Mission Bay: The tree house

A couple took the best of a challenging site to design a home embraced by pohutukawa and visited by tui.

4 Ronaki Road, Mission Bay.

It didn't bother Rosemarie and Matthew Dunning that the hillside section they bought behind Mission Bay was clad in huge pohutakawa trees.

Rather than see them as obstacles to building their home, they saw them as creating a setting to construct the "tree house" they'd always dreamed of.

That was the couple's brief to architect Richard Priest, which he fulfilled with a creative respect to the icons he was designing around.

The house, made of earth-coloured linear cladding and split-faced block, juts between the trunks and branches, its large windows finding the best gaps to gaze at the view toward Bastion Point and out to Rangitoto. The dining room is built right out into the foliage, with windows that slide open on three sides.

"We can be sitting here having lunch and watching tui land on the branches outside," says Rosemarie. "We love the Brian Brake house in Titirangi, and wanted a tree house with that kind of feel."

The dappled sunlight entering the house through the trees is soothing, but if you want full sun you need only walk out to the front deck off the living room.

You climb up through the trees to get to the front door, and then, to continue the feeling that you are climbing up to a treehouse, are led up a stairway built of wood - except this is rich red jarrah.

"I've just always loved jarrah," says Rosemarie. "It's very hard, very forgiving, and the colour is beautiful. After we put it down in the bathrooms we didn't see any need to tile them."

A rumpus room halfway up the stairs has its own terrace and a double bed that folds down out of a cupboard. This is indicative of the faultlessly thought-out storage in this house - from the floor to ceiling cupboards in the children's bedrooms to the ironing board tucked away in the TV/computer room. The Binova kitchen imported from Italy is comprised of drawers and cupboards that allow you to store everything in its place, then slide it out of sight.

"If you buy an apartment in Italy you have to bring your own kitchen, because everyone takes their kitchens with them," says Rosemarie. "That's why they build them so modular. We could design our own so that everything fitted perfectly."

She appreciates the moulded detail in the stainless steel bench top, and that the breakfast bar along one side is slightly raised from the work area. Even the chopping board slides from one end to the other like a lazy susan.

Floor to ceiling glass up the stairwell and in the foyer at the top brings the trees close, and feature windows on the other side of the hallway are level with a garden planted by Rosemarie, a landscape designer. She also planted the native flax, lilies and groundcover on the bank beside the front entrance.

"We put the nikau in next to the dining room a few months ago, and it was better than buying a piece of art - it's so sculptural."

Wood gives way to carpet on the stairs up to the master bedroom on the top level. Here you can go to sleep and wake up with the view. Rosemarie asked the builder to raise the bath level with a window so she could watch ships coming down the channel while she soaked. The lights from Mission Bay below provide a bit of night time sparkle.

"We can see and hear the buzz going on down there, but are set back from it, too. Being so close allows you to be spontaneous - we can wander down and see a movie if we want to, go out for dinner, get takeaways, take a picnic down to the park. Nothing's an expedition."

The family has also enjoyed the outdoor aspect of living so close to the beach and waterfront. "I ran a dummy triathlon from our garage," says Rosemarie.

The family is moving on partly because Matthew's collection of classic cars is growing and they want somewhere to garage them on site, or close by.

"They're like his babies - he wants to tinker with them all the time and it's hard when they're garaged somewhere else," smiles Rosemarie.

She will miss her tree house, something some of her friends couldn't believe she was going to attempt.

"The builders were fantastic. Everything had to be carried up - the first day they had a rope tied around a tree and were hauling stuff up the bank. When we first bought the site some friends said 'You can't build there!' But we lived in Wellington for five years so didn't see it as being a problem. And we went on to build the house exactly how we envisaged it."

Vital Statistics

SIZE: Land 460sq m, house 350sq m.

PRICE INDICATION: Upwards of $1.8 million. Auction August 3.

INSPECT: Sat/Sun 3pm-3.45pm.

CONTACT: Pauline Goldfinch and Leila MacDonald, Barfoot & Thompson, ph 524 0149 bus, 0274 820 392 (Pauline), 021 928 926 (Leila).

FEATURES: Richard Priest- designed home behind Mission Bay village with stunning views to Rangitoto. Rumpus room could be fourth bedroom. Separate TV/computer room. Gas fire in living room. Binova kitchen with Bosche appliances. Eight pohutukawa trees.