LARGE AS LIFE
This funky 1970s home comes with a variety of living areas, writes Catherine Masters
When Catherine Kirby and husband Douglas walked into this house 15 years ago, they knew their search was over.
99 Selwyn Avenue in Mission Bay, Auckland, was built in the 1970s and the space if offered is what blew the couple away. Says Catherine: “This house is 420sq m - it’s absolutely huge.”
She adds: “We’ve had large groups of family staying and we’ve had boarders and we’ve never felt overcrowded, never. And they were staying not just overnight, people would stay for days on end. We’ve really loved that about it and friends and family felt at home.”
Then there is the pool , or, more like pool complex.
The pool is big as well, plus there’s a spa pool, plus there’s a sauna, plus there’s a cabana and there’s also an outdoor bathroom.
“The sauna is the proper wood out from Scandinavia, it’s just a really welldesigned sauna,” Catherine says.
The sauna would have been all the rage in the seventies and reckons there would have been some great pool parties back in the day.
Catherine and Douglas says their children, who are now grown up, had some great parties out there in their teen years. “They went through all of their schooling here. It’s just been fabulous.
“We moved over from Hillsborough. We’ve always loved the bays and we came over also for the schooling.
“The children went to Baradene and to Sacred Heart so it was sort of smack bang in the middle of those two schools.”
Catherine loves the view of the harbour - watching the cruise ships go by at night all lit up has been a treat – but she has loved the space to spread out, and Douglas has loved the garage space which has a huge workshop and a boat shed.
The main living is upstairs with the master bedroom and two more bedrooms, a big kitchen and big lounge.
Downstairs can be quite separate, and there’s also a self-contained studio which is ideal for renting out, Catherine says.
Because the house is a 70s build of solid cedar with a block base, it’s a dry, reassuring home giving peace of mind, she says.
There’s a lot of glass and the whole house is sunny and warm. “It’s such an open feel. Because you’re elevated anyway up on the ridge you already feel nice and high and you’re up there and you can see everything, no neighbours are looking in to you but you can look out,” she says.
The location is great, as well. Catherine walks down to the Mission Bay cafes and you can go for a swim at the beach on a sunny day.
Ray White sales agent Ken Choong says the house’s size makes it versatile: “You’ve got the potential to use it as one big home and you still have the separate studio area to rent to flatmates, or you can use it as three different areas.
“The potential is really living together but not together, like extended family, parents or teenagers downstairs and then upstairs it’s a nice layout with a sea view to enjoy and the whole house gets plenty of sun.”