KEY POINTS:
96 Brighton Road, Parnell.
Set back off the road behind an aged pohutukawa where Brighton Road swings down towards the shoreline reserves of Remuera, this humble Victorian villa is easy to miss, but worth a second look.
There's a humility about its setting in an eclectic garden that suggests this century-old house has been perfectly happy watching time and progress pass by.
From the front, this house looks small but perfectly formed. Better than that, it's much larger than it looks with all the elements of its original architectural form faithfully repeated through its double-storey updated floor plan.
The rear living area bursts forth beyond a sunny deck to take in an interesting, slightly sloping backyard that has been the delight of the Grogan family who have grown up here.
"There aren't many places around here with really big backyards such as this," says Glenys Kroon who, with her husband Eddie Grogan moved here 10 years ago when their children, Anneke, Sabrina and Jordan, were aged 1, 3 and 6 respectively.
Steps fashioned from railway sleepers and white gravel track up one side of a sloping rock garden that has been a fantasy land for the children, en route to their swings out of sight up one side. Their trampoline is tucked away out here, too.
The family has made every square centimetre count, playing volleyball and cricket on the lawn, and hosting barbecues beneath the pergola. Guests at Christmas and birthday occasions gravitate around the kitchen and its adjoining family room, and the dining room beside the formal lounge.
A thoughtful renovation designed by architect Terry Hitchcock for the previous owners used original kauri timber and interesting roof lines to define individual spaces designed for modern functionality, with a heritage signature that is relevant to this property's Residential 1A heritage zoning.
A dark-stained board and batten sloping ceiling defines the dining area and matches the ceilings in the formal lounge with its high traditional villa stud. Elegant swags and drapes adorn the sash windows.
The kitchen, with its six-burner free-standing stove with double oven and traditional-style cabinetry, is connected to the family room beneath lower beamed ceilings.
Throughout the house, the interior doors and all trims have been sealed, rather than painted, contrasting with walls and ceilings in a warm cream colour.
Original kauri floors are matched by recycled kauri in the newer area. The stairs with their turned balustrades and the two upstairs bedrooms have sage green carpet.
Under the stairs it appears that space has been allowed for a further alteration to create internal access up from the two separate basement carparks.
This has been the perfect home for the Grogan family, as much for its location as for its inherent conviviality. The girls can walk to school in Remuera from here. Glenys, who works as a planner at the Manukau City Council, used to cycle up Brighton Road and through the Domain into the city in 15 minutes when she worked for the Auckland Regional Council.
For Eddie, being able to wheel his kayak on its trailer down to the estuary into the harbour at the bottom of the street was something special. Now this family is reluctantly leaving for a new life in Whakatane and this is a home that Glenys believes needs the buzz of a family to fill its spaces.
"It's a big house that needs someone living in it who really loves it," she says.
