CONTACT:
Joe Telford, Sotheby’s, 021 191 7769 or (09) 360 7775.
TENDER:
Closes May 28, 4pm.
Breathless reports from the society pages of the 1910s speak of receptions held in the house's drawing room for brides wearing ivory duchesse satin ...
The former horse paddock Jill Horsfall and Harold Church bought at Dairy Flat was about as blank as a blank slate gets. Hidden down a quiet country lane, it had nothing but a border of trees, and divots large enough to swallow an ankle.
For two years the couple weighed up options for a suitable home for the site, from new builds to house relocations. When finally they thought they'd exhausted all possibilities, they heard about an old mansion coming up for removal from Parnell.
Even before they got out of the car, Jill knew they'd found their new home.
It was a commanding two-storey weatherboard house with many elegant features of its era: wraparound verandas, intricate fretwork, bay and sash windows, French doors ...
"I got a shiver," says Jill. "It just looked magnificent. I said, 'Yes, that's it. I want it.' Harold looked at me and broke into a cold sweat."
On further inspection, they discovered original kauri floorboards and solid kauri doors, a soaring stud, a stately entranceway with sweeping staircase, and more charming original features, including a stained glass window featuring a still life, a frieze of native birds, and a huge marble fireplace.
It had four large bedrooms upstairs, plus a maid's room, and four adjoining living areas downstairs, including a pretty library.
Though the home was ready for an update, it was in good condition and had "good bones", says Harold, a former builder.
It was built well over a century ago as a quintessential upper-class family home.
Breathless reports from the society pages of the 1910s speak of receptions held in the house's drawing room for brides wearing ivory duchesse satin and orange blossoms, and guests draped with their finest silks, satins, laces, muslins and diamonds.
"The spacious drawing-room allowed for the bridal party and all the guests being seated at once, the bride and bridegroom sitting under a large bridal bell," wrote one journalist, in 1912.
Image 1 of 6: 30 Oregon Park, Dairy Flat. Photo/Ted Baghurst.
"The tables looked very charming, the decorations being pink roses, the same shades of blooms being used in a lavish manner on the mantel shelf. These all harmonised beautifully with the colours in the frieze of the room."
That blank slate at Dairy Flat was about to be filled with a whole lot of history.
The house was cut into eight sections and driven away in a long convoy one winter night. Once the removal company had installed it on the carefully prepared site and patched it back together -- which took about three months -- Jill and Harold stood back and looked at it, slightly stunned. The real work was about to begin.
It took a few years just to figure out what to do with it. Then came years of painstaking work, with the help of tradespeople, craftspeople and conservators. Just painting the house, inside and out, took one contractor a full year.
They've restored and renovated the original house, and rebuilt the kitchen wing in a style so sympathetic it's impossible to tell which of the exterior fretwork is original and which is replica.
They built a large barn with a stylish two-bedroom apartment upstairs, and turned the land from paddock into grounds befitting such a grand lady.
Fifteen years since they bought the section, they've decided it's time for new challenges and adventures, perhaps overseas. They have mixed feelings about leaving a house they've put so much effort and love into.
"The house has a really nice feel to it, and it sits so beautifully in the countryside," says Jill. "It's a nice place to live, and it's a very easy lifestyle. I find myself driving through the gate and thinking, 'Wow, do I really live here?'"
