Seven weeks add $300k

The renovated Park Rd home. Photo / Supplied.

It was the roughest diamond on the best street - until a seven-week polish added $300,000 to its value.

The renovation of a four-bedroom townhouse in a quiet Auckland street has astonished neighbours.

But it could also serve as inspiration to those aspiring to DIY summer projects.

Developer Tony Stevenson bought the Titirangi home on Park Rd at a mortgagee sale in October, paying just $461,000. The house went back on the market just before Christmas with the expectation it would fetch more than $750,000.

The weeks between have seen an extreme makeover - the exterior and then interior were replaced, and even a car body had to be dragged out of the bush.

Until the makeover, the price of the house had barely budged in 15 years, such was the derelict state of the building. At the time work started it was still holding the charms that existed when it was built in the late 1960s.

Those who lived there at the time it took shape recall a home that was "jewel of the street", neighboured by a few bush cottages on a then-metal road.

Neighbour Annette Young said the house, when built, eschewed wallpaper for pressed silk. "There's been a lot of changes. You barely knew there was a house there for so long."

It started to look really rundown about 2000, when the house was sold again but left unoccupied.

The undergrowth around the house grew to cover the grounds and hide the exterior. "The bush," said next-door neighbour Vreni Colpi, "does not take very kindly to an empty house."

And although Colpi never had any bother, the house became home to vagrants from time to time. With a back door ajar and everything obscured from the road, it was even burgled - the entire home's electrical wiring was stolen by the time Stevenson's crew arrived to begin renovations.

"There were an unbelievable number of skip bins that came out of there," he said.

A car body, fridge and stove were reportedly dragged from the section.

Work included a new roof, replacing the exterior, the interior and landscaping.

Discoveries included a sealed chip driveway that emerged from the forest floor when water-blasted. No one had realised it was there until work began clearing the entrance to the property.

Stevenson said basic renovation principles applied by his business worked well across most home projects. He said home renovators "tripped themselves up" trying to save money on contractors by doing the work themselves.

Time spent hunting out a number of quotes and getting contractors to do the job quickly and professionally was often an eventual saving.

Stevenson would not reveal how much was spent on renovations - except it was more than $100,000.