– A three-bedroom bach in Foxton Beach, filled with op shop treasures, is for sale.
– Owner Rosie Rochester transformed it as a tribute to her grandmother, Jessie Ridd.
– Rochester is selling to move to Rotorua, hoping a new family will love it.
A cute bach packed full of op shop gems is looking for a buyer with a love of history.
The three-bedroom river cottage at 15A Hall Place, in Foxton Beach, is Rosie Rochester’s love letter to her grandmother, and selling it is the hardest decision she’s had to make.
Rochester snapped up the holiday home in 2018 for $280,000 after receiving a small inheritance from her 103-year-old grandmother, Jessie Ridd.
The 1950s-era property was a blank canvas when she picked it up, but she soon made it her own. She filled the house with many of her grandmother’s treasures and additional curiosities picked up from her frequent trips to op shops.
Vendor Rosie Rochester dressed the holiday home with pieces she inherited from her grandmother and gems she found in local op shops. Photo / Supplied
Rochester says the bach has been a refuge for her and her family. Photo / Supplied
Rochester said her transformation of the bach took her down memory lane. “When I was growing up, my granny adored the beach. And once a year, we’d take her on a ‘beach holiday’, which was just a day trip.”
“I loved seeing her excitement. She’d paddle her feet in the water. Her joy was infectious, and it was a beautiful thing, instilling a love and appreciation for the beach in my kids.”
The landscaping around the bach is nautical in style. Rochester told OneRoof she took to trawling the beach to find driftwood and slash, which she used to build a fence. She said she used other beach discoveries – flushed down the rivers in the floods – and used them to decorate her garden.
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“I was able to utilise all of it. I then planted native trees for the birds.”
She added: “Like granny, we are bird lovers, so we treasured watching from the lawn the huge flocks of spoonbills, oystercatchers in the estuary, and the kingfishers that sit on the fence. Seeing the arrival of the godwits each year is always a highlight. There’s a local celebration to welcome them after their 12,000km journey from Alaska.”
Rochester said her family would miss the bach once it was sold. “The wild and rugged beauty of this west coast beach, the stunning sunsets from the hammock. The bach is a truly restorative refuge,” she told OneRoof.
“Adventure abounds, all within a few hundred metres.”
The property has an RV of $570,000 and is close to the water. Photo / Supplied
Rochester says the new owner could strike a deal to keep some of the treasures. Photo / Supplied
She said she was selling up to move north to Rotorua. “It’s been a really difficult decision for me to let the bach go,” said Rochester. “I’ve had lots of tears. But I just know it’s time for a new family. I’m hoping someone else can fall in love with it and have beautiful times down there.”
Although the family will be taking some of Jessie’s treasures with them, many of the op shop finds could stay if the buyer were willing to make a deal. “There is an option for it to be furnished,” Rochester said.
Harcourts listing agent Tim Cook, who lives next door, said he had watched Rochester turn the old bach into something spectacular.
“I live right next door, and my wife has a very similar style. We have a mid-century place, but this takes what we’ve done up a level.”
Cook said since listing, he’d had “lots of inquiries from quirky people”. The three-bedroom, one-bathroom bach sits on a 795sqm site and has an RV of $570,000.
“I’ve had people view it as somewhere to take the grandkids.”
– 15A Hall Place, in Foxton Beach, Horowhenua, is for sale, deadline closing August 20