House History

Contents

A brief description of the how, why and where from of some of the contents of Little Pig Creek.

Lounge Room

Various cane chairs. Belonged to Peter’s grandmother.

Art-Deco curved-ended cupboard. From a Sydney Vinnie’s op-shop. Originally painted white. Restored by Loo.

Front and back doors. Originally, they were a pair of rounded-edged swing doors from the Guyra theatre, (New England Highway). We found them leaning up against the back stage wall in the Guyra theatre which had long since closed and was being used as a second-hand shop. They were covered in blue paint and the frosted glass panels had been painted black. The lead-light panels were made to match the old side-lights either side of the front door. Restored by Loo.

Australian red cedar side table. Found sitting out in the open in a demolition yard. It has ‘cotton reel’ legs which have different numbers of ‘reels’ reflecting the hand crafted nature of this piece. Restored by Loo.

Metal ware on sideboard. Various water jugs and pots. Brought back from trips to Far Northern Pakistan.

Stereo cabinet. Found in a second hand store in Nowra. Originally used as a cocktail cabinet (C1950’s?)

Textile pieces and carpets. Mostly brought back from trips to India, Pakistan, Turkey, Morocco, and Iran. The main wall hanging above the day bed is a suzani tent wall hanging from Uzbekistan, bought in Australia.

Hall gallery. The black and white photographs in the hall way were taken by friends, most of them by Martin, who is also responsible for the majority of the music collection. The black dog was Peter’s dog. She was a devoted Kelpie who he named ‘Biro’ “as it was the most stupid name I could think of ”, (quote, Peter).

Yes, that is me sitting on a glacier having morning tea at 4,500m in the Karakoram Mountains in Northern Pakistan.

Kitchen

Blue and white china wall-mounted canisters. Belonged to Peter’s auntie Pauline.

Oak cupboard. I spotted this in a car repair workshop. It was in very bad condition and painted white, (see photo inside centre door). It was being used to store car parts in and was soaked with oil. All the shelves had to be replaced as there was no way of removing the oil. Although the glass door panels were broken, most of the glass pieces were in tact and in one of the draws, so they just had to be re-leaded. Most of the glass is original. Restored by Loo and friend, (glass lead work by a friend).

Kitchen bench top. Given to Peter by a family friend, this piece has had many lives. It is a single solid piece of Queensland kauri pine, one of the few southern hemisphere conifers or softwoods. I believe it started life as a jeweller’s bench. The half round cut-out is used by jewellers to attach a piece of leather or rubber sheeting to. This catches and funnels any gold dust into a container below.

Narrow window sets. Peter bought a job lot of these windows at an auction for $20. There were about 50 of them. I realised they would fit the existing window openings so they were stripped and used in both of the bedrooms, the bathroom, kitchen and sunroom. All the white paint was stripped off in a bath. They are a mixture of Oregon and redwood. The remainder were sold for $120! Restored by Loo.

Tile Panel over gas stove. Traditional Portuguese hand painted tiles called azuljeos, bought in Sintra, Portugal in 1992 and brought back in a suitcase. (Had to do some fast talking to avoid paying excess baggage charges!).

Zanussi gas stove. This is around 35 years old and a commercial stove from an establishment in KV. We totally stripped it down to remove 30 years of baked dinners. It needed minor repairs which were carried out by my partner. I liked it so much I bought a new one for our new house but this old one is nicer to cook on!

Copper pan hanging on wall. A traditional cooking vessel from Northern Turkish Cypress. Copper lined with tin. A house warming present from a friend who lived there.

Sun Room

Book shelves and kitchen shelves. Originally were tops of kitchen dressers but had lost the bottom bits by the time I got them.

Box on bookshelf. This box is made from Australian silky oak. It is a makeup box that belonged to a ballerina. It still contains theatrical makeup from a bygone era, including receipts and a card from an admirer.

Pot in stand on bookshelf. Sago pot from Papua New Guinea, brought back from my travels.

Round brass topped table. From India, passed down through my father’s side of the family. Originally brought back from India by a friend of my grandmothers who lived there as a young woman. (C.1900?)

Rectangular wooden coffee table. Classic Australian kitchen table with Australian red cedar legs and sugar pine top stained to look like red cedar. Sacrilegiously cut down by me!

Bathroom

Ball and claw cast iron bath. It was being used as a horse trough in the paddock opposite the driveway entrance. Resurfaced in Sydney.

Marble topped wash stand. Spied in a second hand store in Caboolture, QLD. Brought home on the back of the ute. Original condition.

Vanity cupboard and basin. The cupboard was originally an Edison gramophone. The right hand top lifted up to reveal the record player,(you can still see the division in the top piece). One cupboard housed the speaker while the other had divisions for storing records. It was painted matt black inside and had fabric set inside the lattice panels of the cupboard doors to let the sound out. The end by the toilet still has the hole where the winding handle was. The basin came from a demolition yard.

Restored by Loo. Cupboard door panels painted to match old hearth tiles used as splash back.

Wash stand set. It would have been used in a bedroom to provide washing facilities. The set consists of a water jug, chamber pot, a soap dish and a sponge dish. I presume there would also have been a matching washing bowl which is missing.

Bedrooms

Bi-fold doors. These Australian red cedar double bi-fold doors originally graced Her Majesty’s Theatre in Brisbane. We picked them up in a second hand shop there. Originally painted blue and badly water damaged, a photo in the album shows the state of disrepair of the right hand door. Restored by Loo and friends.

Iron Bed. I don’t know much about this bed except I bought it in an antique shop in Kiama in 1986. It was rusty so I had it restored.

Loo Taylor.