72 Curran St, Herne Bay, Auckland. Photo / Ted Baghurst
Walking his dog in Point Erin Park, Chris Tanner glanced just across the road at a beguiling character home and sensed it had a rich history.
That was in April last year, when the three-storey circa-1920s home on Curran Street, running between Jervois Rd and the Harbour Bridge, was a faded beauty. It struck Chris as having been built as a quality home that was crying out for love after 30 years as a rental.
He says: "I've been told it was once a sea captain's home. Apparently it was one of the original waterfront homes along here before the waterfront end of its section was subdivided.
"I don't know much more than that really, but it was obviously something pretty special looking at its unusual stained glass steel doors and stained glass windows, which have survived to this day."
His sister, residential operations manager, Louise Tanner had a property in Kingsland but wanted to live closer to water so they bought this house together.
Chris says: "I love the water, too; I'm an avid swimmer and my dog Elsie - named after Coronation Street's Elsie Tanner - can't get enough of it.
"The beaches along here such as Hamilton Rd Beach and Sentinel Rd Beach are just lovely. Sometimes you get the beach to yourself, which I find amazing after having lived in Sydney for years."
Number 72 is one property away from the entrance to seaside Masefield Beach Reserve.
Chris, who is a landscape designer, couldn't bear to fell the Australian red flowering gum tree at the front that he estimates could be similar vintage to the house. Its trunk curves out through the heritage style front fence they added.
The section used to be blanketed in tarseal. Now gates announce a new driveway to rear two-car off-street parking. This fronts a level rear lawn enhanced by planting.
The weatherboard home has a stucco base, front shingle detail and a Marseille tile roof.
Its covered porch harbours original steel and glass entry doors into the mid-level's foyer with feature staircase.
The siblings have loved breathing new life into the home which needed thorough overhaul including re-wiring.
"This house has got a lot of romance about it," says Chris, wandering through an interior showcasing high, beamed ceilings, leadlight windows and jarrah floors.
He says Louise whips up amazing meals for him and their friends in the new marble-benched kitchen with wide Falcon stove.
The north-facing dining room with character fireplace adjoins a sunroom that has distinctive leadlight steel doors at both ends and flows out to a deck. Both rooms admire the sea views.
'It's great watching recreational boats out there, or the tankers going to the Chelsea Sugar Refinery."
The front lounge is popular with guests, restfully painted in Resene Ebony Clay and boasting a fireplace plus a heat pump. Its white, beamed ceiling reigns above bay window leadlights incorporating crests.
A shuttered TV room opening to a rear deck and a powder room complete this level.
Upstairs three bedrooms, a bathroom, powder room and sea-gazing sunroom or study are arranged around a charming upstairs hallway.
The fully renovated downstairs, acknowledged on the LIM in 1953 as a flat, has its own entrance with gardened courtyard area nearby.
Closed-off internal stairs between it and mid-level allow operation as one household if desired.
Downstairs' sizeable living-dining opening to its own balcony, new kitchen, big bedroom, study and bathroom-laundry plus powder room has a rental assessment of $550 to $600 weekly.
The siblings have lived here happily with such ample space but Louise would like to buy on Waiheke where several friends live.