Labour of love

A Cape Town couple’s quirky weekend escape in the historic West Coast town of Hopefield has been 10 years in the making – and it’s still not ‘finished’.

- Lianne Burton

Interior designer Christo Koegelenberg and hotelier Heino Reuling lead very busy lives.

Their Sea Point, Cape Town home accommodates Christo’s office, the couple’s smart city bolt-hole, and a luxury Airbnb conversion that’s fully booked year-round. Weekdays are a blur of activity.

In 2009, they decided to invest in a weekend home where they can decompress and relax with friends. They confined their search to properties no more than 140km from Cape Town. “Any further and the first part of the weekend away is just traffic and stress,” says Christo.

The listing for an original farm barn – a heritage building about 140 years old on a piece of land roughly the size of a rugby field – immediately caught their attention.

Coincidentally, it was in a town Christo knew well. Growing up in nearby Vredenburg, he would often attend school sports events in Hopefield, the oldest West Coast town in the heart of the Sandveld. Christo’s parents have since moved to Velddrif, and both he and Heino have friends and family in Langebaan, Saldanha, Vredenburg and all over the West Coast.

Positioned in a scenic valley alongside the Zoute River, with access to borehole water, the property had great potential.

The barn itself, however, was totally dilapidated and without water or electricity. The lower level was being used as a workshop where bricks were produced, two-by-two, in old-fashioned moulds. The top floor was an attic, with no staircase to access it.

While the listing attracted plenty of attention, the run-down barn deterred buyers; also, the building was subject to strict heritage guidelines. “People were scared of the renovation,” says Christo. The couple, however, knew immediately: “This is it”.

Renovating on a tight budget