Just a congratulations ❤️ very exciting times ❤️

Sounds exciting. After 25 years it’s hard to look at your home with unbiased eyes. See if an agent will tell you if it’s worth spending money and where, and who the likely buyer will be. Unless you’re going to refresh from ceiling to floor, kitchen/bathroom/laundry you may best leaving it as is. I do hope your new house gets a purple door at least.

Congrats Pottsy. I think some colour will be needed!

congratulations, we all look forward to seeing some photos

16 years ago , I ( well the builder haha ) redid all the bathrooms and we closed in a couple of doors and cut new ones , so basically as well as the bathrooms , we repainted every bedroom and recarpeted a couple and ran wiring and put TV's in every bedroom -- basically because we could .

As far as colour , the kitchen is of course burnt orange cupboard doors and feature wall , but all the rest of the colour is in the furniture , the art , the rugs and the like , with the exception of the bedrooms which all have one wallpapered wall , so each shows a different personality IMO .

Yes , a bit shocking , but the kitchen and dining room tiles are offwhite marble with grey streaks , the carpet in the living room and formal lounge is a wheat coloured commercial grade that has done 20 years so far , and the walls are a light off-white !

BUT when you add the red leather lounge suites , the art , the timber , etc it does have some colour . My commercial buildings generally have more colour on the walls , but I wouldn't describe my house as particularly colourful , especially when we empty it I suspect it will look pretty boring !

And you may even be surprised at the colour ( or lack thereof ) in my new place too .

Lovely view.

Is that scenery real! Wowser!

It's just N Z countryside .

I'm a bit worried about the pond though -- I was going to have some goldfish , tadpoles , frogs and eels , but I'm not sure about the water quality . It might be toxic or radioactive -- it seems to glow quite a bit at night . . . . . . . .

Beautiful room and furniture with a beautiful outlook. are you the gardener. How exciting for you to have another challenge and looking forward to seeing what it is and what you do with it

Recommend not putting anything in the pond if you want them to live

Mmm need to challenge your definition of cute.

I’m happy to live in the pond.

Haha Kate -- you might possibly also challenge my definition of little too . . . . . .

I suspect the bathroom in my cute little cottage has been remodelled at some stage too -- they keep the original bath from several thousand years ago though . . . . . . . . and yes , that is a basin on the left .

Country estate., no that sounds old fashioned. - pool, tennis court…..lifestyle retreat

I'd thought about getting one of those pole tennis sets ( I think also called beach tennis ? ) but why waste money buying one ? I'm sure I can find a piece of rusty pipe , an old rope and a well used tennis ball , and save $24.95 .

There's a nice little spot for the pole tennis .

There's already a fence up , and us rural folk know that that is there to stop the sheep and cows from wandering off . You put livestock in there so they keep the grass well trimmed .

My suspicion though is that they may have irrigated this area with water from the radioactive pond , as it's also glowing in the dark .

Exciting! I watched an episode of Grand Designs a couple of weeks ago of a build in Tassie where they put in a carved stone bath. I couldn’t help but wonder it would require an enormous amount of hot water to keep the stone warm while a person lounges in the bath.

Stone actually retains heat better than acrylic or steel , but I may have do do quite a bit of research , involving numerous hours , several bottles and maybe even some company . . . . . . . .

Congratulations!

I love New Zealand scenery.

Enjoy the bathtub research. :-)

here's a rustic country bathtub

Vinyard House · More Info

these tubs are made in NZ and would be perfect unless of course you have natural springs

https://stokedstainless.com/stoked-hot-tub/

https://www.newzealand.com/ca/feature/top-10-hot-pools/

Wow pottsy, that’s unbelievably beautiful ❤️

Sending you a bottle of champagne 🍾 for your soak in the fabulous bath, wow! Again.

Oklou -- I'm not sure if there needs to be a c on the end of rustic haha !

Its given me an idea though -- a rusti bath , a rusti 44 gallon drum and my self-made pole tennis -- I could call it an art installation , and sell it for $75 .

Or $1.6 mil if its a council wanting it haha .

The entry is going to need lots of work , as you can see .

I thought about doing the full height entrance doors in a nice mid-purple , but of course to comply with the SHAFTU regulations ( Safety Health And Farmers Things Untangled ) , it would need 2 broken lines in reflective bright green across each door , somewhere around 128 warning signs , including at least 12 that tell you which other ones to ignore , a visitors book with 3 witnesses to each signature , and of course a rat doing some tests on everyone .

The other option is to go with Dayglo Neon Fuschia Pink paint , but I'm a bit worried I may get lots of visitors , mainly male hairdressers and interior decorators in little 2 seater sports cars , wearing scarves and carrying a man purse . Now each to their own , but not really my cup of tea .

And I'll have to get the builders in -- it will need a heap of coat hooks and shoe racks there , because I don't want to drag my work boots or gumboots throughout the house , nor my overalls or wet oilskins . We'll get there though .

All I can think of saying pottsy is OMG

@siriuskey -- the cedar and stainless hot tub won't be on the purchase list , at least in the short term . Looks great and I'd love one , but then the logical side kicks in .

The main reasons why --

-- until my current place sells , the bank has said only essential spending on either . Its even more complicated than that , because as some of you know , last year I bought a largish commercial site , and over the next 3-4 years it is getting $10's of millions spend , so basically when they say jump , I ask how high haha .

-- the 2 1/2 hours would be a problem -- if its just me , and a quiet night , I wouldn't bother . And as I am single , if it isn't just me wanting the hot tub , its either going to be 'there's no way we'll wait that long' , or a bit too presumptuous of me haha .

Plus where to place it ?

The 'pond' is just to the right , but that is the main lounge through the doors , and although it looks a bit bare in this pic , the furniture is stacked up in this pic , and the current owners have a large ( very large ? ) stainless mobile kitchen -- I'm thinking of something permanent , and a fireplace . Maybe just me , but I wouldn't want a spa / hot-tub or similar just there -- its sort of a quiet outdoor space for cooking , drinking , etc , if that makes sense ?

And further along , most of the bedrooms are ground floor , so possibly looking out at a hot-tub isn't the best idea ?

That’s a very striking house pottsy, really beautiful ❤️

why such a big house so far out of town for just one person?

Always good to have a plan though Pottsy

oklou -- lets just say there's a few reasons why , and a few why not .

My current place is similar in size , but almost in the middle of town , and I've been here 23 years . This place is newer , the air is fresher , there is some land , I like it . Maybe I'm ready for a change . Maybe I'll get pee'd off with the extra half hour each way .

As far as land , I can build a big shed or 2 , whereas to do that in town would be a couple of million for land . The last place I looked at had stables -- I personally consider that a negative , but it seems a lot of people are happy to pay more . This doesn't have stables ,

So I could move to the country on a few hectares , but with a smaller house , and build a couple of sheds . If I had to , I could move into my mobile home , and probably be contented . I could buy a 50 sq mtr 1 bedroom apartment , and invest the rest or pay down debt or give up work -- but I work longer hours , take financial risks , and this is part of what I want .

I own a few properties ( commercial and residential ) and get rent , but also capital gains , although thats basically on paper , as I don't sell much . 80% by number , and 50% by value , I've owned 15 plus years . I'm an investor . Why I mention that is because I might make money here , I might not . But over the years , I have ( at least on paper ) made more money on properties than what I will pay for this , so you could say it's free .

Basically , thats a roundabout way of saying it ticks a few boxes , I can afford it unless things go pear shaped in future , so why not ? Socialists would say we should all get the same rewards and live in the same houses -- but then people like me wouldn't take the risks , employ people , would we ?

And actually something else I just thought of -- you asked why such a place for 1 person ? What about if you turn that around -- if I had 5 children and a partner ( or 20 children and 7 ex-partners ) , would I have done the hours I have over the years , would I have taken the risks , would I have taken a $30 an hour job and been home by 5.15 living in a rented house and using the credit card to pay for the groceries ?

Cause I'm in a stirring mood , how come you Aussies have such a large country , whereas there are 1.2 billion in India ? Why not let three or four hundred million of them come and live at your place ? And Somalia , Nigeria , Ethopia too -- invite them all . . . . . . . .

We have to make sure that we have enough space for all the Kiwi's that more over the ditch, perhaps you could fill those vacancies with your suggestion.

We only have a few cute little cottages sorry , so we don't have enough room . We could possibly take a few Swedish girls aged 20-35 , but that would be about it . . . . . . . .

And if a few Kiwis didn't move to Aus , who would do all the work haha ?

I work in Ethiopia. BIG diaspora community in Australia already. Everyone you meet here has a close relative or 7 in Oz. It’s very reminiscent of how many NZers we have actually 😃

Pottsy needs a big house to invite us all over to stay. ^

My worry is that all you Houzzers may turn up the same week as the Swedish Womens Beach Volleyball team , and they'd all have to stay in my room . . . . . . . . . .

Lol, love you pottsy ❤️ hilarious

This is the kitchen in the cottage . Its got everything I need -- a microwave , an electric frypan and a jug .

It looks like someones tried to remodel it at some stage , but they've been a bit lazy or done it on a budget , and left the old wall in , which is right in the way now , you have to walk around it and you can't keep your eye on everything . . . . . . . . . .

On a slightly more serious note , I obviously take exactly zero credit for any of this cottage , and there's not much I will change in the short term , but that 'splashback' on the outer part will probably be one of the first things I'll change . Most of you know I don't like all-white , or grey , and to me the existing look is just too basic for the rest of the cottage -- I imagine that splashback behind the stove and sink in 1 piece of marble , probably black or charcoal or maybe even a blacky brown , with veins of white and grey and maybe even copper tones ?

Arguably , if I'm doing that , I should also do that 'inner' grey one too , but personally I don't think its too bad -- out of sight , out of mind maybe .

At least the view outside distracts from the vanilla kitchen

I like that description -- 'a vanilla kitchen' . Over summer , I generally have a tub of Vanilla icecream in the freezer ( it's great when I cook a pie and add custard and icecream ) , BUT when I stop at an ice cream shop , I prefer Hokey Pokey or Black Forest or a Gelato .

And what were you saying about the view ?

See , a cute little country cottage .

So have you worked out why I'm keen to move here @oklouise ? Sure , I could have looked for a smaller , older , cheaper place , but why ? Its likely I'll be here until they cart me off to the dimentia ward .

Mount Kakepuku 2kms in one direction , Mount Pirongia 8kms the opposite direction , 20 minutes to Raglan , a laidback West Coast beach town that is well known for having one of the best left hand surf breaks in the world . . . . .

5 weeks to go !

the house is much too big and formal for my taste but gorgeous location

If I was you Pottsy I'd hire an interior designer whose work I liked the look of. 

It's too big a house for a piecemeal approach and not all designers will be white/grey (although they might not like the red leather).

I'm sure there are plenty who can do colourful.

Congrats!!
Such views, hills, greenery! What is the kiwi word for bliss?

Bliss IS the kiwi word for cracka ripper bonza maaaaate . . . . . . . . . .

As a bit of an aside , I assume some of you know the song written and sung by Dave Dobbyn ( now Sir Dave Dobbyn , national treasure ) and his band D D Smash , called Bliss -- required singing at every party !