You could lounge in the souped-up shipping container/sports bar or swim up to submerged bar stools and enjoy all the State of Origin action with your mates – with loads of room to social distance even – in this Gumdale home.
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The pool area at 154 Formosa Road, Gumdale.
The outdoor kitchen where the owners were able to prep all their meals while their home was being renovated over nine months.
When all states and territories went into COVID-19 lockdown earlier this year, the renovated six-bedroom home on one hectare at 154 Formosa Road, Gumdale came into its own.
The property has a floating cabana and swim-up bar in the lagoon pool
There’s a floodlit tennis court with a basketball hoop.
Organise your own tournament at home.
The alfresco terrace has an outdoor kitchen and fireplace.
An outdoor fire pit and dining area under trees was added a year ago.
And there’s a shipping container in the back entertainment quarter that is decked out like a sports bar with its own rooftop terrace and neon signage, perfect for a State of Origin night in at your place.
This is one of Megan’s favourite spots for a morning cup of coffee.
The family undertook this project themselves.
All of that before you even step indoors to the 400sq m single level home – and before you get stuck into the commercial wine cellar.
Collect the finest wines from around the world and keep them all right here at home.
Owners Peter and Megan Price’s day job is to feed the US Navy when ships call into ports in the Asia Pacific Region but the half a cow that is dry-ageing in a glass-doored fridge at this Gumdale house will satisfy appetites much closer to home.
The only problem is this meal won’t be ready for another month at least.
“That’s a whole grass fed bone-in Angus rib fillet,” Mr Price said.
The property at 154 Formosa Road, Gumdale.
“We normally do one for 45 days and we’ll pull the other one out at 60 days. There’s a bit of a difference, the kids say it gets more funky – their words – richer and a stronger flavour.”
The Price family in 2005: Peter and Megan with children, Harry 6yrs, Paddy 5yrs, Isabella 2yrs, Millicent 3yrs, and Georgia 9yrs. Photograph: Mark Cranitch
On this day 26 years ago, the newlyweds had no idea that their future family would be able to consume such a feast in one sitting, but their five children are almost all adults now, and the youngest, Izzy, is sitting her final HSC exams in a Sydney boarding school while her Christmas dinner tenderises in another state.
With three daughters in Sydney and two sons in Brisbane, getting everyone together for a meal has been a challenge this year and that’s one reason why the Prices are moving from their home on the south eastern outskirts of Brisbane.
The family at Paddy’s school formal in 2017 at 154 Formosa Road, Gumdale.
“We couldn’t get our daughter home for the last school holidays,” Mrs Price said.
“She had the two weeks. We put in an application and made requests. They gave New South Wales residents in Queensland boarding schools permission to go home and come back, but not Queensland residents in New South Wales boarding schools.
“We said we’d isolate with her at home and they said one of us would have to go into quarantine with her for two weeks. So she would have spent the holidays in quarantine and then had to go back to school.”
But this was not the home the Prices were looking for when they decided to move from Brisbane’s inner-eastern suburb of Bulimba four years ago.
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“No, not at all,” Mr Price said. “I always thought acreage was too far out of town.”
They bought a vacant block of land in Bulimba and were going to build but then gave up on that idea and went to an auction on the river in Bulimba on a Wednesday night.
“Meg saw this place advertised in the local paper on Thursday morning and we came and looked at it on Thursday afternoon. It was going to auction on Saturday.”
There’s a timber bathtub in the open ensuite and yes, that’s a hot water outdoor shower around the corner.
Still not intending to buy the property, the family went to rugby training at Villanova Park on Saturday morning before deciding to swing by the auction.
“The other dads were bagging me that I’ll never mow all that grass,” he said.
The couple ended up the only bidders in the auction and bought the property unchallenged for $1.815m.
So much of this 100m x100m property is developed that there’s very little grass to mow but it does feel nice under foot.
“So in three days we’d gone from a riverfront home at Bulimba to acreage and we had to go back to all the (rugby) fathers who were bagging me to tell them we’d bought it.”
Best not to ask what those same rugby dads think of the family’s next move.
“We’ve found a 100 acre property out the back of Coffs Harbour,” Mr Price said.
“It’s 15 minutes to the beach and we’ll have our own cattle.”
The home is a halfway point between Sydney and Brisbane and there is room for everyone to stay, while Mr Price will have 60 head of Angus cattle to drool over.
The couple also plan to keep apartments in Sydney and Brisbane and while their Military Services business will continue to operate out of Brisbane, they will also be able to work remotely from the farm.
The floating cabana at 154 Formosa Road, Gumdale.
Their Gumdale home is for sale now through Tyson Clarke of Queensland Sotheby’s International with best offers to be received by November 25 at 2pm.
