In their roles designing hotels, Kaukapakapa-based Ross and Jillian Webb have travelled the world.
"We have stayed in some pretty imaginative and salubrious places," says Ross. "Yet we sit here on the terrace at home in the evening with a drink and we think why are we travelling all round the world for something that we are living with every day? This house is like a complete tourist destination as your home."
The family have lived here for 25 years.
"We were captured by the views over the Kaipara harbour. It is a fantastically peaceful place, away from everything," says Ross.
Helensville is their closest town, and Kaukapakapa is their local village.
Ross' four decades in commercial architecture include 36 years as a design principal, specialising in hotel and retail architecture.
Now "retired", he has joined interior designer Jillian at Raj Design, working on hospitality and retail projects in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific. Their office is in their distinctive 344sq m stucco plaster home.
As Jillian recalls the build, she says those early years had added challenges when son Jeremy broke his neck on Muriwai beach.
Ross made changes to the home's layout, such as a wet room, to make Jeremy's life as a tetraplegic more comfortable.
"Jeremy has been a big part of all of this," says Jillian. "We used to have 70 people a week sometimes helping us make Jeremy the healthiest we could. 60 Minutes did a documentary on him."
Image 1 of 6: Ordered spaces, natural materials and views to soothe the soul make a happy haven
Ross says the two-storey house doesn't fit into a specific style.
"People look at it because of the pinky colour of the plaster and assume it is Italian or Tuscan but it is not what drove the design at all. So I would say it fits nicely into the land, it grows out of it. It has a timber shingle roof and it is as natural as we can make it."
Oriented to the north to make the most of the harbour views, the house is designed on passive solar heating principles with tropical standard cross ventilation systems to ensure it remains warm in winter and cool in summer. A linear skylight provides sunlight throughout.
"Every room opens to the terraces through French doors and, in some cases, they open in two directions. It is more like a pavilion living in here. It is just beautiful," he says. The terraces on the east, north and west are sheltered and shaded by pergolas with wisteria and grapevines.
Downstairs are the master bedroom suite opening to terraces on two sides, three more double bedrooms and two bathrooms. Two bedrooms are on the first floor.
Also downstairs is the family room, with gas fire, there is an open fire in the lounge and the dining room, which seats 14, has a walk-in wine cupboard. The farmhouse kitchen has granite benchtops, tiled splashback and recycled kauri joinery.
Throughout, reinforced concrete slab floors with integral piped hot water floor heating are finished with Tasmanian ash parquet. Internal doors and joinery are solid swamp kauri.
Growing across the front of the home is deciduous Virginia creeper. "It doesn't suck anything out of the substrate so it is like a green wall. It looks beautiful in the autumn, it all turns red," says Ross.
The garden of their 59.499ha section is about 2ha. The rest of their land includes covenanted bush and 26ha of pasture for dry stock grazing. About 19ha of pine has been harvested and is waiting to be replanted.
Jillian says their home has been perfect for entertaining. "Entertaining here, it's been my joy."
But now, "We are thinking we will build a new place on one of the sections up here. We will stay in the same location, the same views, we love it."
