SCHOOL ZONES:
Richmond Road Primary, Ponsonby Intermediate, Auckland Girls Grammar and Western Springs College.
CONTACT:
Martin Dobson, 021 376 952, or Caroline Daniel, 021 922 223, Kellands.
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This is more Brigitte Bardot than Joan Rivers.
There are no facelifts or makeup ... just telling her she looks good.
As ratings go, the Rhys Darby and Rosie Carnahan Darby house renovation production is up there with the best of their dramatic professional collaborations.
This time though, it has been personal satisfaction rather than outside endorsements that have delivered the biggest buzz for Rhys, an internationally acclaimed actor and comedian.
Wearing his serious face, he says: "It's the creative input and the thought that went into this, and how we've made it our own."
Rhys, one of the funny men of the Flight of the Conchords television series, and his wife Rosie, who is the "logistics person" behind their company Awesomeness International, pulled this project together over a period of five years.
This was serious business from the piles up through the structural integrity of the Edwardian villa that was built in 1909 and of which they are only the third owners.
When they bought the property in June 2009, they skilfully reworked the upstairs, adding an en suite and a guest bathroom alongside the original four bedrooms.
They moved in, living through the more extensive alterations downstairs, at the same time flying to and from Los Angeles for Rhys' work.
Amid it all, professional opportunities in the US and the ease with which their sons Finn, 9, and Theo, 5, made friends there, got them thinking about how best to support their collective needs.
"Leaving now is better for our hearts," says Rhys of their home.
"If we'd stayed and enjoyed it all now that we've finished, it'd have felt more emotional and it'd have been much harder to leave."
The opportunity for this domestic co-production came about shortly after the completion of their mockumentary entitled Short Poppies, which they co-wrote; Rosie was executive producer and Rhys played all eight characters.
Pregnant with Theo when they bought the house, Rosie was sold on it the minute she saw the staircase. Rhys reminds her that they did check out the back yard.
He glossed over the old kitchen, which resembled a "smoking room in an old man's garage", and the old deck and shed and marvelled at the big trees and the lawn.
"To have this much outdoor space was just crazy!" he says.
Image 1 of 7: Former Conchords manager is reluctantly taking flight, leaving a spacious and flexible villa packed with modern and whimsical touches
Together, he and Rosie flicked through sample books to choose the wallpapers for their front rooms and hunted down the glamorous adornments for their "Hollywood bathroom". They brought their strong ideas into the architecturally designed new rear living area, kitchen and multi-purpose media room/guest suite that adjoins their fireside all-weather outdoor living area.
Such lifestyle flexibility has enhanced everyone's life here.
Says Rosie: "We wanted four bedrooms, an office, a spare bedroom and a playroom. We were greedy, really."
Rhys is the one who'll disappear away up to the guest bedroom to hone the scribbled anecdotes in his notebooks into working order.
"This is more Brigitte Bardot than Joan Rivers," he says of his home that is up front and out there on its elevated section. "There are no facelifts or makeup ... just telling her she looks good."
Apparently it was Rosie who was big on the light fittings and Rhys on the wallpapers. Now it is Rhys who is putting the record straight.
"She's not fussed on knobs and I'm obsessed with bulbs. I'm the bulbs guy. It's the shape for me."
This family's shift to the US at least for the foreseeable future is the next chapter in their lives.
Says Rosie: "We looked at the calendar for this year to see what we had to come back to New Zealand for and there wasn't anything. We didn't need the extra house so this was the right decision to make."
