Plenty of room for a party

Seventeen guests is not a crowd for this spacious apartment, writes Louise Richardson

Lawrence and Petrea Barker were already enthusiastic converts to apartment living when they bought their Middleton Road property 10 years ago. “We’d gone from our big family home to an apartment just next door to here at the James Cook building, and we really loved having it as a city base, while spending weekends at our place on Waiheke Island,” they say.

At more than 180sq m, the property is bigger than many stand- alone homes and there’s plenty of room for a family — perhaps attracted to the double grammar zone — although Lawrence and Petrea’s own offspring had already left home by the time the couple moved in.

“Actually we did have one of them back for a while,” says Petrea. “But she didn’t stay long.”

Nowadays there’s a new little family member, 14- month- old Ivy, who loves coming to see them.

“We’re enjoying her so much; she’s a very muchloved first grandchild,” Lawrence says.

In the huge kitchen, dining and living area, which leads to a spacious balcony where Lawrence’s barbecue is in constant use during summer, there’s plenty of room for Ivy to run about and play.

“We’ve had up to 17 people here for occasions such as Christmas and it wasn’t crowded by any means,” Petrea says.

The apartment has three bedrooms, the master with walk- in wardrobe and en suite. At present Lawrence is using the third bedroom as his office. It’s a versatile room with a pull- down bed.

“It’s such a great idea because it frees up space and guests tell us that it’s incredibly comfortable to sleep in,” he says.

There’s also the bonus of a separate, spacious laundry, which is rarely found in apartments, and Petrea loves her kitchen, which is well- laid out, with quality appliances.

The couple have nothing but praise for the building’s body corporate, which they say is wellrun and attends to any problems or upgrades in an “efficient and timely manner”. They also like the neighbourhood. They’re about three minutes’ walk from Newmarket train station and there are cafes,

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* Plus visitor parking and 2 storage lockers restaurants and shops galore nearby. They both enjoy exploring the many eating places on Nuffield St or catching a movie at Rialto cinema complex.

It’s actually quite a green area,” Petrea says. “The surrounding apartment buildings have loads of trees and we have a tui who shows up regularly and chirps away. That’s something we never expected, living this way.”

“With sauna, spa and tennis courts in- house, it’s almost like living in a resort,” adds Lawrence.

The couple are on the move though, and their new home is already famous, nationwide.

“We didn’t watch the series, but when we saw a townhouse advertised that was very attractive and a little smaller than this, with its own little piece of land, we found ourselves at one of 2016’ s The Block houses in St Johns,” Petrea says.

The couple says that buying at auction was so intense they simply put the attendant media out of their minds and concentrated on getting their new home for a good price.

“We didn’t realise how major it was until the newspapers started calling us the next day.”

The Barkers had been wanting to downsize for a while, keeping a city base while spending more time on the island.

“We think we’ve made a good decision and we’re looking forward to moving in.”

They both say that they’ll miss their neighbours at Middleton Road and hope to keep in touch.