Mrs Lange surprised at Vogel House size

Press, 20 July 1984, Page 4

Mrs Lange surprised at Vogel House size

PA Wellington Mrs Naomi Lange, after seeing her future residence, Vogel House, was surprised at how small the Lower Hutt property is. The tour, arranged with Lady Muldoon, took place while their husbands were locked in the crisis over devaluation. • Mrs Lange said yesterday that Vogel House would need considerable alteration upstairs to make it into a family home suitable for the five-member Lange household. “It is not really as large as I thought. The way it is laid out doesn’t lend itself to

a family home,” she said. She hoped that alterations would not be of a major structural nature. “I don’t think anyone is in any position to spend too much money on this sort of thing at present,” she said. Asked what changes she intended to make to the 545 sq m house, Mrs Lange said it was too early to say. . “David and the children haven’t seen it yet, and any decision will depend on how we view it as a family. Also, it is very hard to look at a house when other people are still living in it,” she said. “When they go we will

have a closer look.” Mrs Lange said that her husband’s rise to Prime Minister did not mean that the family would be “up and deserting Mangere.” “For the time being I think we will need the two homes until the end of the year so that the children can finish the school year uninterrupted,” she said. She was also surprised by how near Vogel House was to the Beehive and Wellington city. “People told me it was out in the middle of nowhere, yet we got to it in only a matter of minutes," she said.