Two dwellings, land-banking on to the Mahurangi River and being close to the main road make this property desirable and multifunctional.
Melanie and Ian Thompson bought the property about 18 months ago, moving north from Canterbury.
They were the second owners of the main home which had been purpose-built as a B&B in 2002. The second dwelling, a wooden cottage, was built around 1990.
The main home is L-shaped and the Thompsons have used one part of the L as their home, reserving the second part for guests.
That configuration would also be great for extended families, especially with teenagers or grandparents, a joint ownership venture, or a family wanting to enjoy rural living -- with the water bore, orchard and room for animals -- while the family is young, and reap the possible benefits of a future urban zoning.
Ian and Melanie keep their area with two bedrooms, lounge, kitchen and double garage separate from the guest wing, and also have separate ducted heating and gas fired hot water systems, allowing them to heat only the parts of the house in use.
In the other part of the wood-framed, brick and weatherboard veneer home are another lounge with gas fire, en-suited bedrooms each opening to the deck and garden, a study and a toilet.
The separate cottage has been rented out long-term. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a lounge and kitchen, with log burner and gas hot water, and a car port. There is a wraparound covered veranda with a private outlook over the valley, and a garden.
Image 1 of 7: This two-residence property has plenty of options for home and income. Photos / supplied
Ian says they are about a kilometre off State Highway 1, "on the left hand side as you go up, so therefore we are on the correct side for turning off." The nearest town is Warkworth, about 2 or 3km to the outskirts, about 5km into the centre, and the drive to Auckland takes about 45 minutes.
The couple have kept the homes to a high standard, repainting the main home and on the land they have re-fenced paddocks and added a 115sq m three-bay barn where Ian has a workshop.
"The original owners deliberately planted a country cottage garden and it attracts a lot of bees. They are mature gardens now. There is a huge variety of fruit trees, apples, oranges, lemons, kaffir limes, grapefruit, all sorts of apples, feijoas, plums, guavas, figs, almonds and persimmons."
As well as being close to Warkworth, Ian and Melanie enjoy time at the beach, in particular Brick Cove in Brick Bay which has flax and attracts the tui. They have enjoyed the country lifestyle, keeping cows and hens and harvesting the fruit from their orchard. Ian thinks their property presents a wide variety of opportunities.
"We have the two-bedroom cottage and I have to be honest, our tenant does not want to leave, she loves it there, with the deck and the garden.
"And then we have the lifestyle, we have 14 acres and we have 11 cows at the moment. There are nine chickens so we have free range eggs and Melanie uses the fruit for making jams for breakfast. We try to get as much as we can out of the garden. Of course we don't spray.
"We had someone approach us a few months ago to put bees on the land. He said it was ideal for putting bees on because it is flat and exposed to the sun. So there are a lot of opportunities like that. I have used one third of the barn for a workshop so that is a sanctuary for hiding away in if it is raining during the day."
They are selling for health reasons. Ian thinks the new owners will be "people looking for a lifestyle, and taking the revenue from the cottage and the cattle as a bonus".
