Our New Home

Our new home, a villa

Yesterday was a wonderful day. Not only did we receive our Mitsubishi Colt, but our offer on a house was accepted.

Since we arrived here in the Thames Coast, we’ve been looking at homes and land. The more homes we see, the more of them we like. The majority of the ones we like best are a bit out of our price range, despite the realtors knowing what our upper limit is. “It is a buyer’s market,” they keep telling us. “Just make an offer and see what happens.”

Backside of our villa

So, we did. Since Saturday when we visited an Open House for an old villa on 2743 square meters (two-thirds of an acre) of land, none has topped our preference for that place. (“Villa” in New Zealand does not refer to a house with a Mediterranean motif, but rather simply a full sized old house.) We placed an offer on that property fully 25% lower than the asking price, which in turn was 25% below the stated value. The owners (three brothers) countered our offer a bit over 10% above our offer, and we countered just one percent higher than our initial offer.

Riding mower

They accepted that offer and threw in a riding lawn mower to boot.

So, depending on the builder’s report this afternoon being good, we have a new home. The deal will close, and we’ll take possession of our new home, later this month, hopefully before our stuff arrives by boat from California on the 24th.

The house is around a hundred years old, with very high ceilings and wide windows and decks on two sides. There are two bedrooms, though what Andrew is calling a second lounge I would call a third bedroom. There are two bathrooms, one with both a shower and a very long bathtub. There are several outbuildings, including one “sleep out”, which is a second building where guests or renters can stay. Our sleep out is fully self contained except for a shower. It has a kitchen and bathroom and a small bedroom.

Sleep Out Kitchen

On the half acre of land, there are several fruit trees in three paddocks (sectioned off areas where livestock can graze) and a few small raised garden areas.

One out building

There is a tiny stream behind the property. We are surrounded by a very large farm on which many sheep graze. The house is at the end of a culdesac, with only the access to the farm beyond our driveway, and the one neighbor below our house cannot easily be seen from our property.

Our neighbor's garage and the ocean beyond

There is also a view of the ocean from our house.

Bay Window in Master Bedroom

Living room looking into second lounge

Kitchen

Heading to the house from the upper paddock

This is how the property was described by the realtors: “Set in over half an acre of attractively laid out gardens, lawns, fruit trees and a vege patch. This stately old Villa has 2 double bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 living areas, and it is positioned off the main road for privacy, sun, rural and sea views. A separate sleep out is handy for extra guests and there’s plenty of room for parking. This is an ideal retreat or a great coastal lifestyle with space and privacy.”

Stream behind lower paddock

one of the raised garden patches

Fruit trees in the upper paddock

The villa is in Whakatete Bay, pronounced fuh-kah-tee-tee. “Whakatete” is a Maori (indigenous Polynesian people of NZ) word meaning “disputed”. When the Maori land was being made for goldmining in 1867 there was disagreement of ownership between different groups. Sub-tribes of Ngāti Maru claimed ownership, the matter went to the Native Land Court and tribes agreed to share the land eually. Prior to this, the area was called Ō-Toi, the place belonging (presumably) to the early Polynesian explorer Toi-te-huatahi.