The best of the past in Albany

7 Kyle Rd Albany. Photo / Geoff Dale

7 KYLE RD ALBANY

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SIZE: Land 3971sq m, house 329sq m.

PRICE INDICATION: Mid-$1 millions. Auction November 3 at 2pm

INSPECT: Sat/Sun 1pm-1.45pm.

ON THE WEB: www.bayleys.co.nz/201445296

SCHOOL ZONES: Upper Harbour Primary, Albany Junior High, Albany Senior High.

CONTACT: Prudence Foster, ph 487 0646 or 027 486 7783, Amanda Henaghan 487 0630 or 021 728 004, Bayleys.

FEATURES: Single level, open-plan character home on large flat section with swimming pool, spa, tennis courts, potager garden and manicured grounds. Newly renovated, weatherboard construction and close to schools and shopping.

Rambling one-level weatherboard homes on large, flat sections do not seem the obvious sort of property to find in the ever-expanding Albany of 2010.

More common are homes less than a decade old on small, tightly managed sites, so in a happy way, Brenda Opperman and Grant Davidson's home at the top end of Kyle Rd seems almost like a place out of time.

But rather than being an oddity, this gracious and pleasant home is everything Albany used to be, before the developers and a new district plan turned it on its sleepy head.

Built in the 1950s, it boasts the time-proven features of the era - weatherboard construction and a colour-steel roof - and because of the size of its large, flat section, was able to be located without compromise.

And although these desirable features, along with the already established in-ground pool, spa and hard-surface tennis court, allowed it to be a comfortable home for many of the 10 years Brenda, Grant and their two girls have lived there, Brenda admits that since they modernised it considerably last year it is better than ever.

"We put a garage and storage on one end and a master bedroom suite on the other. Grant likes big things and so everything was built big. We have so much land around us we could more or less do what we wanted."

The result is a gracefully extended open-plan home with huge sliding cedar doors leading out to the sunny deck, north-facing gardens and entertainment area to the front of the property, and with all the space a family with teenagers could ever need. The living area links to the dining room, which links to the kitchen, which links to the TV room; you get the picture. It all flows in one never-ending succession of well-appointed rooms.

At the rear, where huge, flat lawns positively invite a game of football, Brenda has made a potager garden which provides most of the vegetables the family eats. "We used to have hens for years, too, but after a dog broke in I couldn't quite face having hens again, so now we have more lawns."

At the front of the house is the new garage, oversized to fit with Grant's love of the large. This, along with its two storage areas, houses many of the belongings brought home from the four-bedroomed apartment that was the family's home in Valencia.

"I can't decide what to do with everything, but with storage like this there hasn't been too much of a hurry," muses Brenda.

At the opposite end of the house is the beautiful master bedroom suite. Graceful and airy, with French doors leading out to another deck and the tranquil rear garden, it is just the sort of bedroom to dream of waking in. Adding to its air of quiet luxury is a full-sized bathroom and spacious dressing room and wardrobe areas.

Across the passage are the two girls' bedrooms which, with an interconnecting bathroom and decks out of their French doors, are so comfortable they show no desire to leave home.

But leave home is what the family will be doing in the near-future, although Brenda confesses that she'll miss the space and privacy. "We're only doing it because Grant is away so much that it seems to make sense to have a home that is closer to a lock-up-and-leave sort of place.

"But I have to admit I'm finding it difficult to find somewhere that has what we have here."