Mask maker and permaculture enthusiast Ross Brown is originally from Seattle, but he's no stranger to Broadmeadow, where he has lived for about 30 years.
After starting as a renter, he was able to buy the house in 1998, and that's when he got busy planting trees.
Fourteen years ago his partner, Maria O'Callaghan, who is originally from Cork, Ireland, joined him and started adding stylistic touches.
Maria's a psychologist by day and, she jokes, a stylist by night. She's a creative soul. With her background and Ross's unique mask-making business, Dark Side Masks, the two make quite an international, environmentally-conscious and interesting pair.
The house was built in 1910 and the pair have done several renovations, including extending the back to create an upstairs study.
Ross wanted a home that would give him a good life.
"I wanted a big house," he says.
"I had two kids at the time, and I wanted space, I wanted to catch as much sunlight and breeze as I could.
"So I built the back bit of the house and it does a really good job of that, catches sunlight and breeze.
"A natural ocean breeze comes in and cools that top room."
Ross remembers when he moved in. It was quite hot because the western sun beamed in and reflected off the road onto the house.
As soon as he could, he planted trees for shade and food.
He's always been interested in permaculture.
"I think permaculture is a fancy name for commonsense. It's about looking at nature and fitting into nature in a sustainable way, but in a way that feeds you at the same time. It's as simple as that," he says.
I think permaculture is a fancy name for commonsense.
"The first step is to observe and figure out where the sun goes, where the wind comes in, how the water falls over the land, and then plant accordingly."
From the front to the back of their long block, there are plenty of plants to explore. On their little lush property you'll find sweet potato vines, chooks, jars of home-made olives, and terrariums built with the help of local business Urban Botanica Collective. You'll probably glimpse their dog, Miley, lounging around too.
Ross made a long list of all he grows, and it includes nuts such as pecans, almonds and macadamias. Then there's the fruit, such as ice-cream bean, mandarins, acerola cherry, paw paws, bananas, Davidson plums, guava, lemons, custard apples, green sapote and more.
Their chooks (Beatrice, Florence, Harriet, Petal, Spice, Germaine and Olive) fertilise the garden. They roam one garden bed for a few months, then Ross rotates them to another bed to do the same.
He successfully bottled olives recently, after failing eight years ago. The trick to good olives, he says, is to make sure none of them are exposed to the air when you're brining them.
Maria likes weeding, tidying up and gathering leaves to be added to the compost.
"It's a dream to maintain this place," she says.
Maree McCarthy, of Nature's Magic Garden Designs, originally helped them with the native plants, and they found her amazing.
Maria loves colour, so she added non-native flowers such as geraniums. They remind her of her childhood. She's added a lot of stylish touches, including the beautiful hanging balls and a stained glass feature to the front veranda.
Maria and Ross joke that permaculture people are commonsense, no-frills people, so she looks after the colour and aesthetic decisions.
"Everything we've got for this house is mostly secondhand, trading on gumtree and Facebook marketplace," she says.
This winter, the couple are enjoying their many macadamia nuts. They roast them by turning them for an hour or two on the woodfire stove.
"On a cold evening, to come in and have a lovely roasted nut and a glass of red wine, it can't get much better than that," Ross says.
