SCHOOL ZONES:
Kohimarama Primary, Glendowie College.
CONTACT:
Helen Clelland and Teresa Weiss, Barfoots, (Helen) 021 216 8905 or (Teresa) 0272 868439.
AUCTION:
July 8.
*One carport plus four off-street parking:
It's fair to say that Bill Pearce knew every nail, brick, tile and deck pebble around here. He cut the timber, cut and glued the mahogany laminate on the architraves and laid every tiny mosaic tile in the frame he made for the bespoke bath.
He knew every nook andcranny because he created them all. An electrical draughtsman by day, he built this house by night and weekends, from plans he drew in the late 1950s and began in 1960, while living with his wife at his parents' home in Epsom, a house his father had built.
"His father was a builder. Dad wasn't a builder but you couldn't really say he wasn't either," says Leanne, the youngest of the three Pearce children for whom this is the only family home they've known. Parents Marie and Bill have died and their three children and spouses have discovered more stories to add to the memories of life here when the hills were inhabited by cows and everyone knew the names of everyone in the street.
The Pearce children moved here in 1966, living downstairs and sleeping upstairs in one bedroom as their dad painstakingly worked on what became his 10-year project. The upstairs framing was their jungle gym; their front lounge, years later, the best viewing spot on Guy Fawkes Night.
"Mum would put our three chairs in a row and sit us down with our little packet of eats. We loved it," says Leanne.
Playing outside, they'd collect their drinks that their mum had perched on the opened glass louvres of the rear kitchenette. Wherever possible, Bill built dual-functionality into every feature. In the laundry he built the pull-down wooden ironing board beneath Marie's bespoke cupboard for her sewing notions. At the back of the carport, the dual-opening rumpus room enabled vehicular access from the driveway to the back garden.
Behind the kitchen sink, he built three slim cutlery drawers. On the opposite side of the adjoining servery, he installed pull-down removable drawers for Marie's tablecloths. In the downstairs bathroom, a second door behind the mirrored wall cabinet leads to splendid hiding places beneath the house.
Image 1 of 8: The Pearce children reminisce over their home, which their father built and decorated from scratch
"He was always doing something," says Leanne. "His vision for space and light was amazing. This was his life and his dream but from his point of view the house was probably never finished."
But it was not without its dramas. Bill fired one man employed to dig the foundations, and finished the job himself by hand. Likewise with the brickwork when he fired the only bricklayer he employed.
He chose not to lay the carpet he had ordered for the bedrooms because it wasn't of good enough quality. Instead they lived happily with the tawa timber floorboards that are the best clue to what lies beneath the lush, cream original carpet elsewhere, which is still as good as new. He chose the wallpapers he wanted, happy to wait the months it took for the order to arrive from the UK.
Everywhere there is evidence of Bill's hands at work from the hand-applied pebbles of the deck to the bulkhead up-lights in the lounge and the built-in furniture and ladders in the wardrobes.
If Bill didn't know how to do something then he taught himself. He designed and built the platform that enabled him to lift into position the ceiling plasterboard.
Leanne says: "It's lovely to tell the story of this house and it really is a great story. It has been heart-warming to come together and tell it.
"How many other people can live in a family home with so many unique original memories?"
