Big water views captivate

33 Cliff Road, St Heliers. Photo / Ted Baghurst

33 CLIFF RD, ST HELIERS

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SIZE: Land 1049sq m, house (approx) 370sq m.

PRICE INDICATION: Similar properties have sold in the $4.5 million to $5.5 million range. Price by negotiation.

INSPECT: Sunday 2-2.40pm.

ON THE WEB: uprealty.co.nz/UPR13051

SCHOOL ZONES: Churchill Park Primary, Glendowie College.

CONTACT: Peter Cleave or Lisa Cleave, Unlimited Potential Real Estate, ph Peter 021 756 246 or Lisa 021 756 245.

FEATURES: Large refurbished home with north- facing views, pedestrian entrance off Cliff Rd and vehicle entrance off Clarendon Rd. Open- plan kitchen, dining and family living and powder room. Separate formal dining, wine cellar/tasting room, formal lounge, with open fireplace, opening to poolside living. Concept plans available for a new home.

There's a world of difference between moving out for 16 months to clear a site and build a new house and moving out for six weeks to renovate what's right under your nose.

For Tania and Peter Bassett, the decision to shelve building plans and renovate was a no-brainer.

They'd built three new homes and renovated another, which meant they were hardly novices at the decisions and process behind the vision. But by the time they'd drawn up plans for a new home a year or so after buying this property in July 2006, they had grown too attached to the home to want to leave - even temporarily.

"We just didn't want to not be living here, even for the 16 months it was going to take to build the new house because we loved it so much," Tania recalls.

So a few months after shelving those architect's plans, Peter, an electrician, and Tania brought on board their builder and an engineer and started renovating the home they'd bought for its views and its two street frontages.

Council records date the original solid concrete home at "1914/1929" but in the ensuing years it had been progressively added on to by previous owners. Far from being overwhelmed, Peter and Tania saw some exciting family-friendly opportunities for amalgamation.

Says Tania, "This was going to be our home for the rest of our lives."

Sadly, it all changed two years later in August 2010 when Peter was killed in a tractor accident on their Far North property. Their five children ranged in age from 20 down to just 2. In the ensuing months, they all found solace in their personalised home that had multiple warm communal spaces and places of solitude for each of them.

Their family kitchen, with its pantries that flank the two fridges, takes in the big water views high above Cliff Rd. At the opposite end, the TV nook that is their casual living area enables Tania to be part of the children's conviviality while she's cooking for her family.

Tania and Peter converted the double garage space into a children's wing, with bedrooms and living areas and a loft bedroom/living quarters above.

Tania chose the colours and the interior finishes to suit their permanent materials, including the marble in the floors and the lounge fireplace, and dark timber in the kitchen and bathroom cabinetry and built-in shelves elsewhere. Tania's formal dining room, with its chandeliers and lustrous curtains, has all the glamour of their previous villa home.

Near the separate his-and-hers dressing rooms there is glamour in her en suite, with a freestanding bath, a shelf for candles, a double vanity and a separate vanity with seat and mirror specially for doing hair and makeup.

Downstairs, the former sunroom has become part of the formal lounge, with its French doors opening out to poolside living.

For their eldest son's 21st birthday, they installed a floor over the in-ground pool, erected a marquee and cleared space on the wider, tiled deck for dancing.

"This is such a family home for us and extended family on both sides, and my whole life has been about my family," says Tania, who is now ready to look ahead to family life in a new setting.