Five years ago Pip and Richard happily moved only steps away from the Mount Albert bungalow where they’d raised their family.
They adored the location. But, with two daughters in their late teens starting to spread their wings, they no longer needed its roughly 700 square metres of land.
Pip says: “In 2004, after 15 years living in Australia, we wanted the girls to grow up with a garden, in a friendly neighbourhood with great school zones and we got all that buying the bungalow.
“But I hate gardening and with our eldest having gone away to university we decided to subdivide 305sqm for ourselves off the rear of that land.”
Start your property search
They’re roughly 15 minutes’ walk from Mt Albert train station, zoned for Mt Albert Grammar and Gladstone Primary School, near Phyllis Reserve.
A billboard showing a home they admired by Box - The Architect Builders prompted approaching them. Most architectural new builds involve a separate architect and builder but the Box team is responsible for the project from start to finish, as equal part designer and builder.
Pip says: “Dealing with one person is so much better. Right at the end of our first meeting with the architect I slipped in the fact I wanted a lap pool, which my husband and I hadn’t discussed.
“Richard looked at me sideways and just said ‘OK hon’. But it’s been wonderful; creating a lovely water outlook and it’s so refreshing in warmer months.”
1B Rhodes Avenue in Mount Albert, Auckland, is for sale by way of auction on August 28. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom property has a 2021 CV of $2.025 million.
One of the homeowners says: “We couldn’t believe how easy it is living in a well-designed new house.”
The homeowners hired Box - The Architect Builders which oversaw the project from start to finish.
Their freehold property is fully fenced, preventing unsupervised excursions by their 12-year-old Houdini-like border terrier Daisy. It is clad in Shadowclad, with a zesty orange front door. Open-air space for a couple of cars bolsters an internal-access single garage.
They moved in in October 2019.
“We’ve loved every minute here. We couldn’t believe how easy it is living in a well-designed new house. There’s no wasted space, good storage and when you live in a new house everything works.
“It’s orientated for the sun with double glazing and big floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors so it’s always warm. We’re really social and like to entertain so the house was designed around that.”
The kitchen and dining space separate the main living area from a sunken lounge with built-in work-from-home desk and big bookshelves. This L-shaped open-plan configuration wraps around a partially covered deck with outdoor fireplace, the swimming pool and a surprisingly real-looking patch of artificial grass.
Now that their children are well-established elsewhere, the homeowners are selling to downsize.
Everything opens wide for easy indoor-outdoor entertaining.
Everything opens wide for easy indoor-outdoor entertaining. “We had more than a hundred people here for both our daughters’ 21sts.”
Pip told the landscaping company which helped create the lush subtropical outlook that plants had to be “idiot-proof”. She designed Moroccan-style tiles which Artedomus had made in Italy. These edge the heated concrete swimming pool with outdoor shower nearby, providing a pop of colour.
The foodie couple adore the svelte kitchen where a cabinetry door secretly conceals entry to the scullery-kitchenette and the laundry. A tap instantly providing filtered boiling water (or chilled drinking water) retired their kettle. A powder room completes downstairs.
Upstairs three bedrooms, including the ensuited master with walk-in wardrobe, accompany a bathroom with bath.
Now their girls are well and truly established in their own lives they no longer require a family home.
Ray White agent Rachel Berry says: “Not everyone has the quarter-acre dream. This architecturally special, recently built family home has all you need with its pool and relaxed entertainers’ deck with fireplace, without endless weekends maintaining grounds.”
- 1B Rhodes Avenue in Mount Albert, Auckland, goes to auction on August 28
