Background

Where is the home? Castor Bay, Auckland.

Why did you decide to purchase the home? Natalie: We liked the location, elevation and views, and we could see the potential in renovating it.

What did you love about it? It gets so much sun and it has a good-sized section for Amelia to play in.

What did you not like about it? Built in 1972, it was dated inside and out. They didn’t think about indoor-outdoor flow in the 1970s!

Talk us through the makeover. We focused on the kitchen/dining/lounge area and creating indoor-outdoor flow. We had friends going overseas for 10 weeks, so we stayed at their place while we renovated. The whole project took 11 weeks to complete.

What did the reno involve? The whole space was demolished down to the framing, and windows were removed and replaced with new doubleglazed ones. We added insulation and new plasterboard, flooring, lighting and storage. What did you do to the kitchen? The kitchen had two windows, including one facing south, which meant there was no space for a rangehood or overhead cupboards – the cooking smells were terrible after making a meal. So we closed in the south-facing window and put in overhead cupboards and a rangehood, along with a double wall oven.

Where did the idea for the scullery come from? We had quite a large hot water cupboard that backed onto the pantry, so we removed this and put the house on gas hot water, thus creating the scullery.

How did you make the space more open? The dining and living areas had a wall separating the two zones, so we took this out to create an open-plan living space.