My Own Home: Family put down roots in Dh3.6 million Sustainable City villa

My Own Home takes you inside a reader-owned property to ask how much they paid, why they decided to buy and what they have done with it since moving in

Australian artist Jennifer Stelco has found a deep connection with Dubai's Sustainable City, with plans to live in one of the city's greenest communities for another three decades.

It's where her three children – Dorrit, 8, Vinnie, 6, and Douglas, 5 – were born.

After renting in the area for a few years, she and her English husband, Joe Cooper, who works in HR, decided to take the plunge and buy a four-bedroom villa worth about Dh3.6 million ($980,000) two years ago.

Since then, they’ve made the house their own, filling it with second-hand and custom-made furniture, and turning it into a cosy base they call home.

Their children's school is just a five-minute walk away, they can ride bikes everywhere and, as a further bonus for little ones, the neighbourhood has its own petting zoo.

The National takes a look around.

Please tell us about your home

We had been renting here for five years before we decided to buy our own. All of the villas have the same layout, so while we were renting, I was constantly saying, ‘If I owned one, I would do this, I would do that’.

We don't have a big garden. It's not a huge house, but I think that the layout is really smart. And when you live in The Sustainable City, the whole community is your garden.

Why did you decide to buy?

The community management had this brilliant initiative for residents to buy their own villas a couple of years ago. We jumped at it. If you'd been renting through Diamond Developers [the property developers behind The Sustainable City], they offered a percentage of your rent that you paid so far back towards a deposit on your own house.

A lot of people who lived here were renting and decided to buy. It's been nice watching the community transform, with everybody doing up their houses a little bit. There's a lot more character.

What renovations have you done?

We just did some aesthetic stuff, like add a backsplash, paint the kitchen cupboards and extend it all the way to the ceiling.

We got a huge cabinet made. I love it so much – it was a big game-changer for us. It's got a built-in fridge, power points, loads of storage and drawers and cupboards everywhere.

We got one wall knocked out and added a full-size window, to let in more light. And we converted the balcony into an office.

Now it's just perfect.

We had a big, long list of things that, in an ideal world, we would do, but then we had to budget. I think we spent about Dh150,000, including the garden.

Why did you choose The Sustainable City?

When we first moved here, it was brand-new and empty. It didn't have a school, it had a Zoom and Spill the Bean, and that was it.

But we came for a look around and thought it was magical. I really like the no-traffic policy. At the time, our daughter Dorrit was a little baby and the idea of not having cars around just felt safe.

Now my littlest kid is 5, and they have so much freedom. They can run to their friends’ houses, they can walk themselves to and from Fairgreen International School in five minutes. We mostly ride bikes and we also use go-karts.

One of the things that got me was that there are horses. There's a stable and a bridal path, and I like the idea of horses being around. I also love the little zoo, with donkeys, goats and chickens.

In Dubai, you don't get a lot of greenery or nature, especially in new, developed places, but here it feels almost like an overgrown path.

What facilities do you have access to?

We've got two nice swimming pools. We've got a gym. The plaza is nice and has a few restaurants. There are a lot of after-school sports clubs here as well – there’s a football and swimming academy, plus a triathlon club.

I've been in this close-knit ladies’ Sustainable City book club for about six years, and they've all become my best friends.

There's a field with a tennis court and a football pitch. In January every year, they host a big horse show, which is fun. And a lot of flea markets.

There's also a really good yoga studio called Crimson Chambers.

What is your interior style like?

Pretty much everything in my house is second-hand or custom-made, mostly from Dubizzle and Facebook Marketplace. I love a bargain, and I'm big on sustainability as well. I can't stand buying something new and having all of this packaging and just knowing that I've added to the mess.

I love my dining room table. It's nothing special, but it's an eight-seater wooden dining table that we bought on Dubizzle 12 years ago for Dh200. I always thought I'll get a good one, one day, but it has become my favourite thing. It has cup marks and scratches all over it, but we've had all of our family dinners here, and the kids are always doing crafts and homework and stuff around it.

The house is also very art heavy, because I’m an artist, but I’ve got some really nice pieces that I didn’t make that I’ve collected over time.

When you do up your own house, you do it for yourself. I don't like the idea of keeping it bland, so that I can sell it one day. There is evidence of my family everywhere.

How long do you plan to stay in this house?

The bedrooms aren't huge and when the kids are a bit older and they want their own space. They're just going to have to suck it up, because we're not moving.

Just recently a couple of villa owners got approval to build on the roof, so there's always the potential to put another level on the top if we need to spread ourselves out a little bit more.

We've been in Dubai for 14 years. All our kids were born here. This is very much home, this is where our roots are, this is where we want to settle for quite a long time.

We see ourselves here for the next 10 to 20, or even 30, years.