KEY POINTS:
The real estate agent can't believe his eyes. We're heading into June yet lying beside the two sunloungers in the garden at this Herne Bay townhouse is a teeny weeny black bikini top. Agent Cameron Brain snaps the scene with his mobile phone. "No one will believe me, otherwise."
The abandoned top is testament that this north-facing grassed and tiled garden is a suntrap, even in the cooler months. The area is low maintenance yet still big enough for a couple of active toddlers to hurtle about on trikes.
The new townhouse is a departure from Jalcon Homes' usual style of more traditional housing estates at Albany, Dannemora and Orewa.
Brain says the Herne Bay venture is "something new for them, and the design is transitional."
He thinks the firm has hit the right balance, being modern but not austere. "You can walk into some new homes and you get that cold look. This has a homely feel about it."
Ingrid Van Leeuwen, sales and marketing manager at Jalcon, says the firm first built 12 townhouses on Kelmarna Avenue, just around the corner from Hukanui Crescent. "It was something completely new from our traditional design and build," and a chance for the firm to showcase the brand in the inner city.
"When this four-section block of land became available Lindsay Aitken, the owner of Jalcon Homes, purchased the land. From building at Kelmarna, Lindsay knew we could design a similar complex here."
Brain says the site once housed accommodation for the nuns who taught at the Marist school. The chapel building still remains in the street, a couple of sections along, but is now a house. Another neighbouring site is home to an organic farm.
Ashby Baker Architectural designers drew up the plans for 20 Hukanui Crescent and the three other sections. The brief was to use the small sites well, and to build something trendy, in keeping with the development next door.
Number 20, completed in February, offers a lock-and leave-lifestyle, sharing gated access with its neighbour at 22.
Entry is through the double garage or separate stairs to the first level with its large living area encompassing kitchen and dining; another living area, with gas fireplace; and a guest bedroom and bathroom. Both living areas can access the garden through glass sliding doors.
The kitchen has been designed with entertaining in mind. Bench tops are granite and the floors are bleached timber.
All levels of the house can be accessed by the wooden stairway, or a lift which, besides transporting people, beats carrying groceries upstairs from the car or lumping the washing up and down the stairs to the laundry beside the garage.
On the top level are the master bedroom, with its walk-in wardrobe and en suite, two more bedrooms, and another bathroom. This level is carpeted throughout.
Brain says people don't realise the house is 267sq m, as the street appearance only hints at the interior layout. "People see the joined wall and think it's a small townhouse, but inside it's something different."
He imagines the home would appeal to someone who has been living in a penthouse apartment but now wants more space and a little bit of grass, still with the added security of a gated entrance. But it's also a home that will appeal to families and the low maintenance exterior of cedar weatherboard and plaster is a bonus for anyone tiring of extensive upkeep on some of the area's older homes. Plus the building comes with a 15-year watertightness guarantee.
