Founded on the finer things in Herne Bay

Cyril Smith in his Herne Bay home. Photo / Getty Images

64 ARGYLE ST HERNE BAY

4

1

2

SIZE: Land 723sq m, house 202sq m, plus 49sq m basement.

PRICE INDICATION: CV (2008) $1.6 million. Auction December 2.

INSPECT: Sat/Sun 2-2.45pm, or by appointment.

ON THE WEB: www.bayleys.co.nz/4101314

SCHOOL ZONES: Bayfield Primary, Ponsonby Intermediate, Western Springs College, Auckland Girls' Grammar.

CONTACT: Deborah Purdy, Bayleys, ph 021 687 758.

FEATURES: Century-old transitional villa on elevated corner site. Ornate dome ceilings 4.5m high, leadlight windows and doors. Double-size dining and lounge rooms. One single garage on each street front, one of which was built to house a boat.

Fine detail is clearly Cyril Smith's specialty. It was the fine print of a run-on newspaper ad for this home that caught his eye 40 years ago and it was his appreciation for the finer things in life - dining and architecture included - that have given him the most pleasure in the home he shared with partner Teremoana Nicholas.

Everything that sold him this house back in December 1970 conspired to keep Cyril and Teremoana (aka Tere) wedded to this sunny, elevated, light-filled home, even though they toyed several times with the idea of downsizing in their senior years.

"It was the character, the space, the elegance, the ambience," he says, thinking back to the day he bought the house. "It had all the original lines - and how rare is that?

Recalling the snippet of an advertisement for the home, Cyril says: "It started blinking at me. Something was telling me to look at this place." He walked in, took in the leadlight windows, the pressed zinc ceilings, the two ceiling domes ( in the master bedroom and lounge) the 4.5m lounge stud, the Douglas-fir panelled dining room and said to the real estate agent. "If you don't do anything else today, do yourself a favour. Don't show anyone else this house until I've brought my wife back at 2pm."

Cyril arrived with Tere, who also loved what she saw, and they signed the purchase documents.

The house had been partitioned into two flats, as was common in the 1960s, but, remarkably, its original architectural features had been retained. Cyril and Tere added the polish to its charms, replacing the scrim of the home's circa-1910 construction with elegant gold-patterned wallpaper in the lounge and the wood panelling in the dining room/family room. Elsewhere, they gave the house an up-to-the-minute 1970s makeover that, by Cyril's own admission, is now due for an update.

The appeal of the house began with the flared concrete steps at the corner of the property on the Argyle St/Masons Ave intersection. The front door opens into the foyer, which has one bedroom to the left. Original cavity sliders open into the formal entrance, a discreet study opens to the right and a magnificent lounge is the focal point beyond. The dining/family room opens off the lounge, and is also accessible off the central hallway and the nearby kitchen,
with its veranda and grapevine-draped pergola.

The master bedroom has built-in wardrobes and a sunny north-facing annex, the guest bedroom (with pressed zinc ceiling) overlooks the garden, and the sunroom that is big enough to be another living area is the fourth bedroom.

For Cyril and Tere, who met when he was a waiter and she a cook at Maxims, one of Auckland's most stylish establishments in the 1960s, the focal point of this home has been the dining room and lounge. They regularly hosted friends for dinner and Cyril, now a widower, still sets the table for dinner. "We created a lifestyle for ourselves in this house," he says, adding "I have never eaten a meal on my lap."

Under the house, Cyril has a 49sq m workshop, where he builds model boats, just as he did as a teenager in the UK. Cyril later worked as a joiner and he has given this home the structural stamp of approval. "They don't build houses like this these days. You get spoilt living in a house like this and the only problem with being spoilt is that you don't want to leave."