THREE blocks from the beautiful and energetic East Fremantle riverbank is Itasca.

This 1948 Californian-style, five-bedroom, four-bathroom property sits on a whopping 2049sqm and is both elegant and dynamic.

Thought to be named after a small American town in the Great Lake Districts, this thoroughly modern home features an intriguing contrast: sheer grandeur and a surprisingly strong sense of familiarity and closeness.

As the agent notes, “grand proportions are complemented by leadlight windows, beautifully detailed ceilings, glossy timber floorboards and an elegant circular driveway”.

From the front the home presents as a charming post-war bungalow: you can almost imagine an FJ pulling up.

But inside, the home is a 21st century jaw-dropper.

Clean white walls, long, vanished timber floorboards and high ceilings provide an interior gallery-style canvas limited only by imagination and your budget for art.

The stunning main suite is upstairs and the other well-appointed bedrooms, bathrooms and huge laundry are at the front of the house, as are living and TV rooms and study areas.

Most family living will be done at the back, in the sumptuous extension and on the rear deck, and it’ll be done in style.

The kitchen features light timber in modern lines, a caesarstone island benchtop and stainless steel cooker and fridge. There’s oodles of storage for everything. It adjoins both a spacious dining area—you’ll need a big table—and the jarrah deck. A lot of thought has gone into making this a practical space that traverses both inside and alfresco living.

Outside, the timber deck features a full-on BBQ and pizza oven and it overlooks a vast—and I don’t use the word lightly—vast backyard with beautiful, lush and expertly landscaped lawn, surrounded by mature, leafy trees. Limestone edging adds elegance, as does a second patio, this one brick-paved, off to the side, opposite a fully appointed 33sqm studio that provides opportunities to accommodate teens, grandparents or visitors.

If that wasn’t enough, at the rear of this incredible backyard is a full-size tennis court and the old stablemaster’s house, used now as a huge garden shed and for storage.

Canny investors may get a glint in their eye at the possibilities for subdivision with this property, but romantics will swoon over this picture-perfect, thoroughly fabulous Australian home.

Here’s hoping the romantics win with this one.

by JACOB NAZROO and BRIAN MITCHELL

33 Osborne Rd, East FremantleFrom
$1.95 million
Contact Peter Clements
(Mint Real Estate)
0415 920 920 | 9284 6000