Photography by WAYNE MARTIN.

Devoted NANA: Jenny Cooke loves living next door to her daughter Nicole Heald, her children Victoria, Jordan and Thomas and their dad.

LOOKING past grubby floors, rotting wood and dated furnishings, and recognising a true gem amid the muck, has paid off handsomely for the Cooke and Heald families. The extended family of seven, who once lived in Howick, have transformed a veritable house of horrors into a liveable, loveable country dwelling in Clevedon.

Forgoing an urban existence for rural living, Nicole and Steven Heald together with Nicole’s parents Rod and Jenny Cooke are at home in the country after purchasing a ramshackle farmhouse on a 4.5-hectare section.

“We had to make a change and we couldn’t afford to do this on our own,” says Nicole. “Steve and I needed to get out of the city. We both love the country, the peace and the lifestyle.”

They are no strangers to decorating work, having rolled up their sleeves and refitted the kitchens in all of their previous homes, and Rod and Jenny had built a holiday home in Matarangi.

Taking on a major renovation project caused some consternation at first, but the vision the Heald-Cooke family had of their “dream home” made the decision to take the plunge an easy one.

“The first time we came away a bit daunted,” says Jenny. “But we came back out again and went deeper into it and thought ‘yes, we’ll do it’.” Nicole agrees: “It hadn’t been updated in 35 years, but we came in and went ‘wow – the possibilities’.”

The deal was settled in April 2008 and the big repair job started in June. As Nicole puts it, the house was “hideous” and needed to be stripped to its very core.

“It was a total refit. The carpet was threadbare, smelling and flea-infested.

The balustrade that ran the length of the house was rotten. The joinery was warped and there were cracked windows.”

But beneath the grime, outdated furnishings and mouse holes, “the bones were fabulous” and the home had a stunning view across the countryside.

“It’s not too far out, but it’s far enough,” says Nicole.

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STUNNING VIEWS: Watching the world go by is a delight when you're in the country.

GREAT OUTDOORS: Rotten decking was replaced during the home's refit.

In January last year, the Healds moved into their half of the conjoined property, while the finishing touches were put on the Cookes’ side in April. The women wax lyrical about the benefits of living in the country, with “it can get a little quiet sometimes” being just a minor gripe.

“I’ve never been a great shopper anyway,” says Jenny. “The local fish and chips shop is fantastic, it’s so fresh,” adds Nicole. “We no longer have the need and urge to get out of Auckland and go to the beach. It’s like being on permanent holiday for me. There’s no hustle and bustle. There’s no stress.”

She says one of the real pluses of the property was it allowed the couples to reflect their different tastes in furnishings. While the Healds opted for a rustic-looking farmhouse oak floor with an oil finish in their lounge, the Cookes preferred a streamlined Tasmanian oak with a polyurethane finish.

The couples dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s when it came to the legal proceedings, making sure proper contracts were drawn up to protect them in the event of a disagreement or relationship break-up. Living next door to your parents might be the stuff of nightmares for some, but having a close relationship and respecting each other’s space has kept the families happy.

“I don’t see her [mum] some days,” says Nicole. “And we’d spent a lot of time together over the years. Every school holidays was spent away at the beach together. It was nothing to go away for five or six weeks.”

And for Jenny, having three grandchildren living right next door has been a huge amount of fun, with impromptu visits and plenty of quality time spent together.

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The Healds' farmhouse oak floor and neutral furnishings look modern, but natural. The Cookes' lounge is light and bright, with polyurethane finished flooring. A spruced-up sun room offers 180-degree views across the farm.

“It think it’s fantastic,” she says. “It’s lovely having them in and out the whole time, and helping with their homework sometimes.”

Nicole concurs: “It’s great for the kids. They don’t get sick like they used to. We are so un-PC out here. And our neighbours are fabulous, they are the bomb.”

Riding bikes, chasing chickens and getting into the saddle has been wonderful for the children, who are shooed outdoors by their mum when the weather is fine.

“The whole ‘the kids are the next generation, they must be put into cotton wool’ [is nonsense],” says Nicole.

“They don’t learn about actions and consequences.”

Leading up to “Ag Day” at the children’s school, Nicole hedged her bets that only one or two of the eight chickens the family was rearing for the event would survive.

But against the odds, they all made it to adulthood and until recently had the run of the farmhouse.

“Now they think they’re house chickens,” groans Nicole.

Rural life has had its pitfalls for Jenny too, who is retired. “I’ve got a huge veggie garden and one of the chickens used to sit beside me. I thought, ‘my main conversation today was with a chicken’,” she says, with a laugh.