Sandra Barden is happiest at home when there is fresh air and sunlight filling her senses. To her, that translates to big, open spaces in the living areas and an outgoing perspective all round.
Given the raw material that Sandra and her builder husband Wayne had to work with increating this home, they've awarded themselves a pat on the back for a translation well executed. In doing so they've extended out and built up to turn their boxy, single-level self-titled concrete bunker into a double-storey modern edition with a sunny disposition and minimal lines.
They bought the property in 2007 and lived here for three years in what was about two-thirds of the space of the new downstairs area. Business and family commitments meant it took four years to complete the rebuild which has doubled their floor area.
"It gave us time to think and to know that what we were doing would be perfect."
Her first thought walking into the old place every day was: "Oh my goodness, this house is just too small. Now I walk in and think it's just wonderful. I love the high ceilings and the space everywhere. It is absolutely utterly beautiful."
Beneath the obvious features, there is a good deal of the original structure that formed the basis of this home, designed by architect Mike Brewerton and built by Wayne's building company before his retirement.
Image 1 of 3: An apartment in appealingly central Grafton offers lock and leave living. Photos / Ted Baghurst
The concrete firewall adjacent to the front house (on a separate title) and the two exterior side walls are original, including the common wall with the new adjoining garage. The rear wall ended where the bar stools pull up to the engineered stone kitchen bench. That bench buts up to the side wall by the two eye-level, frosted windows that deliver a little extra winter light and privacy at the same time.
"I didn't want an island bench. I didn't want grandchildren running around the room at a thousand miles an hour," she says.
Her new laundry is on the footprint of the original kitchen, the updated bathroom downstairs retains the original footprint.
Kitchen benches in engineered stone, a splashback in mosaic tiles, Tasmanian Oak veneer cabinetry throughout the wider living area, European veneer Oak timber floors and marble in the master en suite upstairs add textural warmth on all fronts. "I love texture, I'm not a lacquer girl," says Sandra.
There's texture too in the trunk of the majestic camphor laurel tree that is their backdrop on the grounds of Point Chevalier School. The tree's canopy delivers their required summer shade without the need for outdoor umbrellas or awnings.
Even Sandra and Wayne's grandchildren -- 12 in total -- appreciate the feeling of being in a treehouse when they look out from upstairs.
Design flexibility has given them multi-purpose rooms such as the master dressing room/office upstairs. They've kept the best of the rest on its merits including the rear shed behind the garage that is screened from the living areas by a staggered fence. With power and water and a stainless steel bench, it is the perfect spot for dealing with the fishing catch.
Sandra and Wayne have created the focal point for big family occasions with some or all of their six adult children and families. Its wide open spaces have made for effortless living, unlike life, as Sandra recalls it, in their previous villas and bungalows.
Now they feel they owe their long-standing Coromandel property the same kind of attention from plans also drawn up by Mike Brewerton.
