Joanne & Dave: Two Units, One Title
Joanne and Dave bought their place in Mt Eden just over two years ago and have proceeded to turn it into a house which would make any design enthusiast swoon. They are currently weighing up options for their place long term.
What was your main purpose when buying your place?
Both for personal use and investment, so when we make decisions it’s through both lenses. Our property is unique in that it is one title with two residential units on it (upstairs and downstairs of the property). We took a risk and bought the property with another couple; Michelle is Dave’s cousin so we have a family tie, and we have similar taste and views on finances so it’s worked out really well. By teaming up, we got a character home in a central location that would have otherwise never been possible!
Describe the place when you first moved in:
The two units are really a 1920’s bungalow that was split in two. Upstairs and downstairs are completely separate, with separate entrances and living areas.
Our place is upstairs and street level. When we moved in, upstairs was cosmetically done with a fresh paint job and renovations done by prior owners in 2008. The white paint job gave us a fantastic blank canvas to work from, so our focus has been taking what is already there and making it feel like our home.
Downstairs was a different story, with old paintwork, cabinetry and damp carpet. Within the first few weeks, they had ripped up the carpet to expose beautiful and untouched wooden floors, ripped out the cabinets and painted their walls white to match ours. The backyard was also a bit of a wilderness which has since been tamed down with some large volcanic rocks / boulders dug out.
What did you immediately like about it?
The stud height and wooden floors. There’s nothing like high ceilings and wooden floors to make a space feel large and grand! There is also a heritage fireplace which I absolutely love even though we don’t use it functionally with actual fire. The bungalow features (picture rails, embossed wallpaper and ceiling panels) took awhile to warm to, but they definitely gave the place charm and character.
Tell us what you have changed in the property since buying it:
Our main changes upstairs have been around creating more storage. We have added numerous shelves, added vertical hanging rails in our kitchen and removed the existing wardrobe in our master and replaced it with a full wall wardrobe.
What was your best purchase?
Definitely our couches. We waited a few months before we bought them, and I found we couldn’t freely decorate our lounge until we knew what our couches would look like. As soon we bought them, it transformed the space into one that we could easily add to and felt much more like us.
We’ve also just replaced our front door with one that has glass window panels, so we now have morning sun flooding into the hallway which has made a massive difference.
Do you have a purchase you regretted? If so, what?
There have been a few things (okay, quite a lot..) that I picked up because they were cheap and I liked the idea of them (such as side tables, and lots of decorating pieces) or for future DIY projects, before we were ready to commit to them. Because they weren’t expensive, I didn’t properly weigh up whether it was a good purchase and as a result, most purchases have just wasted space until I finally sold them or gave them away, or were placeholders until I found an alternative that I was actually sure about.
If you had unlimited budget, what would you change about your home?
This is something we’re actually weighing up right now! We’re considering renovations, and the big dream involves making this our ‘forever house’. This would include extending both upstairs and downstairs out by a couple of meters, giving us an extra bedroom, large open plan living (including a much bigger kitchen), an ensuite, walk-in-wardrobe, etc. We would also extend our deck, re-wire our home into a smart home, and add wall insulation and more sound proofing between the levels. Another bugbear is that the bathroom is currently located right next to the kitchen and is at the very back of the house, so that is something I would also definitely change on an unlimited budget. Oh, and I would fit out my bathroom and kitchen with beautiful fittings and likely marble.. As you can probably tell I unfortunately have expensive taste!
What do you love about it?
Our house has been a creative outlet for me, and I love the process of figuring out how to best use the space and what to add or change to make it more functional. The high ceilings are perfect to utilise vertical space and the character features add a lot without having to do too much.
Describe your interior decorating style:
I can’t deny that I love Scandinavian design, as my eye is always drawn to monochrome colours and the brightness that white brings. However, I wanted to keep the place homely and warm, so have added some elements of warmer colours throughout the place too. I also love functional design and clean lines, so have definitely turned to Ikea for a lot of storage items.
Has your plan for the property changed since buying it? If so, how?
Yes, future plans to renovate are constantly evolving. Some things we knew from the beginning we would eventually change such as more open plan living, but a lot of choices we would have made when we first moved in would be different now that we’ve lived in the space and know how we use it. Certain frustrations, such as our kitchen and how impractical a lot of the built-in storage is definitely becomes higher on the priority list the longer we live there. We’re also starting to think forward with how we will use spaces when we have children.