KEY POINTS:
6 SANDY BAY ROAD, BAYSWATER.
Bayswater is one of the North Shore's best kept secrets.
The bustling suburbs of Takapuna and Devonport that this North Shore suburb sits between are better known and attract streams of visitors, particularly in summer.
But Bayswater, a peninsula which stretches out
into the Waitemata Harbour from Belmont, has a much more low-key feel.
And that's the way the locals like it.
"There's a laidback, relaxed feeling about Bayswater," says Martin Cox, who has lived there for 24 years.
"Everyone is friendly but nobody lives in each other's pockets. People who move here don't tend to leave. It's a lifestyle thing."
Martin and Linda Cox have lived in their waterfront Sandy Bay Road home for 12 years. Before that they lived in two other Bayswater houses between 1984 and 1996.
Their sun-drenched, two-storey house looks north out over Shoal Bay - a popular kite and windsurfing spot which attracts scores of surfers when there is a good breeze.
The bay is where the late Sir Peter Blake, who grew up a few houses down in nearby Beresford Street, built a yacht on the front lawn and learnt to sail.
With Bayswater Marina less than two minutes' drive away, the area is a boaties' haven. It's also only an eight-minute ferry ride from Bayswater Wharf to downtown Auckland.
The Coxs and their teenage son, Samuel, have been able to launch kayaks and dinghies directly from the front of their house and have had room to keep a small boat behind the double garage adjoining the house.
Bowling, squash and tennis clubs as well as the Bayswater playing fields are just up the road and the Coxs' house is directly across from the Shoal Bay Reserve so has no neighbours to the east.
"The privacy has been fantastic. Our son has played soccer and cricket and everything imaginable on that piece of grass," says Martin.
Apart from extending the family room that adjoins the kitchen and putting in some bigger doors to let in more light, the Coxs have done nothing structural to their home which was built in the mid-1980s by the previous owner.
They focused instead on lightening dark joinery, including putting in a kitchen with buttermilk-coloured joinery to accentuate the house's English colonial feel.
"The original owner had two narrow adjacent sections leading down to the water. But he cross-leased the whole piece of land to get a double, sea-facing frontage," says Martin.
Downstairs, the family room, kitchen, formal dining and spacious living room are bathed in light and stretch right along this frontage, looking out across a landscaped level lawn with harbour views.
At the seaside boundary of the property, an outdoor deck extends out over the water. A summer house that is ideal for lounging in without being exposed to the elements is linked to the living room by a glass-covered walkway.
Across the hallway from the kitchen, dining and living areas that dominate the ground floor are two downstairs bedrooms, a separate laundry and bathroom.
Upstairs, the master bedroom and fourth bedroom have views across to Sandy Bay.
This second level also has a second bathroom and a large, L-shaped storage room which makes use of the space beneath the pitched roof on the south side of the upstairs landing.
A small flight of stairs leads up to a spacious fifth bedroom above the double garage. This loft-style teenage retreat is large enough to be a generous home office space or granny flat.
"It's a house that you could live in without doing anything at all. But it also has enough potential for people to put their own stamp on it," says Martin.