When Jacqui Walker and Chris Gillies moved to Westmere from Ponsonby 22 years ago they felt they were moving their young family into the depths of suburbia.
These days, their Peel St house feels perfectly situated.
It is a quick walk from Cox's Bay and to great cafes and shops including Farro and Countdown, but is far enough away from increasingly busy Ponsonby Rd.
Back in the mid-90s they needed somewhere bigger than the 290sq m property in O'Neill St where they were living with their first two sons, Tom and Freddie, who are now 26 and 23.
It took months of searching while they rented after selling their Ponsonby house before they found this north-facing property which, at 885sq m, is more than three times larger than the previous one.
"We immediately fell in love with the house and the section," says Jacqui, who had their third son Arthur, now 21, a year after they moved to Peel St.
The property has been a perfect playground and party house for the boys, who grew up playing hours of cricket with family and mates on the large, level back lawn.
The house, about halfway down Peel St, which runs off Richmond Rd on the western side of the West Lynn shops, is hidden behind a high front wall planted with ficus.
Part of its strong appeal is that most rooms have doors to the outside, so the house connects seamlessly with the beautiful, private garden that Jacqui has created.
At some stage the gracious old villa, which was built around the turn of the 19th century, was converted into a series of flats.
When the previous owners turned it back into a single family home, they installed six sets of steel-framed French doors with top hung multi-paned windows.
Image 1 of 10: This massive, north-facing property is perfectly situated. Photos / Fiona Goodall, Getty Images
These distinctive doors, which came from an old nursing home, give great views to the garden and allow plenty of light into the high-studded house.
Jacqui and Chris have not needed to make any significant structural alterations to the house, which flows well and has plenty of discreet areas where everyone in the family has their own space.
Their renovations have included restoring the original kauri floors, carpeting the bedrooms, installing generous bunk beds, fencing the entire property and levelling the back lawn.
Apart from two mature melia trees, which had already been planted on the lawn, Jacqui has transformed the garden with low maintenance, mainly subtropical plants including bromeliads, cycads, dragon trees and palms.
Garden features include a striking bougainvillea vine that frames doors leading from the dining room to the back garden and a star jasmine hedge in the front garden.
As you enter the house, the master bedroom is on the left off the hallway. On the right, a double bedroom has doors opening to a verandah that gets morning sun.
Further down the hall, down two steps, the main living room has a large, west-facing bay window. Two bedrooms open off either side of this room, one with the generous bunk beds.
The large bathroom and laundry have ample storage and at the end of the hall, a second living room, which doubles as an office or fifth bedroom, looks out to a covered courtyard that connects with kitchen and dining area.
Jacqui and Chris say the courtyard has been a real bonus in Auckland's changeable climate.
Now that their three sons have left home they are looking at options to downsize.
