English rose

An elegant home at the foot of Mt Eden holds family memories and local history.

6 Sharpe Road, Mt Eden.

It would take an expert to spot, but a clue to the history of this house is in the camellias around it.

At first glance they look bedecked with white flowers, but then you notice pink blooms there, too, and ones with variegated petals. That's because the trees are about 100 years old.

``They used to line a driveway which swept up from Gillies Ave to the house next door,'' says owner Dr Ron Jones. ``That house dates from the 1860s, and when the land was subdivided and this house built in 1919 it was positioned between the trees.''

Constructed solidly of double brick, with a stucco coating and rosemary clay tiles on the roof, the house could have been transplanted from the English countryside.

Ron's wife Maureen has created an elegant and fragrant English garden to suit it, with roses enclosed by box hedging and fuss-free groundcover. A younger camellia, this one scented, greets you as you step onto the front path.

``That one came from a garden token I was given by a 101-year-old lady who used to live in the street, when Ron and I got married 13 years ago,'' says Maureen.

The house had no garden when Ron's late first wife, Barbara, first saw it 30 years ago, but she was still enchanted. With a fourth child on the way, she and her young obstetrician husband were looking for a larger house, close to the private hospitals at the base of Mt Eden.

``That weekend we travelled to Dunedin for the Otago Medical School centenary, and happened to be sitting next to another Auckland doctor, Roger Bartley, at dinner,'' recalls Ron. We got to talking about houses, and when Barbara described this place he realised it was his mother's house.

She had just died and he was in the process of selling it. He drew a map on the tablecloth, and over a bottle of wine we more or less bought it on a handshake.''

Over the next 10 years, Ron restored the interior of the house to its arts and crafts glory, stripping paint from kauri wall panels and ceiling beams to set off the beautiful kauri floors and leadlight windows.

A volcanic grotto in the back yard could not, however, be saved.
``A spiral staircase went down into the rock, and you could get into caves right under the ground,'' says Ron. ``People told us that during the war it was designated as the local air raid shelter. But it had become unstable, so we filled it in and made a garden.''

He and Barbara also had a pool installed, and turned a former workshop into a poolside room complete with a bay frontage and rosemary-tiled roof to match the main house.

It is now an ideal sleepout - that's if you need more bedrooms than the four on the top floor of the main house. All have sloping ceilings and views across the treetops. You can see Rangitoto from the master bedroom.

Downstairs, the original open verandah was enclosed decades ago to create two pretty sunrooms. One opens out from the office, the other from the lounge. In here an open fire warms an Inglenook: a curved corner with built in seating and a stepped hearth.

Sliding doors separate the lounge from the formal dining room, which opens off the kitchen. Maureen renovated the kitchen a few years ago and says it is the room she'll miss most.

She and Ron are also very fond of the gazebo they built on the northern side of the house. But with only the two of them at home now, they're moving to a smaller house in Remuera with a sea view.

Maureen says, ``We've had six children grow up here - Ron's four and my two - and had four at home for most of that time, yet we've never felt on top of each other.''

VITAL STATISTICS

BEDROOMS: 4+

BATHROOMS: 2

GARAGES: 2

SIZE: Land 1138sq m, house 184sq m.

PRICE INDICATION: Interest expected above the 2005 CV of $1.56 million. Auction August 23.

INSPECT: Sat/Sun 11.30am-12.15pm.

ON THE WEB: www.uprealty.co.nz #133544

CONTACT: Roger and Paula Stringfield, Unlimited Potential, ph 021 765 555 (Roger), 021 764 441 (Paula) 524 5782 a/h.

FEATURES: Arts and crafts home built in 1919 with two studies, a sleepout by the pool and a gazebo in the garden. Open fire in lounge and logburner in family room. Walking distance to Mt Eden, the village, Auckland Grammar and Epsom Girls Grammar.