Surprisingly tranquil given its highway address, this 172-year-old heritage home and converted stables combines character charm and modern functionality with big grounds.
Current owners Andrew Fraser and wife Hester Veart bought 136A Mount Wellington Highway in Mt Wellington seven years ago, impressed by those features plus views over Panmure Basin.
“People like delivery drivers tell us how surprised they are to find a property like this off Mount Wellington Highway,” Fraser says.
“We’re about 100 metres down a long driveway on 1242sqm grounds so it’s very peaceful and we don’t hear road noise. And this place has got such great history.”
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Wide original kauri floorboards in the kitchen-dining area. Photo / Supplied
A two-storey 1849 cottage accompanied by stables and a well was a fencible property. Governor Grey’s cousin and his wife and 13 children lived here.
Later it was known as Van Damme’s cottage for an early owner whom a local lagoon remains named after.
Subsequent owners included NZ sculptor Greer Twiss and his wife Dee.
When Fraser and Veart bought here, the home already boasted some renovation respectful of its heritage but the freestanding stables was essentially a shed.
Subsequent owners of 136A Mount Wellington Highway have included NZ sculptor Greer Twiss and his wife Dee. Photo / Supplied
“Hester’s mum is an architect who helped advise us on re-doing the stables into a beautiful additional space,” Fraser says.
When he’s inside the stables doing Zoom calls for work, callers often notice the beautiful sarked timber ceiling, teamed with skylights and exposed beams.
Its open-plan bedroom-living or office with kitchenette, bathroom and walk-in wardrobe can suit work-from-home, guests, teens or AirBnB.
Its modern reinvention incorporates its original essence with character features such as a ‘Mr Ed’-style door which can have its top half opened.
The current vendor says people often notice the features of the converted stable when he's on a Zoom call for work. Photo / Supplied
The main three-bedroom home with double carport and shed nearby also blends modernity with gorgeous heritage including some painted tongue-and-groove floors and walls, sash windows and leadlights.
Wide original kauri floorboards display in the kitchen-dining area with French farmhouse-style kitchen and half the back-to-back fireplace (bolstered by a heat pump and insulation).
The other side is in the neighbouring carpeted living room, wide enough for two seating areas.
It opens to the original covered front porch and a more expansive deck which the bedroom at the other end of the home also opens to, enjoying Panmure Basin views.
136A Mount Wellington Highway in Mt Wellington has four bedrooms and three bathrooms. Photo / Supplied
A bathroom incorporating a clawfoot bath and riverstone flooring, a toilet and the third bedroom complete this level.
Upstairs’ large master bedroom with gabled windows in its pitched roof has substantial wardrobing and a contemporary wet room ensuite.
The grounds offer plentiful lawn, the well – covered for the couple’s two young children – plus pizza oven potential in the brick fireplace-kiln Greer Twiss fired some of his pieces in.
The couple are moving to be near family, having scuttled previous plans to do so when Covid-19 hit New Zealand.
The French farmhouse-style kitchen. Photo / Supplied
“It’s been brilliant living here during lockdowns with our children running around the big grounds, its work-from-home capabilities and having the Panmure Basin nearby,” Fraser says.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Sue Evans, who is marketing the property with colleague Leonie Stabler, says, “It is a privilege to be marketing a property so bathed in history and almost as old as the old Stone Store in Kerikeri.”
136A Mount Wellington Highway in Mt Wellington, Auckland will be sold at auction on December 1.
- Sponsored by Barfoot & Thompson
