WHAU FACTOR
Estuary views provide a peaceful atmosphere for this welcoming family home, writes Donna McIntyre
“My friends can’t believe we have this water view in Avondale,” says Laei Kissell of her mother Loina Kissell’s home overlooking the Whau estuary.
Their home, at 42 Esmeralda Ave, in the West Auckland suburb, has been a gathering place for friends and family since Loina bought it in the late 80s.
She didn’t need to do due diligence on the location or the neighbourhood — she had grown up in the house next door with her parents and two older brothers and went to Avondale College. A good school then and now, she says.
Loina and Laei lived in this home for a few years and then rented it out while Loina taught in the US and then Singapore, where she met her husband Keith Kissell.
Returning to New Zealand, they lived in Christchurch, but after the earthquakes they moved back here to be closer to family.
The three-bedroom home with open plan lounge, dining and kitchen, plus bathroom was perfect for them, as by this time grandchild Jackson had arrived.
They levelled a sloping part of the 745sq m section to make it all level. Keith calls this area with the deck the back of the house — Loina calls it the front. Front or back, it’s been great for entertaining.
Loina once had a marquee on the lawn for an extended family gathering. “It looked really tropical,” she says. It sat against the background of the property’s bananas, feijoa, apple, avocado and fig trees, and mangroves stretching out to the estuary.
There are steps down from the main lawn to another level of grass where you can launch a paddle board or kayak, navigating through the mangroves to the estuary.
“People tend to think the waterfront properties are at Waterview or Point Chevalier but there are three streets in Avondale that back on to the estuary,” says Keith.
“On this street there are five homes that look out to the water. It really is an oasis.”
Loina says the 106sq m (more or less) home was one of many built when the area was developed mid last century, joining homes that had belonged to landowners of the orchards that used to populate the suburb.
“It is typical of the family homes built in Avondale in the 1960s,” says Keith.
They say Avondale has a great community feeling. This is especially so in their cul de sac where children can play safely outside and families look out for each other. And it’s only 12-minute to the CBD off-peak.
Keith likes to run in Eastdale Reserve. Saturday mornings crews from the Avondale rowing club carve through the water on the estuary; there’s the popular Avondale market on Sundays.
Nearby are trampoline parks, a preschool and the Rosebank caf. There’s only two sets of traffic lights between their home and the airport.
Keith and Loina are selling because they have had a five-year plan to prep the house for sale and take extended leave in Port Douglas, Queensland, where they like to spend holidays.
Their weatherboard home has been freshened and updated, painted blue outside, soft greys inside, insulation added, new Haier appliances bought for the kitchen, heat pump to use in conjunction with the fireplace, and main pressure hot water installed. New carpet and lino were laid, although Keith says the beautiful matai floors in the living and dining continue underneath the floor coverings in the rest of the home.
It will hard to leave this neighbourhood, the water view and the sunsets, says Loina, but moving is a lifestyle decision.
Xenia Marcroft, of Professionals, says this property presents affordable waterfront entry. “I don’t believe this home has ever been on the open market, as the current owner bought it off a relative in 1989!”