Historic home offers a dream lifestyle

AHISTORIC HOME for sale in Masterton was a lifestyle dream come true for its owners.

The six-bedroom house, at 7 Rahiwi Place, was built in 1929 and is on a landscaped 3616-squaremetre section with an in-ground swimming pool.

Jonathan and Nicola Black bought the 490sqm, William Fielding-designed character home nearly 10 years ago because of its premium construction and big grounds.

‘‘We had a young family and didn’t want them to grow up at skate parks,’’ Jonathan says.

‘‘We wanted them to have a lifestyle like we did when we were kids, where they could disappear for hours and play in the bush, sandpit or tree hut.’’

He had also renovated enough ‘‘glorified working men’s cottages’’ in Wellington to recognise the quality of the brick and heart timber construction, complete with solid oak joinery, rimu panelling, ornate plaster ceilings and even a secret passage.

‘‘I was blown away by the quality of the build – the craftsmanship was like nothing I had seen before.’’

Jonathan says the basic bones of the two-storey house were very good but it needed a ‘‘significant upgrade’’, including new insulation in the roof and under the floor, and new native timber hardwood doors that matched the original.

Other features include fireplaces in the formal lounge and formal dining room, a large north-facing farmhouse kitchen that adjoins the family room, two bathrooms and radiator heating throughout.

As for the garden, ‘‘there were parts that we couldn’t get into because it was so overgrown,’’ Jonathan says.

The Blacks essentially started from fresh with the garden, keeping only a few large specimen trees and commissioning a landscape architect to create a structured setting in keeping with the era of the house.

‘‘I do all the gardening plus run a business so wanted a garden that was easy to look after, with hedges that need cutting only once a year, bark garden mulch gardens and a lawn that I could mow with a rideon mower.’’

There are also native bush walks, ‘‘adventurous pathways’’ for kids, rhododendrons, 17 white flowering cherry trees, an edible garden, and mandarin, grapefruit, orange, lemon, fig, persimmon, grapes and stone and pip fruit trees.

‘‘It’s with great reluctance that we’re selling,’’ Jonathan says. ‘‘The hardest part about leaving is knowing we’ll never get a home like this again.’’

The property has a rateable value of $1.17 million and a deadline sale date of October 11.