Live like you are in a hotel
REMUERA 33 MAUNGAREI RD
Forget the smell of freshly baked bread and brewed coffee as the sensual drawcard for that elusive home-buyer. For Lorna and Grant it was the fresh twist of orange they spotted as they walked down the front steps that had them well on the way to being hooked.
“It was definitely one of the things that warmed us to this house,” says Lorna of that dramatic over-height front door.
By the time they had stepped inside and given the long, elegant entrance the instant once-over, nothing else on their viewing list stood a chance. An orangelined, drum lightshade, dark, glossy floor tiles and the juxtaposition of honed concrete block and wallpaper in adjoining walls told them everything they needed to know about this home that had been built for the developer’s family in 2008.
“That entrance really is quite alluring,” she says. “It really gives you the idea that this is quite a different kind of house. There’s the expectation from what you see right here as to what the rest of the house will look like.”
Lorna, who works in mental health and addiction, and Grant, a self-employed engineer, moved here four years ago with their sons Callum, now 24, and Fin, now 21. They felt as if they had moved into a five-star hotel and they celebrated their luscious good fortune with new beds and bedding and piles of fluffy new bath towels. “It just felt so luxurious,” says Lorna.
Asked what she’ll miss most about this most excellent of homes for their legendary parties, she says simply “the luxury”.
It’s in the glamour of the tiled bathrooms and the wallpapered feature walls in each of the bedrooms. It’s also in the pivoting television set, with an artwork set into the rear of its timber framework that you can watch from anywhere in the living area and from the deck even.
Lorna’s personal indulgence is slipping under the bubbles of the bath in their master en suite. “We’re British and we love our baths,” she says. It has even afforded her a clear view of the Argentinean Pumas rugby team training down the way at the College Rifles Rugby Club grounds. Off the master bedroom, her favourite comfy reading spot with its glazed roof panels is a year-round drawcard.
“The rest of Auckland might be cold but this room is really warm and bright.”
Scottish by birth, Lorna and Grant moved to New Zealand 20 years ago on a “maybe two-year, maybe fiveyear plan”, with a 4-month old and 3-year-old in tow. They rented first, then bought a leasehold property in Greenlane before moving here.
During their time here, they’ve each worked from the front home office/fourth bedroom with its separate entrance, and hosted visiting family with ease and great comfort.
Grant’s favourite room is the soundproof media/ lounge with built-in bar — ideal for conviviality around the guitar or just peace and quiet.
Outdoors, they’ve landscaped the garden in New Zealand natives appropriate to the scale of the house. Every significant room has a view of the garden through windows that extend all the way down to the floor. “Given that we are so urban, that’s great,” says Lorna. Her perceptive eye extends to the way the vistas within the house have a frame to their form, from the continuity of the tiles that border the carpeted areas to the TV wall and the wall around the rear kitchen cooktop and workbench that is close to the scullery.
Now they’re about to expand their vistas north and south, dividing their time between a rural property in Waipu and a city base in Onehunga.