Like many renovation projects, Tracy and Paul Morris' home spruce-up turned out to be more comprehensive than they expected. The St Heliers house they bought three years ago was billed as "Tuscan style". This wasn't really to the Morris' taste, so fresh paint and carpet were always part of theprogramme. But what eventuated, as with so many renovations, was a top-to-toe transformation.
With their son Jack, now 5, Tracy and Paul had been looking for a new family home and this one, with its large garden and pool, "ticked a lot of boxes". It faces due north and is on a quarter of an acre, with sea views. Located on an "off shoot" of Kohimarama Rd, with a wedge of park between it and the main road, the bones of this house suited them perfectly.
"The proportions in this house are brilliant," Tracy says. She understands it was a bungalow originally built in the 1950s, with a carport out the front. "Then, in the 1990s, someone added an extra level and extended it here and there."
After living in the house for 18 months, Tracy and Paul repainted the Italianate colours of the bagged brick exterior a crisp white, replaced the joinery and added double glazing. Working to a design by architect Paul Clements, they also removed an entry void, adding an extra room, and replaced wrought-iron balustrades with glass.
Tracy and Paul have family living overseas and the layout of this home works well when they come to stay. Three bedrooms, a full bathroom and a powder room are in one wing on the ground floor. "It sounds a bit hoity toity to call it a guest wing, but that's what it is, really."
The rest of the ground floor is dedicated to living spaces, which wrap around a tiled patio and the revamped pool area, with French doors leading outside. Jack's playroom is a bright, fun space with removable wall decals. The formal living and dining areas flow into the casual living and dining zones. The kitchen, with feature tiles, is streamlined, thanks in part to a combined scullery/laundry which in itself is the size of most kitchens. In the kitchen proper, there's an induction cooktop and double Gaggenau ovens.
Image 1 of 7: Couple took on more than they bargained for with this St Heliers renovation project. Photos / Ted Baghurst
Upstairs, there's a spare bedroom, a tiled family bathroom with a standalone bath and Jack's sunny bedroom, which opens on to a balcony shared with his parents' master bedroom. Tracy found the fabric for Jack's blue geometric curtains on a Canadian TV show. Although the Morris home looks as if it's had an interior designer's hand involved, Tracy has done it all herself.
The master suite is enormous -- from the bedroom, through to the dressing room and en suite. Distinctive antique timber-and-glass doors leading into the bedroom have been retained from the home's previous incarnation. "Word has it they were shipped over from France," Tracy says.
Outside in the garden, the layout has been simplified to make it more family-friendly. Tracy and Paul removed a petanque court and formal Italianate hedging from a section of lawn below the pool. They added a retaining wall to make it more level and included a sunken trampoline, which Tracy says everyone loves bouncing on.
They built a new cedar secure-entry fence and gate at the front of the property, where there is off-street parking for four cars.
But now, after enjoying their renovated home for a year and a half, the Morris family is hankering for a new project. "We would like to build from scratch," Tracy says. "That would be ideal."
