This villa was a flat for a long time. I know because I was a tenant there for nearly four years, moving out a decade ago. It has a special place in my heart as the last place I lived as a single girl before I shacked up with my now-husband and became a parent. I loved the home's elevated, central location and the view across Grey Lynn to the harbour, as well as the backyard pohutukawa that blossomed so beautifully just before Christmas every year. Thursday-night drinks with my flatmate Janine on nearby Ponsonby Rd were lots of fun, albeit slightly irresponsible.
Feeling nostalgic, I was keen to write a story about this home which, I think, is on the market for the second time since I moved out. It looks vastly different from my time. Current owners Daniella and Peter, parents to nearly 2-year-old Ben, have been here for five years. The couple had moved to Auckland from Melbourne and this was their first house as a married couple. "We had a six-month lease on an apartment in the city and then a karaoke bar opened across the road," Peter recalls. "The noise and people on the street late at night pushed us to get a place," he smiles.
A bright yellow hallway and pinky-purple living room the home sported in its tenanted days had been neutralised by the time Daniella and Peter moved in, but there was still plenty of work to be done. Despite the sunny aspect, the age of the house and inadequate heating and insulation meant Queenslander Daniella found it cold and damp in winter. The bathroom took up the sunniest corner of the house and was falling apart. Daniella recalls one of the family's two miniature schnauzers, Molly and Sophie, pawing at the bathroom's wooden floor as a puppy. "Then we noticed we could see daylight through the floor." The kitchen too was lacking (I can vouch for this) and the house was short on storage.
The couple's friend, architect Clive Chapman, had done up a house in neighbouring Ariki St. "So we thought we'd let him loose on this place," jokes Peter. The first stage of the renovation started in October 2010, removing the bathroom from the sunny corner and turning it into living space. Chapman created a spacious new bathroom alongside the third bedroom. Across the hall is Ben's room (my old room), with the large master bedroom next to him. The house is now warm thanks to central heating and proper insulation.
