{"id":642283,"date":"2026-10-27T00:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T00:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/642283\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T00:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T00:36:18","slug":"grand-designs-couple-celebrate-1-3m-deal-with-housewarming-drinks-for-buyers-all-things-property-under-oneroof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/642283\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Designs couple celebrate $1.3m deal with housewarming drinks for buyers, All things property, under OneRoof"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grand Designs New Zealand producer Mark Everton and his wife Jo Pilkington, the owner of the country\u2019s biggest costume and prop hire company, have sold their home for just over $1.3 million – and managed to make new friends at the same time.<\/p>\n

The couple’s mid-century home on James Evans Drive, in the Auckland suburb of Northcote, sold under the hammer on Thursday. Immediately afterwards, they asked their listing agent, Elvira Abdrazakova from Barfoot & Thompson, if they could meet the buyers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to share a little bit about the property and tell them some of the things people need to know \u2013 where certain things are and what\u2019s this switch for? \u2013 that type of thing. She said, \u2018Yeah, they would love to meet you\u2019. So that was exciting,\u201d Pilkington told OneRoof.<\/p>\n

After an initial exchange of congratulations, talk turned to family. The father of one of the buyers was at the auction but hadn’t seen the house, so Everton and Pilkington invited them over.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said, ‘What are you doing now? Why don\u2019t you come back to our place for drinks? Because it\u2019s kind of your place’, and they said yes. It was fantastic,\u201d Pilkington said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got to have glasses of wine in their soon-to-be-new dining room. How cool is that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The three-bedroom property is big on retro, and big on views. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Producer Everton works with Tom Webster on Grand Designs New Zealand. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

The couples hit it off, and the father, who was visiting from overseas and in New Zealand for only a few days, got to see the new digs.<\/p>\n

Pilkington said the purchasers had been looking for a bigger home for several months and were happy to beat the other bidder in the auction room.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey already live in the area and know all the amazing things about it. They are wanting to start a family, and we feel like we\u2019ve sold it to people who will genuinely love the whare and our neighbourhood and our neighbours as much as we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discover more:<\/p>\n

– Grand Designs NZ’s cliffhanger house sells sight unseen to overseas buyer<\/a><\/p>\n

– Jay-Jay Feeney’s $1.2m apartment sells fast, but radio star takes a hit<\/a><\/p>\n

– South Island home of political heavyweight for sale for $495,000-plus<\/a><\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI think we are going to become good friends with them. We are looking forward to having drinks on their deck in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everton and Pilkington also didn\u2019t muck around finding their next home and made an offer on one the next morning. The property is in the same area and similar to what they had just sold, but had a smaller section, which would allow the empty nesters more time at their bach in Northland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a smaller version of what we\u2019ve just sold, which means all our design elements are going to be transferable, which is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pilkington told OneRoof earlier this month<\/a> that the James Evans Drive house had appealed to the couple’s love of retro. They filled the mid-century property, which has an RV of $1.375m, with distinctive vintage furniture and artwork, including pieces that made their way back from Pilkington’s props company, First Scene.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The kitchen is bright and breezy. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Pilkington runs a prop hire company and often finds vintage pieces for the home from her work. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cOur home is a small collection of a lot of things we have in our workplaces. We are really big on retro design style. We are collectors \u2013 we collect records, books, vintage glass, that type of thing. So that really leans into the design.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pilkington bought James Evans Drive 18 years ago. Her daughter was only young at the time, and once they realised they would be able to see the fireworks from the deck \u2013 something they still love watching almost two decades on – they were hooked.<\/p>\n

Everton moved in a few years later, and they became a blended family. \u201cWith every change we\u2019ve made, the whare has just had to move and grow with us,\u201d Pilkington said. <\/p>\n

The couple added an extra bathroom and bedrooms to cope with their growing family. But now that the children are grown up and have flown the nest, they’ve decided it is time to downsize.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we work really long hours in our industries, when we are not working we try to be up north at the beach. The place is just too big now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair had recently finished renovating their 1960s Tutuk\u0101k\u0101 Coast bach, which Pilkington described as their “Grand Designs” project. \u201cMy idea of a bach is something from that time period, so we found something and just stripped it back and had a really great time with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Click here to find more properties for sale in Auckland<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grand Designs New Zealand producer Mark Everton and his wife Jo Pilkington, the owner of the country\u2019s biggest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156,1258,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-642283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-latest-news","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}