Haslingden house, merimbula, new south wales
It’s difficult for me to talk about this house. The Haslingden’s became so much more to me than ‘great clients’.
The house finished in 1998 but my friendship endured until the day they died. They mentored and nurtured a young architect struggling to make a living and raise a family in a small coastal town. They totally supported and encouraged me. The even funded me when I finally got off my #rse and designed a home for my family. At a pivotal moment during construction I confided a fear in a part of the design I considered ‘folly’. Mrs ‘Hasoe’ turned to me and said ‘don’t get mediocre on me now’.
Their house remains one of my simplest and favorite houses. It’s now in the care of daughter Sall (I designed her Mittagong House) and it’s embedded with memories of crazy nights limbo dancing under the smoke haze of another burnt dinner washed down by Old Tom’s vintage St. Henri claret…..