Every day Karen Chubin comes out of her shell, takes in the fresh sea air and the views from her first floor deck and then heads back inside.
Her apartment in the 11-unit Arkles Court complex here is called 'Paua' and it is across the landing from 'Pipi', the apartment up for sale, known officially as No.6.
During periodic renovations, Karen has swapped from 'Paua' to 'Pipi' and back again and her time here has given her a special perspective on this private retreat.
Karen missed the chance to buy No. 6 in 1993 but it came her way in 2002, six years after she'd bought her own place next door.
This block was built in 1966 and while the sea view with its visiting dolphins and orcas is unchanged, the style of this apartment is subtly different.
Beneath the original eaves and purlins, Karen has extended the narrow deck to add 16.25sq m of outdoor living to the interior floorplan.
"For a little apartment, it is a beautiful space," she says. She also updated the balustrades and replaced doors and windows with full-width aluminium sliding doors.
Inside, she reinstated walls to turn the former studio apartment into one with living and a separate bedroom, doing so with adaptability in mind.
In the deck-side bedroom she opted for a simple double wardrobe with strategically-placed power points that allow the layout to be changed on a whim.
"Simple is good. You can decide to sleep the other way to look out to the view by just swinging the bed around."
Storage above the wardrobe is behind rattan blinds. A shell-trimmed oval mirror brings the sea view into the room, complete with a hessian blind she trimmed with shells collected from the beach.
In the bathroom/laundry, new vertical tongue and groove wall panelling continues the timber theme, beneath the original pitched roofline and rafters.
In the kitchen, the rear walls and laminate benchtop are the colour of golden sand. The breakfast bar is a slab of macrocarpa with tapa cloth as the patterned feature.
6/4 Arkles Strand, Arkles Bay. Photo / Supplied
The cohesive element throughout is the painted, waxed original native timber floorboards that are the colour of the sea, created from a colour Karen mixed on site.
"I wanted to do it all with a soft touch. I didn't want it to be too perfect but to have that laidback, beachy, 60s vibe to it."
When friends are staying, she'll often lock the door at the bottom of the central stairwell so they can leave the apartment doors open at the top to create one big holiday pad.
Hoisted up under the stairwell ceiling is her decorative antique dinghy that she is happy to pass on to the new owners.
Beneath this apartment is the breezeway with seafront bi-fold doors that is a protected space, owned as a share on each title. It cannot legally be converted into car parking or obstructed in any way.
"It is there to allow people to breeze through, quite literally," says Karen. It opens out to the lawn, the sea front reserve and the boat ramp, the latter is common property.
Development rights allow the single carpark at the front of Arkles Court to be built-in. There is also provision for a mezzanine floor to be built above Karen's two apartments.
She had completed some ground-level structural work before she decided to pick up her own life plans instead.
"I could still keep one apartment and live in the other or make an early start on my bucket list," she says of her semi-retired status. It was her bucket list that won the day.
