Lighten up in the tropics on One Tree Hill

26A Horotutu Road, One Tree Hill, Auckland. Photo / Geoff Dale

26A HOROTUTU RD ONE TREE HILL

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SIZE: Land 479sq m, house 267sq m.

PRICE INDICATION: Buyer indication upwards of mid $800,000s. Auction July 20 at 2pm (unless sold before).

INSPECT: Sat/Sun/Wed 12.30-1pm.

ON THE WEB: bayleys.co.nz/350930

SCHOOL ZONES: Oranga School, Remuera Intermediate, One Tree Hill College.

CONTACT: Felicity Scott, Bayleys, ph 027 452 2241 or 09 631 1888.

FEATURES: Well-built town house with private driveway and surrounded by lush, easy-care gardens. Two completely separate living rooms lift this comfortable home into good-sized family living or a lock up and leave downsizer.

When looking to simplify their lives three years ago, Jan and Graeme Eade's decision to downsize from their five-bedroom family home of many years was the easy part of the process. With five bedrooms and a large, leafy garden to maintain it was simply too big, and they decided they needed an easy-care lock-up-and-leave.

But the home they found was a mere slab of concrete in a muddy hole. "In some ways this might have seemed a complicated way of going about it," laughs Jan, "but it meant we could have a brand-new home that we could have a personal input into. All the planning had been done and, apart from relocating the upstairs bathroom for better views and access to two of the bedrooms, nothing structural needed changing. We were able to choose the colours, tiles and things, so it felt like ours right from the beginning."

Completed in early 2008 to the rigorous standards of the new Building Code, what Jan and Graeme found themselves moving into was not that much smaller than the house they had left behind, with four roomy bedrooms, three bathrooms and two large, completely separate, living areas.

One of these living areas is up on the first floor and in no way connects with the casually linked hub of kitchen, dining and adjacent living where they spend most of their time. "But having the extra room up there is good for TV, and it could easily be turned into a complete home theatre," explains Jan. "We don't have teenagers but I imagine it would work very well for larger families who need to spread out a bit."

On this upper level are three more bedrooms, an office and two bathrooms. Of course, one of these is the master suite but clever location of the family bathroom means one of the secondary bedrooms has en-suite access to it. Downstairs is the guest suite with another comfortable bathroom, the oversized double garage and the well equipped kitchen and casual living.

But what has given the Eades the most pleasure has to have been the lush, yet easy-care garden created by Jules Moore and Tim Bradbury from Plantet Earth that surrounds this area. Even on the darkest of days it is filled with colour and vibrancy. "When we arrived there was nothing," remembers Jan. "The previous owner of the site and the builders had dug it out to the level it is now, which exposed the big rocks to make a natural sort of amphitheatre. But, apart from that, it was mud and puddles. We weren't worried at all, though, as we had used this team to make a garden around our previous home and they had done such an excellent job we knew they would here, too."

The result is a verdant, sub-tropically themed garden that surprises because it manages to be completely easy-care all without a clump of native grass in sight. Drama is injected into the surroundings by the varied shades of bright greenery, set off by the charcoal-painted timber of the fences and pergolas. "It's always lovely to look out into it," enthuses Jan. "Today, when it's raining, it looks very bright but on hot, bright days it takes on quite a different feel."

The ground level decks were extended to allow for year-round, dry under-foot use of this space and plants were chosen with care and expertise. "It had to be this way," says Jan. "We've always spent a lot of time in our home in Motueka, so much so that now we want to make it our permanent home. You could say the South Island is calling."