SCHOOL ZONES:
Parnell District School, Auckland
Grammar, Epsom Girls' Grammar
CONTACT:
Leila or David MacDonald, ph 021 928
926, 021 650 901
Fifty-four years ago, Maisie Hart walked on to this lawn, took in the sweeping, elevated water views beyond the bach-like home and signed the papers to buy her first home.
These days, it is her son Simon and his wife Christine who marvel at even bigger views stretching from Parnell's valleys to the St Heliers ridgeline from their choice of perches in the extended original bungalow No9 that is one of two homes on this cross-leased water's-edge property.
Simon and Christine's three daughters were in their late teens when they moved here, and now it is their two grandchildren who get to stay here weekly. As well, Simon's sister Jenny, who was born profoundly deaf and needing support, has enjoyed her own unique perspective living in the smaller home that is No9A.
For the entire Hart family, these two unique homes on this special parcel of land have been family homes in the broadest sense of the word and it is all for sale for the first time since 1960.
For Maisie Hart, a war widow who worked variously as a radio continuity announcer and as a trained Cordon Bleu cook who ran a corporate catering business from home, this house was her haven. As Simon recalls: "She certainly had an eye for it and she loved the views here."
They had lived in a state rental following the death of Maisie's husband George Hart, a 1930s All Black, from war injuries in 1944, when the children were pre-schoolers. "This was the first home that was truly ours," says Simon, who was 20 when he first moved here.
He and Christine have great memories of life here then and on their return from Britain years later. Everyone was fed from Maisie's kitchen, which was a separate room where their modern granite/lacquer kitchen is now. The dining room and lounge have swapped functions these days behind the original cavity sliding doors and beneath original beamed ceilings.
The original fireplace has been moved into the formal lounge and the cedar bifold windows enlarged to honour every ounce of the wide views.
Such key elements were a significant part of this 1986 rebuild and the design of the new home that Simon and Christine commissioned architect Rob Patience to put together after they took over the home following Maisie's death.
The original house was raised and an upstairs deck added, along with an entry level master bedroom suite that included Christine's coveted elegant veranda. "It's such a beautiful place because it gets the late-afternoon sun," she says. Downstairs, beyond the stairwell with its tall bay window and solid kauri balustrade, they added three bedrooms, a family bathroom and a casual lounge opening out to another large veranda.
"Virtually every room here has a water view, even the laundry," Christine explains of her own home. "We talked about building a new home but I couldn't bear to lose the high ceilings." Simon adds: "This gave us all the space we needed and retained all the character."
Next door, their slimmed-down bungalow version of the parent home has the seaward kitchen, living and balcony upstairs and the bathroom and seaward bedroom downstairs.
Image 1 of 8: 9 & 9A Tohunga Cres, Parnell.
Living in harmony, these homes have brought the wider family together and Simon and Christine, who both work from home, believe the properties should be sold together.
For years they've shared their world with the paddle boarders, the yachts and the water-skiers on Hobson Bay, and the cruise ships passing Rangitoto Island.
Now, they're looking for one smaller home with charm and character and, of course, those high ceilings that Christine says she can't imagine not having in her life.
