I grew up in Nelson so I do love this old character home. It seems like the owner is slowly restoring it to its former glory which is really cool.
There is a kind of gigantic “2 up 2 down” layout to the house, this has the interesting affect of making the bedrooms, especially the upstairs ones, huge, but the living spaces comparatively small I save comparatively as they are obviously way bigger than a similarly priced hotel! We did like that the main living area has mainly been purposed as a dinning room as that is what we used most while staying for a week over Christmas. It allowed us to host Christmas and the kitchen is very well stocked so was easy to cook and prepare in, it’s also a big kitchen with lots of bench space, if a bit dated - it was obvious the kitchen is still being worked on, but it didn’t really matter to us and didn’t effect our stay at all. The ‘lounge’ to the side of the dinning room is small though, so if you expect to spread out and watch TV with a big family it’s probably not for you. But with the amazing location so close to the beach and great views of the bay and mountains I’m not sure why anyone would be sat inside watching TV!
It’s definitely a summer house, all of the AC was most welcome when it got a bit hot one night and gave us nice cool air to get to sleep! I wouldn’t however want to be there in winter, downstairs has all the original old windows and while they look cool they won’t hold any heat! That said Airbnb’s in Nelson are for summer! With the outdoor space this place is great for that.
With full shower/toilet for every room it was perfect for us traveling with daughter and MIL. The upstairs rooms and bathrooms have been nicely updated in keeping with the style of the house.I do have to point out it was hard for my MIL to get around, she’s not very able, and was stranded downstairs. And the bathroom downstairs is a long way back from the room, most people wouldn’t care, but if you have to get up multiple times in the night you will! The big old bed in the downstairs room was also very difficult for her to get in and out of, we’d have preferred a nice comfy modern one like the upstairs room. The drive way is old and full of big pot holes, which is not such a big deal if you park down the bottom and carry stuff up, but with my older family members visiting it was challenging, as there is only the slippery gravel drive or very steep stairs with no handle to get up to the property from the lower parking. Moot point if you are all young and fit of course! Personally I would chop down the bush’s beside where the outside table area is out front, as when you are sitting outside in the evening at the dinner table it would be fabulous to take advantage of the fantastic uninterrupted views, just stunning, as it is you can’t see anything when you are sat for dinner or relaxing with wine in the evening. The landlord is remote and doesn’t seem to have much connectivity, which can lead to a day or so’s delay to any responses, so you are a little bit ‘on your own’, as long as you are independent guests and can figure stuff out that is no biggie of course. It’s an awesome location and a really great old house to stay in, we really enjoyed it and it was great for having family visit during the day with all the outdoor seating. Awesome for summer holidays in Nelson.