The real estate market is reluctantly dragging itself away from its summer holidays and new listings are popping up online. It’s still a little slow… like the kids going back to school in the coming weeks. Kicking their heels and whinging about everything. Like I am with my real estate leftovers. Call me whiney, particular, choosy and hard to please. I’m fussy when it comes to which houses make it on to the blog. Not quite right, bad photos, I need more photos please! House is amazing furniture is deplorable. Can’t quite put my finger on it listings with something that has me nodding “yes”. This week’s finds include the obligatory exorbitantly priced inner city Sydney and Melbourne homes, a small country farm, a cute little studio apartment and a beach shack that tumbles onto the sand (I shudder at the thought of the price). All via realestate.com.au.

escape (noun) ih-skeyp ~ a form of temporary distraction from reality or routine.

Elysium (noun) ih-lizh-ee-uhm ~ any place or state of perfect happiness; paradise.

daydream (noun) dey-dreem ~ a reverie indulged in while awake.

Masseria Tenuta Potenti via Welcome Beyond.

Almost like cartoon construct, this Willoughby, Sydney home by Tribe Studio plays with bricks like a child with Lego. House of lofty spaces, house of light, open and bright. Not heavy. Not oppressive. Not dreadful chocolate brown hangover from the 70s. No. A celebration of adult size building blocks.

This 19th century Victorian style house San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury neighborhood was “remodelled” with the best of hippie intentions. Jump forward to the 21st century and architects Mork Ulnes have respected the building’s past and added their own slightly scandi touches to this renovation of the top 2 floors. Beautiful light floods into the attic bedroom while the butcher-block stairway and bridge provide drama and a sense of transition from public to private space.

A compact and stylish addition to a bijou cottage in Kensington, Melbourne. By sinking the extension into the ground Architects EAT have created a large, open living area that spills into an internal courtyard. Further down a corridor that skirts the courtyard (hi there cute reinforcing rod vertical garden!) is a 2 storey addition containing an enviable studio workroom and master bedroom and ensuite above. 165m² of clever solutions to living large in a small footprint. Photography by James Coombe.