Andy Lee is currently renovating his 148-year-old Melbourne River home.
Located in Hawthorn, the once grand home was left wasting for a decade before Andy, 43, and his fiancée Rebecca Harding, 32, snapped it up for a whopping $8.5million.
And as they peel back the layers of history, the couple have stumbled upon a series of ‘weird’ finds.
‘We’ve found a couple of trinkets as we’ve started cleaning up the place,’ he told 9Entertainment.
‘Mainly it was just cleaning out pigeon poo and seaweed because they used seaweed as insulation back in the year which is pretty weird,’ he shared.
Over a century ago, seaweed was a go-to method for insulation.
Andy previously revealed he made the discovery after ripping out a fireplace.
But amidst the muck, there were gems to be found.
‘We found a coin from 1897, I think it was, which is pretty cool,’ he added.
In May, The Hundred host revealed he will be building an entirely new mansion closer to the river and will connect the property to the original house via an underground tunnel.
‘We gave the architects a few broad rules. 1. Honour the old house and 2. We’d like to live in the new,’ he explained.
‘Flack Studio came up with this. The historic house sits proudly on its own and will be restored. The new part makes the most of the river views.’
‘All connected underground below the piazza,’ he also revealed.
Andy then joked that his fiancée’s wardrobe was going to be ‘pretty much that entire back building.’
Andy and Rebecca won council approval for their development application back in June last year.
Plans for the site include adding a second building which will be connected by a tunnel to the original Italianate mansion, which was built around 1876.
Other highlights planned for the 1950square metre holding include a home theatre, a gym, a swimming pool and a ‘mega bedroom’.
Historically, the front of the property faces the river, as it was the original arrival point for residents.
Rebecca and Andy revealed that the home was last occupied in 1992.
The previous owners left the property in a horrid state for over a decade after their own renovations ceased for unknown reasons.
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