‘A bit too much’: why family is leaving $12m home behind
Inspired by some of the world’s greatest hotels, this family’s dream home was everything they wanted, until now.
After spending years perfecting their Castlecrag house to their specifications, Angela and Tristan O’Connell have listed their dream family home with a price guide of $12m.
“We’ve only just renovated and made it exactly as we wanted,” Ms O’Connell said.
As the family were spending more time in the Blue Mountains as they developed and maintained their business, ‘Chalets at Blackheath,’ the O’Connell’s lifestyle was changing.
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“Now with the resort it’s all a bit too much,” Ms O’Connel said.
As the business has grown, winning awards, and being recognised internationally – they said there was more pressure and need to maintain the standard and inturn have a lower maintenance home life.
“It’s tucked away in the bush and very tranquil, we need a bit of balance, it will be nice to have a city lock up. We’ve never lived centrally,” she said.
“We are also a bit more mindful of sustainability too. There is too much house for us, it’s a huge house,” Mr O’Connell added.
Battling with their decision, the family spent more time dining in Barangaroo to get a feel for their potential new lifestyle before listing their North Shore home.
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“We did think if we were to downsize where would we go, we started spending more time in Bangaroo, which got us really excited about the idea,” Ms O’Connell said.
Excited at the prospect of a ‘city-change,’ Barangaroo still had easy access the north shore for the kids schooling.
“There’s a lot of development going on there so there’s a lot of option.”
Listing the Castelcrag dream home was however “incredibly sad” for the family.
With sunlit modern interiors, views across Middle Habour and a heated swimming pool, the designer home replicated resort style living.
Inspired by world class boutique hotels, there was a seamless collaboration between architectect, interior designer and landscape architect to create 7 Linden Way.
The Mediterranean style home has rustic heated brick, sandstone paving, natural oak joinery and dark features to contrast the light coloured stone and interiors.
Listed for sale with Stewart Gordan at Ray White Lower North Shore, who said the property has had great interest from families especially those with teens.
“It’s harder to find larger homes like this, with the views as well,” he said.
“It also has enough space and the ability to have separation for teenagers as well.”
Castlecrag is located 8km north from Sydney’s CBD with a house price median of $4,352,888, according to PropTrack data.
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Originally published as ‘A bit too much’: why family is leaving $12m home behind