Birkenhead: Who bought that house?

8 Awanui St, Birkenhead.

Sold by: Victoria Bidwell, Bayleys North Shore, ph 021 947 080.

Judy Raymond knows people will think she's mad when she says that houses - or more precisely, their previous occupants - speak to her. That's how she felt when she stepped up the garden path of the 1910 house overlooking Little Shoal Bay in Birkenhead Point during a Sunday ramble around open homes with her husband Wayne.

"We weren't looking at all, just browsing through Heraldhomes, and this place caught my eye," says Judy. "We'd just got our Mount Eden house perfect after 19 years, in fact we were in the middle of a re-paint. But I reckon Clement had other ideas, and I knew that this would be my house."

Clement is Clement Wragge, the eccentric astronomer who built the house and planted the now giant palm trees and Moreton Bay fig as part of his Waiata Tropical Gardens.

Wayne took a little more convincing. He insisted there was no way he was shifting across the bridge. But some quiet moments on his own in the garden, overlooking the boats on the bay, a glass of wine with the previous owner on the deck and he said, "I suppose we might as well bid for it."

A gruelling 36 bids later, the last ones in $1000 jumps, and the house was theirs. The family has some arranging to do so that their son can commute to Auckland Grammar, while Wayne plans to make the most of the generous home office and do some work from home until he's figured out the bridge rush hour.

Judy is excited at winding down her teaching job to devote more time to the writing she loves - children's books, perhaps a novel.

"The garden, with its huge old trees, the indoor-outdoor rooms, the view of the water, what better inspiration could a writer ask for?" she enthuses.

The couple are already familiar with the beachside and bush walks through the nearby Chelsea Sugar Refinery or LeRoys Bush, marvelling at the unspoiled terrain so close to Auckland city.