Grand Designs New Zealand producer Mark Everton and his wife Jo Pilkington, the owner of the country’s biggest costume and prop hire company, have sold their home for just over $1.3 million - and managed to make new friends at the same time.
The couple's mid-century home on James Evans Drive, in the Auckland suburb of Northcote, sold under the hammer on Thursday. Immediately afterwards, they asked their listing agent, Elvira Abdrazakova from Barfoot & Thompson, if they could meet the buyers.
“We wanted to share a little bit about the property and tell them some of the things people need to know – where certain things are and what’s this switch for? – that type of thing. She said, ‘Yeah, they would love to meet you’. So that was exciting,” Pilkington told OneRoof.
After an initial exchange of congratulations, talk turned to family. The father of one of the buyers was at the auction but hadn't seen the house, so Everton and Pilkington invited them over.
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“We said, 'What are you doing now? Why don’t you come back to our place for drinks? Because it’s kind of your place', and they said yes. It was fantastic,” Pilkington said.
“They got to have glasses of wine in their soon-to-be-new dining room. How cool is that?”
The three-bedroom property is big on retro, and big on views. Photo / Supplied
Producer Everton works with Tom Webster on Grand Designs New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
The couples hit it off, and the father, who was visiting from overseas and in New Zealand for only a few days, got to see the new digs.
Pilkington said the purchasers had been looking for a bigger home for several months and were happy to beat the other bidder in the auction room.
“They already live in the area and know all the amazing things about it. They are wanting to start a family, and we feel like we’ve sold it to people who will genuinely love the whare and our neighbourhood and our neighbours as much as we do.”
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She added: “I think we are going to become good friends with them. We are looking forward to having drinks on their deck in the future.”
Everton and Pilkington also didn’t muck around finding their next home and made an offer on one the next morning. The property is in the same area and similar to what they had just sold, but had a smaller section, which would allow the empty nesters more time at their bach in Northland.
“It’s like a smaller version of what we’ve just sold, which means all our design elements are going to be transferable, which is really important.”
Pilkington told OneRoof earlier this month that the James Evans Drive house had appealed to the couple's love of retro. They filled the mid-century property, which has an RV of $1.375m, with distinctive vintage furniture and artwork, including pieces that made their way back from Pilkington's props company, First Scene.
The kitchen is bright and breezy. Photo / Supplied
Pilkington runs a prop hire company and often finds vintage pieces for the home from her work. Photo / Supplied
“Our home is a small collection of a lot of things we have in our workplaces. We are really big on retro design style. We are collectors – we collect records, books, vintage glass, that type of thing. So that really leans into the design.”
Pilkington bought James Evans Drive 18 years ago. Her daughter was only young at the time, and once they realised they would be able to see the fireworks from the deck – something they still love watching almost two decades on - they were hooked.
Everton moved in a few years later, and they became a blended family. “With every change we’ve made, the whare has just had to move and grow with us,” Pilkington said.
The couple added an extra bathroom and bedrooms to cope with their growing family. But now that the children are grown up and have flown the nest, they've decided it is time to downsize.
“Because we work really long hours in our industries, when we are not working we try to be up north at the beach. The place is just too big now.”
The pair had recently finished renovating their 1960s Tutukākā Coast bach, which Pilkington described as their "Grand Designs" project. “My idea of a bach is something from that time period, so we found something and just stripped it back and had a really great time with it.”
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