CONTACT:
Jo Glancy, 021 994 874, Joanna.Glancy@bayleys. co.nz
AUCTION:
Thursday, October 1.
Visiting this property is like stepping into a real-life fairytale. Behind a tall white gate in this pleasant street with spectacular harbour bridge views, lies a secret forest.
Down 100 or so steps through lush subtropical native trees -- and some of the first palms ever planted in New Zealand-- is a spectacular modern house with soaring ceilings.
Its owner, Des Bartlett, built it almost entirely by himself, about 15 years ago, carrying materials down from the road or, into his sheltered little bay, by barge.
"It's surprising what you can do when you need to," he says.
Des is a lifelong Birkenhead local and this is the third house in the street that he's owned.
"When I heard that this section was for sale I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. It had a boatshed on the site so I knew there would be level land at the water's edge."
Des' hunch was right and before long the wheels of his new project were in motion.
For a start, he and his late wife, Robyn, had to clear away bamboo that had grown so tall it completely hid the pohutukawa trees.
"It was a lovely surprise when we discovered them."
Des satisfied the council's strict guidelines by proposing to build a boatshed-style house which he'd designed himself.
The resulting dwelling, which incorporates his art studio, is a monument to stylish minimalism and practically everything within its corrugated iron exterior walls is made from solid pine.
With 45 opening windows, nautical porthole windows in the main living area add to the boatshed feeling.
"I love the privacy we enjoy here," says Des.
Image 1 of 10: As 'boatsheds' go, this is a stunningly stylish base from which to launch a dinghy, enjoy the view and just simply kick back and relax
"The only other building you can actually see is the Scout den on the other side of the water."
With five bedrooms, there's lots of space and it's certainly ideal when Des' three adult children and their families come to stay.
The entire front of the house is glass, offering unhindered views of pretty Little Shoal Bay.
A narrow mezzanine floor above is beloved by Des' dogs, while he likes to sit in the lounge below, where sun streams in in summer and a cosy woodburner keeps the house warm on winter days.
"I've found that you can spend an awful lot of time doing nothing. It's very relaxing, watching the tide coming in and out."
Also on this floor is the neat, hard-working kitchen and main bathroom. Yet again, the joinery is pine, which means there's a very effective design "flow" throughout the house.
Even the generous walk-in wardrobe in the master suite was carefully built by Des, using his favourite timber.
Sadly, with Robyn's untimely passing, things haven't turned out quite the way Des planned.
"The house is too big for someone on his own, and I feel that I need a change."
While he's rightly proud of what he's achieved here, the cycling enthusiast and artist, who began making his signature large resin masks a few years ago, is planning to hit the road -- in a camper-van.
"I'm just going to set out and see what happens. Right now I'm busy designing and constructing a gate for the place where I'm going to be parking it.
