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North-facing, architecturally designed home on a large flat site, backing on to a large park and five minutes' walk to Kohimarama Beach.
Backing on to a park and having a sizeable, completely flat section were two obvious drawcards for Thomas and Amanda when they considered buying their Kohimarama home two years ago.
But what really attracted the couple, who had recently moved to New Zealand from Amanda's native England, was something intangiblethat also proved to be irresistible.
"The house had a really lovely energy to it. I felt it as soon as I walked in the door and Amanda felt exactly the same," says Thomas.
The clean lines of this four-bedroom, 1950s-built home certainly exude a sense of easy, modern living, which is complemented by a quirky, retro stylishness that channels its mid-century origins.
Even before Thomas and Amanda put their stamp on the house - collaborating with Waiheke-based architect Karl Majurey to give it a much-needed facelift - Thomas says it just "felt right".
Amanda was initially keen to move to Parnell when the couple moved to Auckland with their twin boys, now aged six, after they quit their high-flying banking jobs in London.
In England they had loved owning a four-storey Victorian "weekender" in the Isle of Thanet in Kent.
"Amanda would pick me up from Canary Wharf at 4.30pm on a Friday and we could be sitting on the beach eating fish and chips by 6pm."
So when they came back to Thomas' home town, they were keen to live near the sea.
They chose Kohimarama, one of Auckland's best-value seaside suburbs, where they can stroll down to the beach with their two boys and dog Woody within a few minutes.
"We almost got stung and bought a leaky home then we discovered this house which was still standing solidly after 60 years without a single bit of rot."
Built with rough-sawn, painted rimu weatherboards, the house also had solid rimu floors - albeit partially covered with carpet and cork tiles when the couple moved in.
Thomas, a fan of 1950s modernist architecture including The Group architects' work, says he avoided a "slick glass and stainless steel design" and opted for a friendly, organic feel.
The renovation involved reconfiguring a series of disconnected spaces to open up the house to the garden and improve its flow.
This included adding generous decks, which open straight off the back and western side of the house and lead out to a kidney-shaped swimming pool.
The small, poky kitchen was replaced with a spacious, modern one with German appliances and cabinetry. Two bathrooms - the en suite off the master bedroom upstairs, and the main bathroom downstairs with free-standing bath and louvre windows with views of the garden - are both fully renovated with quality tiles and fittings.
Dated floor coverings have been stripped to reveal beautiful native floorboards, most of the walls are relined, including fresh, white tongue-and-groove ones in the light-filled family room - and the joinery has either been replaced or restored.
The upstairs level is reserved for a large master bedroom with plenty of storage and an outlook over Madills Farm, the local off-leash park which you can access through a gate at the back of the subtropical garden.
Downstairs, the open-plan front living room, dining room, kitchen and family room spaces flow easily, but are given a sense of partial separation by Japanese-style slated kwila screening, one of several unique design features that Thomas has devised.
"When we bought this house, it was going to be a keeper. It was built with materials you couldn't afford to replicate if you were building a new house. It has been really gratifying to slowly reveal its hidden beauty."
