SCHOOL ZONES:
Kauri Park School, Birkdale Intermediate, Birkenhead College.
CONTACT:
Chico Timoti, Harcourts, 021 962 140.
AUCTION:
6.30pm Tuesday, March 3 (unless sold prior).
Serato CEO AJ Bertenshaw bought this property eight years ago as his first home. "The haven" references its private park-like nature and its Beach Haven location, which AJ reckons some Aucklanders underestimate for proximity given he's less than 15 minutes' drive from Gillies Ave motorway off-ramp.
"It's incredibly private here," he says.
AJ describes himself as a big kid who has enjoyed peppering this property with play facilities while remodelling it completely. A pool room with bar and a media room are more mainstream examples.
Wackier is the 18m pink-and-blue inflatable waterslide outside inspired by his bubbly wife Kristy. She became enamoured of the idea after seeing one on the Playboy Mansion reality TV series.
North Shore-raised AJ says he doesn't like feeling boxed in so was attracted by these 1657sq m grounds and the potential to replace poles underneath the house with another level. He liked that the mid-80s timber home wasn't done up as he's picky about renovations and wanted to supervise them. He's refreshingly candid about an initial $300,000 renovation budget getting the house to a point where it was effectively "a matchstick house".
"There was really just the timber frame and the roof left at that stage."
That's because early plans to replace dark aluminium joinery grew until he'd gutted the home and replaced flooring, walls, joinery, doors and its timber exterior with more timber.
"I ended up spending about double what I'd first planned to spend."
Although the couple travel often, friends house-sit their cats, rescued from a box of abandoned kittens outside a then-vacant neighbouring home.
"They love housesitting here and say it feels like a modern hotel or a resort."
A long driveway ends at the home set in subtropically landscaped grounds burbling with birdsong. AJ added the internal-access double garage and gave the three-level home keyless keypad entry.
Image 1 of 5: Remodelled property lavishly kitted out for fun times and entertaining
He made the mid, entry-level's lounge open-plan with its entertainers' kitchen and dining area.
"This is a huge entertaining house. We're known for it; both parties and dinner parties."
Last Christmas he invited Serato's 85 employees and their families to play at his "play house". The lounge has high, angled ceilings and opens up on two sides uniting with sunny decks to create a big indoor-outdoor entertaining space.
AJ avoided factors frustrating him in other houses, choosing infinite hot water and favouring drawers over the hard-to-explore recesses of deep cupboards in the granite-benched kitchen.
The insulated home has halogen lights, 'smart' wiring and four heat pumps.
The mid-level is completed by two bedrooms and the main bathroom with two-person bath.
Upstairs the master suite has an adjoining giant shower plus a walk-through wardrobe to its en suite. It looks over the gulf to Whenuapai.
The man-cave, or second living area opening to decks downstairs, rates highly with AJ who outfitted it with a bar and used it as his pool room. Adjoining it are an office overlooking the grounds (potentially a fourth bedroom), a media room with sound-deadening curtains blocking external sound and light, plus a utility room and toilet.
A stone wall retains the backyard midway, with a level lower lawn near a triangle of native bush.
AJ and Kristy enjoy living with other people and have bought another property AJ describes as "like this but on a bigger scale". It'll accommodate more housemates, but hasn't the right space for their inflatable slide.
