Happy Accident

A home exuding ’80s style from every pore was merely a stopgap for this New Plymouth family. At least, that was the plan…

- Sharon Stephenson

1 BACKGROUND

You might have heard that saying: life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. For Jess and Sanjay Singh, this could be tweaked a little – they found the home of their dreams while they were busy looking for… well, the home of their dreams.

Having sold their previous New Plymouth home more quickly than expected, and with nowhere to live in the meantime, the couple chanced upon a two-storey house that had barely been touched since it was built in the 1980s. “We didn’t want to be homeless so we bought this house, thinking it would be okay until we found one we liked,” says Jess.

That was nearly three years ago and, since then, the couple have not only transformed the 210-square-metre space into a comfortable, stylish home, they’ve also fallen in love with it.

“It’s grown with us and our children and it’s such an easy house to live in.”

2 DIY JOBS

While the house had a reasonably good layout, it was “drowning in the 1980s”, laughs Jess. That included bright green, blue and yellow walls, orange lino and a mint-green carpet that was so dusty, Jess’ eyes swelled shut due to allergies. Fortunately, only a few big, but non-structural, changes needed to be made, including moving a wall in the upstairs bathroom and borrowing space to tuck a shower into the laundry/second bathroom.

Even more fortuitously, Sanjay used to be a gib-stopper before becoming a police officer, so he was able to tackle jobs such as removing the dated architraves and tiled ceilings. “That saved us money and immediately made the house look more streamlined and modern,” says Jess.

Litres of white paint dealt to the colourful walls and vinyl plank flooring was laid in the entrance and open-plan kitchen area, bringing the house into the 21st century.