When you drive through the rapidly gentrifying streets of Grey Lynn today, with house after house painted in Herne Bay-beige, smart cars parked alongside tasteful front gardens, it is easy to forget that not so long ago this was the colourful end of the inner-city suburbs. When Damien and Jennie Leng bought their pretty bay-fronted villa in late 2005, it was one of the more colourful characters on the street.
"Blue and yellow, predominantly," laughs Daniel. "But there were ones up the street in bright pink, green, plenty of vivid colours. The student houses over the road with people spilling out the verandas," adds Jennie. But what had won them over - apart from the charms of the house itself - was the loving letter the previous owners had left for them, telling them how they had created their family home living there as they became engaged, married, had the two kids, did the renovations and how much they loved living in the house and neighbourhood. That was exactly what the Lengs hoped to do - and indeed they followed the same pattern.
"We knew we wanted to do more to the house, but we'd wanted to live in it for a year or two to see how we used the spaces, what the light did," says Daniel. "That year turned into five years. Luckily, the previous owners had done the kitchen, so we were happy to live here like that. We'd done the plans and met builders, had quotes and paused to take stock. Then we discovered Jennie was pregnant, so we rang the builders and started straight away."
That baby, Rose, is now 3, with a baby brother Noah, 17 months. The build took slightly longer than the pregnancy (the couple spent her first six weeks at Damien's parents' place), but from the minute they moved back in, the family felt at home. They know all the locals - Rosie, like a good Ponsonby baby, knows the names of all the people at her coffee shop and the family regularly make use of the new dairy on the corner of Ariki St, a block over. It's the sort of neighbourhood where people really do know each other.
