Neighbourhood a winner
and wide- wood white venetian blinds tidied up the four bedrooms. The two front rooms, opening off the sunny porch, have corner bay windows, the smaller also has a fireplace. Sally and Justin used this as their office, as it was handy to see visitors coming down the path. All the bedrooms had builtin wardrobes, one of them is the old china cupboard from when this would have been the formal dining room.
At the back of the house, Sally and her designers replaced the kitchen and laundry floors with largescale black stone- look tiles which help visually expand the space.
New cabinets and quartz benchtops make the most of the original kitchen footprint, the bathroom was updated with a new vanity and toilet and there is a laundry behind double cupboard doors. The living room, down two steps from the main house, was re- floored in a wideplank oak veneer floor. The family made the most of the split
level deck out the back, which has easy steps down to the lawn. They did have plans drawn up for replacing the back of the house, with a master suite upstairs and an openplan kitchen and dining room, but Justin’s work is now returning them to Wellington and the house is on the market.
The neighbourhood was everything the family hoped it would be. Justin would walk five minutes up the road to catch a bus to the city, or for more leisurely commute, the ferry is at the other end of the street.
They won’t be here for taking kids and bikes across the bridge when the Sky Path has been built, but have enjoyed walking to the Northcote Tavern with its family- friendly garden bar, or the Bridgeway Theatre. Mucking about in the bush, beach and playground of Little Shoal Bay was a bonus so close to the city, and Sally loved that the children could walk to school on
Onewa Rd.