Takapuna: Pitch perfect

Soccer coach John Adshead and wife Pauline renovated their home planning to stay on but are now heading to the Mount.

7a Minnehaha Ave, Takapuna.

When soccer coach John Adshead took up a job with the New Zealand Knights in December 2004, wife Pauline was in charge of finding a home for them and their son.
``Pauline knew the Shore and knew what she wanted,'' says John.

``I knew that I wanted a place between Hauraki Corner and the bottom of Milford,'' says Pauline. After looking for three months, Pauline found their home in Minnehaha Ave just over a year ago - although when they took possession ``everything was overgrown and the house was extremely tired''.

Since then, the house has been renovated top to bottom.
``We've repainted and recarpeted and put in a new kitchen,'' says Pauline.

``And we've resurfaced the pool and put in heating,'' adds John. ``We replaced the old white picket fence with a solid wall and put in an electric gate. Everything indoors and outdoors has had something major done to it.''

John says they couldn't have done it without the help of a painter and decorator friend.
``He's very talented. He came to do a couple of touch-ups on the bedroom ceiling - and he left about a year later,'' laughs John.

Downstairs, the home has a sunken formal lounge with a formal dining room with a blood red colour scheme next to it. This opens out to a barbecue area on the north side of the house. On the other side of the dining room is the slate-floored open plan kitchen and informal living area.

The kitchen has a breakfast bar, new appliances and stone benches. This informal living area flows out to the deck and kidney shaped in-ground pool with spa alongside.

There's plenty of room out here for outdoor dining and John says the floodlit oak trees look spectacular at night. John says a lot of work was put in tidying up the rock-fringed garden beds around the pool and along the way they discovered that there was an automatic irrigation system for the whole garden.

Upstairs and to the left there is another living area above the double garage that serves as 13-year-old son Blair's music room. To the right there are three bedrooms plus the master bedroom with a tiled en suite and walk-in wardrobe. And up on the top floor of the house is a sunny study with restful sea views.

John and Pauline are now planning to retire to Mount Maunganui where Pauline has long had a home. That was their original plan when they returned from Oman, where John was coaching, until the Knights job came up.

For John, that was too good an opportunity to turn down and so they began the renovation on their home thinking he might have a lengthy stint with the Knights. But John's health problems - a heart attack followed by a prostate cancer scare - and turmoil at the club forced a rethink.

``I wanted to leave the club in a good position but the family's welfare and our lifestyle became more important,'' he says.

The move is timely, too, because Blair will be starting high school. And Pauline, though she envisaged living here for a few years, should have known an upheaval was coming. She points out at the garden as she says, ``See how that lemon tree is starting to get fruit on it. Every house I go to I plant a lemon tree and by the time we get lemons, we end up leaving.''

VITAL STATISTICS

BEDROOMS: 4

BATHROOMS: 3

GARAGES: 2

SIZE: Land 820sq m, house 350sq m.

PRICE INDICATION: Buyers over $2.4 million must inspect. Tender closes July 20.

INSPECT: Sun 1-2 pm.

ON THE WEB: www.open2view.com id 130470.

CONTACT: Lewis Guy, Premium Real Estate, ph 489 8444 bus, 916 4394, 021 867 355 mob.

FEATURES INCLUDE: Executive home with stone base and weatherboard upper floors. Landscaped, floodlit private grounds with tropical plantings, heated pool, spa and electric gate.