SCHOOL ZONES:
Ponsonby Primary, Ponsonby Intermediate, Western Springs College, Auckland Girls’ Grammar.
CONTACT:
Lynn Gore, UP, ph 027 473 4500.
AUCTION:
March 5 (unless sold prior).
The front of this architecturally renovated home started out as an original worker's house but there's nothing working class about the creature comforts unfurling unexpectedly inside.
Its fountained lap-pool, Italian gourmet kitchen and entertaining courtyard would have been high above the station of the labourers who originally inhabited this part of town.
Owner Stuart Thompson says, "We have had friends refer to this place as 'The Tardis'. You come through the little cottage at the front to find this modern rear extension. People don't expect it to be so spacious."
Stuart's a fan of heritage but sold a more ornate home nearby to get somewhere more lock-up-and-leave. He and his partner bought here five years ago from owners who'd used architect John Cornthwaite to transform a modest restored home into a more polished extensive one suited to entertaining.
"We'd come through it about 10 years ago when it was smaller and we were just blown away when we saw what had been done to it," says Stuart.
The property's surprising "reveal" has helped earn it a spot on a charity house tour the day after it goes to auction.
Tour participants will see that one to two cars can be parked off-street in front of the internal-access double garage that was added in the house's overhaul. They'll cross the front steps and the veranda with city views, pass by a garden Stuart calls "the poodle garden" because of its neatly clipped nature.
The front of the home contains two bedrooms. One has an en suite while the other is currently set up as a library. Its walk-through wardrobe leads to a bathroom with glassless shower and a waterfall bath tap.
Image 1 of 4: It may look quaint from the front, but step inside to see the architectural magic
Where the home used to end, its front hallway now opens to a light-filled dining room which kicks off the extension.
Stuart rates a corner seating area opening to the courtyard as his favourite place to sit. "Because of the outlook."
There's something nurturing about the privacy of the landscaped, decked courtyard. It includes a heated lap-pool, the walls of which become a burbling water feature at the flick of a switch.
Skirting the courtyard is a galley-style Italian entertainer's kitchen where Stuart loves to cook.
"We entertain a lot and that works well here all year round, with barbecues in the courtyard in summer and hearty meals in the dining room in winter."
The kitchen leads to a lounge with a gas fire. This is set into a wall of honed block, a material seen throughout the extension. Visitors typically coo over the layout by this stage, before they've even explored the second level split into two distinct parts and the capacious ground floor.
Towards the front of the main level, which incorporates a Bose sound system, stairs lead to an upstairs office and second living area.
Stuart and his partner spent $40,000 adding two dormer windows to enlarge the space and highlight views over trees towards Sky Tower and Rangitoto.
Towards the rear of the main level stairs lead up to a master suite with walk-in wardrobe, en suite and a balcony with additional shutter-doors providing summer ventilation.
Stairs lead down from the living level to an office alcove that introduces a big ground floor scullery-laundry.
It's accompanied by a toilet and the internal-access double garage. The garage is outfitted with plenty of storage including a wine cellar and wheelie bin closet.
The couple have busy jobs and love being so close to Ponsonby's restaurants and cafes when they get home. However, they now spend so much time at their Mangawhai holiday home they want to downsize their city pad.
