AUCTION:
Saturday, March 5 onsite at 12.30pm (unless sold prior).
Soaking up clients' renovation experiences made builder Scott O'Neale savvy when upsizing his family's home to celebrate its stellar views.
Scott owns Elite Renovations, and his team of three builders mainly renovate around Ponsonby, Point Chev, Balmoral, Mt Eden and Westmere.
This five-bedroom, two-storey Glen Eden home was a single-storey 90sq m cottage when Scott and partner Jo de Malmanche moved in, in 2008. Scott bought it as his first home in 2004, renting it to one tenant for five years.
Scott says: "I stumbled on it because I was actually looking at property in Glen Eden Central at that time. But I saw this amazing view and big bit of subdivideable land and that was it."
Naturally their big open-plan living-dining-kitchen spans the layout celebrating that view.
They happily upgraded to a bigger sofa post-renovations as their previous, more compact one looked silly in this generous space.
Having a second lounge works well now their family includes 6-year-old Ethan, 9-month-old Nixon and Jack the SPCA moggie.
Jo says: "Most of all, we really love sitting out on this deck with a beer, chilling out with friends and taking in the view." She says: "Scott really understands what looks good in terms of bang for your buck."
As an example they shelled out for glass balustrading for the deck, worth about $7000 in materials alone, rather than skimping with timber.
Image 1 of 5: Five-bedroom family home has views that span Auckland City and beyond. Photos / Ted Baghust
Scott says: "It wasn't the cheapest option but it's paid for itself tenfold by highlighting that view."
They chose the family-friendliness of durable golden Eco-wood engineered floorboards inside over less robust native timber boards. Jo says it was worthwhile putting two ovens below the kitchen's engineered stone benches, loving that the pyrolytic one is good for perfecting roasts, and it self-cleans.
Scott reckons simple economies such as factoring standard gib widths into wall sizes where possible were worthwhile when they upscaled the home to plans by architect Jackie Sue.
The couple typically have similar tastes. However, Jo's glad responsibility for decor allowed her to override Scott's initial reluctance about designer spearmint-green retro-style wallpaper she chose for a living area feature wall.
Accompanying two living areas upstairs are three bedrooms, one with a walk-in wardrobe and a smaller one, handy as an office.
The cottage's shub is history now there's a smartly renovated family bathroom.
Downstairs, the master suite with walk-in wardrobe opens to the patio.
It shares en suite access to the downstairs bathroom with another bedroom with built-in desk. Other features include the big laundry, HRV, a central vacuum system, wood-burning fire in the secondary lounge and a secure tool shed off the basement's patio.
A smaller front deck opens to level fenced grounds big enough for a sandpit and a trampoline and perfect if it's too windy out the other side.
They keep chickens in the big backyard, which has a separate double garage and terraced vege gardens.
They've enjoyed being handy to Parrs Park, the countryside and the Oratia-Henderson Valley cycleway, and 30 minutes' drive from Scott's city-fringe jobs.
The family are planning to get a lifestyle block when they relocate to Tauranga, where the kids' grandparents live.
