Water on three sides
Ten years ago, a morning amble around his Whitford neighbourhood by Allan Larsen prompted a dramatic lifestyle change for him and wife Annie.
“It was a brand new home, with absolutely no gardens, just paddocks,” he says. “I just happened to see the picture of the total waterfront location and said to Annie, ‘we have to go see it’.”
The huge European-style solid masonry house was a collaboration between designer Mark Wilson of Masonry Design Solutions and Eden Homes, known for their high-quality builds. It was almost as if the developers had the couple in mind: a blank canvas of a garden for Allan, a dedicated sewing room for keen crafter Annie. All the bathrooms and kitchens were finished with oak and marble, the light fixtures were top-end (ornate Italian glass chandeliers in the entry lobby and dining room are worth more than $22,000 each). And the layout was just what they needed.
“It was total privacy, just what we’d been looking for,” says Annie. “There’s water on three sides of the property, the neighbours are a long way away. You can go all weekend without seeing or hearing a car. The only cars are people coming to see us.”
And at times that can be quite a crowd. Their family is now grown (a son and daughter-in-law live in the 180sq m house beside the main house) but the layout of generous living room, kitchen and family dining room grouped around a series of covered loggias and terraces has been ideal for the sociable couple. Over the years the Larsens have hosted huge gatherings for significant birthdays from 21 to 70, engagement parties, weddings and lots of big occasions, crowds of 60 or more being comfortably accommodated.
“Everybody wants to have their weddings here,” says Annie.
One of the reasons may be the spreading gardens that keen gardener Allan has created. The couple commissioned landscape architect Trudy Crerar to turn the paddocks, a grove of mature olive trees and a trickle of a stream into a showpiece. Over two years, with the help of a couple of landscaping students, the Larsens planted thousands of trees and shrubs, moved earth to dam the stream into a pond and created charming walkways and decks out of recycled hardwoods.
Close to the house, the planting is more formal beds of clipped buxus and griselinia hedges, gradually
becoming looser around the back of the house as lawn blends into bush and waterfront. A small stand of bush was revitalised with paths and a bridge. The soil in this part of south-east Auckland is very good (a neighbouring parent has a hugely productive vege garden), and the orchard, sporting pretty much every sort of fruit tree, over-produces, according to Annie, who is swamped at this time of year. Allan reckons that mowing the lawns on his ride-on is his favourite therapy, a chance to get away from everything, and not a chore at all.
The house is handily zoned with the couple’s master suite — big enough for a sitting room at one end, the bathroom with a tub with windows to the garden — and a guest suite down one end. At the other end in what they still call “the kids’end” has three more bedrooms, each with en suite or Jack-and-Jill bathrooms. The office near the front door was fitted out with oak desks and shelving.
Oak is repeated in the wood flooring through the public areas, and on the kitchen cabinets. Annie says the kitchen is perfect for functions, with its huge central island and an efficient scullery tucked away to hide the mess. The kitchen and living rooms all open to a covered loggia, which, after the kitchen, is the most used part of the house, sheltered from prevailing winds.
Bifold doors open the whole house to patios and terraces, framed by garden beds, then the lawns and sea views. In winter there’s under-floor heating and three fireplaces (one gas, one wood that backs on to another wood fire on the patio), plus a cosy media room to retreat to.
To one side of the driveway is a second house that the couple converted from a tractor barn. With its board-and-batten finish and private gardens, it makes glamorous guest quarters. But with their son about to get his own house and with family in Denmark, the couple have decided it’s time to move off such a large property and spend more time travelling.
“We’re close to civilisation, only seven minutes to Botany Town Centre, but it’s total privacy here,” says Annie. “It will be very hard to part with this level of privacy.”