Built in 1928, this home has seen life from more sides than most. Ninety years ago, it took shape in Dell Ave in Remuera, deep in the heart of the established eastern suburbs.
In 1973, it was shifted 23km, on to this block in the heart of rural West Auckland.
Apparently the trip didn't go smoothly. The house became stuck on the bridge to what was then known as Don Buck's Hill and it rated a photo in the local newspaper.
The house was duly settled on its new elevated perch, looking out beyond a road that was sealed only a few years before Karen and Rob Ford bought here in 1993. They came looking for space and a rural outlook not too far away and this street that was only 1km from their previous home was more familiar than they first realised.
Rob's mother Lorna remembered working at a local garden nursery, picking carnations and Rob and his brother supplemented their schoolboy pocket money earning $1 an hour pulling up the old plants.
"That was more than I got for lawn-mowing," says Rob, of those days in the 1970s.
The omens were good then and they remained so for Rob and Karen and their three daughters, who grew up here with space inside and out and paddocks with horses as the backdrop.
These days, the front lounge, their sunset deck and the master bedroom look out to protected, semi-rural views that skim the rooftops of the new homes across the road to take in Swanson and the Waitakere Ranges in the distance.
Back then, the Ford family of five had a back lawn off their courtyard that is big by today's suburban standards and it is still the drawcard for get-togethers with local friends and out-of-town family.
The couple lived in the house as it was for seven years before starting architecturally designed renovations that have integrated original bungalow-style elements with a new reconfigured staircase and floorplan.
Cedar-panelled interior doors include some with leadlight and ribbed glass and they're a characterful addition to traditional casement and big picture windows.
Rob peeled back history when preparing the new walls for painting. "I reckon there was half an inch of old wallpaper there, all pre-war patterns," he says of the scrim walls.
In the dining room, he kept the original beam and panel ceilings and enhanced the updated fireplace with Fijian kauri tongue-and-groove sarking.
In the 5.4m-long galley kitchen and the adjacent hallway, they opted for timber-look laminate flooring alongside the carpeted living areas.
The cosy adjacent family room with its slightly lowered ceiling is popular all year round. "It's our coffee room," says Rob.
It is close to the winter fireplace and the all-weather barbecue area and opens through french doors to the courtyard with its water feature and lawn with fruit and macadamia nut trees.
Downstairs, the master bedroom and its adjacent bedroom/office are close to the family bathroom, separate toilet and the large laundry, which opens out to the courtyard.
Upstairs, the bedrooms include one with separate double bed wings and a landing large enough to be a study area. There's storage under the stairs and off the bedrooms. "If anyone wants a house with storage, then this is it," says Rob.
Rob and Karen, who works in accounts, are looking ahead to a smaller house better suited to the two of them but they say it will be the ambience here that they'll miss the most.
