Page turns for historic cottage

The 1880s home had seen better days but, revived, it is now in a new heyday, writes Deborah Telford

Roger and Lorraine Hammond invested in expert advice before undertaking an extensive renovation to transform their Grey Lynn cottage into a “big, small home” that cleverly maximises its indoor and outdoor spaces.

The couple sold their previous, three- storeyed home in Freeman’s Bay five years ago because it had too many stairs, a garden on a steep hill and did not get enough sun.

This house in Home St, which runs off Bond St and is near the Ponsonby end of Great North Rd, appealed because it had a north- facing back garden, views to the west and was affordable.

They also love the neighbourhood’s feel and being in easy walking distance of Eden Park, Kingsland, Ponsonby, K Rd and the city.

“We’ve really grown to love this area. It’s so central but our street is quiet and has very little through- traffic,” says Roger.

The late 1880s cottage was in a parlous state when the Hammonds bought it.

“It was a cold, mouldy old cottage, which had been mucked around with and felt as though everyone had had a go at it,” says Lorraine.

“But we like doing up houses so we weren’t put off, and now it’s a lovely home which we’ve really enjoyed living in.”

The Hammonds employed three experts — architect Richard Furze, garden designer Renee Davies and Amie Hammond, one of their two daughters, whose Billie Kinsey interior design business takes her great- grandmother’s stage name.

“Amie has a background in art history that she brings to her work, and I pored over magazines to show her what I liked. We managed to work very amicably together,” says Lorraine.

Renovating the house involved stripping it back to two side walls and the front one, to the point where it looked like a facade from a Wild West movie.

The old, two- bedroom, one- bathroom house, with a lean- to so low that Roger says he needed to duck to navigate it, is now a three- bedroom, twobathroom home with great indoor- outdoor living and good storage, including some in the loft.

Richard Furze has made the most of the light and views and reconfigured formerly cramped and disconnected rooms into a cleverly detailed, wellproportioned home.

“We were very impressed with the architect,” Roger says. “His design has extracted as much use as possible out of what is a relatively small house.”

The widened entrance foyer is big enough to include a study nook for Roger along one wall that can be concealed behind bi- folding doors when not in use.

Sash windows, which have been rehung and double glazed, provide good light and views beyond the cute veranda to the street.

Off the hallway are the main bathroom to the left and two bedrooms to the right.

In one of them Amie has designed alcoved, cabin- style, bunk beds with shelving and at the end of the hallway is an open- plan dining room, lounge and kitchen with a tongue- and- groove pitched roof.

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33 HOME ST, GREY LYNN SIZE: PRICE GUIDE: INSPECT:

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AUCTION: SCHOOLS: CONTACT: ON THE WEB: * PLUS OSP. A scullery off the kitchen includes the laundry.

Sliding doors to a wide, covered deck open off the lounge and adjacent master bedroom, which has its own bathroom.

The north- facing deck includes an outdoor fireplace, views across Grey Lynn’s roof tops to the west, bar seating at one end and at the other a feature wall built of beautiful bricks retrieved from the home’s old fireplace.

The garden, with its water feature, raised vegetable beds and a concealed sandpit on the lower deck, has been sympathetically designed around a large garden shed that has been converted into a second lounge.

Leaving the home they have put so much care and thought into will be a wrench for Roger and Lorraine but they are downsizing now for their retirement years.