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Published: April 24th 2008
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Front Garden
This is just one chunk of the whole garden... I once calculated that since I was born 33 years ago, I have moved house at least 35 times. Well, now you can make that 36 times as we've just moved again! This time it was a case of 'goodbye CBD and small, noisy apartment' and 'hello massive, quiet house in the suburbs'. We're now in Takanini, a tranquil neighbourhood in South Auckland which also happens to be home to our good friends, Liz and Allard.
The house is huge; in fact, I think it might actually be the biggest house either of us has ever lived in! It's an old weatherboard style (i.e. not made of bricks) building in a typical Kiwi style. On stepping into the house, you first come into the sun room which is essentially just a big entranceway but with windows on all sides, it catches the sun beautifully.
Next you enter the living room which is as big as our old apartment's living room/kitchen and one of the bedrooms combined. There's a big brick fireplace, wooden floorboards and enough space to hold a yoga class. Off the living room is the first bedroom which Glynn is using as an art studio. He's been
Sun Room
Through the front door, you arrive in the sun room/ music room. This is our old couch from the apartment and it's where I now spend many a happy hour writing new songs. busy building himself an enormous artist's desk and he's already producing some awesome pieces of work.
Then we have the kitchen which is possibly even bigger than the lounge. Our poor little round table and 2 chairs looked so tiny in there but we've upgraded to an older but bigger dining suite now! The kitchen might be big but it's pretty tired looking and needs lots of tlc. On the plus side though, there's more storage space than even the world's best kleptomaniac could ever need and everything functions perfectly. Ergonomically speaking, it's also pretty good as there's a recess under the sink for your feet so you don't end up all hunched when washing up and preparing dinner is easy as I have loads of countertop space. The cooker looks a bit knackered but actually works really well. I honestly can't complain.
Just off the kitchen is our bedroom with a hideous carpet straight out of the 80s and pink rose wallpaper that would look more at home with Hyacinth Bucket. It's an airy room though and a lick of paint will work wonders, if we ever get round to it.
At the back of the
Lounge
Looking much more homely now that we have a proper couch and some candlesticks! When we manage to get a ladder tall enough to reach the chimney cover and take it off, we'll be able to stoke up a lovely fire here. house we have a corridor with doors leading to the main garden area, laundry room, toilet, bathroom and third bedroom. The back bedroom has now officially become the games room after I went to a garage sale and bought a pool table on impulse! It's a proper pub-style wooden table in decent condition and only cost me $50 (£20) which I think is an absolute steal. The only problem is that there's not quite enough room around the table to position your cue without making holes in the walls!! I guess that's the moral of the story with impulse buying.
Outside the house we have more land than we could ever need. There's a large grassy area at the front which does nothing much. There's room for at least 5 cars to park on the paved bit, 6 if you include the garage (got one of them too!) At the side of the house, overlooked by the kitchen, is a big patio area that's absolutely lovely and a real sun trap. That part of the garden alone is far bigger than our old garden in Wymondham was! Then right at the back of the house you have another big
Kitchen
Check out Harold's funky fishtank on the shelf above the cooker. He loves it here! grassy area that's fenced off and perfect if you have dogs. I'm hoping to start my own veggie patch here soon seeing as we can't have dogs just yet given our temporary resident status.
The best thing about this house though for me is the location. We are in a peaceful spot with no neighbours for at least 15 metres on one side and 50 metres on the other. We are not overlooked as all the houses round here are bungalows (as are we) and it's just a small road with possibly no more than 8 houses on it. We link up to the Great South Road which is like a main artery all the way into central Auckland. There's a big supermarket 5 minutes' walk away, the train station is 10 minutes away on foot and we are about 20 minutes' walk from the coast. At night it's so quiet that all we can hear are the crickets chirping in the garden. Bliss. Mad as it might sound, one of my most favourite things about the house is that it wobbles whenever a freight train goes by, just like being in a tiny earthquake every 30 minutes or
Master Bedroom
Gotta love that wallpaper, curtains and the carpet - none of it matches!!
so. It's only a gentle sway but it always makes me smile :-)
On the down side, the house is a little run down as I said, so we are hoping to get painting soon just to freshen the place up a little. Garage sales and freecycle have provided us with some much needed extra furniture and we can now slowly begin cluttering the place up like a proper home should be!
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