First impressions, like good manners, are qualities which Mrs Calthorpe would consider important - so when visitors and guests arrive, they are met at the front door with a welcome and ushered in to this small space. Here they are expected to leave their hats, coats and umbrellas, and to exchange the pleasantries of the day – a word about the weather perhaps, before being  welcomed into the sitting room. There’s even a seat for waiting if you arrive a little early. It serves another purpose as storage and keeps the place neat and tidy. That curtain on the left leads to the private areas of the house. Visitors go through to the sitting room on the right.

This small hall, with its stained blackwood timber panelling, a plate rail for displaying ornaments and the fashionable Jacobean Revival furniture that Mrs Calthorpe bought new from Beard, Watson and Co. in Sydney in 1927, is not unlike the Prime Minister’s Lodge nearby. Both houses were designed at about the same time by the same architects, Oakley and Parkes of Melbourne.

Only grown-ups visiting my parents can come in through the front door…and they have to ring the bell first to let us know they have arrived. I like the back door best because that’s where the men bring the deliveries. I’ll show you that later.

Before we go any further, I should warn you about something. My mother is a quite strict and she has rules in this house.

Mother’s rules are:

No slamming doors
No muddy feet
No running in the house
No fingers on the walls
No feet on the chair rungs
No rings around the bath
No clothes on the floor
No blowflies
No smoking fires
No empty wood boxes
No spatters of boot polish
No music or rolls left on the pianola
No gramophone records left on the floor
No arms chairs used as pincushions
No socks or picnic rugs with grass seeds
No cobwebs
No washing on the line on Sunday
No dirty finger nails
No ugly words
No singing at the table
No cabbage or cauliflower water to be poured down the sink.