INSIDE VICTORIAN COUPLE’S DESIGNER RETIREMENT RETREAT

Australian retirees William and Catherine Parsons have settled down in a frontline beach house on the country’s south coast, about a 90-minute drive from Melbourne.

They took the long way home.

Retirees Catherine and William Parsons demolished their previous family home before completing their new beach... — Retirees Catherine and William Parsons demolished their previous family home before completing their new beach house in 2019.

Leon Schoots for The Wall Street Journal

Back in 1995, Mr. Parsons, now a 71-year-old retired airline pilot, and his wife, 57, a retired nurse, spent $258,000 on a 1/7th-acre lot on a windy bluff on the, leading to the Port of Melbourne.

Their original plan was to raise their two daughters in a new 371sqm villa, completed in 1998, but faulty construction, they said, culminated in the home’s demolition in 2016. That fiasco paved the way for a $2.1 million do-over with new architects and new builders.

For several years the family endured makeshift living arrangements, including homeschooling their children, now adults, during extended overland trips on four continents, or “road schooling,” as Ms Parsons likes to call it.

Finally, in the autumn of 2019, the couple moved into a new 353sqm, four-bedroom home.

A dark-hue kitchen offers a respite from sunny days on Australia’s southern coast.

Leon Schoots for The Wall Street Journal

The three-story house has a concrete-and-eucalyptus facade sealed against potentially heavy winds and corrosive salt spray. The second floor has a sheltered terrace and pool area accessible from the split-level open living and dining area that highlights ocean views.

The couple make the most of the site, says Mr Parsons, with the help of poured-concrete walls and double-glaze windows. “We’re extremely exposed,” he says, “but the new house is rock solid. With the doors and windows closed, we can just hear the ocean. When they’re open, it’s like a train going past.”

Known for ideal surfing and hang-gliding conditions, the couple’s stretch of peninsula is a dunescape. They went for a wild look with $71,000 in landscaping, opting for low-maintenance indigenous species and a naturally planted roof garden.

The couple worked with Auhaus Architecture, a Melbourne studio specialising in upscale single-family homes. Kate Fitzpatrick, an Auhaus principal, estimates it costs an extra $160,000 to $200,000 to build on their site rather than on a sheltered inland lot. Benjamin Stibbard, her fellow Auhaus principal, says that the peninsula’s predominant southern winds, blowing most days off the ocean, can cause “rain that is horizontal,” adding that the house is “as waterproof as a bathtub.”

The peninsula can also have hot sunny spells in January and February, with temperatures well over 100 degrees. The couple spent $412,000 on concrete, and their double-thick walls help keep the house cool in summer and warm in winter.

The main section of the house includes a top-floor master suite and lower-level granny flat, while an adjoining single-storey wing, separated from the rest of the house by the $79,000 pool area and reached by a first-floor corridor, has bedrooms for their visiting daughters, as well as a music room and a yoga deck.

The shower in the master bath has a skylight.

Leon Schoots for The Wall Street Journal

To navigate the main portion of the house, the couple spent $52,000 on an elevator—an upgrade, jokes Ms Parsons, of the previous home’s dumbwaiter. But their major splurge, they say, was a spiral staircase.

“I have always had a thing for staircases,” says Ms Parsons of the $87,000 set of stairs, which has a looming sculptural presence when viewed from the pool and terrace.

The interior of the home tends to rely on dark elements, including eucalyptus panelling, but the staircase itself is painted gleaming white—at her architects’ suggestion, says Ms Parsons.

She might have opted for the original battered-silver of the unpainted steel, she says, but the white, she decided, “looks elegant.” On the whole, it “takes away the brutality” of the bare concrete walls that show traces of the wood forms used to shape them on site.

The kitchen has a hushed quality due to blue-green Japanese tiles, which give the back wall a dark iridescence. Left over from the master bathroom, one of four in the home, the single-glaze tiles were a last-minute substitute for a continuation of the veined white marble used for a countertop.

“The sun can be glaring in summer,” says Ms Parsons, “but there is something so lovely and soothing about looking at the kitchen—it’s like looking into a rock pool.”

One of two bedrooms reserved for the couple’s adult daughters.

Leon Schoots for The Wall Street Journal

The kitchen cost nearly $111,000, with $46,000 spent on a suite of American appliances from Wolf and Sub-Zero.

The staircase led to a second splurge: the placement of an antique piano that Mr Parsons inherited from his grandparents. Too big for the winding stairs, it was moved into the children’s wing with a crane while the house was still under construction.

“It was our first piece of furniture,” says Mr Parsons of the 19th-century upright, made in Dresden, Germany. Mr Parsons plays mainly classical music, while his daughters when visiting from college, may join in on the flute, guitar or ukulele. The plentiful concrete boosts the acoustics.

Settled into their new home at last, the couple have an easier time visiting nearby fellow retirees: Mr Parsons’ parents. “My father is 102 and my mother is 100,” he says, “and they’re still going strong.”

The exposed lot provides rousing ocean views but also exposes the home to harsh conditions.

Leon Schoots for The Wall Street Journal

Greenwich, Connecticut, is in New England (just barely), but that doesn’t mean it’s a quaint, sleepy small town with covered bridges and white churches on the green.

It’s leafy, certainly, but it’s also a luxury-minded power centre close to New York City, with many celebrity residents (director Ron Howard, singer Diana Ross, actor Meryl Streep and, at one time, Australia’s own Mel Gibson).

The main shopping street, Greenwich Avenue, is home to brand stores such as Hermès, Kate Spade, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Tiffany & Co.

And Greenwich, particularly in the “back country” north of the Merritt Parkway, is host to some of the most exclusive real estate in the world.

The average price for a single-family home in the second quarter of 2025 was USD $3.25 million (AUD $4.9 million). But that’s merely an entry point, buying a smaller home in one of the town’s less desirable neighbourhoods.

What does USD $43 million (AUD $66 million) buy in Greenwich?

Last autumn’s most expensive listing offered a 1,068-square-metre waterfront home with eight bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, plus “Gatsby-like lawns”, a gym, games room, party room, wine cellar, fruit orchard, pool and spa. The front and side porches have heated floors.

Prefer something more traditional and secluded? For USD $33 million (AUD $50 million), buyers could close on an 11,760-square-metre Georgian manor on 3.2 hectares, featuring eight fireplaces, an elevator, and a dumbwaiter.

The first floor features a three-storey cascading chandelier. For bibliophiles, there’s a two-storey mahogany library. If bocce is more your pace, a similar USD $25 million compound on 7.5 hectares, built for a liquor magnate in 2009, may appeal. Fourteen bathrooms should suffice.

The Greenwich market is strong, but not without challenges.

“The big problem is that there’s no inventory,” said Evangela Brock, an agent with Douglas Elliman. “It’s extremely low at all price points.”

In November, just 15 properties under USD $1 million (AUD $1.52 million) were listed without contracts, compared with 23 above USD $10 million (AUD $15.2 million). Of those, six had contracts pending. Greenwich has more than 17,000 single-family homes.

Kanebridge Quarterly toured two mid-priced houses in Greenwich. “You don’t lose money in Greenwich real estate,” said Beth MacGillivray, a realtor with the Higgins Group. “This is the hot spot.”

MacGillivray opened the door to a 733.9-square-metre Georgian colonial in the Sherwood Farms Association development her family built in 2005. The house was expected to sell for about USD $5 million (AUD $7,743,535).

The six-bedroom, four-level house is move-in ready, with staged furniture showing its potential and many of the amenities that buyers in this range expect.

Visitors enter through a two-storey foyer with a marble floor. A circular staircase leads to an airy living room with double-height ceilings.

There’s a main bedroom with his-and-hers bathrooms, a cherry-panelled library with cigar-smoke venting, five fireplaces, and a state-of-the-art kitchen with a breakfast nook by Greenwich-based designer Christopher Peacock.

Most rooms have huge walk-in wardrobes. Even the laundry room has granite countertops. Custom millwork, cabinetry and fixtures are evident throughout.

The drawbacks? A smaller yard and no pool. Still, refugees from the city would marvel at the abundant interior space.

Not far away, an entirely different house was on the market for USD $2.66 million.

The imposing 696.7-square-metre, nine-bedroom, seven-bath Georgian/Federal home on Shady Lane in the Glenville neighbourhood was built in 1900. Its good bones and inherent grandeur were apparent, as was a clear need for updating.

“It’s a good project for someone,” said realtor Kaori Higgins. “It needs the right buyer, someone who is looking to return it to its stately original condition.”

Given the hot market, some buyers may be tempted to tear it down and build anew.

But the house is filled with charming period details, including hand-built stone fireplaces, reading nooks, pocket doors, leaded windows and beautiful original millwork.

The second floor offers a vast veranda with views of Long Island Sound and a built-in swimming pool.

The drawbacks? Bathrooms that were awkwardly redesigned in the 1970s, unsightly flooring on the upper levels, and crumbling exterior elements.

Higgins noted that a nearby sister property, fully renovated, sold for USD $11 million (AUD $17 million). Any buyer of Shady Lane’s faded elegance would need both imagination and deep pockets.

For contrast, Kanebridge Quarterly left Greenwich for nearby Fairfield’s upscale Greenfield Hill neighbourhood to visit Lion’s Gate, a 595 square metre Tudor Revival home built as a modest dwelling in the 1920s but extensively expanded and remodelled in 2000.

With three acres of land, a guest cottage, an artist’s studio and a pool house, the asking price is USD $3.3 million (AUD $5 million). Like the Sherwood home, Lion’s Gate is flawlessly move-in ready, with designer touches throughout.

The entire second floor was added during the renovation and features parquet flooring, a massive main suite, arched doorways and 2.74-metre ceilings.

Many rooms include walk-in wardrobes, extensive carved millwork and built-ins. The wood-panelled library (on the site of the former stable) is warm and inviting.

The expansive kitchen includes a window seat with a hand-painted ceiling, a wine cooler and a butler’s pantry.

Realtor Lorelei Atwood said Fairfield faces the same inventory shortage as Greenwich.

“Demand is growing as more New York-based executives are being told they have to report to the office,” she said. “Fairfield has always been a commuter town.”

Why is this home USD $3.3 million (AUD $5 million), and the Sherwood property around USD $5 million (AUD $7,743,535)?

Location. Greenfield Hill is lovely, but Greenwich real estate occupies a rarefied class of its own.

Note: Thanks to realtor Sherri Steeneck for chaperoning.

This story appeared in the Autumn issue of Kanebridge Quarterly, which you can buy here.

INSIDE VICTORIAN COUPLE’S DESIGNER RETIREMENT RETREAT

From faulty family villa to modern beach house.

Retirees Catherine and William Parsons demolished their previous family home before completing their new beach house in 2019.

A dark-hue kitchen offers a respite from sunny days on Australia’s southern coast.

The shower in the master bath has a skylight.

One of two bedrooms reserved for the couple’s adult daughters.

The exposed lot provides rousing ocean views but also exposes the home to harsh conditions.

A haven for hedge-fund titans and Hollywood grandees, Greenwich is one of the world’s most expensive residential enclaves, where eye-watering prices meet unapologetic grandeur.