ROCK OF AGES
A hunter-gatherer homeowner has added more historical charm to this 1950s bungalow, writes ROBYN WELSH
There are wheeler-dealers and hunter-gatherers, and then there is Jamie Morrison. He’s the real estate agent who bought this 1950s house 16 years ago, turning it from a long-time rental into a renovation beauty with a difference.
His stamp on this property involved one large curvaceous basalt rock and a collection of jarrah timber arms and timber planks from the service platforms of old telegraph poles. He coveted them as much for the thrill of the hunt, as for their historical textural addiction to his home.
Running his hands over the timber around his outdoor bath, he says, “Natural materials are so much better than produced materials. It’s about the beauty and the patina of the wood. Noone used to value these things and you just can’t purchase wood like this now.”
Jamie was out hunting for more such timber for his then-Muriwai house renovation when he discovered a large basalt rock in an Albany landscaping yard.
He coveted that too until the day it came on sale. “I’m a wheeler-dealer,” he says.
He had a crane truck hoist the rock onto the grass verge outside this house that he and his wife Sue had bought as a rental, ahead of their renovations.
“You can’t source stuff like this either,” he says of this art form.
“I like the sense of arrival at a property and council grass verges tend to be a bit bland. On the north side of this street, all of these quarter-acre properties have these grass verges so it feels as if each property starts at the footpath.”
Jamie and Sue’s sense of arrival is enhanced in the basalt pavers of their boardwalk up to their front deck. Out of the back, they have created extensive lawn terraces using more aged timber. “We wanted somewhere for Oscar [now aged 15] to kick a ball around,” says Jamie.
At the bottom Jamie used telegraph planks for his bridge across the stream into the native bush that is shared by these homes and the south-side homes of nearby Faulder Ave.
“It is one of the last undeveloped full north-facing sections in Westmere overlooking native bush, says Scott Wither, Jamie’s Ray White colleague.
Throughout Jamie and Sue’s 12-year renovation, they have embraced ideas Jamie has picked up from homes he has marketed. “Every creation has been started from someone else’s idea and completed with a touch of our own taste,” he says.
When their new kwila decks were installed, he chose to lighten the native timber floors that had been stained to match their dark, refurbished original mantelpiece.
The effect enhances the easy entry from the front gate to the back deck down steps to their basement music room that was the original garage.
“Builders knew how to build homes back then,” says Jamie. “The walls are as straight as they come. They are humble homes.”
Corner casement windows, large strategically placed original picture windows and original hardware add to its mid-century charm.
Now the Morrison family is off to their next renovation project in Grey Lynn. Jamie will be taking with him his basalt rock (via truck crane) as a well as the palings from his jarrah telegraph boundary fence which he has replaced with a new fence.
Sale: Set date March 26
Contact: Scott Wither, Ray White, 021 225 5988; Chloe Wither, 021 672 191