SCHOOL ZONES:
Remuera School, Remuera Intermediate, double grammar.
CONTACT:
Greg Gibson, 021 940 048, Mark Wilson, 021 970 006, UP Real Estate.
While some developers might regard trees as "a curse", Brian Hughes has embraced the mature trees on a site where he plans to build four homes.
So much so that the houses have been informally named after their adjacent trees -- Totara, Elm, Ginkgo and Pohutukawa.
Totara, the first of the houses to be built, sits at the top of the drive, and has three towering totara standing side by side to the north of the house.
"I was happy to keep these trees because you get shading from them during summer but the canopy is high enough that sun comes in during winter," says Brian.
The new home has been shifted back to allow driveway access down the side of the section that serves it and allows access to the other sites.
Image 1 of 8: Towering totara give this stylish and spacious pad a leafy outlook. Photos / Ted Baghurst
Brian says little remains of the original home apart from a set of stained-glass windows and some recycled weatherboards. So the new houses have been designed from scratch with architect Richard Priest working on the concept with Pru Pinford, of Pinford Architects, who produced the finished drawings.
Brian says: "The brief was to have a feeling of space -- consequently this house has a higher stud than normal and I also wanted to bring the trees inside, to incorporate them into the design."
Brian says they also wanted a "family home that doesn't require the upkeep of a typical 1000sq m site".
"In fact, it's like a massively oversized apartment and you could just live on the top level if you want to."
The top floor is at street level and features an open-plan kitchen/dining/lounge space that spans the western face of the house.
This area has been designed with the kitchen at its centre so the living spaces either side can be swapped around between winter and summer, if the new owners desire.
A gas fire sits in the southern end of the space, and the home also has a ducted air-conditioning system with a heat pump in the lower lounge.
Engineered oak floors provide warmth to the neutral colour scheme in the main living space, which has stacking sliders out to a large, west-facing loggia with overhead heaters.
The outlook from here is leafy and peaceful, as it is from the smaller loggia off the office/TV room tucked behind the main living space.
On this floor, the master bedroom occupies its own wing and has a walk-in wardrobe and ceramic-tiled en suite with standalone bath.
Large picture windows flood the home with light and this is shown to best effect on the staircase, where the impressive glazing makes the home feel part of the leafy surrounds. On the lower level are three bedrooms, with the larger one having views and an en suite.
The lounge on this floor -- off a generous circulation space -- has been wired up so that it can serve as a media room.
An oversized and overheight carpeted garage -- large enough to hold a boat -- completes the picture and has a wine cellar off it that is tucked under the house.
Brian says it is time to test the market with this house before they move on with the rest of the development.
