Character Driven

When shopping for a new house, some say it’s best to make your open home rounds on a miserable, dark and rainy day. That way you get to see your prospective new home at its worst. If you’re taken with it then, it’s only going to get better on a warm sunny day.

 

  

Sarah Couillault has a clear memory of the Sunday afternoon in June when she and her husband Warren first saw their Herne Bay villa home. It was almost four years ago on a typically grey and drizzly Auckland winter’s day, “and even in those conditions the house shone”.

 

After meeting through friends in their hometown of Auckland, Sarah and Warren, an investment manager, had enjoyed apartment living in Sydney and London before returning to raise a family. At a previous home on the North Shore they endured a large renovation and were reluctant to jump into another. So they were looking for a home that didn’t require too much to be done; Sarah was also trying to convince Warren to move south over the bridge.

 

 

The Couillaults were immediately taken by the high stud and stunning views from the top level. The bathrooms, kitchen design, general layout and colours also got a big tick. The only issue was configuring the rooms to fit their family of five, including Olivia, now 10, Jemma, nine, and Charles, six, plus Chico the cat.

 

They tracked down the original architect, Allan Taylor, who had done a great renovation for the previous owners. So good, in fact, that “we didn’t have to do anything except mould the house to our lifestyle and circumstances,” says Warren. The couple were determined to keep the original features they fell in love with but, says Sarah, “once we started down that road, we came up with all sorts of minor tweaks that would make the villa ours”. One thing led to another and before they knew it they were pulling out a load-bearing wall to open up the formal living room and refinishing the wooden floors.

 

The changes were very much a team effort. “We have similar tastes,” says Sarah. “I like the fact that Warren is interested in design and architecture and he’s far better than me with a scale ruler too.”

 

The house soon “looked like a building site,” says Sarah. “Luckily we weren’t living there. We learned the hard way that if you live onsite through a building project, expect to be removing gib dust from your jeans pockets a year later.”

 

The Couillaults engaged interior designer Penny Hay to help make sense of their decorating ideas: “It was some of the best money we spent,” says Sarah.

 

 

Sarah’s busy weekdays are spent getting the kids to and from school, attending school committees, Italian and art history classes, cooking and food shopping and managing a school netball team. In winter, the children’s team sports take over Saturday mornings, but in summer the backyard pool house is in use all day long. It’s also a focus for entertaining – Warren mentions a recent special birthday event that saw 100 guests happily gathered there.

 

“The pool house is a suntrap till very late in the evening,” says Sarah. “We feel like we’re on holiday from the house.”

 

The family also love spending time in their holiday house at Omaha. They swim, paddleboard, surf (though only Jemma and Charlie have mastered this) and boogie board. “Warren loves taking the boat out to our favourite secret bay where we go water-skiing and sea-biscuiting. Even Charlie got up on skis this summer.”

 

Back in Herne Bay, Warren’s favourite room is the study. “Decorating it was his baby,” says Sarah. “He chose his desk, his chair and the mirror. The girls practise the piano in there and Olivia, who’s just finished a school production, does her singing practice there, so we all get to enjoy Daddy’s space.”

 

The kitchen is the room that gets the most use and some of Sarah’s happiest moments are spent there, perched on a bar stool and chatting across the bench with her friends. The Couillaults stuck to the architect’s design for the layout, with its hidden scullery, but Sarah also insisted on installing a work station in the space assigned to a floor to ceiling wine fridge. “The architect went pale when we told him. Warren got his wine fridge though; he just has to walk a little further out to the garage.”

My renovation high point was: Watching the children’s faces when they saw their new bedrooms for the first time.

 

The best piece of advice I ever received was: If you don’t love it, don’t buy it.

 

The bravest thing we did around the house was: Knock down a load-bearing wall to create one massive open living space instead of several smaller spaces. Once that wall went, there was no changing our minds.

 

The best time of the week for me is: Friday afternoon school pick-up. The kids’ noisy anticipation of a weekend with Mum and Dad is infectious. Not to mention the thought of that first glass of wine.

 

And the worst time is: Monday morning, it’s so quiet. But by Tuesday I love it.

 

I love the view from: Our bedroom. Occasionally I catch five minutes to enjoy the stunning sunsets from our west-facing windows.

 

The home improvement that caused the most debate was: The floor. Warren wanted light,
I wanted dark. It’s dark.

 

I love this part of New Zealand because: Great shops, great food and all our immediate families live in Auckland. When we need to get away, we’re an hour’s drive from the best beach in Rodney.

 

My house is usually tidy because: I love tidy. My brain doesn’t function if there’s mess. And don’t ask me to leave the house before the beds are made; I find that quite traumatic. Consequently I’m often late.