SCHOOL ZONES:
Hingaia Peninsula primary school, Rosehill College in Papakura or Strathallan College.
CONTACT:
Scott McElhinney, Barfoot, 0272 108887.
AUCTION:
April 9.
When Des Redgwell hammered his first nail into these walls, his young son, Aaron, was sitting nearby playing with a pile of timber offcuts, unwittingly learning the ropes of his father's trade.
Last year -- 37 years later -- Des and Aaron were back on site at the house that Des had designed and built back in 1976 and which had remained in one extended family's ownership until Aaron saw it for sale in August last year.
When he saw his father's name on the copy of the original floor plans among the marketing material, they grabbed the chance to put their Redgwell Construction builders to work on a truly nostalgic project in between their other pending contracts.
Ask Des how long it took for this place to get under his skin a second time, and he replies: "About a month after we started. I was ready to move it because I just loved what we were doing. We wanted to do more than just recreate a 70s house, we wanted to rebuild it for today's lifestyle."
Its footprint, its concrete block base and those famous cream-coloured bricks manufactured at Kamo (Whangarei) and known in the trade as "Kamo creams" are virtually all that remain of the original house. From its new European-style steel roof and double-glazed aluminium joinery to the rebuilt decks and the American oak treads on the suspended staircase, this once dark house has been reconfigured and refreshed.
The dark walnut panelling, the Axminster carpet and the rest of the original 1970s decor have gone. The only additions have been to the rear deck, off the family room that merges into the large kitchen and dining area, and a new external staircase down to reconfigured outdoor poolside living that replaces the old spiral corner staircase.
Upstairs, some internal walls were shifted slightly to enlarge the family room/kitchen connection and to improve the sizes of bedrooms, two of which open to the covered deck including the master bedroom.
In its heyday, this home was huge by any standards. With its multiple living areas, basement rumpus room and bar, its 30sq m covered upstairs deck and four-car internal access garaging, it was more than twice the size of the typical 200sq m executive-style home.
Image 1 of 5: Builder had the rare opportunity to turn a home he built in the 70s into a grand abode suited to today's lifestyle
"The original design really has stood the test of time," says Des. "Even the hallway was 1m wide in the days when they were often only 90cm."
When Des and Aaron, a quantity surveyor and the company's contract manager, pulled together their vision for their "elegant" update, the biggest challenge was knowing where to stop.
"How much we spent was nowhere near as important as what we were creating," says Des. "We completed the upstairs and there was no way we were going to leave the downstairs as it was."
In addition to a full kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms, this self-contained area off the entrance includes a media room and study behind sliding doors off the large poolside lounge.
To maintain architectural integrity, they ordered special runs of style-appropriate architraves, finishing the lounge, bedrooms and hallway with lightly patterned, textured wallpapers.
Light oak-look tiles, European oak timber and modern, solution-dyed nylon carpet make up the flooring palette. Updating the original underfloor electric heating upstairs required simply replacing the individual dial controls with digital panels.
On reflection, Des Redgwell describes this project as "fun", especially given the rare opportunity to work what he calls a "Take Two" update of a home he designed and built just a few years after establishing his own building company.
