Open the door and fall in love

11, Home Street, Grey Lynn. Photograph/Doug Sherring

11, HOME ST, GREY LYNN

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SIZE: Land 404sq m, house approx. 148sq m (including basement);

PRICE INDICATION: CV $1 million.

INSPECT: Sat/Sun 1-1.30pm Auction on site March 1 at 1.15pm (unless sold prior).

ON THE WEB: customresidential.co.nz/CR5497

SCHOOL ZONES: Newton Central, Kowhai Intermediate, Western Springs College and Auckland Girls’ Grammar.

CONTACT: Keith Dowdle, Custom Residential, ph 021 877 905 and Sandy Dowdle ph 021 877 804.

* THREE OFF-STREET

As soon as I saw this, I called him and said I'd found our home. It just had a really nice feel to it.

You'd expect Gretchen Lowe would know a thing or two about making a house a home. After all, the PR and events manager was a competitor in 2011's season of New Zealand's Hottest Home Baker, where she created gloriously stylish goodies with barely a ruffle of concern. She has applied similar cool style of a domestic goddess to the house she and husband Blair bought two years ago on the Arch Hill/Grey Lynn boundary.

"We'd been living in Kingsland, but wanted to take the next step," says Gretchen. "Blair was away in Australia; I saw the open home the week it was due to go to auction. I do love open homes and real estate, I'd often just go by myself. But as soon as I saw this, I called him and said I'd found our home. It just had a really nice feel to it."

The couple learned that the house on Home St, which had been with the same owners for 20 years, had been an old boarding house. The neighbour's cottage was the post office. Both boast elevated views back across the Newton valley, but it is the street of neighbours, as much as the neighbourhood that the family have come to love. Gretchen says that it is like an old-school community -- people delivered baking when she had baby Gwynnie 13 months ago. She's back at work now, but loves that she can push the baby in her stroller and be on Ponsonby Rd in 12 minutes, or at Kokako and the Grey Lynn shops in a similar walk. Mum and baby have made the most of the nearby Grey Lynn Park and its toddler paddling pool, and story-time at Grey Lynn library.

Image 1 of 8: Within walking distance of Auckland's trendiest hotspot is a neighbourhood where people still bake for each other.

The house stays true to its Victorian roots. Living is on the top floor, but there is an unfinished basement at street level that the couple use for storage. It could easily be converted to a roomy rumpus room or home office, as it is a street level with its own front door.

The side entry to the house leads into the bright, white kitchen. The Lowes insulated, added flued gas heating, Infinity hot water, and gas cooking. There are remnants of original mouldings and doors, and a beautiful original fireplace, with built-in cupboards is still in one of the three large bedrooms. Lashings of white paint and stylish light fittings are a great backdrop for their collection of art, textiles and furniture. The lean-to kitchen and dining room open on to one of the features that captivated Gretchen -- a level, sunny, north-facing back yard. It is framed by a couple of mature trees, including a fruiting grapefruit, so the couple had only to tidy it up, adding hedging in port wine magnolias. Gretchen has planted a thriving vege garden, and has enjoyed being able to feed baby Gwynnie just picked, wholesome foods that are full of flavour -- no packaged baby foods.

The two double bedrooms at the front of the house, one the nursery, one the master bedroom, open to a covered veranda with views across the gully. Gretchen loved sitting there at baby feeding times, watching the light change.

Opening off the back of the kitchen is the bathroom, still in original state, although much improved by a lick of paint. But the family have decided to move closer into Ponsonby, leaving this home with lots of potential for the next buyer to play with.