KEY POINTS:
Warren Tupp grew up in St Marys Bay before the harbour bridge and the motorway were built, and says the sea got into his blood at an early age. "The beach at the foot of St Marys Bay Road was our playground.
"When Gail and I married at quite a young age and moved away, it was quite a wrench.
"Coming here was a bit like coming home, even though it is on the opposite side of the city."
Finding the site that completed the circle was one of those rare bits of good fortune that don't come that often and Warren remembers how they felt lucky to have chanced upon it.
"We'd been thinking to move and, when we came here and saw all this, it didn't matter a bit that the house on it was just the original little bach. We were happy to live in it while we got the feel of the site."
The six months Warren and Gail spent in the old bach re-awakened Warren's love of a beachside location and was also an advantage when it came to designing the home.
He was familiar with the more benign reaches of the inner Waitemata, but those months living high above the altogether different Manukau taught him to respect its different moods. As a result, he took extra care in designing a house and surroundings that worked for all seasons.
"I planned the house to span the width of the site, partly because that way you got the maximum views but also because then the house acted as a shelter for the garden and balcony on the northerly side of the section.
"We positioned it towards the cliff-edge rear of the site for the same reasons, with a lovely big terrace for the months of the year it is sunny there, but we never lost sight of the fact that we wanted a nice north-facing garden to enjoy as well." Gail held out for picture windows as big as store fronts and, with the help of some 13mm plate glass, her vision to allow unobstructed views of the harbour was realised. From the heads in the west to Mangere Mountain in the east the views seem to go on forever, with not a pylon or power line in sight to bring the viewer back to earth.
Warren and Gail's house, now an immaculate 15-year-old, is a generously proportioned family home with an upstairs living space that makes the best of the views and the outdoor living along the cliff-edge face of the property.
This connects seamlessly with the adjacent kitchen, dining and family rooms which continue in a loop to the two bedrooms and bathrooms. A sun trap of a north-facing balcony runs outside the bedrooms, looking over the garden with its goldfish pond and bridge.
Downstairs are two more good-sized bedrooms, another bathroom, a generous garage with room for extra storage, and a family-sized laundry.
Gail died two years ago, a few months before the couple's 45th wedding anniversary. After much soul-searching, Warren has decided it's time to move on and is looking to make a new start in a new home.
"We never thought we'd move from here, that's why there's so much of us in it, but someone will love it just the way we have. I'll enjoy thinking of them being here."
27 Hoskins Ave, Hillsborough.
Size: Land 2/3 share of 1347 sq m (approx), house 251 sq m.
Price indication: Buyer enquiry upwards of $900,000. Auction December 1.
Inspect: Sat/Sun 2-2.45pm.
On the web: www.open2view.co.nz
School zones: Hillsborough Primary, Royal Oak Intermediate, Onehunga High School.
Contact: Suzanne or William MacLean, Harveys, ph Suzanne
021 402 777, William 021 223 3777, 626 5485 a/h.
Features: Fifteen-year-old home with unobstructed cliff edge views of the Manukau Harbour to the rear and a picturesque north-facing garden at the front. Generously proportioned two-storey house.
* Plus two off-street carparks
