Gracious and spacious haven

116 Galloway Rd, Karaka. Photo / Supplied

116 GALLOWAY RD, KARAKA

4*

2

2

SIZE: Land 5.39ha, house 271sq m.

PRICE INDICATION: $2.55 million.

INSPECT: Sunday 2.30-3.30pm or phone agent to view.

ON THE WEB: barfoot.co.nz/496530

SCHOOL ZONES: Te Hihi Primary School, ACG Strathallan, Rosehill College.

CONTACT: Trudy Boyce, Barfoot & Thompson, ph 021 898 483 or (09) 237 3115.

FEATURES: Country homestead with tennis court and fenced paddocks. Has a 16m x 16m American barn with additional accommodation facilities and a 12m x 8m farm shed with power. *plus office.

You might say that Bryan Old is a lucky man. A winning bet on his own racehorse resulted in he and his wife buying an elegant home on 5ha in Karaka, and he's loved every minute of living there.

Obviously $100 each way wasn't quite enough to meet the price tag of the house - he picked up about $3000 on the horse race - but it set in motion a chain of events that led to the purchase.

"We had the horse racing up north so we came up from Hamilton to watch it and stayed with friends near here," he says.

"When we all came back here from the races, they suggested we ought to buy a place nearby."

Bryan and his wife Colleen looked at a couple of properties, and Colleen put her hand up for Stonebridge Farms.

"She said to me, 'I like that place and I don't think it'll stay on the market for long,'" Bryan recalls.

Monday morning saw Bryan in meetings with his accountant and bank manager. Negotiations began, and the property was very quickly theirs.

"I liked it because of the acreage," Bryan says. "There's a reserve down the back so when we moved in I got the dozers in to fill in the holes, I organised some drainage and then I planted 3000 flaxes around the boundary."

He also planted a large area in native trees - with an ulterior motive.

"I wanted to have a few chooks but Colleen wouldn't let me, so I planted out the bush, hid a chook house in it, fenced it all off and put them in there," he says. "One night we were sitting on the terrace and Colleen said, 'I can hear a rooster.' I told her it was the neighbours', but when the hens starting laying I had to confess."

Bryan went on to plant - without an ulterior motive - two avocado trees, a feijoa hedge, walnuts, chestnuts and a citrus orchard.

"I've got all these grandchildren to feed," he laughs.

Happily, the house was so beautifully designed and crafted that little needed doing inside, and he and Colleen have been able to sit back and enjoy it. It has been built to capture sun from the time Bryan makes his first cup of tea at 6am, to when he's enjoying an evening Scotch on the terrace.

The 2.7m stud adds to the light, spacious feel of the house, and Bryan and Colleen love the big, ornate cornices and the touches of history about the place.

"The timber benches in the kitchen and the bathrooms were made from recycled church pews and the floors are all recycled rimu with copper inserts between each board," Bryan says.

These elements add up to a gracious, elegant country house with two large living spaces, an expansive kitchen, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a study, double garaging, sheds and, of course, the secret chook house.

Many of the rooms open onto the terrace, which encircles the house and - to complement the interior's timber detailing inside - has a ceiling of tongue and groove macrocarpa.

Bryan loves to sit here, looking over the tennis and volleyball courts and down to the American-style barn which has been converted to self-contained living accommodation.

"I can see just about the whole place from here," he says.