Olympian Eric Murray has sold the three-bedroom Cambridge house he transformed into a fun family home, complete with putting green and heated mineral pool, for $1.05m million.
The two-time Olympic gold medallist has spent the last three years learning new skills while overhauling the Vogel St property and now has his sights on doing it all over again after purchasing a tired 1910s villa.
OneRoof records show the Vogel Street house had changed hands in 2019 for $627,000, and had an RV of $640,000
The retired rower, who also graced Kiwi’s screens on Dancing with the Stars this year, is happy with how everything worked out and is already making plans for his new home.
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Even prior to moving in mid-Jan, he plans to put in a fence to keep his son, who has autism, safe. He is also looking at how he can add a new bathroom and is considering sacrificing one of the four bedrooms due to access to the current toilet being outside.
Murray has already been at the four-bedroom house this week measuring it up and said as soon as it settles will be speaking with his draughtsman.
“I’m now in a planning stage where I’m like right – how many ideas can I get into my brain at one stage and then just see what is most cost effective.”
He anticipates spending between $200,000 and $250,000 on the major renovation project with him doing a lot of the work.
“We’ve got to re-level the house, it needs a new roof...,” he said.
Murray at the Rio Olympics. He won gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Games. Photo / Getty Images
“At the moment it’s got six or seven individual rooms – very vey individual – like room, room, room, room, room and you are like holy moly – like off a central spined hallway. It’s just a matter of how much can we open it up while keeping some of the classical villa style to it.”
The priority is renovating the inside of the home before he even thinks about whether there will be any money left for the luxury items like the heated mineral pool and putting green he added in the last house.
He has spent the last three years transforming his 1950s Vogel St home from a basic brick home to a modern three-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a large kitchen island perfect for entertaining and that serves as the hub of the house.
Once he had completed the inside of the house, he then decided to “take it up a notch” earlier this year and add a putting green and heated mineral pool.
The Vogel Street house comes with a heated mineral pool. Photo / Supplied
The new owners can also enjoy Murray's specially built putting green. Photo / Supplied
Murray said he will definitely miss the impressive outdoor area this summer.
Ray White salesperson Dan Lavender said both the vendor and the buyer are “ecstatic” with the result and the buyer was successful because they put in a strong unconditional offer prior to the sale deadline.
There was a lot of interest in Murray’s home with 45 groups going through the first weekend of open homes as well as a number of private viewing mid-week, he said.
“We gave out over 100 Lavender & White chocolate cookies and Lavender soaps to our open home attendees (to ensure people remember their viewing) plus oodles of people fondled Eric’s hard-earned medals.”
