Muriwai: One from the heart

A solid concrete adobe-style home was built to handle the elements on the Muriwai coast, writes Graham Hepburn.

El Corazon, 12 Constable Rd, Muriwai.

Marlon and Danielle Hart had a headstart when it came to building their home - they already had the front doors. They just had to agree on what sort of home to build around them.

They picked up the solid wood doors imported from India while they were living in the three-bedroom cottage on their property and planning to build something much grander.

Danielle says, "To begin with we both wanted to do completely different things; he wanted something stark and Japanesey whereas I said, 'Let's move a villa on'. But this adobe-style home was something we both liked."

Marlon says, "It took me back to my childhood. I grew up in Canada but my parents had this great old Mercury stationwagon with fins on it like rocket launchers that we would load up and go on driving trips down through the southwest of the States and into Mexico. We used to see a lot of these types of places."

Those intricately patterned antique wooden doors may be from Rajasthan, but they fit the Mexican aesthetic of this house. The Harts built the four-bedroom poured concrete block home five and a half years ago.

Like the doors, Marlon says he sourced a lot of the materials for the home, including the chunky hardwood piles that are used in the pergolas front and back, and as beams inside the house. "They were from the Okahu Bay breakwater," he says. "They were round but we milled them square."

The house has a heated concrete slab floor throughout, apart from the living room, which has a wooden floor. The concrete used in the floor inside and in the courtyard out the front has been coloured with an oxide, then cut and grouted to make it look like large terracotta tiles.

As Marlon says, while pointing out how the house has been rough-plastered with concrete inside and out, "I wanted everything we did with the house to look rough and organic, but we didn't want to skimp on cost."

Marlon, who did the initial drawings for the home, says they also put thought into features such as building wardrobes along the walls between bedrooms for extra sound-proofing, and making the internal-access double garage extra-wide to accommodate sports and outdoor gear as well as vehicles.

Another feature the Harts are proud of is the massive fireplace with its rough-plastered chimney and floating schist hearth at the centre of the open plan living area. It faces into the living room, which juts out from the rest of the house with bifolds at its front and sides.

The living room has marvellous views across pasture and bush and the vast expanse of the Tasman Sea. It opens on to a wooden deck, which is just the right height for jumping on to one of their horses. Danielle says it's also a great place for them and their children - Hazel, aged 7, and Quinn, 6, - to sit in the evenings to see "the best sunsets in the world".

Marlon also raises beefalo - a cross between a bison and a cow - on the property, which he home kills for meat.

He says he thought El Corazon, which means "the heart" in Spanish, was going to be the last home they built, until they had the chance to buy some adjoining land that is more elevated.

And they plan to build something a little different again as he and Danielle felt it would have been "a bit twee" to have two similar houses next door to each other.

"We've got some great ideas for the new place," says Danielle, "and because it's been over five years since we built this place we've kind of forgotten how traumatic the process is."

Marlon says their new home will be constructed from a mixture of wood and stone and will look like "Lord of the Rings meets The Last Samurai".

Anyone interested in El Corazon need not worry about having to look after the beefalo. Marlon will be taking the animals with him next door.

Vital Statistics

SIZE: Land 4.8ha. Main house 303sq m, plus a 3-bedroom cottage.

PRICE INDICATION: Interest expected above $1.7 million. Auction Sept 17.

INSPECT: Sunday 2-2.50pm.

CONTACT: Simon Spiller and Angela Little, Harcourts, ph 412-7666, Simon 021 968 068 mob, Angela 021 421 967 mob, 4117 494 a/h.

FEATURES: Sprawling four-bedroom adobe-style home with three-bedroom cottage nearby. Main home has extra-wide internal access double garage, sauna imported from Finland, solar water heating, rainwater tank, two cellars/storage rooms. Grounds have been landscaped with succulents and tropicals that merge with extensive native plantings.