All about birds, bees
There’s a moonlight serenade upstairs in this cedar-clad country hideaway, writes Leigh Bramwell
Rosie Wells says her two daughters have had “a treasured childhood” on the family’s 1.5 ha property at Kingseat. They’ll all be sorry to leave it, she says.
But the need to be closer to older family members is behind the move, and with the couple’s two daughters now 17 and 19, the timing is right.
Rosie and husband Malcolm bought the house 10 years ago, after coveting it when it was owned by friends.
“We used to go there to socialise and end up staying the night, and we’d lie there in the morning and listen to the birds and it was so peaceful,” says Rosie. “We always used to say to each other that we’d love to live there.”
The family headed off to Australia for a couple of years, and when they came back they found their friends wanted to sell. It was a no-brainer. “We knew and loved the house, the schools in the area were awesome, and because we’d always lived in the suburbs we wanted the kids to have a real Kiwi lifestyle.”
The two-storey brick and cedar-clad house is tucked down a country road on a gently sloping site bordered by mature trees. It overlooks the Clarks Creek Inlet, and the magic of the views over the mangroves to the inlet was a major attraction.
Rosie and Malcolm also loved the rustic country style of the 190 sq m house with its timber floors and pitched sarked ceilings.
“We didn’t make a lot of changes — just repainted the interior, re-stained the outside and put in some new carpet,” Rosie says. “We already loved it, especially the high ceilings, so we didn’t want to do any structural changes.”
The smart, modern kitchen has plenty of space for a rustic table and bench seat from which to admire the inlet, and there’s an adjoining living area with steeply pitched ceilings, a log burner and double doors to the deck. The separate dining area also has a vaulted timber ceiling.
Downstairs there are two big bedrooms, a bathroom with shower, a spa bath and a separate toilet. Upstairs, the master bedroom has a walk-in wardrobe and an en suite, an adjoining sitting area and office space, all with timber sarked ceilings and access to a balcony with views across the land to the inlet.
Rosie names the master suite as her favourite indoor space because of the views and privacy — they don’t need curtains. “At night the moonlight just streams in here,” she says.
Outside, she loves the big, stepped kwila deck which surrounds the front and side of the house. There’s room here for large scale entertaining with a six-seater dining setting, built-in seating around the perimeter, a barbecue and a spa. A stone’s throw away on the lawn is an aboveground pool.
A single garage with laundry adjoins the house, and there’s a separate three-car garage with workshop and storage space included.
Above that is another living space with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living/rumpus room, and a deck.
Rosie and Malcolm have planted many trees over their decade here, including a small orchard with 14 citrus trees and other fruit. Rosie has also planted large vegetable gardens.
The four paddocks have been home to chickens, cows, sheep, pigs and goats, which Rosie and Malcolm’s two daughters raised for school agriculture days. With the land fenced in a combination of post and rail and wire and electric, and one deer-fenced paddock, there are various options for the land.