With her husband away on business, Jayne Smith was left in charge of buying a long-term family home.
She says Keith wasn't that pleased when he found out that -- in his absence -- she had bumped up their initial offer by a little bit to secure 94 Selwyn Ave but he soon got over it.
"The thing was we got the house and we've never looked back," Jayne says, with the proof being that they have lived here since they moved in over Labour Weekend of 1989.
Before they moved in, though, the Smiths chose to extend and modernise the 1940s home to suit themselves and their two children, who were aged four and seven at the time.
They extended the two-storey home at the rear to create more living space downstairs and more bedrooms upstairs, as well as putting in a concrete swimming pool and landscaping the section after the five-month renovation.
Part of that landscaping was planting Iceberg roses as part of the formal front garden, which gave rise to locals calling the Smith's home 'the white rose house'.
The garden, with topiaried bay trees, frames the white weatherboard home, which is also distinctive for its curved bay windows facing the street on both floors, topped by a tile roof.
As well as enlarging the home, the Smiths changed its layout, including the entrance and staircase.
Architect Leigh Marshall designed the extension in sympathy with the original home, and made clever use of space with features such as a wine cellar and butler's pantry in the staircase void, and attic storage in the garage.
From the lounge, the bay window offers a view of the harbour across the rooftops but that view opens up from the master bedroom on the floor above, sweeping across from the Sky Tower through Bastion Point and North Head to Rangitoto.
The downstairs living spaces wrap around the central staircase with two lounge areas at the front of the house and a dining room on the northern side that then transitions into the open plan kitchen/family room, which opens out to the swimming pool area.
Image 1 of 6: Beautiful, modernised 1940's home boasts proximity to cafes, the beach and an easy city commute. Photos / Ted Baghurst
About eight years ago the kitchen and bathrooms were renewed.
As Jayne says: "After about 20 years they needed it, and we also had the home double glazed, which was one of the best things we ever did."
An L-shaped granite benchtop makes entertaining a breeze with part of it acting as a breakfast bar and another part as a servery out to the pool area via a bifold window.
As well as the butler's pantry, there is extensive cabinetry and a double oven. From the family room you can move through the laundry to the garage or out to the tiled outdoor entertaining area by the pool, which is screened from neighbours by walls shrouded in a climbing ficus.
Beyond the pool is a lawn and to one side a kitchen garden, glasshouse and potting shed.
Jayne says the gas heated swimming pool was heavily used by their children when they were growing up, and was a magnet for their friends as well.
Upstairs there are four bedrooms and two tiled bathrooms, one an en suite to the master accessed by a walk-through wardrobe.
