SCHOOL ZONES:
Stanley Bay School, Belmont Intermediate, Takapuna Grammar School.
CONTACT:
Lynda Betts, Bayleys, ph 021 278 3024.
Brenda Tocher is obsessed with making things look right, so things were always going to get "next level" with her driving the striking re-invention of this Devonport villa.
Brenda built her career as a TV producer painstakingly visualising staging, sets and shots.
"I'd art direct a crumpled piece of paper. It's like a disease."
So, when she wanted exacting details such as the sort of heating-cooling vents found in art galleries or "big asks" such as a discreet "kitchen/no kitchen", these things happened.
The term "benchmark property" is over-used but appropriate here given its luxuriousness, uncompromising nature throughout and grand scale -- which isn't initially apparent on approach.
Brenda, partner Jim Moser and their 15-year-old daughter Olivia moved from Sydney six years ago when Jim became CEO of marketing communications company Clemenger Group New Zealand. When the globe-trotting couple (she's Irish, he's American and they met in Poland) checked out Auckland homes, their favourites all had renovations conceived by David Ponting of Ponting Fitzgerald.
Naturally, they commissioned him when reinventing this ornate circa-1907 villa they've shared with their rescue dogs Betty, Madge and Beryl.
Jim recalls: "I loved the Victorian nature of the front of the house but it was also amazing getting a north-facing corner lot of this size."
Time was taking its toll on the home crafted originally by a local boat builder. Therefore they restored and maintained its facade, fully renewed four front rooms and effectively built a new home behind.
Their big, level, fenced grounds are on the corner of First Ave, which is where you enter their internal-access triple garage. A security gate opens to a welcome from a water feature within manicured grounds that include plentiful lawns, impactful uncluttered planting and hedges for privacy.
Two original chimneys atop the villa cost a cool $100,000 combined to have disassembled and reassembled with inner strengthening.
Inside the beautiful leadlight front door, the striking globe-shaped trio of hallway chandeliers are the first of more than a dozen.
"I wanted light and scale and flow and we got everything that was on our wish-list and more," says Brenda.
"Our builders, Coastline Construction, and our joiners, Form Design, were brilliant."
Three downstairs bedrooms have en suites with floor-to-ceiling mirrors; the delectable bath in one is effectively open-air when surrounding bifolds are opened. A powder room and laundry are equally polished.
The line-up on the other side of the hall starts with a big study/library cocooned by the return verandah.
Everyone loves the formal lounge with pink rug they call "the pink room". Its double-sided gas fireplace shared with the dining room is floor-to-ceiling mirror.
Brenda managed the renovation and chose the decor favouring mirrored, high-gloss, stainless steel and marble finishes.
Image 1 of 6: Take an old villa and breathe sympathetic modernity into it. Result: an inviting confection
There are more than 100sq m of deck and a resort-style rear saltwater pool with neighbouring garden and lawn.
Brenda smiles: "In summer this becomes rose central."
The upstairs master suite encompasses a bedroom, separate media room, splendid walk-in wardrobe with concealed second laundry and an ensuite with a Rangitoto view.
Jim's adding chairman of Clemenger BBDO Melbourne to his current role so will maintain a Ponsonby apartment while their family relocates to Melbourne.
