Like all good mistresses, the house was of indeterminate age and origin. Richard and Jane knew it had been shipped by barge from Auckland in the 1950s. Later, they found a 1922 New Zealand Herald clipping under a window seat in the lounge, so they figure the original part of the house is at least that old.
The house had been enlarged over the years and, with the serious structural work taken care of, Richard and Jane undertook minor surgery and a major facelift to make the house lighter, brighter and warmer in winter.
They reconfigured some of the rooms to better suit them, replaced all the bathrooms, and transformed a games room attached to a double garage into a pretty self-contained guest studio. They also gave the house a new heart.
The heart of the home, in Jane's view, is the kitchen, so the couple treated theirs with respect. They took down a wall that had separated the previous kitchen from a utility room, to make one large space. Then they brought in the English Kitchen Company - to transplant an entire new kitchen, with a large Rangemaster and elegant wooden cabinetry and benches. "I love it," says Jane, who shows that by standing in one spot in the kitchen she can see the harbour to the east and west. "It was what I always wanted. It was my dream to have my big country kitchen, in duck-egg blue."
Richard's preferred spot is his study, which looks out to the water to the east. It was formerly a bedroom, but the couple have refashioned it with dark horizontal stripy wallpaper into something approaching an English gentleman's smoking room. Like most of the rooms in the house, it has French doors opening to a deck.
Richard says one of the best features of the home is the choice of places to sit and enjoy the peace and the water views, indoors and out.
With the kids having flown the coop - and the country - and their parents theoretically in retirement, you may expect that Richard and Jane's next move will be a further downsize. But they've bought a 28ha farm near Rotorua.
"Is this a good idea?" Jane wonders aloud. "We thought it was either a retirement home, or do something daft."
They have reservations about leaving the home they put so much love and effort into, but they reckon it's time another family fell for its charms.
"I've lived in a lot of different countries and a lot of different houses," says Jane. "And this has been my favourite. It's so light and bright."
