NATURE IN THE CITY
Even the birds love to visit this villa, writes ROBYN WELSH
From the street, this early 20th century villa looks out to a modern world. At the back, its leafy conservatory outlook is a daily reminder of how lucky Wendi O’Neill and Phil Lascelles have been living so close to nature.
“We have the most beautiful sunsets and we’ve got all these beautiful big trees around us. The birds fly in and sit on the door sill and just look at us. Even though we’re in the middle of the city we feel as if we’re in the suburbs. That’s the essence of the house,” says Wendi.
It’s also the essence of Grey Lynn’s appeal to Wendi who has lived her entire childhood and most of her adult life here. This home is the first that Wendi, a property manager, and Phil, who works in IT, have owned together. Undeterred by its then-unadorned exterior, they knew they’d found a gem when they bought it in March 2003.
“When we came here, this house had all the beautiful high ceilings with lots of natural light, and all that character still there,” says Wendi. “It had never been played with and that was wonderful.”
These original, double backed brick fireplaces are decorative only, but their location in the middle of the house hints at earlier times. The lounge fireplace was part of the coal range, says Wendi. The bedroom fireplace, with its kauri mantelpiece and brick hearth, was most likely a feature of the original front parlour for visitors back in the day.
Open fires never appealed to Wendi and Phil so they capped the chimney to eliminate draughts, rather than reinstate working fireplaces. Instead, they focussed on projects including new roofing, insulation and new sash windows. They also added wooden fretwork across the veranda and above the pressed steel front gable. Their grill security door that matches their new gate enables them to open up their entire house to cool it down in summer.
Inside, the generosity of these multi-purpose rooms has been a big plus. Their lounge lends itself to a separate dining room. The kitchen has space for casual dining as does the large conservatory.
Wendi chose warm, rather than cool, paint colours to complete this renovation which was an instinctive process for her. “I knew what villas were meant to look like,” she says. “I knew what needed to be done and that meant working with key elements.”
Ray White’s Paul Grace describes the house as “a textbook character Grey Lynn villa which is very liveable now and has potential to add value to at some stage in the future.”
For Wendi, life here has delivered the best of Grey Lynn as it was in her childhood. “It was superb. Ponsonby wasn’t the hub then that it is now, but we could walk into K Rd or Queen St or Grafton to the museum. We could be independent because everything was so close.”
Now Wendi and Phil are doing what they’ve long talked about doing and swapping neighbourhoods and moving to Phil’s home patch in Napier. Auction: January 27
Contact: Angela Saunders, Ray White, 021 448 900; Paul Grace 022 404 1472