Paul McCosker is preparing to farewell a historic Corrimal mansion nearly 50 years after he fell in love with it from the seat of a passing train.
He has spent more than $700,000 bringing what is known as Wilgendene back to life and will now sell it for a price still to be determined.
"When I first saw it as a teenager on the train it was something out of the box with its late-Victorian Italiante features that included a widow's walk tower and verandahs wrapped in cast iron," he recalled.
PHOTO GALLERY - All the majesty of Wilgadene "I was raised in Bulli and left Wollongong in 1976 vowing never to return unless I could own that house."
When he eventually did return in 2002, the architectural interior designer was saddened by what had become of the house in Jones Place.
"It was an overgrown mess and nothing like I'd imagined, but I bought it because I was in so deep emotionally I had to keep going," Mr McCosker said.
"My wife Dee was horrified ... it was so bad we had to live in the garage for four years."
A previous owner had removed all the verandahs and sprayed the house with white textured paint which took more than 500 hours to remove.
"One of the worst discoveries were the 10,000 dead bees and rotting honeycomb in the roof cavity below my son's bedroom," Mr McCosker said.
The meticulous renovation took eight years and is expected to be finished within a few months.
"When we started the work, the place was very close to demolition so I'm extremely proud of the transformation," Mr McCosker said.
"We have tried to get it back to as close as its original state as possible and often that meant going interstate or getting features like the cast iron verandah poles specially made."
Mr McCosker, 61, said he and his wife had grown to love the house but it was too big for just for the couple and their eight-year-old son, Jack, whose first two years were spent in the garage.
"The valuer is yet to come up with a sale price because she says there is nothing to compare it with in the Illawarra," he said.
Email a friend