Pocket site offers space
Experienced renovators Marilyn Crocker and Rob Wark had more than just style in mind when they purchased a run-down cottage on Webber Street in late 2015, in the Cox’s Bay neighbourhood that handily abuts Herne Bay, Westmere and Grey Lynn.
“This was going to be our forever house, an intergenerational house. We could have my parents here so that I could care for them, and the grandchildren here a few days a week,” says Marilyn. “It was designed to be accessible for old people, and work for the grandchildren too.”
Marilyn and Rob knew that the existing cottage on the site, cluttered with ramshackle additions, wouldn’t do the job. They turned to architect Allan Shanahan (“He’s just so good at spatial design”) to fit in the multiple bathrooms and outdoor living they needed for their family on the typically compact inner-city site. Allan’s response to the brief to respect the heritage styling of villas and bungalows on the tiny street was a pair of pleasing gable roofs and white weatherboard walls, updated with sleek, brushed aluminium joinery and shutters.
He managed to fit in an enclosed front courtyard, complete with deck and lawn that gets the sun for late afternoon cocktails and six metres of heated pool down the side of the house for Rob’s evening swims (it has built in seats and is heated year around for the children’s use too), and still made room for decks, lawn and gardens at the back of the house.
Marilyn’s prolific white roses frame the front door as prettily as that of any villa. The courtyard is lined with ficus hedging ready for its first clipping.
Inside Allan increased the sense of spaciousness with extra high ceilings on the ground floor and clever use of high windows and skylights under the gabled ceilings upstairs. Interior designer Debbie Abercrombie helped Marilyn with the sophisticated palette of smoky wideplank oak floors downstairs, a darker smoky grey in carpets upstairs, alarti marble and black slate in kitchen and bathrooms, and gallery-white walls to showcase the couple’s collection of New Zealand art.
Everything was planned for quality, from the commercial grade sliding glass walls in front and back sitting rooms to the extensive insulation that renders heating unnecessary for most of the winter (although the couple enjoy the look of the fireplace in the front living room). However, circumstances have changed, and they are now planning to downsize and travel.
Allan’s clever use of light begins at the full height double entrance door, where he used opaque glass to filter light but retain privacy from the street. The front sitting room houses a fire and a television cleverly camouflaged against a charcoal chimney breast.
The charcoal is repeated on the kitchen island in the rear living space. Marilyn says the 3.5 metre-long piece of slate really makes the room, a rich contrast to the creamy marble splashback and benches of the cook top wall and pantry.
The designers at Bella Cassita (Inner Spaces did all the construction) used wide pocket doors to make the butler’s pantry fully open to the kitchen when a crowd is cooking, or private when there’s mess to hide. Marilyn fell in love with the induction cooktop at Miele cooking classes, complementing it with double ovens, a coffee machine and microwave. A Bosch double fridge and Vintec wine fridge complete the kitchen.
In the summer, two walls of glass slide back to open
the house to the air and breezes, but the couple are particularly pleased at how Allan has added slim louvres for ventilation and air flow through the house, even when it is shut up. Upstairs, lockable exterior louvres mean the house can be left open even when there is noone home — a great safety feature when the young grandchildren are staying.
The couple achieved their dream of accessible living for Marilyn’s parents, with a sunny ground floor bedroom and a bathroom with a continuous shower floor. For a younger family, the carpeted double garage would be perfect for a family of teenagers, as there is plenty of room for storage of bikes and kayaks.
The four bedrooms upstairs are all generous double rooms: the master bedroom and guest room on the street side get the afternoon sun, the master even gets a framed view of Cox’s Bay, the two back bedrooms have surprisingly private views of surrounding trees, not neighbours.
Marilyn is pleased at how much storage Allan managed to fit in the house. Roomy bedroom closets and custom-designed vanities in each of the bathrooms swallow plenty of stuff. A lobby off the stairs is currently used as a small media space, but Allan specified walls of closets so it could be converted to an office or homework centre. Windows look out to the Sky Tower and more trees.
Everything still feels immaculately new, the garden is nicely matured already, the house ready for another generation of owners.