Olympic rower Eric Murray’s renovation nets over $1m
Sights set on major revamp of villa mostly by himself
Olympian Eric Murray has sold the three-bedroom Cambridge house he transformed into a fun family home, complete with putting green and heated mineral pool, for $1.05 million.
The two-time Olympic gold medallist has spent the past three years learning new skills while overhauling the Vogel St property and now has his sights on doing it all over again after purchasing a tired 1910s villa.
OneRoof records show the Vogel St house had changed hands in 2019 for $627,000, and had an RV of $640,000
The retired rower, who also graced Kiwis’ screens on Dancing with the Stars this year, is happy with how everything worked out and is already making plans for his new home.
Prior to moving in midJanuary, he plans to put in a fence to keep his son, who has autism, safe.
He is also looking at how he can add a new bathroom and is considering sacrificing one of the four bedrooms due to access to the current toilet being outside.
Eric has been at the fourbedroom house this week measuring it up and said as soon as the purchase settles he will be speaking with his draughtsman.
“I’m now in a planning stage where I’m like, right, how many ideas can I get into my brain at one stage and
then just see what is most cost effective.” He anticipates spending between $200,000 and $250,000 on the major renovation project with him doing a lot of the work. “We’ve got to re-level the house, it needs a new roof . . . ,” he said.
“At the moment it’s got six or seven individual rooms — very, very individual, like room, room, room, room, room and you are like holy moly — off a central-spined hallway. “It’s just a matter of how much can we open it up while keeping some of
the classical villa style to it.”
The priority is renovating the inside of the home before
Eric even thinks about whether there will be any money left for any luxury items such as the heated mineral pool and putting green he added in the last house.
He spent three years transforming the 1950s Vogel St home from a basic brick property to a modern threebedroom, two-bathroom house with a large kitchen island perfect for entertaining and that also serves as the hub of the house.
Once he had completed the inside of the house, he then decided to “take it up a notch” earlier this year and add a putting green and heated mineral pool.
Eric said he will definitely miss the impressive outdoor area over the coming summer months.
Ray White salesman Dan Lavender said both the vendor and the buyer were “ecstatic” with the result for the Vogel St property. He said the buyer was successful because they put in a strong unconditional offer prior to the sale deadline.
There was a lot of interest in Eric’s home with 45 groups going through the first weekend of open homes as well as a number of private viewings midweek, he said.
“We gave out over 100 lavender and white chocolate cookies and lavender soaps to our open home attendees — to ensure people remember their viewing — plus oodles of people fondled Eric’s hard-earned medals.”