Waitakere: Clean and green

This home has benefited from having a plumber for an owner, and TV's Ground Force team for gardeners.

32 Turanga Road, Waitakere.

One of the advantages of having a plumber for a father is having your own bathroom, as Hunter and Mackenzie Lovell have found.

In their brightly coloured bathroom, Hunter, aged 2 years and 9 months, and Mackenzie, 9 months, even have his and hers mini-basins set into a slab of rimu that in a previous life was a bench in a bar. And that's another advantage of being a plumber: being able to lay your hands on valuable demolition material, or as their father Dale puts it, "Being in the right place at the right time."

He was in the right place when he laid his hands on the rimu flooring that's a feature in the dining and lounge rooms, and the rimu used for benchtops in the kitchen, bathrooms and other parts of the house.

Wife Andrea says Dale's tradesman background was a huge help when they began building their Tuscan-style home on land they bought six years ago.

"Just having the contacts and being able to get things at good prices made a big difference to how much it cost us," Andrea says.

The two-level concrete plastered house with a garage underneath was finished about a year ago. It looks very established in its bush setting as you come up the gravel drive, which is lined with renga renga in full bloom.

Up the front steps you reach a tiled balcony that faces north and runs the full width of the house.

Through the double front doors and off the tiled hallway there is a sunken lounge with a gas fire - one of three fires in the house. From the lounge you step up to the kitchen, and next door is a formal dining room. Also on this level is another lounge with an open fire set in a schist fireplace.

At the rear of the house is a large deck that captures the afternoon sun, which Dale says is perfect for barbecues. Part of the deck is recessed and covered which means Hunter can play out here no matter the weather. A wooden path meanders off the deck, leading to a bath tucked into a ponga grove. A lot of the landscaping out here was done in an episode of the Ground Force television show.

"We had nothing out here really and we didn't know where to start," says Andrea. "I saw the show advertised and thought, 'This might be a bit of fun', so I got it set up and sent Dale away for a few days. He didn't know what was going on."

Upstairs, two bedrooms at the front of the house have substantial balconies and enjoy views across the bush to the city and harbour.

Apart from some hassles with red tape, the Lovells say they had no dramas building on the gently sloping site - and they're happily doing it all over again.

They have begun building a large home with a pond on a 0.8ha piece of land in Oratia. And Mackenzie and Hunter can look forward to once again having their own bathroom - it'll be one of five in their new home.

Vital Statistics

BEDROOMS: 4

BATHROOMS: 3

GARAGE: 2

SIZE: Land 1214sq m, house 330sq m.

PRICE: $649,000.

INSPECT: Sat/Sun 1-2pm.

CONTACT: Sheryl Hawkes, Harcourts Henderson, ph 838 6520 bus, 021 757 427.

FEATURES: Large family home in a sunny, secluded spot in the Waitakeres. Underfloor heating and central vacuum system. Double garage with auto door.