library house

We'd lived in our family home in West Hobart for fifteen years. A Federation house built in 1900. Extended in 2004 with a contemporary addition. It was a beautiful home. Classic bones, contemporary light.

But in 2011 it was time for a change. We put it on the market.

The feedback was effusive. Record numbers came through the door. One agent passed on a comment, "Please congratulate the owners on a superb home." And yet we received exactly one offer. Absolutely unrealistic. (I can now read that 2011 in Tasmania was the flattest market in the past 30 years.)

But we'd already committed to another house. So if we couldn't sell, we needed to create income from the property. Traditional rental wouldn't make the numbers work.

One afternoon, sitting in a cafe, we scribbled some numbers on a napkin.

If all those numbers didn't add up, could we instead transform it?

Library House opened in September 2013. Four months later it was listed as one of the five best new places to stay in Australia.

The book is the story of how that happened. And everything that followed.

Library House – $22 AUD