502/11 Fenton St, Mt Eden. Photo / Supplied
By Graham Hepburn
With busy lives in the military, Mary and Christiaan Robertson wanted a low-maintenance, lock-up-and-leave home when they based themselves in Auckland.
Gardening and general upkeep of a home is not really an option. With Mary in the Air Force and Christiaan in the Navy, they can be away from home for long periods.
"We were living in Aussie at the time and we flew back for a weekend and saw as many places as possible," says Mary.
"My husband was going to be living by himself for a bit so we needed somewhere secure that he could just shut the place up and go away for a few weeks."
So in 2015 the couple bought into the Station R building developed by Ockham Residential near the Mt Eden train station.
"We liked the fact that it was brand new and the finishings seemed to be of a higher quality than other apartments we looked at," says Mary. "It's also got a nice, spacious kitchen and a separate laundry - one of the things we didn't like about other apartments was that they had the laundry in the kitchen."
Being on the top floor they also have views from their apartment, looking northwest across the city from the lounge and deck. The bedrooms on the other side of the apartment look towards Mt Eden.
On this fifth level is an Ockham Residential signature - a residents' lounge just a couple of doors down from the Robertsons' apartment.
"That's one of the features we liked: the big residents' lounge with a toilet, kitchenette and a massive deck," says Mary. "It's awesome for entertaining."
Inside the front door of the couple's apartment are a double bedroom on one side and an office/single bedroom on the other that was perfect for their young daughter and meant the other bedroom could be for guests.
Past that is the kitchen/dining/lounge space, which opens out to the deck.
Opposite the kitchen is the laundry and the main bathroom, while the master bedroom sits alongside the deck and has a walk-in wardrobe and en suite.
The kitchen has composite stone benchtops and tiled splashback, while the bathrooms have tiling and glass showers.
Mary says they like the robust materials used in the building - concrete, wood and glass - and the soundproofing is top-notch. "We were concerned about noise between the apartments but they are really well soundproofed," she says.
"We were worried about our neighbours hearing our 2-year-old screaming - and she used to scream a lot - but they never heard her, and there's no noise from the railway even though you look right over it."
She says the location is superb - handy to Kingsland and Mt Eden, and "it's one stop on the train if you want to go to the rugby or you can go the other way and straight into town for work."
She says living centrally was a bonus because she was going against the traffic when she was based at Whenuapai.
Mary has been posted to Ohakea air base, and the family are hoping that Christiaan will be able to join them in Feilding.
She says: "All the furniture in there is our own furniture because we bought it for that apartment so the option is there for new owners to buy that as well."
Be prepared to go remote and get creative.