SCHOOL ZONES:
Campbells Bay Primary, Westlake Girls and Boys
CONTACT:
Gail Pianta, Harcourts, 021 686 516
AUCTION:
Feb 8.
Twenty years ago, Sandi Moultrie had a list of criteria for her new home. Because of that list, when Sandi spotted the for sale sign on this property, her real estate agent said "no, no, no".
The property didn't have what the agent thought Sandi wanted, but Sandi insisted on looking -- and that was that. The 1930s or 40s bach was tiny but the view of the sparkling blue ocean and Rangitoto was to die for.
"I came up and looked out -- it was a brilliant sunny day, it was the end of October or something, not a cloud in the sky -- and I thought 'this is it'."
She remembers being so excited when she took possession. In the next few months she gutted the interior and took up the old gold carpet, exposing the original rimu floors.
The bach was still tiny -- at that stage it was like a studio apartment, just one room with a sink you couldn't fit a dinner plate in and the toilet was in the porch.
An architect friend drew up plans for alterations, and Sandi says he was so enthusiastic she knew she had done the right thing.
"Because when I first bought it there was a, well there still is, a cast iron bath under the house and it had an old shower with a rubber hose thing. I used to run down there in my bathrobe, if it was raining I'd have my umbrella as well, and I'd have my shower and my friends were teasing 'have you got a bathroom on that place yet?'"
Now there is an added bedroom with a walk-in wardrobe leading to a bathroom with a skylight. The former bach is light and summery with three sets of french doors opening on to a big deck looking out to the view and down to Castor Bay beach, which is only a minute or two away by foot.
Out the back is another deck and there are fruit trees.
Image 1 of 7: Views of the ocean and Rangitoto are to die for here. Photos / Ted Baghurst
The property is leafy and Sandi, who likes to garden, says the former owner had a business related to plants "and I kept discovering all these little things. As the season progressed something would pop into flower so it was wonderful that first year, little things popped up and I had beautiful lilies and things like that."
The view is mesmerising and she has seen dolphins, which you tend to see on calm, wintry days when the water is glassy.
She saw a triangle moving close to the shore one day but by the time she got her binoculars it had gone so she jumped in the car and drove to Milford Beach where people told her they had seen orca.
"They're out there all right," says Sandi, a retired teacher.
"I've been very happy here ... I think it has a happy feel. When I'd come home and I'd feel stressed, I'd just come in and it would disappear. I think it is that you can see out."
The neighbours are wonderful, too, she says.
"There's a really lovely community around here and I hope wherever I go, I have that."
The property is tucked away up a driveway so is private and Sandi says she has always felt safe here.
There is storage under the house, or she says someone could put in another bedroom and bathroom or redevelop. While it will be hard leaving, it is time for a change: "I've got a few ideas ... I'm just ready for another little project, I think, so I've got to start looking around."
