This gracious, spacious character home overlooking lush landscaped gardens above Oakura bears little resemblance today to its humble cottage origins.
Property Profile
| QUICK LOOK WHERE: 301 Surrey Hill Rd, Oakura. HOW BIG: 330 sqm home on approx 1.4 hectares. HOW MUCH: $1,300,000. WHAT YOU GET: Large architect-enhanced character home on a peaceful sheltered lifestyle setting above Oakura. Classic styling with contemporary comforts. MARKETED BY: Nicki Procter at Remax Team Realty - phone 027 276 2613 or 06 759 8084. ON THE WEB: www.open2view.com - ref 240978. SEE IT: By appointment. |
That plain-Jane cottage of probably one bedroom and minimal services now boasts 330sqm of space, with five bedrooms, three living areas, three bathrooms and a turret room with 360-degree views over the grounds and down to the sea.
The piecemeal growth of the house hadn't always been well-planned, according to present owners Steve and Linda. But Steve's an architect and, in the course of the seven years they have enjoyed this setting, they have refined the floor plan of the house and added their own extensions to it.
You find the house at the very end of Surrey Hill Rd, after an easy drive up from Wairau Rd and the seaside village. On the way up, there are glimpses of numerous other lifestyle properties that point to the popularity of this area. Fresh framing arising on one site says development up here hasn't stopped yet.
Privacy is a feature of today's feature property - the drive winds down a short way into trees that protect life here and offer a shady green welcome. Although it's only a few minutes' from Oakura, there's a sense of entering another world.
The drive splits in two as you near the house - one leading to the double garage and path to the house, the other carrying on to a secluded site further on where Steve and Linda are building a new home for themselves. The original 12 acres here is being subdivided to leave the home and gardens on about 3.6 acres.
That's the only reason the couple is selling this home - they can design and build a new home and still enjoy the setting they fell in love with seven years ago.
Steve and Linda had arrived out from the UK just months before and were living in Auckland at the time. "We came down for the weekend to see friends and they brought us out to Oakura," Steve recalls. "We liked the area with its mountain and sea icons and when we saw this house on the market ... that was it."
The peacefulness of the grounds and the beauty of the gardens were appealing, but the amount of space in the home was a key attraction, he says. "In the UK, rooms are quite small and to come here and get all this space and 3m ceilings as well ..."
As an architect, he saw the need for changes to the layout and finish. "A few things were not quite right, so we wanted to change them around a bit and hopefully improve the flow."
They did that, extending the wall of the main lounge out to enlarge the room and bring in more light with a wall of glass. A new master bedroom suite was also built and an entry foyer created that drew people into the house and through to the decking that wraps around the living areas.
Steve shaped the master bedroom addition with a minimalist touch that drew some good-natured ribbing from friends, who suggested he'd built a car showroom at the front of the house.
The larger lounge retains the rimu-battened ceilings and rimu trimmings that feature throughout the house, but the new bedroom and ensuite area is crisp in a simple white decor with tall windows raked into the roofline. Steve feels the more contemporary approach in here still works with the original house. "We kept the vernacular of the original in roof pitch and ceiling heights," he says, in explanation.
Bathrooms have been revitalised with tile features and modern fittings that still present a classic style. And the rimu kitchen was enhanced with the addition of composite stone bench tops and stainless steel hardware.
A solar water-heating system was installed on the roof to provide hot water to the ensuite, while a wetback in the woodburner heater in the main living area warms water for the rest of the house.
Previous owners had added the upstairs living spaces - a games room angled into the roof and the striking turret above that, reached via steps up from the games room.
"It's been a fantastic family home," Steve says. "The kids were still quite young when we came here, so it was a good place for them to grow up. They had camps in the bush and that sort of thing."
Remax consultant Nicki Procter is marketing the property, which she feels is quite special at the top of Oakura and at the top of the market. "It's such a big family home on a nice bit of land with lovely gardens. I can't find anything that I can compare it to."
The character presentation of the home has immediate impact for visitors, she adds. "There are not many character homes that you can walk into and go 'Wow!'. And if you tried to rebuild something like this now, the costs would be huge with all the native timber in it."
The turret adds a fairytale touch to the home, she says. "It's like something out of one of my childhood stories."
- Taranaki Daily News
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