Family’s attachment to house too strong to sell
The owners of a historic house in Invercargill have taken it off the market, saying their emotional bond with the family home is too big to let it go.
Lennel House, a category 1 historic place that was listed for sale by negotiation earlier this month, was taken off the market last week because selling it “just didn’t feel right” to Laura Thompson and her partner, Will Finlayson.
The couple live in the house with their three children aged 3, 4 and 6, and life was “pretty full on with working and everything else”, Thompson said.
Finlayson’s parents, Denys and Jocelyn Finlayson, bought the property in 1998 and spent more than 20 years renovating the building. In 2021, after Jocelyn’s death, Denys sold the property to his son to continue the work.
Thompson said a newspaper article stated that Will’s mother bought the house because she wanted something special to pass to the next generation.
“That article was a big connection to his mum, because she really loved the property.”
Once the couple listed the property, they quickly realised that was the wrong decision and they were still emotionally tied to the home.
“The thought of selling was really nice, but the reality of doing that was a lot harder than what we thought.”
They have now committed to doing another few years of repair works and making the house “a bit more comfortable” to see if that makes a difference, Thompson said.
They have a big task ahead of them. On the list is the leaking roof, involving spouting replacement, adding downpipes, and replacing the guttering.
They also plan to add a toilet downstairs and fix the bathroom, among other renovations.
Owing to the heritage protections on the site, the couple has to do “like for like” replacement or work on the house.
Thompson said that despite all the expensive upkeep and the modifications it would need, she was thankful to the followers of the Lennel House and Gardens page that she ran on Facebook.
“We're very fortunate we've got a really amazing, passionate group of supporters.”
Members of the community undertook working bees in the garden, and some had dropped off plants and other things, she said. “We really would like to be able to open the property to the public a bit more.”
The couple had started the Facebook page to keep their family and friends updated on what they were doing with the house and gardens.
Thompson said her family was a “regular kind of family, so it’s a bit more relatable to people”.
The property’s upkeep took a toll at times, she said.
“But when you have that many people [support you], you feel like that they’re all behind you. It makes it a little bit easier.”
The house goes back to the early 1880s, when New Zealand’s first surveyor-general, John Turnbull Thomson, cleared a slice of the Waihopai forest to build his family home with a garden for nine daughters.
It is a late Victorian Gothic-style mansion with park-like gardens, and a short walk from Queens Park.