KEY POINTS:
Five years ago, Christine and Rex de Lille were not actively house hunting. In fact, they had not even thought of moving from their family home in Takapuna. But a friend told them they should take a look at a recently renovated house just metres from Milford Beach.
"The moment Rex walked in, I just knew he'd fallen in love," says Christine.
"I took a little longer to get used to the idea, but this house just takes your heart. It is a unique property that somehow just makes your soul come alive."
The couple bought the house on the spot and over the intervening years have learned just how much care and attention to detail went into the planning and design of the renovation.
The previous owners had bought a small cottage and taken six years to plan their masterpiece and a further four to build.
The solid block and plaster, three-storey house has borrowed the best of seaside design from Spain, Italy and the Mediterranean coastline, and mixed it with a dose of pure New Zealand.
Christine and Rex have had to do little to the property except fill the house with their own seaside-influenced art and the gardens with sculpture and resort-style landscaping.
One of the renovating owners was involved in the bathroom business, so each of the three bathrooms has its own luxury touch: one is vintage French provincial style; the master suite boasts black granite, a spa bath and nine-head shower; while the ground floor bathroom (which also serves the pool) is pebbled and beachy.
The kitchen pays equal attention to detail: the curved windows, which open to the deck with beach views, are fully formed glass; the cabinets are equally curved.
Alongside the high-tech are beautiful touches of native timbers: hand-made totara doors (the front door magnificently finished with forged steel hardware), matai and macrocarpa beams, stairs made from heart rimu. All the wood is re-cycled from sustainable sources.
It is easy to see why the house tugs at the heart. Careful planning has meant that each of the three levels has self-contained living and beautifully framed views of trees or the sea. The ground floor double bedroom was large enough for a rumpus space for the couple's teenage son, and the top floor master suite houses an office, a large bedroom with sitting room and a roof-top terrace with 180-degree views.
The central living floor links a formal dining room to a snug breakfast nook off the kitchen and a large living room. A central fireplace keeps the house warm in winter, while bi-fold doors open to decks on the front and back.
An adventurous colour palette of sea blues and greens fits the leafy coastal setting.
The house has the bonus of a one-bedroom self-contained flat, equally well-detailed, with only a one-minute walk to the beach.
With their son now living overseas, Rex and Christine feel the house needs handing on to another family to fill it while they downsize to a lock-up and leave to do some travelling of their own.
