Like everyone in Aotearoa, we were heartbroken to see the devastation caused by the January weather events. We wanted to help a homeowner get back on their feet, so teamed with A&C Homestore to giveaway a $8000 home package. Our lucky winners Erin & Ryan were coincidentally already on their restoration journey with our Flooring Xtra Mt Wellington store when they found out they had won.

Find out a little more about their journey below.

01 - What was your journey to owning your home?

We had been on the hunt for a house for a couple of years during the peak of the market in 2019-2020. After attending countless auctions, we had no luck. We had a goal of purchasing a house we could renovate but at the time, even those felt slightly out of reach.

At the end of 2020, by a stroke of luck, Ryan’s parents were visiting his grandparents out of town, who mentioned they were planning to sell their central Auckland rental property. Knowing we were house hunting, his parents called us straight away telling us we should buy it, which turned into a hilarious conversation with everyone speaking over each other, to which we replied ‘Can we at least see it?’ - the rest is history.

02 - What was your vision for the original reno?

When we first visited the 30-year old rental, it was in much need of some love. The space was dingy, dark and small. Our goal was to make it seem as light and airy as possible while maximising the relatively small footprint. To contrast with the white walls, we opted for black kitchen cabinetry to mix things up. Our overall objective was to make the space feel bigger, through our configuration and finishing choices.

03 - And then the floods came! Tell us a little bit about how this affected the house.

Sadly our suburb of Mt Roskill was hit pretty bad in the floods this year. Thankfully our house was raised off the ground slightly, but we decided to evacuate when the water got to our floor level. After the water subsided we returned and at first, everything looked reasonably unscathed compared to our ground-level neighbours. But on closer inspection, we realised our particle board subflooring had been completely destroyed and we had no choice but to rip it up.

It was pretty odd seeing the house stripped back to its bones, especially after putting many hours of blood, sweat and tears into renovating it. The floor was pulled up and all of the walls had to be cut up to 600mm to ensure there was no mould. We were really lucky to have one of our best friends as our builder, which gave us a lot of peace of mind and meant we could get our restoration done quickly.

04 - What was important for your flooring choices?

As part of our original renovations, we had laid a laminate flooring ourselves. We loved the colour but knew we wanted something that felt more natural underfoot. We visited the Mt Wellington Flooring Xtra store and found the Pergo Drammen Laminate in Cappuccino Oak, which was pretty much identical in colour to our original flooring. It’s super practical and hard-wearing, which was perfect for our main living areas. After deciding on our hard flooring, we were lucky enough to win the Flooring Xtra and A&C Homestore’s flood giveaway!

We hadn’t replaced the carpet in the house prior to the floods, but it was the next item on our renovation list. We knew in an ideal world, we wanted to replace our existing wool carpet with the same natural product, but a nicer loop pile carpet in a warm neutral tone. When we saw the Bremworth Levante in Simoon, we instantly fell in love. The natural texture in a slight beige pairs perfectly with our warm oak laminate flooring – a match made in heaven.

05 - For those embarking on a renovation, what are your top tips?

Set a budget and stick to it. You’ll be surprised how many options there are in a lower price range.

Don’t be scared to try things yourself, but know when to call the professionals. Ryan in particular learnt so many new skills – he had never built anything before and through our renovation journey, he has now done so much!

Finally, have a vision for the look and feel of the whole house. Always go back to this rather than looking at it room by room. Our house has ended up cohesive and it's been fun seeing our vision come to life.

06 - What’s next in store for your home and do you have any future projects in the pipeline?

We are currently working on our outdoor area, which sadly took a bit of a battering in the floods. Our focus is on growing our outdoor flooring (aka. grass) which will hopefully come in this summer so we can enjoy the space again.

In terms of future projects, we have nothing specific on the horizon yet, but we are always talking about future renovations when we move into a bigger home someday. All of our neighbourhood walks consist of us pointing at houses and chatting about what changes we’d make. Once you’ve caught the bug, you can’t shake it!

You can follow Erin & Drew's journey here.

Credits

Homeowners: Erin & Ryan Drew
Where: Mt Roskill, Auckland
Store: Flooring Xtra Mt Wellington
Photographer: Olivia Pitcher