Mike’s 60’s time capsule is ready for a new future
As a very young child riding his pushbike to school in 1960, Mike Powell watched this house being built.
‘‘It really caught my eye,’’ the Hawera local says. ‘‘There was so much glass; there were coloured panels on the front; and the sun was always streaming inside. It looked nice and warm, sunny and colourful.’’
So when the house came onto the market for the first time, 30 years ago, Powell bought it. By then he had found out it had been designed by architect Rex Roberts, who is widely respected in architectural circles.
‘‘I have had lots of architects stop outside the house and knock at the door wanting to have a look through,’’ he says. ‘‘They just love it and take lots of photos.’’
In the past 30 years, Powell has married Cristina and they have brought up two boys in the house. ‘‘Cristina hails from Columbia, South America, and fortunately, she loved the house, too, especially all the colour,’’ Powell says.
The couple are now moving to New Plymouth, where Cristina works, so have listed their midcentury gem for sale for $319,000 through Kirsten Kiernan at First National Mills & Gibbon.
Powell has been so intent on preserving the integrity of the architecture, he even bought the house next door so he could carve off a bit of the land to build a garage. ‘‘I just couldn’t bring myself to build it in front. It would have looked so crass.’’
It’s a real period piece. ‘‘What you see is exactly how the house was painted when it was brand new.
‘‘I have gone to a lot of effort to track down the original colours and match them perfectly.
‘‘At first I looked at a couple of different reds and blues, but they were never quite the same. This is how it was meant to be, and it’s an absolute delight to wake up to this every morning.’’