Storybook of Waikato history

5 Te Aroha Steert, Hamilton. Photo/Supplied

5, TE AROHA ST, CLAUDELANDS, HAMILTON

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SIZE: Land cross lease share of 1277sq m, house 280sq m.

PRICE INDICATION: $679,000.

INSPECT: Sun 2-2.30pm.

ON THE WEB: bayleys.co.nz/89401

SCHOOL ZONES: Hamilton East Primary, Peachgrove Rd Intermediate, Hamilton Boys’ and Hamilton Girls’.

CONTACT: Rachel Waldegrave, Bayleys, 021 748 001.

Built in 1927, this elegant Arts and Crafts home has all the history you'd expect of a home with such a pedigree. In the 1950s it was the first Mormon Chapel in Waikato, with missionaries living upstairs and church services and Sunday school held downstairs. Then it became consulting rooms for a doctor and a homeopath.

Its eyecatching architectural form has seen it featured in tours of Hamilton's finest homes and it has been immortalised in aerial photos dating from 1938, which show the wider 4.04ha land block known as "The Oaks" before urban sprawl encroached on its boundaries.

More recently, this property has been the family home of Roy Pendragon and his wife, Jenny Kora, both Kiwis, who moved here in 2009 from Perth, Western Australia, with their sons Finn and Zachary, now aged 9 and 7 respectively.

Roy, in particular, is fascinated by period homes. Their Perth edition was a Federation-style brick home with stained glass windows. When the family stepped inside this plastered brick and timber home, its hand-crafted, heart rimu features, stained-glass windows and well-proportioned rooms it had a balance of welcoming familiarity and exciting points of difference.

"We've always liked those character homes and we were blown away when we walked through it. We'd never have seen anything like this in Australia and we weren't familiar with the Arts and Crafts style as such, but we were taken with the staircase, the plaster ceiling roses."

It didn't matter that the floors were carpeted with floral Axminster. What one person loves about a house, another person loathes, and when Roy happened to mention to a local businesswoman his intention to pull up the carpet, he learned she'd lived in the house during the 1980s. She was very upset at his intentions but then, in the next breath, mentioned how much she disliked the kitchen's island bench that she'd seen when the house had been on the market.

When Roy got talking to the person he'd bought the house from, they said they'd always intended pulling up the carpet. When Roy and Jenny did, "we discovered these beautiful heart rimu floors that had been protected by the carpet. That was a nice discovery."

They have not changed anything structurally.

"It's pretty original," says Roy, including the anterooms, one of which is a dressing room off the master bedroom.

All sorts of interested people have had ideas for this home. Downstairs in the dining room there's a bay window with a deep sill and someone recently suggested it could be knocked out and replaced with glass doors opening to a deck. Another has suggested the rear porch (there are three) and separate toilet would be an ideal space for a second bathroom.

Image 1 of 5: Beautiful early 20th-century craftsmanship embodies aura of genteel living

But, for Roy and Jenny, this home has been perfect. They like the tiled, refurbished bathroom upstairs complete with timber vanity and clawfoot bath. They like the twin wardrobes in their bedroom, the floral wallpaper in another bedroom and the roof space storage.

Roy and Jenny's favourite room is the one downstairs bedroom that was formerly a consulting room. Its rimu panelling is part of its appeal as an ideal room for day-time rest and reflection.

"It is such an unassuming room but it is so beautiful," says Jenny, "and we've often talked about how much we love this particular room."

For both of them, leaving this home to return to Perth will be one of mixed feelings as they are moving back to be closer to Roy's first grandchild.