After his first heart attack aged 30, Michael Wagner and his wife, Cathy, stopped planning too far ahead.
"We've always been existentialists and lived for the moment," says Cathy. "We've never been the people who saved furiously for a big retirement after work because for us, there was no guarantee that was ever going to happen."
Years later, Michael developed chronic kidney failure. The Wagners, who were grandparents by this stage, hoped he could undergo kidney dialysis from the comfort of their East Melbourne cottage.
"Just before Christmas two years ago we were told that actually the likelihood of Michael being able to dialyse was very slim," Cathy recalls. "But even if he did, his life expectancy was probably only in the vicinity of two to five years."
As his health deteriorated, doctors raised the prospect of a kidney transplant. Although Cathy was ready and willing to donate a kidney to her husband, they weren't medically compatible. Instead, the Wagners participated in a paired kidney exchange with several other donors and recipients.
The couple both went in for surgery on a windy winter's day in August. They were told there was a high possibility Michael would die during the operation.
There is nothing quite like a near-death experience to bring out the spontaneity in someone, as the Wagners can readily testify to.
They were just a few months into their recovery (after the success of both surgeries) when they visited Cathy's sister in Daylesford for a weekend. They read that Musk Farm, the renowned rural sanctuary transformed by interior designer Stuart Rattle, was up for sale and thought they'd have "a stickybeak".
"We had a look through and the rest is kind of history," Cathy says of their decision to purchase it. "We both felt it had a huge sense of peace."
The Wagners, like many architecture and design enthusiasts, were familiar with Musk Farm, a 1.2 hectare estate 100 kilometres north-west of Melbourne. A derelict weatherboard school building on the property was famously brought back to life by Rattle, who transformed it into a stunning homestead surrounded by immaculate gardens.
Tragedy infamously forced the sale of the property after Rattle was killed in a fire in his South Yarra apartment in 2013. His partner, Michael O'Neill, was later found guilty of murder and sentenced to 18 years in jail.
In 2014, a couple purchased the property for $1.59 million, and it once again became a labour of love. They spent hundreds of thousands on painstaking repairs and lavish improvements to the manor.
Sadly, one of the owners fell ill and died and, for the second time in three years, Musk Farm was again put on the market. Coincidentally, the widow has since inspected the Wagners' East Melbourne cottage, now up for sale.
The Wagners hope to move in to Musk Farm early next year. Michael is already looking forward to tackling the expansive lawns on a ride-on mower. "I need that sort of activity to retain my health and this is a good way to do it," he says.
But they have mixed feelings about selling their East Melbourne house, a four-bedroom, three-bathroom Victorian that dates back to the 1800s, due to be auctioned on November 28.
"Had it not been for the allure of Musk Farm, we certainly would stay here," Cathy says.
Since they bought it four years ago, they relocated and renovated the kitchen and added a rooftop garden, complete with an open fireplace and fountain. So fond have they grown of East Melbourne, they bought a nearby apartment to have as a city base.
"Living in this community is like living in a little village," Cathy says. "For six and a half weeks after my surgery, I cooked one meal. There was a roster and then there were people who didn't know there was a roster so the freezer was always overflowing."
When asked how she felt about leaving her East Melbourne home for Musk Farm, she said one of her neighbours had described it best. "I feel like we don't really own these houses, we just look after them for the next generation."
