In preparation for the sale of her beloved family home, Michelle Kirkby, a Logan local and high school teacher, painted over the wall markings that charted the heights of her three children as they grew up.
“We had a height chart on the wall between the bathroom and the kitchen/dining area,” Ms Kirkby said.
“I’ve traced it all onto a piece of paper so that we can put it up in the next house.”
Ms Kirkby’s family moved into 65 Dennis Road, Springwood on her son’s 11th birthday. He’s turning 30 this coming January.
“I’m really hoping that a family will come in and love it as well,” Ms Kirkby said.
“I’m looking forward to the new adventure, but yeah, it’s going to be hard to say goodbye.”
“We’ve poured a lot of love into that house.”
Ms Kirkby describes the original pre-renovated house as looking like a large brown box, with wood panelling on every wall and two layers of wallpaper beneath that.
“I’ve never removed so much wallpaper; if I ever have to remove wallpaper again, I’ll cry.”
The property was built in the early 1980s, but the interior has been completely renovated to suit the dual living capabilities Ms Kirkby and her family needed.
“When we bought the house in 2006, we were looking to get into real estate and we wanted to have our own home,” Ms Kirkby said.
“The only way we could do that was with the help of my parents, so we all moved in together.
“Mum and dad moved downstairs so they could help us pay the house off, and we built them a unit under the house.”
Ms Kirkby’s parents no longer live in the downstairs ‘granny flat’. Her father, who had a significant hand in the renovation construction, passed away 11 years ago, and her mother moved out almost five years ago when she remarried.
Ms Kirkby’s young adult son now rents the downstairs area, which has an independent kitchen, multiple living areas, two bedrooms, a walk-in robe, a bathroom, and a separate laundry room.
Ms Kirkby said the 12m deck on the property’s upper level was her favourite feature.
“You can see all the way to Mount Tamborine on a nice, clear day, and even just seeing the trees in the surrounding yards is very pretty,” she said.
“There’s probably not a lot of properties like ours in Springwood because it’s two separate living areas, so if you wanted to rent it out to someone you didn’t know, you could.”
Ms Kirkby grew up in south Brisbane but moved to Logan about 30 years ago when she had the first of her three children.
Ms Kirkby and her husband plan to move to Ipswich, where her eldest child and grandchild live, and where the high school she teaches at is located.
“I will miss just how close everything is to where we’re positioned in Springwood,” Ms Kirkby said.
“The house would be perfect for young families that have got kids and are getting to that point where they need the grandparents close by to help look after the kids.
“There’s plenty of room in the backyard to put a trampoline, we had a 16ft trampoline in the backyard for a while.”
