5 Whangaparaoa Road and 3 Chelverton Terrace, Red Beach Whangaparaoa.
Two properties in the same location offer completely different lifestyles.
Locals claim that Red Beach is the best part of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, as it combines old-fashioned beachside living with quick access to the motorway and city and Albany for work.
Once they've discovered the area, people tend to stay, moving only to get closer to the beach or spread out on a bigger property. And two magnificent properties offer the chance to do just that.
"When we saw this place six years ago, we knew we'd found home," says Graeme Pearce, who, with Kerry Crow has completely renovated a 1910 house relocated to a country site off Whangaparaoa Road. "We could see the potential, all the boring stuff like wires and piles had been done."
Kerry and Graeme were itching for a project - when he's not re-designing another part of the garden, Graeme has a shed full of cars and bikes to work on - and set to rearranging the villa inside and out. Original windows and window seats, and pressed steel ceilings were retained, but the couple drew sun and views into the house with the addition of French doors, crisp Roman blinds at the windows and a fresh colour scheme.
A remodelled country kitchen is the heart of the renovation, opening to the pool for summer entertaining or a cosy dining room warmed by a fireplace for winter. Their renovation included realigning the staircase to a large attic bedroom and a luxury refurbish of the bathrooms (a Victorian clawfoot bath and reproduction hardware honour the villa mood).
The old farm watering hole was realigned into a pond, with planting and stone walls, and now attracts quail, ducks and pukeko. Rolling lawns lead from the original front veranda to the pond, framed with classic villa plants. On the casual side of the house, Graeme re-designed decks and landscaping around the pool to create a character-filled entertaining area, complete with fire-pit for evening gatherings. A self-contained studio was added last year for a games room, but with en suite and kitchenette it could also be an appealing B&B. The space effortlessly catered for a crowd of 75 for a wedding last summer.
Graeme and Kerry have now run out of projects to do around the house. Not ones to sit still, they are selling the property so they can hunt for the next place to transform.
If grand old country girls aren't your style, you may prefer a modern cliff top property, designed by Home & Entertaining's architect of the decade, Ken Crosson.
The house, overlooking Red Beach, was designed to follow the contour of the slope, in seaside materials of cedar and solid concrete plaster, now weathered to fit the site.
Borrowing from other sunny climates, the house features a series of private courtyards opening off the bedrooms, which lead to the central living floor.
An enticing, enclosed entry opens up to an expansive kitchen/dining/living room, with breathtaking views through the pohutukawa to the sea. Sliding shutters and doors close this great room down for cosy winter evenings, but mostly the doors are flung open to the decks and sea sounds.
Crosson's finely crafted touch is everywhere: long slivers of windows to catch unexpected views, simple but sleek kitchen cabinetry, built in shelves to accommodate much-loved books and plenty of wall space for art. A separate drawing room, used by the owner Catherine for opera practice when she is home from Europe, is warmed by a large wood fire.
Catherine and husband Rupert live mostly in London but with extended family in New Zealand, the house has become a gathering place through the summer. The ground floor sitting room turns into a dormitory, says Catherine, sleeping up to nine (Crosson has drawn plans to enclose an outdoor shower into a further bathroom) and the decks rambling from the mid-level living rooms down to the lawns and track to the beach get plenty of use.
The master suite, at the top of the house, encapsulates everything about New Zealand the owners dream of when they're in Europe: it's a quiet space where even windows above the bathtub open to views of the sea, pohutukawa and the sound of tui. But the couple is selling the Red Beach retreat to move closer to Catherine's elderly mother in the Waikato. Crosson has already been briefed to create another dream house.
Vital Statistics:
BEDROOMS: 5+
BATHROOMS: 3
GARAGE: 2+
SIZE: Land 1192 sq m, house 310sq m.
PRICE INDICATION: Interest from $2 million. Auction April 15.
INSPECT: Sun 1-1.45pm.
CONTACT: Tony Cassidy or Jane Griffiths, Premium, ph 021 735 549 (Tony), 0274 757 791 (Jane).
FEATURES: Nine-year-old multi-level home by award-winning architect Ken Crosson, on the cliffs above Red Beach.
Vital Statistics:
BEDROOMS: 4+
BATHROOMS: 3
GARAGE: 6
SIZE: Land 0.95ha, house 300sq m.
PRICE INDICATION: Interest from $1.5 million. Auction today at 2pm on site.
INSPECT: Today 1.30pm.
CONTACT: Tony Cassidy or Jane Griffiths, Premium, ph 021 735 549 (Tony), 0274 757 791 (Jane).
FEATURES: Refurbished 1910 villa on beautifully landscaped grounds, including ponds and a swimming pool.
5 Whangaparaoa Road and 3 Chelverton Terrace, Red Beach Whangaparaoa.
Two properties in the same location offer completely different lifestyles.
Locals claim that Red Beach is the best part of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, as it combines old-fashioned beachside living with quick access to the motorway and city and Albany for work.
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