SCHOOL ZONES:
Kelston School, Kelston Intermediate, Kelston Boys’ High School, Kelston Girls’ College.
CONTACT:
Lisa Girvan, 021 0857 8875.
AUCTION:
Noon, Sun Nov 13, on site.
Gardening and interior design are Paula Balfour's passions. To say that is to state the obvious the minute you see her home from the street and peak through the front door.
Paula has renovated this 1922 Californian bungalow, which is in a quiet no-exit street, in the French Country style she adores.
She and her sister Rebecca bought the house and the cottage behind it 13 years ago so their mother Di had somewhere to live when she moved to Auckland from Paeroa.
Paula already knew the property well because she had been friends for about 12 years with the previous owners, who sold it directly to her and Rebecca.
Di has lived in the cottage since 2003 and Paula moved into the main house about five years ago after buying out Rebecca.
Since then Paula has gradually transformed the home's tired 1980s interior and worked with her family to landscape the garden, which was previously little more than bare lawns and a weed ridden metal driveway.
The home is set well back from the street behind electronically contolled gates. Its impressive entrance includes a wide rose and perennial garden down one side of the new driveway.
Formal, French-style gardens on the southwestern side of the house are surrounded by box hedging, separated by shell paths and feature several Burgundy Iceberg roses.
"The roses are my homage to Christchurch. I loved them when I saw them in a garden in Monavale before the earthquake, so it seemed right to plant them here," says Paula.
The gardens on the northeast side of the property, which bounds the Whau River, include a row of raised vegetable beds and less formal plantings including wild flowers and perennials with striking foliage.
Image 1 of 7: This property has French-style gardens and a separate cottage. Photos / Fiona Goodall, Getty Images
"The whole garden used to be full of wild flowers when I kept bees but I have gradually made the style more formal."
Paula has devoted just as much energy to transforming the interior of the house, which includes four bedrooms, two living areas, a large laundry and retains some beautiful original features including a tiled fire place and ornate ceiling rose in the main lounge.
She did not need to change the internal layout, but as well as insulating the floor and the ceiling, and replacing the front door, she had made substantial cosmetic changes, doing much of the work herself.
She has painted and wallpapered walls in elegant, pastel tones and complemented them with soft furnishings, including curtains made with fabric from Europe.
Brassy 1980s light fittings, and window catches have all been replaced, and matai flooring in the dining room and kitchen has been restored.
The farmhouse style kitchen, which is an extension of the dining room, has new granite bench tops, a butler's sink and a feature wall of individually fired off-white French chateau tiles.
Paula has also bought a European log burner for the dining room that heats this whole open plan area and sits where the original coal range once was.
French doors in this room and the adjoining formal lounge open to a large wooden deck and swimming pool.
These living areas open off to the left of the central hallway. Four bedrooms including one set up as a home office for Paula's legal executive business are on the right, with the main bathroom and laundry at the end of the hall.
The two-bedroom cottage behind the main house is separately fenced, has a private deck and cottage-style garden with a small lawn.
