When Sophia Flegg isn't at her day job as a youth drug and alcohol counsellor, the 34-year-old is painting. She recently bought a first two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment in Newcastle East, near the beach. Now her home has become her studio - and it's also available on Airbnb when she wants some extra cash.
"I've been painting for ages, before I worked in community services, I was an artist," Flegg says.
"I was in a Renew Newcastle space for years in town. It was above Wolfe Street, Wolfe Studios. I had a shop in the Emporium," she says.
Flegg knew since the age of three that she was an artist; she remembers painting with her grandmother. It's no surprise that the first residential pad she owns is full of graffiti and bright colours.
"I just have an inability to do muted tones. I've tried; I can't do it," she says.
"I don't know why. It's not necessarily everyone's cup of tea, but I really like it."
Her kitchen is still a work-in-progress, and she has friends come over and draw on the cabinets - it will continue to change as if the room were a wall on the street.
Her hallway took her a couple of days, and she has future plans to expose the brick.
She doesn't know a lot about the history of the home, but she estimates it was built in the 1960s.
Though she welcomes Airbnb-ers, she loves living by herself - that is, with her rescue dog, Whiskey ("a Pomeranian crossed with something or other").
"It'd be easier mortgage-wise [to have a housemate] but I could think of nothing worse. I did the share-house thing pretty hard in my 20s. I just got to the point where I was like 'I like to hang out in the lounge room and not ask people's permission to do things.'" she says.
I'm pretty particular with the space.
Sophia Flegg
"I'm pretty particular with the space."
She has grand plans to put rolls of paper on the ceiling, but for now she's run out of renovation money. She has a few freelance gigs on as well, so her work around the house is on hold for the time being.
"At the moment I'm doing some album covers for a Melbourne bands, an electro pop group called Zellen. I've been working on that and kinda been doing stuff with other bands. If I'm not doing that, I'll just paint whenever," she says.
She's exhibited in Newcastle and in Sydney. She's also a poet and released her book of poetry called War Songs.
"I just did a poetry book. I brought it out a year or two ago. I'd been working on it for years and years, and I had enough content that I didn't think was shit," she says. "I like hip hop a lot. I think poetry and hip hop go hand in hand. Really clever hip hop is really good writing."
She has no current plans to move.
"I'm so tramautised from moving; I'm going to stay here for a while. Eventually I would like a place with yard," she says.
In the meantime, she has heaps of plants, and she's still buying. She reckons she has over 50.
"It's literally hit and miss. I water them and hope for the best. I never had plants before. Before here, I had a tiny apartment with no natural light or balcony. Because I get sun (now), I thought yeah, I'll just fill it up. I've only had a couple who have died the shock of moving around," she says.
She's moved around Newcastle, and she's no stranger to Newcastle East. She previously rented in the area for five or six years. The Falcon is her favourite bar and she loves the convenience of being able to take the tram and get to The Lass in 12 minutes.
"There's a lot of nice community here. My mates are here. It's good to be near the water; there's so much opportunity to be outside," she says.
Flegg's home is a testament to just how good it can get at the end of the tram line. Plants, paint, poetry and a Pomeranian. What else is do you need?!
