Inside Story

When the home of your dreams refuses to ‘let you go’, perhaps it’s fate…

- Elna van der Merwe

“I’ll never forget the moment I first laid eyes on the house in a photo on the estate agent’s noticeboard,” says Lindie Senekal. Right away, she knew it was her dream home.

However, for quite some time it seemed as if it just wasn’t meant to be. After living in the Seychelles for five years, the family decided to return to South Africa where they settled in Paarl.

“My husband Erick is a project manager and he was involved in the Eden Island development in the Seychelles. It was a wonderful time but for me it wasn’t about sipping cocktails on the beach,” she says with a chuckle. For this mother of three, it was all about doing the usual ‘mom stuff’.

The Art Deco chairs are heirlooms that Lindie had reupholstered with linen from Hertex. The cupboard was discovered somewhere on Voortrekker Road in Bellville and painted white, as was the standing lamp. The hessian rug was a Decorex buy.

But Lindie still made the most of the island’s natural beauty. While the children were at school, she and a friend would spend time stand-up paddle boarding. “In the afternoons, we’d meet up on the beach again, this time with our kids. That’s what you do in the Seychelles – the weather is always good.”

The couple’s daughters attended the international school. “But we wanted them to have what we had – a school song, school uniforms, team sports... All those traditional things,” says Lindie.

“After five years of beach fun, one starts looking at other options!” And that’s when the Senekals’ journey back to their homeland began...