Folk who’ve been raised in the country can face a dilemma – how do they ensure their children grow up in an idyllic rural lifestyle without signing themselves up to a remote location?
For construction company owners and parents-of-three Nick and Natalie, this striking resort-style property nestled on more than three hectares only three minutes drive from the Karaka on-ramp was the perfect solution.
332 Karaka Road in Karaka has six bedrooms, three bathrooms and three garages.
“A couple of years ago we were living in Mangere Bridge, but I’d grown up rurally and Nick’s from Southland so we wanted our children to grow up experiencing all the fun and freedom we’d had,” Natalie says.
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“We were delighted to find this generous home on a good amount of land with a pool and great set-up for entertaining. Yet it’s still conveniently located for our office in Penrose and to get into the city.
“We found out the people who’d built it had pretty much copied its design from a well-thought-out, luxurious country home they’d seen in a magazine. It’s hugely appealing the way it offers different spaces and opens up so beautifully to the pool area for brilliant entertaining. Karaka school is wonderful too so if we weren’t moving to Taupo to be closer to family I would love to stay living here.”
Natalie’s got an eye for design and the couple harnessed their construction industry savvy to extensively upgrade the property.
The home is set well back from the road, constructed of weatherboard and brick that’s been rendered over, accented with schist. Its sizeable entry foyer introduces a 415sqm three-winged layout roughly the shape of an upside-down ‘Y’.
“I think it’s a home which surprises people because once they’re inside they realise it opens up with a wall of doors flowing out to the fantastic outdoor entertaining and pool area,” Natalie says.
“It’s private too – at night we can see the neighbours’ lights from time to time but that’s it.”
Their myriad improvements include new landscaping, painting inside and out, creating a designer kitchen and three new luxury bathrooms plus re-carpeting and laying engineered oak flooring in the foyer, hallways and open-plan kitchen-dining room.
They’ve installed LED lighting throughout, replaced the pool’s solar heating, put in extensive decking and added capacious storage to the now carpeted internal-access triple garage.
An upmarket barn-style rolling door can shut off the kids watching TV in the second lounge while the couple prepare food in the neighbouring entertainers’ dining-kitchen with leathered granite island. Natalie relishes winters in the family lounge with gas fireplace.
The ensuited master bedroom with walk-in wardrobe admires the pool and spa pool and there are four other bedrooms (one alternately a study), two more sophisticated bathrooms, a powder room and laundry.
Number 332 also has an over-height shed and lean-to, a gravelled service yard plus a stock yard.
Ray White agent Lynn Lockhart, who is marketing the property, says, “Talk about stunning! This is a residence that stands out from the rest, with beautiful, sunlit open spaces, bestowing a warm, grander feel and simple, yet striking characteristics throughout.”
The property goes to auction on May 30.
