She may have one of the most high-profile jobs in TV, but Sunrise newsreader Edwina Bartholomew does more than just read the teleprompter.

Not content with 3am starts, the 41-year-old has also thrown herself into a highly ambitious renovation project in a country town three-and-a-half hours outside Sydney.

And that project, which has already extensive delays in the heritage-protected town, has also put her marriage to husband of seven years Neil Varcoe in the spotlight.

The usually low-key couple now find themselves the source of endless talk because of their unique arrangement of living more than 250km apart.

Neil is based in Carcoar (pop. 271), in the NSW Central West region, overseeing the remodelling of the dilapidated former 'Stoke House' guest house they bought for just over $1million in May 2023, while Edwina lives in Sydney for her job at Seven.

Their children, Molly, five and Tom, three, mainly live with their mother, but also spend time in Carcoar with Neil, a former journalist whose last position at Twitter came to an abrupt end in late 2022 when Elon Musk shuttered the Australian office.

The vision for the 177-year-old property is to transform it into a boutique hotel comprising three guest cabins, a house and main guesthouse.

Not content with 3am starts, Sunrise newsreader Edwina Bartholomew has also thrown herself into an ambitious renovation project in a country town three-and-a-half hours outside Sydney 

That project, which has already extensive delays in the heritage-protected town, has put her marriage to husband of seven years Neil Varcoe in the spotlight. Neil is pictured in Carcoar last month, where he lives full-time while his wife stays behind in Sydney with their children 

The scale of the project and the fact Edwina and Neil are willing to spend so long apart bringing their pipe-dream reno to life begs the inevitable question of whether their family's future lies in the city or the country.

So we spoke to Edwina this week and she confirmed her family does indeed plan to leave Sydney for good one day - but that is still quite a way off.

'We are very keen to eventually settle in the country,' she told us this week.

'But we are in no hurry.

'We have the best of both worlds and will continue to juggle the back and forth for the foreseeable future.'

Edwina and Neil have never tried to hide their unusual living arrangement, anticipating (quite rightly) that being cagey about it would only encourage gossip.

But while the tabloid headlines about the couple 'living separate lives' may be a little melodramatic, the fact remains that living so far apart with one parent juggling a demanding media job and two children while the other manages a large-scale renovation presents significant challenges.

Add to the mix the fact Neil has chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition he says is 'really tough' and which he manages with Chinese medicine and medicinal marijuana, there have been moments when Edwina has asked herself, 'What have we done?'

We spoke to Edwina this week and she confirmed her family, including children Molly, five and Tom, three, do indeed plan to leave Sydney for good one day - but that is still quite a way off

'Our family schedule and WhatsApp chat of who is where and what is happening is absolutely nuts,' she tells us. 

'There are plenty of times where we have thought "what we have done" but we are determined to build a beautiful business in what we think is the most beautiful town in New South Wales,' she adds.

The decision to buy Stoke House, which they intend to relaunch as 'Saltash Farm' when it opens its doors in autumn 2026, a year after originally planned, wasn't exactly an off-the-wall idea for the couple, who already own a sandstone farm cottage named 'Warramba' beyond the Blue Mountains in Capertee Valley.

With two country properties in their portfolio, Edwina says she and Neil have been dividing their time between the city and the bush for almost 10 years now, flying under the radar until Neil's move out to the Central West made headlines.

She views Saltash Farm as part of movement of ambitious projects dotting the NSW countryside.

'Lots of other businesses are popping up in town and it's exciting to be part of the rejuvenation of regional NSW,' she says. 'We look forward to welcoming our guests in the future.'

The vision for the 177-year-old property is to transform it into a boutique hotel comprising three guest cabins, a house and main guesthouse. (An aerial view of the hotel is shown) 

The block currently has a temporary fence around it as work gets under way

Edwina says the reno has been challenging at times but she looks forward to the final result

The purchase of Stoke House and subsequent renovation is being bankrolled, in part, by some canny property sales in Sydney's east and inner-west.

Just recently, Edwina asked Australia's foremost prestige real estate agency The Rubinstein Group to sell her two-bedroom, one bathroom apartment in Woollahra, which she'd bought in 2009 for a respectable $660,000.

The campaign launched with hopes of $1.35million, but on auction day on April 12 Edwina found a buyer willing to stretch to an eye-watering $1.57million.

'We were very happy with the result at auction. This apartment was my first property purchase in Sydney,' she tells us.

'We lived there for about ten years before I rented it out as an investment. I renovated it before the sale and that made all the difference to our result.'

The unit is on the top floor of a delightful art deco block in one of Sydney's most sought after postcodes. At the heart of the renovation was a new marble kitchen and bathroom.

The new owners can expect rental income of $900 a week, should they choose to use it as an investment.

Coincidentally, Edwina isn't the only famous face to make a tidy profit on a unit sale in Woollahra recently. Actress Isla Fisher last year sold her two-bedroom apartment, which she'd bought for for $171,500 in 1995 when she was just 19, for over a million.

Edwina recently made a tidy profit by selling her apartment in Sydney's eastern suburbs. She reportedly sold it for a whopping $1.57million after buying it in 2009 for $660,000

Edwina asked Australia's foremost prestige real estate agency The Rubinstein Group to sell her two-bedroom, one bathroom apartment (the kitchen area is shown here) 

Edwina and Neil also sold their family home in Dulwich Hill in March 2023. The couple had bought the three-bedroom, two-bathroom terrace for $1.6million before putting it to market with a $2.1million guide. It's eventual sale price was not disclosed.

The move came after Neil was laid off from Twitter, now X, and coincided with their decision to pursue the Saltash Farm project - although Edwina admits it was bittersweet saying goodbye to the suburb.

That home, built by the descendants of James Bloodsworth, the very first convict bricklayer, was also something of a renovation passion project.

Edwina and Neil also sold their family home in Dulwich Hill in March 2023. The put a lot of work into renovating it, with this before photo showing the state of the backyard in 2019

At the time of its sale, the rear of the home had been completely transformed

In the background of this, Edwina has been dealing with a serious health diagnosis.

The presenter was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), a type of blood and bone marrow cancer, in September.

But last month she revealed she was nearing 'molecular remission', saying her leukaemia was 'almost undetectable now'.

'I am almost in what they call molecular remission,' she wrote on Instagram.

'So that means, thanks to my daily medication and my incredible specialist, and also really the gift of time that I've been given by Seven, by working part-time here at Sunrise to focus on my health, the leukaemia has essentially been eradicated from my body to the point that it's almost undetectable now.'

Edwina must still take medication for a few more years, but she's over the worst of it and considers herself 'extraordinarily lucky'.

While Edwina is building an impressive property portfolio, she has also been dealing with a health battle after being diagnosed with cancer last year

Edwina got her start at Sunrise when she won an internship in the mid 2000s. She soon progressed from making coffees to producing the show.

She swapped jobs to become a reporter at 2GB, then landed a position reporting for 7News, which opened the door to return to Sunrise as Sydney correspondent in 2011.

In 2013, she replaced Grant Denyer as roving weather presenter. Three years later, Edwina she returned to the studio as entertainment presenter and fill-in newsreader.

When host Samantha Armytage left 2021 and Natalie Barr replaced her, Edwina became the breakfast show's full-time newsreader.