SCHOOL ZONES:
Parnell School, Auckland Girls and Auckland Grammar.
CONTACT:
Krister Samuel, Ray White, 021 470 194.
AUCTION:
April 6.
Alexandra and Carl Muthu have shifted in and out of this same apartment eight times in the past 14 years and it has had nothing to do with any tendencies towards obsessive redecorating.
They did their redecorating two years ago, having been content with how the design, scale and outdoor living options of this three-level apartment supported their medical careers and their home life as the parents of three primary school-age boys.
Packing up in and around their four stints living here has been about completing their respective medical specialist qualifications - Alexandra as a physician and Carl as a surgeon.
They were junior doctors when they bought this apartment in November 2002, moving in from a house nearby that they had rented after their marriage.
In the years since, they've worked at several other New Zealand hospitals and at the Mayo Clinic in the United States.
Come time to move back to Auckland, they headed straight for Grafton and this home, although they twice chose to rent nearby for a while rather than send their good tenants packing.
The supreme suitability of this apartment in the 27-unit Grafton Ridge complex and the neighbourhood vibe so close to Auckland City Hospital have been key factors in their lives.
"It has been brilliant for shift work, we can come home to eat and be back within five minutes. It is central but it's a suburb, rather than being an apartment in the CBD, and it still feels quite urban.
This apartment has three levels of living and bedrooms above a double garage with space for a home office plus a separate laundry.
The first floor living area has urban views from the kitchen and dining area at one end and leafy views across the rear deck above the courtyard from the lounge.
Within the lounge, a free-standing fireplace wall has created a discreet hallway off the landing.
"You don't have to walk through the lounge and you can leave those people talking there and walk through here," says Alexandra.
They will often rejig their furniture around the fireplace or to take in the setting sun as it cuts a slice between neighbouring apartments screened by deciduous trees and the historic former Whitecliffe Arts School building.
Upstairs, two large queen-sized bedrooms are handy to the family bathroom with the same cabinetry and granite vanity as in the en suite off the top floor master bedroom.
Two boys have shared the rear bedroom quite comfortably and, at one point, Alexandra commandeered the front bedroom as her bolthole while studying for her specialists' exams.
It was certainly not a negative that the big view beyond neighbouring rooftops and trees had the medical school and hospital as centre stage as well as Mt Eden, Mt Hobson and a little of the Auckland Domain on the fringes.
"No, not looking out at work, just looking at life," says Alexandra. "I like the trees and sitting here and looking at the horizon,"
Their interior repaint and installation of new carpet complements an exterior upgrade of the apartment complex with new bevel back aluminium cladding.
Most recently this couple have been building what Alexandra calls "our forever home" with more space for the boys amid the same established neighbourhood less than 1km away.
