The Bozzone boys, who'd run home from school once their father picked up their schoolbags there after work, happily threw their energies into redecorating this house to make it their own.
They stripped wallpaper, pulled up carpet. They also helped their father dig up the driveway - and, says Diane, sustained stress fractures in their feet that briefly halted their sporting activities.
This family had plans for a bigger, special family home at the bottom of the garden.
Says Diane, "We designed it so all of our living and bedrooms were upstairs and the boys' bedrooms and living areas were downstairs. Every one room opens out to the deck or the courtyard downstairs."
The boys each had their own room, a dressing room and an en suite.
"They each chose their bathroom tiles and they helped their father lay them, too."
Carlo has a background in building and associated trades and it was his design concept that sited the house so its upper level takes in the sea views beyond the hills and valleys of Mairangi Bay.
"For us being able to see the sea is just amazing," says Diane of their former life inland in Johannesburg. "The boys will run along the beach, have a swim and run home again and we could never do that before."
The kitchen stretches along one wall as the heart of the big living area, in keeping with Carlo's Italian heritage and Diane's pleasure in cooking for her family. Indeed, this home's communal meal-time proportions were fashioned around the family's carved solid imbuia timber table they brought from South Africa.
Inside they've used quality materials, from the granite island bench and rear stainless hob bench to the glass and stainless steel balustrades inside and out. They're pleased with their timber floors and their choice of carpet in the bedrooms and tiles in all the wet areas.
"When you build for yourself you don't skimp on anything, do you?" Diane affirms.
Now Carlo and Diane are moving to a different lifestyle in a smaller home. "Now we're only living in half of this house," says Diane.
This family's entire New Zealand home history is up for offer - their first 130sq m home, now tenanted but soon to be vacant, on 521sq m of land, their second this bespoke edition and the 517sq m flat building site between them.
