SCHOOL ZONES:
Mt Eden Normal School, Auckland Normal Intermediate, Auckland Grammar, Epsom Girls' Grammar.
CONTACT:
Simon or Susan Dew, Harcourts Ponsonby, ph 360 0485, 0274 966 189 (Simon) or 027 556 9029 (Susan).
FEATURES:
Chapman-Taylor 1920s concrete family home with up to five bedrooms. Arts-and-Crafts features including hand-adzed jarrah beams and bespoke joinery. Big grounds also have swimming pool and original gate-house cottage plus studio (both self-contained and rentable).
When screen director Aileen O'Sullivan first laid eyes on this property nearly 30 years ago, it felt like coming home.
So she bought the 1924 historic house which renowned Arts and Crafts architect-builder James Chapman-Taylor had originally built for himself. The home and its self-contained gate-house cottage and studio setin big grounds have provided a charming setting in which to raise her four children; now adults currently based overseas and working in the film industry.
Having moved from a beautiful Wellington home, Aileen had been thrown by Auckland real estate prices, initially buying a property she didn't actually like. She found it impossible to unpack properly. She loved Chapman-Taylor's work as he "built houses that hold people" and an actress friend told her about an Auckland one for sale. "I saw the 'For Sale' sign at the gate-house and wandered up. No one was home but classical music was playing and there was a candle burning on the dining room table. I just cried and thought, 'The things I believe in do exist'. The day we moved in everything was put away and it really hasn't changed much since."
The 1869sq m (half-acre) gardened grounds ensure the home is peaceful, despite being only a short walk from Mt Eden Village. Coles Ave is also home to the stylishly transformed character building The Steelworks. To the fore of the property is the picturesque self-contained gate-house cottage Chapman-Taylor built modelling his vision for an affordable working man's cottage. It's currently leased (achieving a combined rent with a studio of $500 a week) and includes big barn doors, a fireplace and mezzanine bedroom. It sits alongside a paddock-sized level lawn edged in trees. Nearby are two double parking pads, with one reached by its own driveway.
A stepped path leads to the main home, surrounded by gardens, barbecue, decks and a a pool. The self-contained studio is on one side.
The Arts and Crafts movement adhered to principles of permanence, honesty, simplicity and beauty. Like the gate-house, the home is built of thick concrete with a tiled roof, hand-adzed jarrah beams and bespoke iron joinery crafted at the neighbouring Crittal window factory (which became The Steelworks).
The front of the house was originally loggia-style, being partially open before previous owners filled openings with French doors and a bank of bifold windows to enlarge the living area. (A 1981 Historic Places Trust Category-II classification means future owners must work with the Trust on any modifications affecting its heritage value). The resulting front dining/sitting room includes a window-seat overlooking the pool and a gas fire. Behind it is a cosy lounge with built-in sofa alongside a wood-burning fire. Downstairs is the kitchen, with wide oven and dishwasher beside original wooden benches, and the main family bathroom.
The family's industry means countless lines have been crafted and rehearsed in the home's dappled light. "In-house" performances have been given by many, including the late Frank Whitten (Outrageous Fortune) and Scottish actor John Cairney, dress rehearsing before performing for the Queen Mother in London.
There are two to three bedrooms downstairs depending on whether you want an office, and a fourth currently used as an edit suite. Chapman-Taylor built the upstairs master suite with strikingly beamed ceiling and little balcony as his photographic studio. The large matai-floored room has an en suite and original double cupboards.
Aileen has always wanted to live in the country and thinks now is the time for a new chapter in her life.
