Bungalow Renovation

With the purchase of this grand old lady at the end of 2019, any travel plans would most likely be superseded by the elephant in the room that needed a lot of TLC, and then some. With a global pandemic kick-starting the 2020’s - the choice to spend our money and time on the house as a priority was an easy one.

Quick back story - we bought the house as a deceased estate. The little old lady, Mavis, inherited the house from her Mother. Mavis was born, lived and died with one address her whole life. We believe her Mother was the original owner of the house, which may make us the second owners - and we can ascertain the house is 99 years old (more on this later).

Being forced to stay at home over lockdown 1.0 actually gave us a better idea of what we wanted to achieve. Because the house is in such an original state, a complete floor plan re-shuffle was required for modern living. A modest floor size of 120sqm meant we needed someone who knew what they were doing to maximise the potential of the space. We also wanted to keep walls where we could to reduce the need for structural engineers and structural beams as much as we could.

We engaged Macfie Architects who have a wealth of experience bringing life and joy back to New Zealand’s much adored stock of heritage housing. With the plans locked away and in the final stages of council approval we took hammer and crowbar and starting pulling the house apart. From a financial standpoint our first stage consists of two bedrooms and an ensuite (yes we’ve managed to fit one in!). Doing a small, relatively straightforward section of the house presents a great learning opportunity for us - we’ve definitely bitten off more than we chew but now I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The third bedroom, laundry, bathroom, kitchen, living and dining will be done in subsequent stages as each area presents a larger scale of construction and will no doubt bring their own unique challenges.

So enough talk, here’s what you came here for.

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