Sunrise star Edwina Bartholomew hits major roadblock in luxury accommodation gamble
Sunrise Presenter Edwina Bartholomew’s ambitious hotel renovation hasn’t even started and it’s already six months behind schedule.
“We have had bronchitis, pneumonia and gastro on top of the usual planning delays, it hasn’t been pretty”, Edwina told realcommercial.com.au.
“I’m joking that’s it’s a ’s***-show’ because we have been talking a lot about effluent removal and the placement of the new septic. We are only now just getting into the fun stuff like paint colours.”
Edwina and her husband, Neil sold their house in Sydney a year ago this month to buy a dilapidated guest house in Carcoar in country NSW.
“We optimistically hoped that we would be all hands on deck by now but we are well and truly still in the planing stages. We submitted the initial DA but then quickly realised there were a lot of aspects we needed to tighten up like accessibility, fire and waste removal,” she said.
“It’s caused a significant delay to the project. Instead of being ready to open next April, I suspect we will now aim to open in September.
“We engaged a town planner and accessibility expert to review our plans and come back to us with amendments. We had also received feedback from the Council’s own Heritage Expert and he had a lot of useful feedback that we could then incorporate to make the project even better.”
Situated in a the heritage-listed town of Carcoar near Bathurst, NSW, Edwina and Neil’s Saltash Farm will mark their first ever commercial venture when the complex of main hotel, adjacent luxury cabins and spa and pool, eventually opens its doors.
The family sold their home in Sydney last year to fund the commercial venture. Picture: realestate.com.au
But, having bankrolled the project with the sale of their Sydney home, the knock on impact of the delays means that their collective wallets will be hard hit
“It’s more money on rent and lost income too,” she said. “We have also missed the chance to plant our garden before Winter so now all the planting will have to be in Spring.”
The delay is the latest in several stumbling blocks on their journey to transform the rundown property into a luxury, boutique hotel, the first of which involved redesigning the property due to budget constraints, the second of which saw them losing their builder.
Thankfully, after having dealt with these previous difficulties, the plucky pair are becoming adept at rolling with the punches.
“Having extra time has also allowed us to finesse the layout of the cabins at the back, spreading them out a bit more, and creating a pool pavilion. We also changed the flow of the pathways to ensure maximum privacy and altered some of the layout to create a better outlook from the windows,” she said.
“We added water tanks on every building, solar panels on the roof of the new structures, and a number of other measures to receive a seven star rating. We changed the orientation of the accessible toilet to allow more space and added more facilities inside too. We have also decided to add a verandah to the shed on the advice of the heritage expert at the front to ensure it blends in with the streetscape.”
Additional pressures
Renovations are typically grouped together with death and divorce as the most stressful life events humans can put themselves through. And, given that the scale of this project is far beyond a typical suburban semi, there’s extra pressure on Edwina and her family — pressure compounded by her and Neil living apart for the bulk of the week.
“The reality of being apart as a family is beginning to set in,” she said.
“Ultimately, we made the decision to structure the build this way and it’s really helped to have Neil in Carcoar to take people through the plans and for the community to know we are very serious about our investment in the town, but it’s particularly hard for him to be away from the kids.”
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Though delays and a loss of revenue are a reality in the development of Saltash Farm, rather than dwell on the negatives, Edwina and Neil are taking a ‘glass half full’ approach.
“Our local council, Blayney has been extremely supportive from the get-go,” said Edwina. “As opposed to some city council where you wouldn’t really have any personal contact at all, we have been in touch with them since before we even bought the property.
“They gave us permission to conduct some non-structural demolition inside, so at least we could get a head start on pulling up carpets and testing some paint colours,” she explained
While construction work has been hit with delays, the couple are using the time to finesse their design choices. Picture: Instagram @saltash__farm
The couple must adhere to strict heritage guidelines on the exterior of the property.
“We have selected colours from the Dulux Traditional range, they are all colours you would typically see on older buildings. The roof is already Colorbond Manor Red so we are using that colour on the outside of the building along with two other colours called Portland Stone and Lime White.”
Inside, Edwina and Neil have more creative licence.
“We want every room to be a different colour and feel really different. It’s a hotel and not a home so can be a bit more avant-garde with our design.”
This extends to hotel reception where the whole room will be painted by Queensland artist, Kate Pittas with a mural on the walls.
“We hope it will be a really special start to what will hopefully be a very special stay for our guests,” Edwina said
Edwina Bartholomew with husband Neil Varcoe. Pic: Edwina Robertson
Now, the couple can only wait.
“The process now is literally like watching paint dry. The next big step is community feedback on our Development Application. We have tried to bring everyone in town along for the journey of creating Saltash Farm and have tried to be sympathetic to the history and the heritage of the town in every single decision we have made and we really hope they love our plans as much as we do.”
“The build from here will all come down to logistics and planning. I hope to have our DA approved in a few months. If we can start mid-year, we would be on track to finish sometime in the middle of next year.
“Opening in Winter might be a shock to the system so we might delay our opening until Spring 2025 to make sure we are completely ready.”
Stay tuned for updates as we continue to follow Edwina and Neil’s renovation rollercoaster in our ongoing realcommercial.com.au series following their journey.
