Keen to capture that holiday feeling every day, this couple turned a run-down old bach into a haven for lazy summertime living.

Words Brenda Ward     Photography Aaron McLean

When Karan Gregory and partner Mike Ussher escaped the rat race to find a slower way of life in the Coromandel Peninsula seaside town of Whangamata, they found much more.

They found the joys of an easy-going seaside lifestyle, the satisfaction of creating their own hideaway far from the city – and they found they had a passion for renovation.

As part of their journey to find a better way of life for themselves and their two children, Hunter, 4, and Imogen, 3, the couple have taken a tiny 1930s bach and transformed it for summer living.

They pushed out walls and opened it to the outdoors, creating a haven for their family and discovering a new way of life. Lawyer Mike had hated the long hours and commuting daily to a job at a big Auckland law firm. “It just wasn’t working,” says Karan, “so we started thinking about a lifestyle change.”

So they started Soul Burger in Whangamata’s main street, but found they’d never worked harder. “We had a six-month-old baby, demand was weather-dependent and inconsistent, and staff were hard to get. It was hideous, but we lasted three years.”
Now Mike loves running his own legal practice in the small town, and Karan’s enjoying being a mum.

Wanting to create a home to suit their revised lives, the pair stretched themselves to buy a bach on a full site backing on to the golf course – just 500m from the surf.

“There was something about it that we loved, so we wanted to keep some of the layout of the bach. I loved the cosy sunken lounge, and the dining room and our bedroom, which are basically exactly the same, except that we added on an ensuite bathroom and walk-in wardrobe.”

They approached their friend, architect Bruce Scott, with a brief to give a more coherent look to the original bach, which had been added onto many times, with different levels.

His plan pushed out walls, turned two bedrooms into three smaller ones to make a kids’ wing, and doubled the size of a garage and sleep-out to make a guesthouse for parents and friends.

Best of all, the architect opened the house to the garden and golf course.

Says Karan: “Like old baches, the kitchen didn’t look through to the back yard, just the wall of the laundry. Our aim was to turn the rooms round so you could see the back yard.”

Now three rooms open like a horseshoe onto expansive decks, a table and a ‘cabana’ Bruce designed for outdoor living. It has year-round appeal with wicker sofas and colourful cushions giving it a laid-back vibe.

Bruce says it suits the climate. “We get a long spring and a long autumn, but a fairly short winter and short summer. In Whangamata, we also get some warm days when its drizzly but you want to sit outside. The cabana also meant you could have some seating protected and some in the sun.”

Bruce kept in mind the couple’s tight budget. Everywhere you can see how Karan and Mike worked to keep costs down. Mike did the demolition on the old house, taking close to 70 loads to the tip, laid the Fijian yaka floors, lined the ceiling of the outdoor room,laid decks, painted the exterior and joinery, landscaped and constructed the fencing.

The old outdoor table and chairs were used to saw wood and as a paint bench, so Karan repainted them, and she found the outdoor sectional sofa cheap on TradeMe. The showers are end-of-line stock, and bedroom furniture includes old drawers from Mike’s university days.

Karan remembers that once they bought the bach, they were suddenly appalled by what lay ahead. “We looked at it and all we saw was a whole lot of work. And it was.

“It was a year-long renovation and it almost killed us! We’d just come out of the stress of the business and went straight into a massive renovation. We didn’t envisage it being as big as it was, but once you start taking walls down in old houses…”
They hoped to keep costs to $150,000, but bills mounted up to more than $250,000. “It almost doubled, due to some rotten walls and because it seemed hard not getting what you wanted.”

They can see the advantages of planning ahead. Says Karan: “If you’re organised early, it allows you to look out for specials in tapware and so on. You’ve got time to shop around.”

Now they look at their home, with its black board-and-batten walls echoing the vernacular of the original seaside town, and the surfboards ready to take to the waves, and they just love it.

Now they’re hooked on the process, they’re planning to begin again, this time building from scratch with the same architect and the same easy-living philosophy.

Says Karan: “When we do it again, we think we can put in some key features like an island bench that will make it look great and spend money on that, then we can probably skimp a little bit elsewhere.”

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