Six years ago Calvin Gao and his wife Echo Song moved here, delighting in the purchase of their first home together at Ennis Avenue in Pakuranga Heights.
Their sights were more about making the most of this 1950s weatherboard home, than doing anything beyond the old rear garage.
It was only when they looked more closely at the wider design possibilities on their 688sqm site, that they realised they had space to add a new home as well.
Together they combined their joint architectural design talents to create this new 100sqm two-bedroom home that reflects what matters to them personally and professionally.
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“We lived in the front house and we took our time designing the second one,” says Calvin. “We weren’t in a hurry. We did lots of talking about what we both wanted. We had lots of versions and models.”
The result is their three-year-old Cedar-clad open plan home at No. 140A, that is orientated to landscaped gardens on both sides. Like the front house at No. 140, this home has one bathroom and one living area, plus a study. Combined, 140 and 140A Ennis Avenue have five bedrooms and two bathrooms.
The renovated front house, with its modern kitchen, has a living room opening to the front deck. This rear house’s living area opens to a level deck.
Calvin and Echo designed their new home with a double garage but he has chosen to fit it with sliding glass doors to create a workshop instead.
Inside, their tastes are reflected in Echo’s love of combined kitchen-dining-living and Calvin’s architectural panache in the timber ceiling trusses and black fixtures. The pink and green accent colours are favourites of them both.
This family’s outdoors connections are plentiful, including their neighbouring water’s edge dog-walking route to nearby Riverhills Park.
Back home, they can chat to their tenant at the front over the back deck too. Calvin’s extended deck timber screen is the shared backdrop that gives both homes their privacy.
This sense of connection and independence was important to Calvin and Echo when, pre-Covid 19, both their parents stayed in the front house while visiting from China.
Importantly, it is one of the many lifestyle options that is starting to change the dynamic of Pakuranga Heights under the Auckland Unitary Plan, says Barfoot & Thompson agent Miro Wang, who is marketing the property.
“Before, there was one house and you might add one room. Another way of thinking about adding value to your property for a family is by building another dwelling on the same land.”
Other options here include living in one house and renting or working in the other.
Renting both properties could return more than $1300 a week, says Miro. For someone considering two dwellings in place of the front house, Calvin has already drawn up a draft plan for a duplex. That’s a project that he’s happy to bring his professional expertise to with the new owner.
In the meantime, he and Echo are looking for a larger home for them and their son, toward the eastern suburbs closer to his workplace in Meadowbank.
The property will be sold at auction on May 12.
