First Homebuyer Series: Heidi & Dylan

Heidi and Dylan are the type of people I love to sponge knowledge from. They continually make clever and well thought out decisions when it comes to property (and everything else!), and when you add a tonne of hard work into the mix, the result is that they have both a home to add value to AND a tidy rental property. Talk about high achievers!

This week I talked to Heidi about their 3 bedroom home in Mangere Bridge, Auckland. Her and Dylan are at the tail end of a exciting renovation and I can't wait to see the end result.

I will also do a feature on their rental in the next few weeks - so stay tuned.

M: How long have you been living in your home? 

H: Five and a half years. 

M: What was your main purpose when buying it? 

H: We bought this as our first home with the view that we may not stay here forever. Our purpose has changed since buying it and we now have decided to stay here longer term. 

M: What immediately appealed to you about the place? 

H: It was an old do-up. It was a pretty villa under the poor paint job and tired decorating, so we were able to purchase at a good price and do the hard yards ourselves to make it into what we wanted it to be.

M: Tell us about what it was like when you first moved in:

 H: FREEZING, leaky, a horrid coloured yellow with mustard trims, lots of poorly built additions that needed attention. 

M: What have you done to the property since you bought it?

H: Basically everything!!!! 
In our first phase of renovations we
- Insulated the entire house, walls and all - this means re-gibbing and painting all the walls in every single room
- Added an ensuite
- Painted the exterior
- Re-did the toilet
- Got rid of the overgrown garden
- Built a small retaining wall to tidy up the driveway and planted a rose garden here

We then decided to stay put for the longer term so in the second phase we decided to extend the house, which involves
- A new laundry
- Open plan living/dining/kitchen in the extension
- New bathroom

M: Phew! That sounds like a lot of work! What was your best purchase? 

H: I love my Penny Stotter and my Ali Gulec prints! Also the solid wooden door which I've repurposed into my desk so I can work from home :)

M: Do you have a purchase you regretted?

H: Dining room chairs, I wish I'd spent more on getting some good quality ones from the beginning.

M: What do you love about the place? 

H: It's warm, highly practical, has great light and we've made it our own so it feels like home.

M: What don’t you love about it? 

H: Not a lot to be honest, I would have said the kitchen before the second round of renos as we're keen entertainers, so having the kitchen in a separate room was not conducive to good conversation while entertaining.

M: Describe your interior decorating style: 

H: Eccelectic? New and old, wood and metal, concrete and wood - all the opposites.