The country house that was destined to be built
When the opportunity arose to purchase a property that had slipped through their fingers years ago, the owners jumped at the chance to fulfil their dreams for a farmhouse
4 min
There’s a sense of inevitably about this home in regional NSW, or, at least, destiny. When owners David and Pippa Beak, of Beak & Sons fame, decided to buy a property outside of Sydney, Pippa already had a place in mind. The Sydney couple were looking for a second home where they could entertain family and friends, as well as business contacts associated with their company, Mr Beak’s, who manufacture ready made meals, sausages and other meat products available through major supermarkets.
The locality of Kerrabee, equidistant between Mudgee, Muswellbrook and Rylstone, is prime farming land, ideal for raising top quality cattle. It also had a 1.2ha property Pippa was already familiar with.
“Pippa’s father attempted to buy this farm about 50 years ago and missed out,” says architect Michael Bell. “It turned out it was available, so they bought it.”
While the farmland was perfect for running Angus, a renowned carcass breed, the existing house was not the light-filled farmhouse the couple had envisaged. However, it did offer clues to the best position for a new home.
“When you’re working with a new site, you don’t always know the land well and you have to make sure to pick somewhere where it will not flood,” Bell says.
“The original site is a good place to start because the house had been there for a number of years (without incident).”
The old house would have to make way for the new, but instead of demolishing the existing three-bedroom dwelling, which was relatively new, it was relocated further up the hill to function as additional accommodation when guests come to stay.
For the main site, Bell designed a welcoming four-bedroom house in a classic farmhouse style that functions like a contemporary home. Key to creating the look and feel the owners desired was the corrugated steel pitched roof with deep wraparound verandas to offer protection from the summer heat while still allowing the sun to penetrate the house in winter.
“They wanted something that appeared established,” Bell says. “They liked the look of the large rooms and the wraparound verandas, but it was also important that the kitchen faced east to get that morning sun and they wanted to be able to look across the garden.”
Internally, 3.2m high ceilings in all the rooms create a sense of space, light and old world charm, while slightly wider French doors carry the theme through without interrupting the flow.
“Even though the language is that traditional style, we started with 3.2m high ceilings, and we have those large doors to get that open feel at the same time as maintaining the look of the old style house,” he says. “It’s traditional, warm and familiar but it is also open and light like a modern house.
“There’s also plenty of light and air which some people feel they will not get in a house like this.”
While it is often just the owners at the house, they regularly cater for guests, so the open plan kitchen needed to be suitable for managing larger groups as well as the couple’s day-to-day needs.
An expansive island bench with marble top and open shelving works in well with the Shaker-style profile to provide the entertainer’s kitchen David and Pippa required.
“Pippa is a keen cook and she has access to the best food,” Bell says. “A big part of David’s business is networking and they will often have up to 14 visitors at a time.”
The generous living area has the ability to be partially closed off when desired, which is especially useful in winter when the fire is in use, but internal French doors and a central ceiling fan ensure air flow is maintained.
In keeping with the focus on entertaining, design work on the property extended outdoors, with a fenced-in pool and classic cabana along with not one, but three outdoor cooking facilities.
“David grew up in Argentina so he wanted a Brazilian barbecue, along with a pizza oven and a standard barbecue,” Bell says. “They also have grown children and grandchildren so the house is serving that extended family.”
While the property is very much a working farm, Bell says there are some departures from the traditional layout.
“We put the house away from the sheds and up the valley a bit further. It’s a ‘city people’ thing to do,” he says. “Farmers are on the land all the time and they will have the house close to the sheds so they don’t have to walk.
“The main thing was to be able to hook up to the existing electricity otherwise you would have to put up new poles and wires. The house was a fraction too big to be completely off grid but it’s all solar with diesel back up.”
Although construction was completed during COVID lockdowns, the work schedule was relatively unaffected. Scone builder Darryl Rossington from Rossington Building Contractors was tasked with completing the construction of the house.
“Because we live in Kiama, we weren’t affected by the Sydney lockdowns while this was built. We got most of it done prior to the supply chain issues,” says Bell.
Although Bell visited the site regularly, having a builder experienced in classic farmhouse-style buildings was essential.
“If you have builders who are used to doing our kind of work, using people like Darryl makes things easier,” Bell says.
“If a builder who is used to doing contemporary work is asking me about things like gutter profiles, it slows things down.
“With Darryl, I don’t have to talk about those things, and it’s important because you can’t get up there on site at the drop of a hat.
“You need to be able to rely on them.”
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Georgetown agent Jamie Peva blends history and real estate on Instagram, turning local stories into a powerful sales strategy.
5 min
On a recent morning in Georgetown—Washington, D.C.’s oldest neighborhood—real-estate agent Jamie Peva strode down leafy N Street, brimming with historical tidbits.
Jackie Kennedy once lived on the street, he said. So did Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of the Washington Post, along with a former Miss America and a powerful U.S. Senator. Bradlee’s widow, author Sally Quinn, and Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, own stately homes there.
“I’ve seen a picture of Lyndon Johnson coming out of this house,” said Peva, passing a Federal-style brick mansion. “Also, the Beatles went to a lawn party here.”
Peva, a 60-year-old agent with Washington Fine Properties, has sold Georgetown real estate for over three decades, often traversing the neighborhood by bicycle. Of the roughly 2,500 houses in the historic neighborhood, he has been involved in the sale of 460, he estimated. A self-styled historian of the neighborhood, he knows stories behind its houses and their owners going back generations.
With a knack for lively storytelling, he shares his knowledge with some 37,500 Instagram followers, who have made Peva—sporting the bow ties he has worn since boarding school—an unlikely social-media influencer. Many of his followers are locals, and most have no plans to buy or sell real estate—until they do. It is then, according to Peva, that his spirited reels bring him to mind.
“It’s the digital version of a refrigerator magnet,” he said.
After Peva’s first video in November 2023, his eponymous Instagram account sparked a 10% increase in sales volume in the first year, and another 20% the next, he estimated. “It’s been very good for business, there is no question about it,” he said.
But Peva’s posts have also made him a local celebrity. As he walked down N street, the driver of a Mercedes station wagon slowed down to honk and wave. A lady walking a large dark gray dog stopped to ask what he was filming that day (a reel about a Colonial-era bottling plant.) Peva knew the dog from walking his two springers, Jumpy and Peggy-O, in the neighborhood.
“I need to make a video about the pooches of Georgetown,” he mused.
A growing number of real-estate agents now use social media to sell, and some have millions of followers with reels featuring ultraluxury pads, selling tips or reality TV-style reports on their daily lives. While Peva posts about his listings—and sometimes those of other agents—he mostly focuses on Georgetown history, local businesses and community events, saying his goal is to benefit both his business and the neighborhood.
“If we don’t find something genuinely interesting and worth sharing, we won’t do it,” said Peva’s daughter, Violet Peva, a New York social-media strategist who films, edits and posts his reels. “We cover many topics, not just real-estate information.”
Peva is originally from Connecticut, but has lived in Georgetown for over 30 years, currently in a cottage-style house with a white picket fence. Over the years, Georgetown has changed. The Georgetown Set, a powerful group of Cold War-era residents whose Sunday-night potluck dinners are said to have swayed U.S. policy, has long faded away. The community is still home to high-profile Washingtonians, including a Republican senator and several cabinet members. But it increasingly also attracts technology and finance executives, according to Peva. He now routinely signs nondisclosure agreements, ensuring privacy for wealthy clients. The shift has made him rethink his marketing approach.
“For years, a big part of our Georgetown business was made up of people who maintained a low profile,” he said. Real-estate agents were similarly low-key. Today, curb appeal is more important, he said, and agents are promoting themselves more. “As this change was underfoot, I was thinking that I needed to evolve myself too,” he said.
Though his own social-media use is mostly limited to following sailing accounts, he asked his daughter to help him post his listings online. Violet, now 26, started coming to D.C. once a month to film his reels. After an early video, on a condominium building called the Elliott, her sister Fern called her to report: “Daddy’s blowing up on Instagram,” Violet recalled. The reel got over 50,000 views. The next two each drew over 300,000. Peva’s most popular post ever, with over 838,000 views, was about the Grateful Dead playing in Georgetown. Sometimes, Peva interviews Georgetowners such as Quinn, the author, or Jamie Stachowski, the owner of a local butcher shop.
Peva, who majored in history in college, now spends up to two hours a day on research, usually in the morning while on his stationery bike. Online, he pores over old newspapers or the Library of Congress website, and he has a collection of articles and books—in and out of print—about Georgetown.
Companies often approach Peva for promotional posts, he said, but he turns them down, feeling that followers would lose interest in constant commercials. One exception is a recent paid post on Mount Vernon, the former home of George Washington. Peva wanted to share its history, he said, and didn’t want to lose the opportunity to another Instagrammer.
Anthony Arend, a professor at Georgetown University, has lived in his current home for 19 years without any plans to sell or buy real estate. But he follows Peva and often likes his posts.
“He is very charismatic, he is energetic, and he obviously knows a lot about the community,” said Arend, who has referred house-hunting friends to Peva.
One of Peva’s biggest deals—the $10.5 million sale of a 19th-century Italianate mansion—came after he made two 2024 reels featuring the property. In March, he sold the longtime O Street home of Tim and Jane Matz for $5.8 million after featuring it on his Instagram. Peva had showed them the home 25 years earlier, with Violet in a baby carrier on his back.
Last year, Kate Watts, 49, a digital consultant, called Peva to sell her late father’s three-bedroom house on Q Street; her husband had seen Peva on Instagram. In an October reel, Peva praised the architecture of the house, designed by modernist Hugh Newell Jacobsen. Halfway through, he mentioned an open house the next day, ending with an upbeat: “Did I also mention this house is for sale? $3.75 million!” The reel got 27,000 views, the open house was packed, and the buyers made an offer at the list price on the same day.
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