Fears of feeling lonely and isolated might put some people off living in the bush, but not Armagan Ballantyne and Jon Baxter.
The Auckland film-makers bought their Titirangi home in 2002, well before they had their two little girls, Carmen, 5, and Iris, 3.
But the nature of their work - Armagan directed the acclaimed 2009 film The Strength of Water and Jon produced the video content for the spectacular 2011 Rugby World Cup opening ceremony - means they have almost always had house guests.
The flexible spaces in the two-level, 320sq m house mean film colleagues have been able to come and work with Armagan and Jon on projects and friends and family have also stayed often.
The couple had been living in Sydney with no plans to move back to Auckland until they were here on holiday and drove along Scenic Drive with Armagan's parents.
"The smell of the punga was so amazing we thought: 'Why are we living in Sydney?'. We didn't consciously decide to move back, we were pulled back here," says Jon.
After six months of searching in Titirangi, they came across this Kohu Rd house, built in the late 1960s by an architect who was also a boat builder.
The wooden house, which is clad in cedar and has rimu floors, instantly appealed to the couple who were drawn to its pared back, modernist aesthetic - not to mention the panoramic view, which it was built to embrace.
Built on a hill with native bush as its backdrop, the house looks north towards the city with the Sky Tower and Rangitoto Island central to its 360-degree views that change depending on the weather and time of day.
On a clear day you can see as far as Waiheke Island from the deep, partly covered front deck that stretches across the front of the house's top floor.
Large sliding doors that open out to here from the semi-open-plan kitchen, dining room and living room make the indoor and outdoor areas feel like a single space, an ambience that is excellent for entertaining.
"Being immersed in the horizon was really important to me," says Jon, who spends much of his work time at a computer suite.
The front door is on ground level, next to a one-car internal access garage at the end of a long driveway. The driveway leads around the side of the house to a former three-car garage that Jon has divided and converted into a soundproof media studio that adjoins a large storage room.
The front door opens to a double height entrance foyer with a hallway off it that leads to three large bedrooms, all facing east and opening to paved areas and the garden where Jon and Armagan have put in vegetable beds.
The laundry and two bathrooms, including an en suite for one of the bedrooms, are also on this level.
At the top of an elegant stairwell curving up from the foyer is the main lounge where you are immediately struck by the view.
The landing at the top of the staircase leads to the second bathroom, a large office and a library, which could easily be a fourth bedroom.
When the house was built, careful thought was given to incorporate streamlined, functional internal fittings including storage spaces, shelving and beautiful mosaic tiling in one of the bathrooms, which are all still there.
Although the media studio and storage room have been flexible extra living spaces, they could easily be converted back to garaging or into a teenage retreat.
