Can’t hurry love
The revamp of this home rolled out at its own pace, allowing the owners to get it just right.
The revamp of this home rolled out at its own pace, allowing the owners to get it just right.
It’s a dilemma many of us face at some point. As our family grows bigger along with our weekly grocery bills, do we renovate our existing abode or sell up and search for one that’s a better fit?
For Rickie Dee and Onny Kaulima, the former option was the perfect choice. From the street, their Pt Chevalier home looks like your typical Auckland bungalow, with weatherboard cladding and bay windows showcasing the architecture of its time. Step inside, though, and it exceeds expectations, the interior having been updated by a strikingly modern renovation. It’s a clever trick that’s created exactly the juxtaposition the couple were after. But it didn’t happen overnight.
Rickie, Onny and their three children lived in the original three-bedroom home for four years before embarking on the reinvention. “Although we really loved our home, we simply outgrew it,” says Rickie. “We needed more space and a lot more light, but we love our neighbourhood, so we decided to stay put.”
Decision made to upgrade, which architect they’d engage to achieve the transformation was never in question. “When Rocco was born, we used to walk around Ponsonby with him in his buggy, doing the rounds along John Street, where one of John Irving’s renovations stood out to us,” says Onny. “It was a design he became known for, with the front facade kept as the original bungalow and the back transformed by a contemporary design. We loved it, and 10 years later when it was our time to renovate, we knew he was the guy.”
Rickie and Onny’s property provided plenty of space to extend, but good things really do take time. The couple spent a full year at the concept stage and eight months at the resource-consent stage before the building finally began. Then the family of five, plus their cat and dog, moved out and stayed with Rickie’s parents for almost a year while the construction by Colab Group was underway.
It goes without saying that these two aren’t afraid to push their limits, and in this case it’s really paid off. The home now has large living spaces inside and out, an entertainers’ kitchen with a separate scullery, five double bedrooms and two bathrooms. A panelled light well above the floating stairs in the entryway divides the house in half, flooding the downstairs kitchen area and upstairs dressing room with natural light, while casting intriguing shadows.