I'd bought it for $170,000ish, which seems astounding when considering house prices in the inner city now. Even then it was cheap, particularly for a four bedroom, double-storey Victorian terrace just minutes from Smith Street. Ok, yes, Smith Street was junkie central in those days, but it was still a great place to live. Occasionally the front tap would be left on, once a pair of Docs disappeared from the back yard but generally the junkies weren't any worry. The reason it was a bargain was that the outside wall threatened to tumble into the lane: it bulged and buckled, it showered plaster into the house and crumbling bricks onto passersby. Every day I'd walk down Wellington Street and expect to see a pile of bricks where my house had been when I'd left that morning.
The house was built on the Yarra floodplain that extends through Abbotsford and Collingwood right up to Wellington Street. And because that land doesn't flood anymore the soil was terminally dry and subsiding. In addition the house had been built at a time when lime was in great demand and short supply - in fact much of Melbourne's lime was being shipped from Walkerville. The lack of lime - particularly in cheap terrace housing in working class inner 'burbs - meant poor quality mortar, which meant crumbling brickwork a century later... So, poor soil, poor mortar, poor house...
Short story: excavated under the house, poured concrete foundations, stabilsed the house, added tie-rods to stop the wall collapsing, slapped paint on everything and hocked it for a profit!
Although emotionally and physically exhausted (my own fault for studying post-grad communications, working full-time and renovating all at the same time...), I was reasonably cashed up and free!
And that was a long time ago...
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