Your Home & Garden March 2006
Robyn Iversen and John Crosswell had family in mind, literally, when they built their dream house in the country
Text by Catherine Smith Photography by Stephen Perry
Johnny Crosswell and Robyn Iversen relish a challenge. It wasn’t enough to move from a pretty villa in an established Auckland suburb to raw land in the burgeoning country fringe to the northwest. They threw into the mix setting up two new businesses, kids starting school, and building a new house on a tight budget.
Sounds like a recipe for stress, but three years on the couple say it was a great learning curve that they’d love to repeat. Though not any time soon, they hasten to add, with many plans for the new home.
It helped that Robyn was halfway through a diploma in interior design and that the couple had several renovation projects under their belts, plus a network of friends in the building and design trades (Johnny’s “Wellington mafia” they call them). Their goal was to set up businesses and live the good life, having built up a nest egg through skilful renovating and selling.
The threads came together more easily than they expected. Robyn’s family had owned land in Greenhithe since the 1950’s gradually subdividing it off to members of the extended family. Johnny, a staunch city boy, was persuaded to move over the Harbour Bridge to the “dark side” when he saw the area’s bush and views.
With the move finalised the couple enrolled daughter Jessie (and later brother Tom) at the local school, to join 10 of her cousins and second cousins.
Next they turned to designing their new home. “The best thing we did was ask the experts,” says Johnny. A childhood friend, architect Peter Eising, took the couple’s ideas and came up with clever yet simple solutions based on their brief of one-level living, the use of corrugated metal cladding and a roof that wasn’t mono-pitched. Peter also helped figure out the best way to use the sloping, scrub-covered site and showed how a split-level garden could work. The sketch of Robyn and Johnny’s dream house (now framed in the hallway) was then handed over to a draughtsperson who worked up the plans for building consent.
“This is a great way to get the insights and ‘big idea’ skills of an architect on a limited budget,” says Robyn. “Once the big picture was in place, we could happily fill in the details. It helped that our builder was so on to it and could work things out with us on-site.”
Robyn worked on the house in parallel to her interior design studies, through she admits she had to do the kitchen herself before reaching that module in the course. A family kitchen at the core of the house was a must, with a big island bench, a double fridge, wine racks and a large pantry. Inside this Robyn installed a prep area so the kids could serve themselves, and a cupboard workstation for a homework computer and craft supplies. She used a metal-look surface veneer, and in line with her yen for clean industrial finishes, a metallic vinyl on the floor.
Sturdy (‘jump-on’) sofas are covered in wash-and-wear denim. Modern chairs, kids’ art and favourite vintage pieces from earlier homes mix happily in this family space. The bright colour palette adds a warm atmosphere. Doors and glass open the space to a covered porch for dining and a paved terrace that took three weeks of hand grouting and sealing to get the look of concrete tile.
A second winter sitting room on the west includes a TV and piano for a cosy adult retreat, and makes the most of the late afternoon sun. Eventually a fireplace will be installed, and Robyn has dreams of Walls of books to make a library.
The master bedroom scheme was based on a voile fabric Robyn fell in love with. An old loveseat and cushions made from her mother’s fabric scraps work perfectly. The couple added a floor of pepple tiles to their shower, a detail which gives standard-issue fittings a luxury touch, and pampers the feet.
The children’s bedrooms and bathroom complete the family living floor, connected by a hallway that turns into a racetrack for bikes on a rainy day. On the ground floor is a large shared office for Robyn and Johnny’s businesses. With its own entrance and bathroom it is well planned to convert to a teen rumpus room or granny flat in the future as the family grows up.
The couple are gradually making inroads into landscaping the 1900-square-metre section, with young native trees and grasses already in place. The couple have started a fruit orchard and olive grove, and shelter fences are helping to re-generate a fernery at the edge of the bush.
Johnny and Robyn have a clear vision of how the finished scheme will work, but are enjoying the process too. “It’s great to get here and see that we have achieved our goal. This is what a home should be about: great for family and easy living, not a source of stress.”
Owner Profile
Robyn Iversen and John Crosswell, interior designer specialising in preparing homes for sale, and manufacturer’s representative.
Live with: Jessie (eight) and (Tom (seven).
Robyn and John love travelling; collecting unusual sculpture; time with family and friends; music and boating.
Q How does this house work for two businesses and a busy family?
A Robyn focused on the house and doing all the product research, while Johnny focused on growing the business to get it to a stage where he could move to an office. Keeping the work space on another floor from family life helps to keep them separate, but we don’t want the office to turn into a warehouse or storage, its strictly for office work.
Q what did you learn on this project?
A Building a house is a huge learning curve but a great experience to have had. We learned stuff about each other that we hadn’t on renovation projects – what we thought were important things to live by.