional Australia. Surely the more the merrier—especially if you want to raise the profile of regional areas?
I assume the DF crew receive thousands of emails requesting collaborations from people seeking to be “counted as a small creative” that does DF “feature contributions” in their capacity as an “expert” with “amazing skills.” It’s a pity they can’t reply to everyone, but understandable. They are a small team bringing us daily (wonderful) content that is free. Leaving “positive comments” on articles does not entitle us (or you) to anything.
It can be frustrating not getting a reply to an email, but that doesn’t mean it “sucks” for DF to independently cover the occasional regional property. I am at least one reader who is really pleased that DF has (yet again) helped me appreciate things that I would otherwise not know about.
Gorgeous…all of it! And those cowboy boots, wow!
Sooooo delightful! This is exactly the type of home I love to see on this site. You really get a sense of the warmth and vitality of Kristina and Jess. Thank you! (Video is wonderful, too.)
LOL Victoria thankyou for picking that up! Goldfish = Goldfish, autocorrect fail! Whoops!
Really beautiful. The video made me want to move there.
This is one of the most beautiful homes I’ve ever seen featured on TDF. I felt like I didn’t want the video to end – I just wanted to spend more time in this special place learning about these nice people. Thank you! So inspiring and refreshing.
Wowee! It makes me want to be a homeowner.
And a shoemaker.
You women are just marvellous. Thank you for seeking us out and sharing our little cottage with your readers. We love it to bits. You will be happy to know that the words and imagery in the video brought a tear to Jess’ eye this morning. xo
Ahh. Sigh. Just makes ya wanna have a weekend away! Thanks for sharing…another fabulous video by Paris too. Great work again TDF! xx
This home is a little bit magical. Especially those dad made boots! What a treasure. Love the greenhouse too. Thanks for sharing with us.
So so lovely to see this idyllic little home this morning. The film completely captures the essence of regional Victorian countryside. So much to be celebrated. Congratulations to Jess and Krystina – and thanks to the TDF team for yet another peak into an truly Australian home.
I love this house, the film was such an added bonus! It would be so hard to leave this gorgeous space to go to work each week!
Your home is just beautiful with so much character and so much of “you”. This is a great way to appreciate and enjoy the countryside while still be able to continue with your professions in Melbourne. Well done.
Love the videos and especially love this tiny house and beautiful place. A joy to get a peek.
What a beautiful story and a beautiful home to accompany it. Lovely stuff DF. You have such a gift in bringing all the little details to a story that make it so deeply personal. I felt a special affinity with this story as I live in Werribee and my uncle and his family have lived in Gordon for 20+ years on a lovely property not unlike Jess and Crystina’s.
Love this miners cottege revamp and the people are just gorgous too. Working hard on it has paid off with a beautiful little home to enjoy and love.
So serene. Love it. Dreaming of a tree-change.
Absolutely loving the unintentional “promoting regional Victoria” mission!
Absolutely beautiful, great one Lucy and co.
Waaaaahhh! Oh my goodness… this is magic. Could there be a more perfect or enchanting country home? And I love the back story – I think this has just become my newest Design Files favourite, and that is saying a lot! Yay for country homes – I love seeing regional homes on here just as much as I love your inner-city and suburban ones. Can’t wait to see others.
Oh so beautiful! Such a loving calmness depicted in the filmed, well done to the homeowners, Lucy and the team and Paris. Just goes to show that less is most certainly more. Homes are always more welcoming when they are loved not over styled.
Those little cowboy boots are so adorable!
Thank you so much for featuring this amazing little miners cottage in Gordon. I moved to Bacchus Marsh three years ago and have fallen in love with Gordon and the areas around Ballarat. I love that you guys feature regional properties. And well done Krystina and Jess. You’ve done an amazing job.
Beautiful, thoughtful home and the video is great. Thanks for the inspiration.
I felt calm watching this…