Onehunga: Perks of the job

You would expect a builder's own home renovation to be exact, but this one has some creative touches too, writes Graham Hepburn.

45 Hill St, Onehunga.

Most people dread having to take work home with them but for Daniel Gunnell it has been a huge bonus.

While working for a building company that specialised in renovations, Daniel would pick up discarded joinery and timber from character homes to use in the exacting refurbishment of his 95-year-old Onehunga villa. Having a father with a sawmill and joinery shop in Ohakune was also a huge help. Any joinery that Daniel couldn't scrounge from building sites he would replicate on his father's premises.

"Before our daughter Trinity [now aged 2 ] came along it was a good five years or so of work. I was only 21 at the time when I took this place on so I had a lot of energy," says Daniel, who now has his own building firm, Gunnell Builders Ltd.

Those years of scrupulous labouring have produced a home that has some beautiful original features but with open plan living, a modern kitchen and bathrooms and a striking colour scheme.

It's a far cry from the house he and his wife Helen bought in 1998. A family of 10 had been living there and "it hadn't had anything done to it for about 20 years".

False ceilings had been installed bringing the head room down to 2.4m and covering up the kauri board and batten ceilings. And there were "six or seven layers of floor coverings" over the kauri floorboards. "There were all sorts of things like carpet, lino, tiles, particle board and newspaper," says Daniel, "but it meant the floors were in relatively good nick."

Daniel says he gutted the house and turned the kauri sarking on the walls into tongue and groove timber which has been used in the kitchen cabinetry and panelling. All the windows, bar one, have either been replaced or moved. The board and batten ceilings, which had been painted before they were covered up, were removed and stripped in an acid bath before being replaced.

And the square-front villa became a bay villa when the master bedroom at the front of the house was extended to allow room for en suite.

Like the main bathroom, the en suite is tiled but it has some funky features such as a splash of pebble dash on one wall, and the basin is perched on rough-textured railway sleepers.

The master bedroom is gibbed up to the rafters which has allowed Daniel to build a mezzanine level above the en suite which he uses as his office. Access is via a ladder that rolls out from the wall. "There's a skylight up there which you can open, and I had a TV jack installed because I thought you could put in a couch and also use it as a den."

As well as the improvements to the house, Daniel has also built a bedroom and bathroom into the rear of the garage. The space has its own side entrance. "I thought it would be good to have a third bedroom for a homestay student or a workspace, something like that."

A change in family circumstances means the Gunnells are moving on but Daniel has no plans to leave Onehunga, which has become an increasingly desirable area to live. "I'd like to stay in the area, and probably would buy another place to do up."

Vital Statistics

SIZE: Land 602sq m, house 121sq m. PRICE INDICATION: Interest expected above $550,000. Tender closes October 4.

INSPECT: Sat/Sun 11.45am-12.30pm.

CONTACT: Gemma Keeton, RE/MAX Metro City, ph 021 223 7772 mob, 446 1019 a/h.

FEATURES: Impeccably restored 1910 villa with polished wooden floors, exposed timber and detailing complemented by a contemporary colour scheme and quality fittings throughout.