Charm CENTRAL

The arrival of a couple’s first baby put the reno of a Victorian-era doer-upper in Dunedin on a tight timeline

- Text Monique Balvert-O’Connor

If a gang of talented Dunedin tradies needed an incentive to finish a renovation project smartly, Courtney Henderson provided it. Well, Courtney and her newborn son Otis.

Courtney and husband Mark Todd laugh about it now, but back then there was a little bit of pressure thanks to a little guy. “Halfway through my pregnancy with Otis, we decided we wanted a bigger home, so we started looking around. But the options weren’t in our favour,” says Courtney. “So, we decided to make our home bigger and renovate.”

The renovations were speedily tackled over three months.

“At the end, I was in hospital with our baby while the tradies pressed on to finish so I could come home. It was so good, just amazing, coming home to a completed renovation,” she says.

That was three years ago and there’s been another baby since. Welcome to Miller. What hasn’t changed, are Courtney’s feelings about their renovated home.

“I still really love it, just like how I felt when I came back from the hospital and saw it post-renovation. It has a light, fresh feel about it and a lovely warmth. It’s a really nice, sunny home,” says Courtney.

In the beginning

The love Courtney expresses for the home she, Mark and the boys live in at Dunedin's popular St Clair wasn't felt from the get-go.

They knew it had good bones, it was close to the beach where they wanted to be, it had a good feel to it but it was crying out for some changes. Hard to stomach was the purple, yellow and green used on the interior walls of the two-bedroom, one-bathroom humble home. But the house was within their budget at the time, in a great location, and they were looking forward to putting their stamp on it.