The house that didn’t make sense
Catherine Smith meets the owners who transformed a pretty but poky bungalow into a liveable home
Gretchen Williamson laughs that when she met her boyfriend — now husband — Richard O’Connor, there was no way she was moving across town from Grey Lynn to the pretty bungalow he’d only recently bought in St Heliers. For a while her two cats were living there, but not her.
“When he bought it, I didn’t pay much attention, I’d bought and sold in Ponsonby and Grey Lynn, I had a holiday bach in Waiheke. This place had a really terrible layout, no north-facing living, rooms with no external light, lots of doors but nowhere to put furniture, a narrow dining room and a kitchen hidden around a corner,” she says.
So she moved in.
“I like a challenge,” she laughs.
They had a few years of living in the house that didn’t make sense before the couple called on the architect who had transformed their Waiheke place, Mark Frazerhurst. The pretty bungalow front of the house — a deep welcoming porch, two shingled front bay windows (one has french doors to the front garden), the gracious proportions and wood floors stayed. Pretty much everything else was new — plumbing, piles, electrical, the roof, internal ceilings, insulation, ducted central heating. The messy back of the house was completely rearranged, an odd bathroom and laundry removed and a new north-facing wing added.
Mark’s work had always pleased the couple, so they were excited when he proposed that the new living space be clad in a black brick, a sturdy contrast to the usual lightweight or glass-only add ons. The new sunken living space has a polished concrete floor and Mark’s signature well detailed storage. Walls on the weird maze of old rooms were removed to create a single clean up kitchen and dining room.
Mark brought in exciting modern lighting and a mix of materials in the kitchen — the island is a stand out colour, while a wall of storage disappears into white walls. Chunky vertical cedar louvres provide privacy for the rooms that overlook neighbours.
The living room opens to a neatly landscaped courtyard that mixes wood, concrete and native plants, conceived by Mark’s wife Kate. She repeated the simple planting in the front garden too.
The ensuite was updated with a cool wall of vertically-laid subway tiles (Mark again) while a new family bathroom was fitted in the rearranged back of the house. The build was finished in time to welcome new baby Fletcher, now 14 months — Gretchen points out that he got the biggest bedroom, with doors to the garden and meticulously detailed storage (it was formerly the front living room) while his parents got the master suite with wardrobes, ensuite and the pretty original window seat.
In six years, Gretchen has grown to love her seaside neighbourhood, being able to walk to Madills Farm or to the beaches of St Heliers or Kohi. The couple so love the area that they’ve bought another place just around the corner, commissioning Mark to design the alterations to suit a growing boy, in his signature style.