A great community
This laidback, community- focused lifestyle is hard to beat, discovers Deborah Telford
Strolling along Cheltenham Beach can take Mark and Fiona Olley up to two hours, even though you can do the walk in less than 15 minutes. “We end up stopping and chatting to so many of our neighbours who have become good friends,” says Fiona, who is a convert to Devonport’s laidback lifestyle after initially being reluctant to move from Wellington in 2001.
The Olleys bought their first Auckland house in nearby Stanley Point. But when this Oxford Tce house came up for sale in 2007, Mark says they “fought ruthlessly” to secure it because it is so close to the beach.
“Even now, after living here for 10 years, I walk down to Cheltenham Beach and it still amazes me how beautiful it is,” says Fiona.
“The kids were just babies when we moved up from Wellington and they are so lucky to have grown up here.”
The single- level transitional villa also appealed because it is on a corner site that faces north on to Oxford Tce and west on to Matai Rd.
“It can be quite hard to find a house in Devonport that gets good sun all year round.
“This house is great in summer and also warm in winter.” Previous owners did extensive renovations to the villa, which was built in 1902 and has several bungalow characteristics, including its leadlight windows in the formal lounge. Their changes included building a separate double garage that opens to Matai Rd and a new wing that steps down from the far end of the central villa hallway and includes a large master bedroom with private garden views, an en suite and walk- in wardrobe.
Having this room away from the main part of the house is ideal now that the Olleys’ two sons are teenagers. “They can come home late at night and we don’t hear a thing,” says Fiona.
Over the past decade, the Olleys’ improvements to the house have included re- roofing, repainting, adding insulation and central heating and redoing the kitchen and both bathrooms.
They have also moved the laundry into the hallway behind the kitchen, concealing it behind cupboard doors and freeing up one of the sunniest areas of the house, which is now part of the openplan dining room and kitchen.
A wall and fireplace in this area has been replaced with tall bi- fold glass doors that open out to a semi- enclosed, covered deck.
This “outdoor room” gets the afternoon sun and looks out over a small lawn fringed with subtropical trees and shrubs. Being a corner site makes the property feel larger than its 520sq m although Fiona has planted the garden to be as low maintenance as possible.
As well as four bedrooms, the house has a large formal lounge off the kitchen and dining room and another lounge with an office area and sunroom off it where the original L- shaped verandah would once have been.
From the sunroom windows you can see Cheltenham Beach, which is a minute’s walk away. Balmain Reserve, which fronts on to the beach, is a few hundred metres down the road.
“The location is definitely 80 per cent of the equation for us. “We just love Cheltenham,” says Fiona. “I can’t remember how many nights of the week we have dragged our deckchairs across the road to the beach and had a glass of wine with our neighbours. The sense of community here is amazing.”
Now that their children are older and their first son is at university in Wellington, the Olleys say it feels right to have a change, but they are definitely looking to buy something in the same area.