He left the corporate world to become a stay-at-home dad and try his luck writing children’s books. Nine books later, Richard Newsome is selling the Brisbane home where his career gamble paid off.
Mr Newsome and his wife, Kathryn Britt, are closing the book on 20 years at 35 Barchester Street, Sherwood, putting their 1914 Queenslander on the market with a plot worth a read.
It was in the main bedroom that Mr Newsome took the career-changing call from Text Publishing about his debut, The Billionaire’s Curse, which won the inaugural Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing.
“It was like I’d won lotto. It was an incredible moment,” Mr Newsome said.
He wrote eight of his nine books in pencil on the back deck, overlooking the garden and swimming pool, and estimates he penned half a million words there.
“It’s so calm and peaceful,” Mr Newsome said.
“The back deck has this beautiful, relaxing green outlook. You could almost be overlooking a valley in the countryside. It’s so calm and secluded,” Mr Newsome said.
He edited his manuscripts in a hammock on the front verandah, overlooking the quiet street where his children played cricket with their neighbours and rode bikes and skateboards.
“It’s like going back decades in time. It really is how suburbs used to be,” Mr Newsome said.
Their youngest child was a little over two when they moved in and is now 22. With all three children grown, the couple is downsizing to northern New South Wales.
“It’s been the centre of our lives, from the kids going to school to heading off and having lives of their own,” he said.
The five-bedroom, three-bathroom home occupies 810sqm across two lots, with a 20-metre frontage, wraparound verandah, French doors and timber floors.
Over their two decades in the home, the couple renovated the kitchen, bathrooms and laundry, transformed the backyard and swimming pool, and added upstairs air-conditioning and insulation to the back deck.
The north-facing deck overlooks the pool and established gardens, while the lower level includes a lounge, wet bar and covered patio.
“You can understand why Richard stayed here for 20 years. There’s a sense of retreat when you look out from the back deck, yet you’re close to the arboretum, cafés and train,” Place New Farm partner and selling agent Ann-Karyn Fraser said.
“The next family can enjoy the verandahs, French doors and timber floors that give a Queenslander its character, with the kitchen and bathrooms already renovated. There’s room for children to grow up here, just as Richard’s have.”
Mr Newsome is now working on a new manuscript and adjusting to a different writing routine.
“The biggest challenge is that I don’t have that back deck with the beautiful view to write on anymore,” he said.
“We’ll miss it, but it’s time for another family to make their memories here. It truly is a brilliant family home.”
35 Barchester Street, Sherwood, will go under the hammer onsite at 10am on Saturday, 14 November.