Break out the white rum cocktails, adjust the lapels on your pale slouch suit and step into a slice of Maimi in Milford. VICKI HOLDER checks it out.
Remember television's Miami Vice where the designer settings were so sensational they rivalled the story-line? Welcome back!
This daring home, right on the Milford beachfront could have been plucked straight out of the hit TV cop series from the 80s. Cool, bold and beachy, it won a Home of the Year award for architect Pip Cheshire when it was built. And though it was radical for its era, it has proved an enduring design and is still a great family home.
What sets it apart is the way it so perfectly interacts with its site, giving the owners total privacy yet embracing to-die-for views. The public can only catch a glimpse of the house through gates at the side - that aspect of the house, where the front entry and internal access double garage line up, is deliberately closed to the street. In contrast, on the seaward side the house, which is split across four levels, spills through sliding doors on to terraces and balconies that have spectacular views across the beach.
As you make your way across the bridge to the front entry, you're tempted to look over your shoulder in case a gun-toting drug dealer is about to pounce from around a corner. Fortunately, security is paramount in this sophisticated home. Armed with that knowledge, you can safely relax as you proceed inside to the formal lounge.
Here, windows step up the stark white walls, soaking up the brilliant light. Midnight blue carpet reflects the dazzling colour of the sea and sky outside. It's very Miami!
In winter, the gas fire in a black granite surround flickers in the hearth that sits along one wall, dividing the room from the formal dining above.
Central heating and air conditioning throughout the house ensure it is always a comfortable temperature winter or summer, though the fireplace does much for the ambience.
Doors slide open to a tiled terrace, raised to the height of the boundary wall between the property and the beach. Outside the door, the terrace marches up a short flight of steps against the wall to link to the dining room. It also drops down to a secluded lower level, planted with pockets and borders of easy-care grasses and cycads - plants that enjoy the coastal position as much as the owners do.
Between the two levels, balanced at the edge of the upper terrace, fountains soothe away the heat of summer as they play in a rectangular pond. It makes a convenient place to dip the toes and cool off without having to pass through the secure gate which leads to the beach only metres away.
When landscape designer Ted Smyth created this outdoor area, he treated the garden as a sculptural extension of the indoors. Comfortable kwila seating is incorporated into a nook at the bottom corner. Smyth figured that the demands of lawns had no place in this pleasure temple.
The formal dining space and kitchen sit a half level above the formal lounge and enjoy magnificent views. Sleek black granite benches and floors are a dramatic buffer to the all-over white colour scheme. The kitchen is well-endowed with luxury extras including the integrated fridge-freezer and a dumb waiter designed to carry groceries up from the garage beneath the house.
Quality is evident everywhere, particularly in the expanse of marble in the bathrooms. An en suite next to the mirrored master bedroom on the top level is wall-to-wall marble. Both the master bedroom and the adjacent study open to a substantial deck.
While parents hide away upstairs, children can escape to the two bedrooms nestled at the bottom of the house and which open to the terrace. Children have their own marbled bathroom and a separate designer toilet and hand-basin in stainless steel and granite set between mirrored walls.
If you feel like a touch of disco, the enormous rumpus or party room sets a flamboyant scene. The bar has flashing neon lights and one wall is wrapped in a photographic mural of water spilling over rocks. This room leads to a tropical conservatory beneath an arched perspex roof that can be removed to lap up the summer sun.
The laundry is not forgotten in all this stylish living. Though tiny, it has enough room for all the essentials, including a pull-down iron. And it flows straight out to a large service courtyard and washing line.
Reviving the best of 80s nostalgia, this stylish home boasts the best Milford has to offer - proximity to the beach, the reserve, the shopping mall and the marina for that must-have 80s accessory ... the launch.
Vital Statistics
Address: 43 Craig Rd, Milford
Features: 15-year-old home designed by architect Pip Cheshire, waterfront position, split-level terraces, internal-access double garaging, dumb waiter, gas fire, central heating and air conditioning, central vacuum, PABX unit, alarm, conservatory, rumpus room, three bedrooms, study, two bathrooms, landscaping by Ted Smyth
Size: Land is a crossleased half share of 878 sq m
Price: $2.35 million
Agents: Alison Middleton and Ron Clerke, Premium Real Estate, Takapuna. Ph 486 1727 bus; Alison 021 983 533 mob; Ron 025 829 839 mob
Miami meets Milford
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