Missing from the sign, bought by Mark Rees and Linda Vandenhoek, 2001!
So as I have mentioned in a couple of posts now, I am staying with my girlfriend Linda. Her and her husband bought their house, the Old Cromwell Courthouse, built in 1872, in 2001 (I believe). When I visited them in 2004 they had not added on to the building and were in the process of cleaning up the inside – or should I say renovating. At the time there was no real kitchen to speak of. We used water boiled in the kettle and in a wash bin, there was a flushing toilet but we went to the local squash club for showers. At the time Linda was 5 months pregnant with Tobi. What a trooper!
The original building from the front.
Well they did have an apartment in Dunedin however which they didn’t move from fully until 2007. In anycase, I was quite flabberghasted when I go to the house this time and walked to the backyard that I remembered and saw the new addition. It is just lovely. It is hard to capture in pictures but it is quite different to the old house with clean lines and lots of light. A bit of a contrast to the dark wood interior of the old section. Each with their own charms.
Connecting the old and the new - the link to the new addition.
My bedroom is in the new section. What is really cool is that you cannot see the new part of the house from the road. So from the street it still looks like it is just the old courthouse there.
Hard to capture, but this is the new addition with just a corner of the old building on the left.
I thought my house building project was a long project (by the way Mark, I remember you once said that if I finished my house before you finished yours, you would do something, but I can’t remember what it was!!!), but Mark and Linda have been working on this for a good 10 years, in that time having had 2 children and Mark changing jobs to work in Queenstown. So they win the award for persistence.
The old atrium in the courthouse converted to a bright spacious bathroom
So although they are not done, they a plugging along every time I see it and it is coming along well. I love old heritage buildings although with the earthquake in Christchurch, heritage buildings are not getting a good reputation for standing up to earthquakes. Thank goodness this is not really an issue in Cromwell.
The house and renovations certainly look lovely – I can well imagine it has been a long haul for the two of them, but well worth it in the end.