Our 1ha Paradise is Up for Sale

We’ve had 15 wonderful years in this beautiful little corner of the world, but now the kids have all gone and we’re ready for our next thing. Gosh, it’s going to be hard leaving our handmade house and all my gardens – my heart and soul are in this place, but at 51 – if I’m going to go, now’s the time.

We are 10 mins south east of Levin township on 8,260 sqm of flat land, tucked behind the Kimberley Bush Reserve down a no exit rural road – a peaceful hideaway not too far away from the action – the best of both worlds.

Across the road is the bush reserve to explore and a 5 minute walk though nikaus + lovely bush to a secluded swimming hole. For a bigger swimming hole and awesome dive bombs, its a 5min drive to the local hole. Waikawa beach is a 15min drive for floundering and surf casting, or stay home, sit on the deck and soak up the peace and beautiful views out over the hills and garden. Paradise!

The House

Our sweet little 100sq m house has been a labour of love and is full of beautiful timber + character. We’ve gutted it and rewired, re plumbed and insulated and relined it from top to bottom.

Matt’s been a master of finding beautiful local timber to use – the kitchen shelves are the discarded kneelers from a local church, the beam across the kitchen is the beam from the washed away local bridge, the kitchen floor is a totara log rescued from becoming firewood.

I feel intimate with every board! We salvaged as much original trim as we could. Wood is precious. We reused all the original doors and door frames – sanded and oiled them, and though there are little imperfections throughout, its far preferable to soul-less, new pine/ MDF stuff don’t you agree! We kept a little piece of the original house in every room to keep the thread alive. Rather than replacing the floor we decided the old floor was full of story, that gorgeous patina that tells of all the feet that have walked through.

All bedrooms are ply lined with new gib ceilings. Living areas are ply lined with new timber ceilings – macrocarpa in the kitchen and poplar in the living area. The house is consented.

Master Bedroom

Walk in wardrobe, 2 sets of french doors – one north facing leads onto the deck, one west facing leads to a conservatory bathroom with overhead shower and claw foot bath.

Bedroom 1

Built in wardrobe and shelves

Bedroom 2

Walk in wardrobe. French doors out onto small deck. Afternoon/ evening sun.

Office

Double glazed windows

Separate shower

Extra large built in shower, baby corrugated iron walls

Separate toilet

Open plan living space

Large metro woodfire plus wetback keeps the house toasty and water hot. French doors open onto deck.

Kitchen + Dining

Double stainless steel sinks, Stainless steel bench, Open timber cupboards, Beautiful timber joinery, Fisher and Paykel oven with gas hobbs and electric oven. All appliances stay with the house.

Pantry

The pantry is walk in and huge – just what a productive property needs. 2 power points on the macrocarpa slab bench top. Mac shelves. The lower shelves are made of slats for good airflow to store pumpkins, potatoes, onions et all. The grate in the floor helps keep it all cool. Pull switch for light – I adore those pull switches!

The Laundry

We moved the laundry out of the house to create more space. It’s a cute little macrocarpa add on, on the deck to the left of the front door. Lined with shelves for all the preserving jars, washing machine, dryer, upright freezer, double concrete sinks – all staying with house.

The Decks

We live on our wonderful deck! Roll down sides mean we can cosy up when its windy or cold.

The wood oven is proper – cooks pizza in 2 mins, amazing for whole fish and slow cooked meat, baked spuds in the embers and is still warm the morning after for breakfast scones or eggs. Slab benches either side are awesome for food prep, cooking and buffets. A gas ring is sunken into the bench (below the salads in the photo above) and gets used heaps for preserving/ cooking through hot summer weather. A portion of the bench is hinged so it can lift up when you want to cook and slot back down to become bench when you want to buffet. The bi fold kitchen windows open out onto a handy bar making it easy to pass food/ utensils et all back and forth.

There are 2 power points on the deck – one at each end, spotlights over the wood oven and lighting over the table as well as a light above the day bed. We hang hessian over the clear light in the summer to provide shade. These hessians are cut to shape and come with the house.

Water Supply

Spring water is gravity fed to 2 25,000 tanks. Legal easement over the farm land secures this beautiful, safe water source in the bush clad hills. Water is filtered through state of the art UV filtration system after it leaves the tank. The rainwater also feeds into the tanks.

The Food

We have created a food mecca! It was many years before we could plant anything as there were big norfolk pines and lawsonia trees all throughout. Matts removed them and raked the area with his digger to clear out all the roots, removed all the run down sheds and fencing, then set too with the rake on the digger to clear out all the rocks – what a mission! But worth it to lay a good foundation for the food gardens. We used all the rocks to build the beautiful stone wall around the potager.

There are x16 6m vegie beds that keep us in vegies year round. The leafy greens are now in a self seeding cycle – no need to plant cress, rocket, chard, perpetual beet, endive, chicory, parsley, miners lettuce, corn salad anymore – they all come and go year round according with their season. Many flowers are the same – cornflowers, poppies, marigolds, nasturtium, borage to name but a few.

An asparagus bed runs on the west side of the vegie patch and the 6x9m greenhouse and berryhouse lay on the south side between the vegie patch and chook house/ run. Raspberries and figs and currants grow in the berryhouse. I have reduced the amount of raspberries due to many less mouths at home and use the space to grow bird loving peas and greens instead. It could easily convert back though. The greenhouse houses our delicious grapes, a passionfruit, lemongrass and an inground wormfarm as well as all the heat loving vegies. The skin on the greenhouse is 10 years old now and coming up for replacement.

The outside sink is super useful for washing vegies before they come into the house and soaking seedling trays pre planting.

Nashi are a family favourite – Hosui and Kosui are espaliered along the gardens edge. A young persimmon on the garden edge is starting to bear well – in its 4th year now.

Between the vegie garden and the deck is the potager garden. It grows medicinal and culinary herbs, perennial leeks, lemons, kaffir lime, a cacophony of flowers year round and heritage roses. Our bonfire circle is part of this garden – a popular spot and often sat about on an evening.

The deciduous orchard on the north side of the house grows heritage apples – Mayflower, Granny Smith, Captain Kidd, Tydemans Late, Liberty and Hetlina. Plums – Omega, Luisa, Hawera, Kereru and Billington. Peaches – Sanguine, River peach, Kotare Honey and Pears – Nashi Nijisecki, Belle du Jumet, Seckle, Doyenne du Comice and Beure Bosc. A new Lemonade is a recent addition.

All underplanted with comfrey and loads of spring bulbs and a big selection of herbs, perennial vegetables and useful companions. The ground cover has evolved from solid dock to lots of clovers, chicory and plantain. Comfrey lines the inside of the fences for harvesting for compost, mulch or liquid feed. Natives surround creating privacy from the quiet road – mainly kawakawa, flax, manuka and corokia.

The property is in a well sheltered nook. Rare easterlies are our biggest wind. Providing temporary protection from this, is the windcloth on the eastern side of the vegie patch, but as my shelterbelt of titoki, flaxes, 4 hazelnuts, 2 seedling peaches, Trevatt apricot and manukas establish, this will be able to be removed.

South of the eastern windshelter are our 3 avocados, which we are now self sufficient in – Hass and Hashimoto, from October through May. If we stayed we’d build a cabin down this end of the property, such a lovely private, sunny corner. Tahitian lime, lemonade, guavas, mints, yams, lemon myrtle, elecampane are some of the very useful understory here.

2 Walnuts – one beginning to produce and one newly planted sit between the avocados and the sheds, behind the chooks. We had plans to create a driveway that would go through the back paddock (which I wanted to plant in maples for syrup) and under the walnuts out to the dream cabin in the avocados. Perhaps this is something the next people will develop!

On the western edge of the property behind the washing line, facing north is a small citrus grove. Its been a long time coming as I patiently waited for shelter to establish first. Last year I planted 2 oranges here to join the x2 4 year old mandarins which are starting to produce well. A new feijoa has joined my poorly old Apollo feijoa which I probably should have removed long ago but keep hoping it’ll revive because I love Apollo feijoas. Horseradish flourishes in the understory – such an amazing crop.

Along the southern boundary, the natives are well established now affording complete privacy from the neighbours.

All fruit tree varieties and rootstocks and harvest times available for the new owner, plus my future plans.

The Chooks + Pigs

We are running 7 chooks right now and they come with the house. We have 2 chook houses. A main one behind the greenhouse that feeds into the greenhouse, berryhouse and vegie patch – they live here winter and spring. In summer I move them to the run beneath the southern shelterbelt so as to escape summer heat beneath all the natives and have fresh ground – they love their jungle run.

The small paddocks are set up for pigs with housing, troughs and electric fencing. I dreamed of wooden fences but didnt yet get round to them. Our neighbour occasionally uses the pasture for their beefies, an excellent source of manure.

Compost Toliet

The compost loo is always a highlight! Its beside the garden shed, just a few steps away from the house and I way prefer it over and above the house toliet. No smell, no water wasted, an awesome source of fertility for citrus and avos and such a gorgeous space to sit and ponder 🙂 Even at night I enjoy to wander out under the stars. When the septic tank has eventually done its chips we would have replaced the inside flush toliet with a compost one. I’d never have a flush loo again.

Sheds

The firewood shed is full of wood ready for winter. The garden shed is on the end of the firewood shed. Water filtration unit and pump behind the chopping block.

A 53sq m shed with concrete floor, power and padlock-able doors. A double carport is attached.

The property is fenced with gates and lots of easy parking within the broad lime chip drive or outside the gates where base course provides a solid year round footing for any vehicle.

Internet

Internet is broadband. I run my video consults and business online and it works fine for me. Vodafone gets best coverage here.

Buyer Enquiry Over $1,100,000

Viewing by appointment only. We ask that only those serious about the purchase apply.

To book a viewing, please email me with possible dates and your name + phone number.