Cliff-top wonder

A life well-lived in this contemporary duplex apartment has been a sheer delight for print broker Graeme Brazier and his partner.

Sea views north and south and a sparkling lap pool vista to take in on the way round, a choice of home offices, sky-high balconies, tiled courtyards and lawns for entertaining have contributed to a life spoilt for choice.

But their life here on this perch high above Manly has, for the past five-and-a-half years, been only part of the story.

Every outlook here has been filled with positives. The difficulties have crept in only because they have divided their lives between this place and their city pad close to where they both work.

Such an enviable-sounding lifestyle has its occasional niggles because the calls of work and home aren't always aligned.

"This place is beautiful - it's contemporary and totally private," says Graeme. "We can jump into the car and be in the CBD in 40 minutes. Then again, when we're in the city, everything we need isn't always there, either."

They have decided it is time to consolidate their home lives and domestic chores into the one home for the first time in 15 years.

It's a decision that hasn't come without thought, because of the pull of this home's tranquil clifftop location and how well it has been designed.

Throughout the first-floor living areas, floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors take in wide views in every direction, both out to sea and into a central courtyard. The front formal lounge opens to a small balcony to look out across Manly. Turn around and you'll take in the sheltered courtyard with the resident Buddha water feature that Graeme had craned in and installed alongside a wall of glass bricks, which were added for additional reflective effect.

It was worth the effort for the outlook it affords his home office, which also opens to the courtyard, and the second home office or bedroom directly above.

There's a glimpse of the lap pool, which is accessible from the kitchen and casual living area at the opposite end of the house.

"The pool to us is more of a visual, soothing link rather than a 20m swimming pool," Graeme explains. "It's part of how the house works with its different zones."

The pool, alongside the clipped hedging and garden sculpture, functions as the outside transition area down one side of the house. Inside, it is the hallway/art gallery that runs from front to back that is the other connecting "corridor".

Beyond the open-plan kitchen, dining and casual living area, more floor to ceiling glass doors stack back to the tiled courtyard, the spa pool beneath its thatched roof pergola, the timber boardwalk and the lawn that underpins the views to Gulf Harbour.

"With all this privacy, the lights on at night and the palm trees rustling in the breeze, watching the cruise ships going by at night, it becomes your own little sanctuary," he explains. They have named the home "Miramar", which is Spanish for sea views.

At night from the master bedroom that feeling is just as pleasing. Graeme installed two floor-to-ceiling frosted sliding glass panels just inside the glass balustrades, for additional shade.

"I always like to fine-tune houses," he explains. "I always sell my homes only when I've done everything to them and there's nothing left to do here. This has been a perfect lock-up-and-leave place."