The first is of a generous flat-fronted Georgian-style house built in the 1880s, overlooking Hobson Bay from its cliff-top site at the end of Logan Tce off St Stephens Ave. Originally the harbour master's house, it has been lived in by a single mother and her nine children, the last of whom died only a few years ago. The second is the house that Angela Kiddle and her partner, project manager and engineer Jens Bol, built under and within the derelict original, to create a stunning house that will survive longer than the original.
This was no minor do-up. Using Jens' engineering nous and the architecture of Lance and Nicola Herbst, Angela has transformed the well-known Parnell house they bought in 2008. The design carefully restored the simple street front -- albeit now in crisp white, not green and yellow and tumbledown, with a boxy garage beside -- and created an entire new floor for one of the best Herbst-designed spaces. As followers of architecture magazines will know, the couple have a terrific portfolio, but their "vault house" as they call it, is new language for them. It was not without its trials.
"Lance and Nicola had designed a beach house for us that we'd never built," explains Angela. "This build required lifting the old house, excavating and reinforcing and putting it back down again. We nearly lost it at one point as the crane swayed out over the harbour -- it was windier than we'd realised -- it was a major stress."
To fund the build, Angela sold off part of the section so she could focus on the house. Engineers thrust 60 25m piles in a palisade to retain and reinforce the cliff. That alone took three months; the total build was 20 months in all.
The basement was excavated, reinforced concrete walls poured into beautiful rough-sawn timber forms to create a 4m-high ground floor. The Herbsts cleverly inserted light wells under the existing veranda to bring sunshine into the ground floor: it's only when you reach the front door that you realise that the curved roof porch has no floor, just glass balustrades to the floor below. The result is an airy, serene space with more than a hint of Japanese pavilion about it.
The architects even included their signature indoor-outdoor passage between rooms: from the kitchen/family/dining room, you cross a bridge over a pond stepping outdoors to reach the second winter/evening living room. Until last month the pond was home to 12 turtles that clamber about sunning themselves in the shafts of light pouring in -- Angela is a collector of animals, there have been dogs and the garage is home to a very handsome bearded dragon.
The sitting room was designed to be dual purpose -- it has a bathroom so can become a self-contained bedroom if needed. Into the raw concrete space the architects inserted a beautiful "box" of creamy oak, upon which sits the kitchen island and cabinets. Tucked behind is a scullery with more sinks, fridge and masses of storage. On the other side of the box is another beautiful cabinet, which opens to reveal the wet bar and, behind a glass screen, the wine cellar.
The sunny sea-side of this vault opens to an enormous paved deck, complete with polished concrete barbecue bench, a Japanese-style spa pool/reflecting pond and a sliver of garden. Angela is particularly proud of the flagstaff she had reinstalled -- a nod to the one the harbour master would have had flying over Hobson Bay. The sea view is framed by another favourite of Angela's -- a grand old pohutukawa. The space is warmed by a sleek fire framed in steel, one of the Cocoon bio-ethanol fires Angela's company now sells. She also imported high-end light and bathroom fittings, furniture and accessories, mostly from Milan, to fit out the house.
The centre of the house is another classic Herbst touch -- they inserted a finely crafted oak stairwell that rises from the ground floor through the two floors of the old house like a lantern. Angela says the craftsmen worked meticulously to finish this modern touch, but at the same time were taken by the old-school craftsmanship they could recover from the old house -- original rough-sawn timber siding, the wide floorboards (now bleached a soft white).
On the original two floors, Angela used an English craftsman to hand-plaster all the walls, creating a silky, textured finish that glows. Although windows were replaced with modern energy-efficient replicas, efficient modern radiators installed (the old fireplaces had been ripped out long before) and modern bathrooms added, essentially the layout and proportions of the old house remain.
The entry level includes two bedrooms and a family bathroom, a third bedroom used as a media room. A former back room is now a light-filled study that lets on to the new double garage and storage rooms (a dumb waiter delivers groceries to the scullery below). Angela's look is super clean and modern, but respects the materials and proportions of the old.
Image 1 of 10: Herbst architecture and construction ingenuity have transformed a Georgian-style villa into a sleek, modern and serene living space -- where even the 12 resident turtles love their zen pond
Upstairs there is another bathroom on the half landing, a guest room with meticulously finished white lacquered wardrobes (no mean feat in an old house).
The piece de resistance is the master suite -- a huge bedroom with Cocoon fireplace and more of those bay views, a luxurious bathroom with soaking tub and an entire room given over to Angela's wardrobe -- the sleek joinery a backdrop to her jaw-dropping shoe collection.
But the house is not just about good looks. Angela says she has enjoyed the story-telling that they uncovered -- various members of the family have knocked on the door to see what she's done and tell her how they lived in the house. She and Jens and her two sons have added their own stories, but with the boys gone and the job done, the couple are keen to make another huge restoration. Something else worth seeing, like this white lady, which can be enjoyed for the next century.
