Saving for retirement on a single income isn’t easy, but one mum in Dunedin found her own solution, albeit it a very difficult one.

Sophia Greene took a giant leap of faith and decided to do up a near-derelict home in a heritage building in Dunedin that would give her a home and an income stream – a building where she once flatted as a student.

“I was never going to earn enough based on savings,” she says. “This was a way to get some financial security for the kids. I knew I could do it.”

It’s a project that has taken four-and-a-half years, and she hasn’t done it all by herself – her teenage sons Louis (now 19) and Will (17) were roped in to help. But nothing could have prepared them for the true state of the 150-year-old concrete building.

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Greene says although she had the building assessed by an engineer and knew the “bones” were sound, the interior was “absolutely disgusting”. But still, the family moved into the upper apartment, which was to be remodelled first, while tenants remained below – although not entirely separated.

“The place stunk. It was just revolting. There were four layers of carpet, and every layer had been liberally urinated on. People had just laid more carpet over the top.”

Greene says she had never intended to take on such a massive renovation, but had been looking for a property and saw the Manor Place home listed. “I said we have to see this because I used to live in this building when I was a student. My son said it looked like a s...hole. But, we came along out of curiosity, and I could see the potential.

“It was designed by architect Francis Petre (1847-1918) and built for the landed gentry in the 1800s. They were all very stately homes for wealthy people, but the area gradually deteriorated; some dubious types started moving in and became known as the ‘devil’s triangle’. But that’s all changing again, with lots of new cafés, bars and micro breweries popping up.”

Working with engineer and mentor Steve MacKnight and her builder, the late Paul Fahey, who sadly died before work could be completed, Greene gradually gutted the entire interior, ripping out poky rooms, ceilings and poorly built conversions from the ‘70s and ‘80s.

“We would section off parts of the building with plastic sheeting because we were living in it while we did it, and then we would move on to another section. At one stage we were all sleeping marae-style on the floor of the biggest bedroom. We lived in chaos and dust for months.”

Greene says she did the bathroom first as the existing one was so bad the boys would refuse to shower. “They preferred to put their wetsuits on and go for a surf. They barely spoke to me for a couple of months when we first moved in. The whole project has been a great learning experience for the them, (one is heading for a career in design and the other in building), but they reckon I’ve ruined their teenage years.”

One memorably low moment was in the middle of winter when Greene went to sleep wearing a woolly hat, in an uninsulated freezing cold room with the rafters all exposed. “It was freezing cold, and I woke to a pitter-patter on my face. It was snowing on me! The builders had left in the dark around 5pm and hadn’t noticed a high window open at the top of the scaffolding. I had to wake one of the boys to climb up there with a blanket to fix it.”

Greene also found the reason why alcoves either side of the big fireplace had been covered over: “There was water running down the wall inside the building. One of the previous owners didn’t want to fix it, so they just covered it over, so it couldn’t be seen. That has all been fixed.

“A lot of the beams and joists were hanging on by a thread, and were rotten all along one wall. The builders told me they had good news and bad news about the timber, so I told them to give me the bad news first. But there wasn’t any good news to follow.”

Greene has been able to recycle the hard native timbers, however. She needed to remove a large kauri stairwell to free up floor space. “I was a bit conflicted about that,” she says. “But we have recycled every scrap of the timber. All the joinery in the kitchen, including the large island, and bathroom vanities, a refectory table, seats and bedside tables are all built from timber recycled from inside the building.”

The kauri treads were used for the new stairs in the upstairs apartment.

Greene, who works in communications, staged the renovation, getting consents for each area as she acquired more funds. She was able to get a $25,000 grant from the Dunedin Heritage Fund, which was used to replace sash windows, and for replastering, and fireproofing between the floors.

“I am very grateful for that,” she says.

The flat on the lower level was empty for a year or more before they finally tackled it. “We smashed out downstairs in six months flat.”

That flat is now completely separated from the upstairs apartment.

Greene says there were many times when she wondered what on earth she had taken on, but she was never in doubt she would finish. “I am a very determined person, and I can do stuff on the smell of an oily rag. But we didn’t cut any corners. I sourced my own materials and of course recycled. The builders thought I was a pain in the a...., because I would always say, ‘Don’t throw that out’.”

And the cost? Greene paid $330,000 to buy the property with a bank loan – the family kept their existing home in Karitane. “I estimate I spent another $400,000 on the project, but that doesn’t take into account all the family labour. We did a lot of it ourselves to save on costs.

“We have created a lovely big family home – the upstairs is 180m² and downstairs is 130m². And it’s warm. It is well insulated, and we have heat pumps.”

Greene says she is now suffering empty-nest syndrome and doesn’t discount the possibility she may one day take on another project, now that she has the experience and contacts.

Architect Francis Petre designed numerous churches and convents throughout Dunedin and Christchurch, many in the Gothic Revival style. Other projects included the Otago Harbour Board building, the Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance Building, Dunedin and several large homes for wealthy clients.