BEST INNOVATION
Long-term planning allowed this couple to create a clever outdoor kitchen to feed and entertain family and friends all year round
They say a builder’s home is never finished and a mechanic’s car never runs right but it seems that rule doesn’t extend to landscapers, because the owners of Line & Design Landscaping & Swimming Pools have definitely brought their work home with them at their Waikato property. Kent and Olivia Fife’s outdoor kitchen area is the kind of place where you want to plonk yourself down on a hot summer’s day and stay until sundown.
It happens all the time, says Olivia. Many summer afternoons are spent in the oversized outdoor living room and kitchen, making drinks, cooking on the barbecue, watching the kids in the pool and listening to their squeals of delight. In winter the portico is still well used and the Fifes and their friends can often be found huddled around the wood-fired oven, battling it out in fierce pizza-making competitions.
OUTDOOR LIVING
In order to give their three kids the idyllic childhood everyone dreams of, Olivia and Kent put a lot of thought into their outdoor area, and wanted to do what they could to encourage family time and outside play in the fresh air. There’s a pool, playhouse, tree house and basketball hoop. Friendly cows and chickens drift over to the fence to say hello, and fruit and vegetables thrive, including espaliered apples and feijoa hedges. Making the most of their one-hectare section was always a priority for the Fifes – in fact, the landscaping was drawn up before they even started building their house 10 years ago.
“We had a full landscape plan drawn up by Kent’s mother, Lynley, who is Line & Design’s design force,” explains Olivia. “She incorporated future plans for the pool and lined it up with the house, and located the trees and hedging. We then built the pool ourselves five years later. The kids adore it and use it from October to April, plus it provides such a beautiful outlook.”
MEET + GREET
Kent Fife (owner of Line & Design Landscaping & Swimming Pools), Olivia Fife (solicitor and administrator for Line & Design), Mila, Luka and Greta, plus cows Star and Captain Underpants, and five chickens.