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Monday 17 February 2014

The first few days after officially owning the house...



These were taken the day before I moved in and those that follow are some of the rooms. I now know it was once a farmhouse built in 1936 with all the surrounding land owned by the farmer family. About 40 years ago the bulk of the land was sold due to lack of interest from the sons to continue farming. It seems the money was used amongst other things to enlarge the house.


The original design is typical of older villas in warm climates: a rectangular design with 2 bedrooms on one side (cool later in the day and night) and living areas on the other. A large kitchen with dining, then bathroom pantry is at one end. An extension was built on one corner taking advantage of ground sloping, to create a mezzanine floor with 2 extra bedrooms and a basement with an additional bedroom (makes 5) plus shower/toilet and laundry. It's bit of a maze and certainly showing it's era. The original house has timber floors (possibly Kauri most likely Matai) and timber detailing. the ceilings have a high stud and have a coffered design, i.e. boxed.

What's ruefully humourous is that so much works 'on paper' and when it comes to putting plans into effect it's a far larger set of tasks that engage varying degrees of motivation! Little or no maintenance has been done to the house with the previous owners being more interested in self-sufficiency (organic foodies) or prior to that not having enough funds and/or interest. I knew this when I bought..as said paper v. reality. all good though.







 From the kitchen through to the living area. Wonderful wide doorways and a huge living space..



 Well..I saw the potential when I bought; the word 'potential' is over-used my house sellers lol..a hole in the ground has potential according to how much money one wishes to spend filling it. So I genuinely like this house and my intent of course is to make it a home. On a budget!



The colour looks great in an empty room..I'm not a fan of too much wood. It would be different if the wood were oak or something similar but the window frames are not in good condition so I'll most likely paint the frames and surrounds white. I'll not touch the floors of course - not sure what's underneath this carpet. If it's the same flooring as the kitchen and other rooms I'd be tempted to lift this carpet and piut rugs down..a project to be put to one side for quite some time..

















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