WINTER solstice (June 21) is a time of celebration for me because it means the hemisphere is on a trajectory towards warmth, while blood-curdling cries can be heard from our place at the summer solstice as we lament the coming of shorter days and cold. Living at Solstice Tower in East Perth you can enjoy…

A SERIES of solid cast-iron bicycle seat moulds remain under the floor of the converted warehouse at the rear of this Mt Lawley property. The expansive building has been put to a number of uses over the years, including a bike and a kapok mattress factory, and a dairy. It was a gymnasium in 1939…

THERE was a touch of deja vu pulling up to this home in Ralston Place, Dianella. With its sweeping curved walls it’s reminiscent of one of my favourite Perth homes, a late art deco delight called Blue Waters, which was a national sensation when built in Como in 1950. This one is newer and white.…

HOLMFIRTH is home to long-running BBC series Last of the Summer Wine, which starred a young and chubby Catherine Zeta Jones gambolling through some of the prettiest country you could ever wish to wander. Holmfirth Street is in Menora and while CZJ hasn’t been spied in these parts, this is as pretty a home you…

LONELY PLANET is blunt in its description of Northbridge’s Kakulas Brothers: “A ramshackle provisions store overflowing with dirt-cheap legumes, nuts and olives.” To generations of Perth folk the store, which began trading in 1929, is a treasure trove of exotic and domestic comestibles, and they’d have it no other way. The Greek brothers who started…

“LEFT on right,” the sat-nav said. Confused, I shouted back at it “Left or right?!” But of course it didn’t respond, it’s only a machine. Then the penny dropped and there it was on the corner, a modern French-provincial styled designer home on Wright Street, Highgate. It’s bookended by two heavily treed parks, and the pleasant…

HOME and family is writ large at this Frances Street, Mt Lawley home. The vendors have been so comfortable living in this delightful leafy suburb their decision to move after 30 years is a reluctant one. And no wonder: you’re greeted by a grassy front garden shaded by mature trees, a wrap-around verandah and a…

AUGUSTUS ROOKWOOD is one of the bad wizards in Harry Potter and rooks generally get a bad rap in literature. But this terrific home on Rookwood Street, Mt Lawley is more like a book you love to cuddle up with in bed. The gorgeous 1920s manse has been brought back to its former glory and…

SOARING liquidambar peering over a high corrugated iron wall is one of the many attractions of this cute apartment. The glorious trees are dressed in their summer green at the moment but it won’t be long before they don blazing orange, yellow and red in a glorious prelude to their winter nakedness. “A sense of…

ADULT kids still living at home with mum and dad has reached such epic proportions in the US and Canada that Crowded Nest Syndrome Day was proclaimed in 2012. Kathleen Shaputis, founder of the day and author of The Crowded Nest; Surviving the Return of Adult Children jokes you know things are crowded when: •…