Herald Homes. 26 Kingsland Ave, Kingsland, Auckland, with developer Paul Hefer. 2 March 2016 New Zealand Herald Photograph by Fiona Goodall / Getty Images.
Herald Homes. 26 Kingsland Ave, Kingsland, Auckland, with developer Paul Hefer. 2 March 2016 New Zealand Herald Photograph by Fiona Goodall / Getty Images.
SCHOOL ZONES:
Newton Primary, Kowhai Intermediate, Western Springs College and MAGS.
CONTACT:
Ruth and Tim Hawes, Ray White, Ruth 021 482797 or Tim 021 482 601.
AUCTION:
March 20.
This has been such an emotional attachment, building this. It is everything I've ever wanted in a house. For Paul and Jenny Hefer, a pencil and paper are their go-to tools of the trade when they're thinking about taking on a building project.
Three times before buying this property, they'd sketched their ideas to be sure they were pitching for the right property but in each case they were outbid at auction. In October 2014 they got lucky and bought this property, having sketched up ideas for an ambitious renovation and extension to the existing 1950s house that had been purpose-built as two flats
But a thorough scratch beneath its board and batten exterior soon confirmed that they needed to sharpen their pencils and whip out a fresh sheet of paper. They demolished the old house, replacing it with this new weatherboard house that presents a compatible welcoming face to this character Residential 1 neighbourhood.
It is the realisation of those first sketches but as a project for Paul, it is not without precedent.
Paul, an air-conditioning/refrigeration specialist, had done this sort of thing many times over in his native South Africa before moving to New Zealand eight years ago. Here the ideas surfaced quite quickly. "I have a pretty good vision for things like this and seeing what can be done and what can't," he says.
Together Paul and Jenny, who was the project manager, reframed their thinking to create one house that is the sum of two distinct parts plus a central, connecting courtyard.
There is a nod to the original two flat-dwelling here in the concept of two distinct modules and the new board and batten cladding around the lower exterior of the rear wing.
Image 1 of 10: A modern home built with a nod to the past has two distinct parts that are connected by a central courtyard. Photos / Fiona Goodall, Getty Images
Everything else is fresh thinking, including where this house sits on the long, 12 m wide site that slopes down to the west-facing deck and lower garden. The front of the original house stood about where the courtyard begins. This new edition fronts the street flush with its neighbours inside the colonial-style picket fence. The central spine of the house is the 1.6m wide central hallway with 4.4m stud enhanced by big picture windows.
The 98sq m front wing comprises the two-car tandem garage on the left of the hallway and a double bedroom, bathroom and living area on the right. Polished concrete flooring and white cavity sliding doors skilfully blur the boundaries between the utilitarian garage and the big designated living area just across the hallway, adding lifestyle flexibility.
From here it's a step out to the 39sq m courtyard with its artificial turf and log-burning fireplace. A side gate is the separate pedestrian access to the rear wing and to Paul's large "man cave" under the house.
Beyond the courtyard, the double-storey wing comprises the 110sq m upper storey, which has two bedrooms, a study with Juliet balcony overlooking the garden, the family bathroom to the left and the master bedroom wing on the right. Floating timber stairs with a marine stainless steel balustrade open out into the all-in-one deck-side kitchen, living and dining area which rolls out at 78 sq m on Paul's plans. The splashback is in the same brick-look pressed aluminium that features in the bathrooms. The New Zealand quartz used in both the kitchen and scullery benches is a personal favourite for Paul. This is the couple's first project together.
"It was our pilot job, all in the first year of our marriage," he says. It is tough to let go, too. "This has been such an emotional attachment, building this. It is everything I've ever wanted in a house."
