Terrena Schaumkel laughs that really, when it comes to doing up houses, "I just like doing the pretty bits". But a minute's walk through the house that she and husband Janus have renovated over the past three years makes you realise she knows a whole lot more than pretty. Pretty practical, too.
The couple bought their bungalow on one of Mt Eden's quiet, pretty, cross streets because they could see beneath the characterless 1950s' and 1970s' renovations that there were bones of a rather beautiful old house. Gorgeous doors and windows -- including a leadlight in the master bedroom -- were spoiled by mean, modern architraves, the original wood floors hidden under old carpet and rooms chopped about by badly placed built-in cupboards. But there were enough good things to work with: a beautiful, sunny front yard and spacious backyard, good garaging, original beams and arches that suggested what the house had once been and the generous proportions of high ceilings and gracious windows that only such old houses can have.
First, the Schaumkels ripped off old gib board to completely insulate the house (it is so effective they scarcely need to switch on the reversible heating/cooling system they also installed). They put on a new roof, reworked two of the three bathrooms, replaced missing architraves and skirting boards to match the old proportions, polished some of the floors. But their biggest move was replacing an old butenol deck at the back of the house with a generous family room. Its walls of sliding glass open to a new wraparound deck to collect the sun all day. The house now has views of the Waitakeres.
"The sun just streams in here," says Terrena, "it's our favourite space in the evenings."
