Award-winning Nicholls home overlooking Gold Creek golf course feels like a private resort

When Natalie first inspected 25 Fitzsimmons Street back in 2006, she didn’t feel like she’d walked into a suburban house in Nicholls; she felt she’d stumbled across a resort hidden among the fairways of the Gold Creek Country Club.

“You’ve got the balcony overlooking the golf course, all the courtyards below and the greenery,” she says. “Then there was the gym, the sauna and the cinema room. It was very appealing in its layout and architectural beauty.”

$2,700,000 - $2,900,000

25 Fitzsimmons Street, Nicholls ACT 2913

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Built in 1999 and crowned house of the year by the Master Builders Association, the four-bedroom Nicholls home was ahead of its time. Long before wellness spaces became fashionable, this home had one.

A comprehensive renovation in 2018 updated the interiors while preserving the architecture that first captivated Natalie and husband Patrick, who asked that their surname be withheld.

“The bones of the place were fantastic,” Patrick says. “We wanted to modernise it and make it timeless.”

Natural materials became the defining language, with granite flooring, Italian ceramic tiles, stone benchtops and warm timber.

No decision was made lightly. Patrick laughs that the choice of flooring alone was the culmination of a “five-year procrastination”, while bespoke finishes, including handcrafted Italian fixtures, were carefully sourced.

A series of fireplaces was introduced, from the striking 1.6-metre gas fireplace anchoring the family room to the ethanol fireplace in the formal lounge and another in the main bedroom.

Hidden from the street at the end of a long battleaxe driveway, the home enjoys a level of peace and privacy rare in the suburbs.

Twin reflecting pools frame the entrance, before a soaring void and expansive glazing greet you, with windows framing views across the gardens and golf course.

Most of the home’s 356 square metres of internal living space sits on the ground floor. The family room is at its heart, flowing through to the designer kitchen and dining area. At one end, a light-filled formal lounge looks across the golf course, while a separate theatre room is tucked discreetly behind.

In the opposite wing, bedrooms two and three are serviced by the main bathroom, while the fourth bedroom has an en suite adjoining a traditional Finnish sauna, creating a wellness retreat.

Outside, a covered al fresco entertaining area flows into landscaped courtyards, while a timber deck wraps around a water feature.

Upstairs, the entire first floor is given over to the generous main-bedroom suite, which has a walk-in wardrobe, an en suite and a private balcony overlooking the ninth fairway.

Living on a golf course could easily have come at the expense of privacy, but careful landscaping has managed to avoid this.

“They’ve probably done the best I’ve seen at creating these windows through the hedges,” says listing agent Jess Smith from Stone Gungahlin. “So you’ve got this really lovely view out to the golf course, but you can also sit and have family dinners out the back with complete privacy.”

For Patrick and Natalie, who raised their children in the home, it is the simple rituals – morning coffee on the balcony, early walks on the green before the golf course opens, and familiar wildlife outside their windows – that will be hardest to leave behind. Kookaburras, ducks, cockatoos, parrots and magpies are frequent visitors, while kangaroos regularly graze on the fairways.

Smith says that in 16 years of selling homes, this one is unlike any she’s come across.

“There isn’t a house in Gungahlin like this at all. It is absolutely a one-of-one,” she says. “I don’t think you would be able to get an architect or a builder to build a house like this anymore.

“It really is like a resort; you walk down the driveway, you get past the first entrance and you actually just feel like you’re in a whole different world.”

This feature is part of an Allhomes Deluxe package.