EXTRA-SIZED LIFESTYLE COMES WITH VIEWS
Life at 11 Whiteley St in New Plymouth is enticingly elevated, with the large brick home sitting on what looks to be the highest point along this mountain side of the coast-hugging street.
Elevation, of course, means views and you quickly appreciate the appeal of the outlook here when you reach the upper living areas. There’s a view across the street and between homes there to boats bobbing in the marina at the Lee Breakwater, and a slice of the Tasman Sea beyond. To the east, there is a wide view across the tree-studded city; while a turn west reveals the peak of Paritutu Rock and the pencil shape of the former power-station chimney rising on the horizon.
That’s not all to admire here. By this point, you are also beginning to appreciate the amount of living space available in this two-storey home and the attraction of the bonus separate accommodation behind the residence.
While the Summit Stone-clad home on its concrete block basement looks substantial from the street, it’s so much more than that drive-by presentation. The street image is enhanced, however, by the impressive stacked broken-concrete retaining wall across the front boundary and the massive palm tree that sits to the side of the driveway.
The driveway rises past the oversized single garage just off the street – it could be a tandem for two smaller cars – to the level section where the house sits. There’s plenty of concrete parking area between the house and those self-contained quarters behind it.
Visitors will appreciate the placement of the front door beneath the upper deck that provides protection in wet weather.
Inside the door, you find a real flexibility in the wealth of space at this level and the options it provides. There is almost a complete home down here – three double bedrooms (one with an ensuite), a sunny north-facing living area (or large office), a bathroom, a spacious utility/laundry area, and another living area that was once an internal garage. The latter has bifolding doors that would still allow a vehicle to be accommodated here.
This ground level easily could provide a place for a work-from-home business, it could house extended family, or it become an airBnB option.
Take the stairs up and you find the views that the elevation promises – and delivers.
Lounge, dining and kitchen spaces are open-plan and the wealth of window glass lets light pour in here – and the eyes look out. The viewshaft to the sea opens up even more when you step out from the dining area on to the large deck with its glass balustrade panels.
As you find so often across this city, when you go up a level to a view like this, you immediately realise just
how many trees soften the cityscape. “There’s heaps of pohutukawa,” notes Gisella. “Imagine what that all looks like when they are in flower.”
The barbecue parked out here tells its own story of convivial gatherings and meals. But if the kitchen is the focus for meal preparations, the servery window above the sink bench then comes into its own for both food and drink. Pass out another cold beer, please?
The home itself was built in the 1980s, but today’s spacious and well-equipped kitchen was installed in 2003, when this home’s owner invested serious dollars in a complete interior makeover. The decor flows seamlessly throughout the home and the rear unit – easy-on-the-eye earthy colours on the walls and doors, and light-oak vinyl planking across all the floors, except for carpet in the two upstairs bedrooms and one of the downstairs bedrooms.
“Fifteen years later, it still has a contemporary feel,” Gisella says. “He did well.”
Sun would naturally warm this home, but for dull winter’s days, there’s the gas-fired central heating system to keep the home comfortable. The rear unit has a large heat pump for convenient and efficient warmth.
That unit seems to have started life as a triple garage and then been cleverly converted to extra accommodation – with obvious opportunity to create an income from an airBnB focus. That lightoak flooring flows underfoot throughout its generous open space, with a wall of moveable cupboards to create a bedroom area. There’s a kitchen in the back corner, with a well-set-up bathroom off the adjacent walk-through laundry.
The grounds are also impressive, with a generous square of level lawn, a lower terraced orchard area with a grape vine, several citrus varieties, and berry bushes growing. On the opposite boundary, a line of feijoa trees produces a healthy crop of aromatic fruit.
Gisella is expecting plenty of interest in this Moturoa property. Prospective buyers could also be attracted by the potential to subdivide the property of almost 1030sqm. 027 430 6445 753 9524 gisella.sklenars@tsbrealty.co.nz