Country comforts

47 LINTON RD,

KAIPARA FLATS

Lof the board-and-batten home with long-run roofing that had been built in the ‘80s.

“It is a long, low house to follow the lie of the land,” Margaret says. “It captures the sun all day because it’s north facing.

“It is a warm house, a country home with a timeless quality. It has soul, and it belongs to the land somehow.”

The property has an implement shed with double garage and pool house. “I used that pool room as a consulting room when I was working professionally. It could also be a guest area, as it has a separate entrance,” says Margaret.

In the main house there is a bedroom, sun room, another bedroom with a bathroom, the formal entrance, laundry, the farmstyle kitchen with matai cupboards and F&P appliances, and main lounge.

Up the stairs are the master bedroom with en suite and an office.

Every bedroom and living room looks out at paddocks. Most rooms open to the outside. “You definitely have an indoor/ outdoor flow in this home.”

Features are the sarked timber ceilings and plentiful windows to bring in the natural light. Two wood burners easily heat the home, helped by a concrete slab behind one wood burner to store heat through the night.

Across the paddocks is a cottage that Margaret, a painter, uses as her studio. “It has two big rooms and a chemical toilet. It could be used as a second dwelling, but it has no power.”

The house is set off by native bush and a garden including a vegetable patch and fruit trees.

A 70,000-litre water tank means they never run out of water — “important on a lifestyle block”.

If they need provisions, Warkworth is just nine minutes away and Margaret can be on the motorway to Auckland in six minutes, with the off-peak trip to the North Shore taking 45 to 50 minutes.

The house is now on the market as Margaret says the time has come to downsize.