- A castle-like house in Ashburton has sold for $705,499 to an overseas family.
- The eye-catching home was built by a young couple in their 20s almost 50 years ago.
- It features a turret and a moat-like swimming pool and its sale was the talk of the town.
A “futuristic” castle built almost 50 years ago in Ashburton has found its new king and queen.
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The unique home, which hit the market in November for the first time, was snapped up by a family for $705,499 – more than $100,000 above its CV.
Ray White listing agent Kim Miller told OneRoof that the overseas buyers, who have New Zealand residency, had been looking for something special – and they found it.
“The buyers are not first-time buyers, but are first-time New Zealand buyers,” she said, adding that they loved the energy and passion that had gone into the home.
The unusual-looking home was designed by noted Christchurch architect David Allen. Photo / Supplied
“They felt it had been built with so much care, attention to detail, and love. They wanted to know everything about it and researched everything they possibly could.”
She said the purchase was an emotional one for them. “They’ve come to New Zealand for a better life, and they wanted [to buy] the right home for their family.”
Miller said the buyer pool for the home, which features a turret and a moat-like swimming pool, wasn’t big, although the listing had “piqued people’s interest”.
She said those interested in buying the house “were looking for an absolute treasure, something special and unique”.
The house was a labour of love for vendors Mike and June Steenson, who started on their architectural adventure in the mid-1970s when they bought a 1000sqm corner section on Graham Street in the Ashburton suburb of Tinwald.
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The couple, then in their 20s, set about building their three-bedroom retreat complete with medieval features.
Friends had recommended they get in touch with Christchurch draughtsman (and later architect) David Allen, who was making a name for himself with out-there home designs.
Allen had a growing following at the time and has left behind a legacy of buildings in Christchurch and Ashburton, including Poynton House, which has been showcased in city architecture tours in recent years.
“He was a bit of a dreamer, as you can tell by the shape of our home,” Mike told OneRoof in November when the house hit the market. “He liked way-out houses.”
Vendors Mike and June Steenson spent the last 40-odd years finishing the home. Photo / Supplied
When the Steensons visited Allen, he dismissed the collection of photographs and brochures they had brought with them to help explain what they were looking for. “He looked at them and said ‘Do you want me to design a house or don’t you?’ That was the long and the short of it.”
Mike was working with the Crum Brothers brickworks in Ashburton at the time and had amassed 10,000 bricks on the property. “I said [to Allen], ‘You’ve got to build a house around those 10,000 bricks’,” Mike told OneRoof.
Three months later the couple were invited back to Allen’s Christchurch office. “He wasn’t there but there was a sketch laid out on the desk. I said to June, ‘Oh, that’s a classy-looking house, I wonder whose it is’. She replied, ‘You’d better have another look because it’s got your name written on it’.”
Plans in hand, Mike and June set about building the home. Mike did his own quantity surveying, which led to a problem. The banks said he wouldn’t be able to build the home as cheaply as he claimed and refused to lend the couple money.
“We were at the stage where we thought, if we don’t get the money in the next couple of weeks we were going to pack up and go to Canada,” he said.
The sale has left the vendors “emotionally torn”. Photo / Supplied
Luckily, Mike ran into “the guy who was allocating the money at South Canterbury Savings Bank” and he walked him through the couple’s plans. “A couple of days later he rang up and said, ‘There’s $20,000 being transferred into your banking account right this minute, you better get cracking’.”
Everyone pitched in on the build. “June was a big help, and the in-laws and my workmates used to come over here on the weekends,” Mike said.
“It was a joint effort. Like when we were putting the tower together on the front. It’s built with 3000 bricks. A mate of mine used to come around every morning and we’d mix a bit of concrete and put it down between the two layers of inner and outer bricks. Then we’d lay bricks all day and the next morning we’d do the same thing again.”
Mike is very proud of the secret room he built upstairs. Having an “Annie’s Room” was a family tradition. His mother had a similar secret Annie’s Room constructed at the family’s Hamilton farm to keep her treasures in. The Ashburton secret room, created above a false floor, housed the hot water cylinder.
The home contains some interesting relics, including a brass doorknob salvaged from the Waitaki River. “My brother-in-law was working for Oamaru Readymix Concrete, and they were out on the Waitaki River screening shingle, and he saw this big brass doorknob pop out of the shingle.”
The spire on the top of the castle section was the last piece of woodturning Mike’s father did before he died. “Back in the 1930s he had built a wood lathe and did a lot of woodturning: making egg cups, standard lamps and fruit bowls. The architect referred to it as the Uncle Frightener or Seagull Frustrater.”
The couple moved in once the roof and walls were up. “A builder’s house is a bit like a mechanic’s car,” said Mike. “It never quite gets finished. It’s been good to retire because I have tidied up all these jobs and I’m quite pleased with what I’ve done, although somebody else is going to get the benefit of it really. It’s stuff I should have done 20 years ago.”
June has kept the gardens lovingly over the years, her husband said.
All up, the land, designs, and home building cost $30,000.
Miller told OneRoof this week that the sale had left June and Mike “emotionally torn”. “The house has been their life, their world,” she said.
“They have purchased another home in Ashburton and are starting a journey into their twilight years.”
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