Rundown 100-year-old house will be given new lease on life
The old house will be overhauled by school-based apprentices and students before being sold on
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AN IPSWICH house, believed to be about 100-years-old, will be transformed by school-based apprentices and students next year.
It will be the fourth project undertaken by Apprenticeships Queensland for its Building Futures Program, which is designed to equip young people with the skills and confidence for a future career in the construction industry.
All four properties are located in Ipswich and the latest project is on Gibbon St in East Ipswich.
The last house given a new lease on life thanks to the program went on the market for $699,000 last month.
Apprenticeships Queensland general manager Paul Hillberg said tradies are currently undertaking preparation work to level the house with young people to get involved from February.
About 60 students and school-based apprentices are expected to take part.
The house is believed to have been built in the 1920s but it could have been even earlier.
It was bought for just over $300,000.
“We’ve spoken to the Ipswich City Council heritage team and they told us one of the earlier Ipswich architects had designed the house,” he said.
“There’s some very nice architectural elements to the house that you wouldn’t find in just an otherwise drafted and built house.
“We’re looking at keeping all of the features and not necessarily changing anything.”
The kitchen will be moved and a bathroom added, as will an ensuite and walk-in wardrobe for the master bedroom.
A large deck and a parking structure will also be added.
The program’s reputation is growing and Mr Hillberg said he had been inundated with requests from people to do work on their own properties.
“I continually push them back to industry,” he said.
“It really is a training field for students for both apprentices and students.
“The way I try and explain it is would they like to pay three times the amount?
“It’s not a cheap proposition and it’s not a quick proposition. Industry does this so much better than us from a time point of view.
“They’re in there with a time is money point of view. Time is training for us.”
Mr Hillberg said the job will be very similar to the very first project taken on as part of the program at a house in North St, North Ipswich in 2017.
“That house had been gutted by a DIY renovator and they found some termites and put the house on the market,” he said.
“What we did on that house is exactly what we’re going to be doing in this one.
“We didn’t change anything externally. We just put in a kitchen and a bathroom. Then we added an ensuite, a deck and a walk-in robe.
“The reputation we’re building is we’re taking our time and we’re doing things properly.
“I’m not saying industry doesn’t do that.
“But we’re really taking our time and we’re trying to enhance some of the old world construction methods and show students that and then also show them some of the new construction methods as well.
“We’re doing things to the nth degree.”
Apprenticeships Queensland partners with TAFE Queensland and receives support from local businesses, whether it be funds or materials.
Another Ipswich property in Newtown was recently purchased to be the program’s fifth project.
As it hasn’t been lived in for 10 years and termites have chewed huge holes in the floors it could be knocked down and turned into office space.
Mr Hillberg said he is hopeful of some positive news about the sale of the Woodend house early in the new year or just before Christmas.
“People think we’re making money sometimes,” he said.
“We lost $80,000 on the previous house.
“Unemployment in people just out of height school, around that 15-18 year old demographic, in Ipswich is much higher than Brisbane, Logan and surrounding areas.
“We’re doing this to really help give those students even just a little bit of an insight into construction.”
Read more stories by Lachlan McIvor here.
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