An oasis of happiness
Designed for leisure this three- storey home offers outstanding sea views, discovers Graham Hepburn
Living a few doors down the road, Alisha and Riaz Patel knew No. 411 had wide sea views so they leapt at the chance to buy it 10 years ago. They also knew that if they went up a level, those views would be even more impressive.
“We really liked the sea view and wanted to capitalise on that,” Alisha says of their decision to commission Russell Swain of Habitat Design to draw up plans for a third floor master suite and extension of the ground floor.
Alisha says with the help of builder Rob Campbell they basically rebuilt the house, including creating an atrium with a two- storey glass panel water feature.
“My husband used to travel to South Africa and he brought a lot of ideas back from there,” Alisha says of the water feature, which takes centre stage in the marble- floored atrium.
Because they had been living in Dubai before moving to New Zealand, Alisha says they put in underfloor heating and heat pumps in most rooms.
Off the atrium is a steam room/ sauna with a laundry opposite. At the other end of the house is a guest wing with office, bedroom, bathroom and a lounge that opens out to the back yard with swimming pool and spa.
“It was always nice when we had guests for them to have their own separate space to hang out,” says Alisha.
On the northern side of the ground floor the Patels turned the double garage into a family room with full kitchen and a lime green splashback, in keeping with feature walls and pops of colour throughout the home.
“We wanted this to be more like an entertainment area, even though the kitchen has the same features as the one above,” says Alisha.
This space also opens out to the pool and provides access to the double garage they had added. Building the garage meant they could create
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411 RIDDELL RD, GLENDOWIE SIZE: PRICE GUIDE: AUCTION: INSPECT: SCHOOL ZONES: CONTACT: ON THE WEB: a north- facing deck on top of it linking with the main living area on the floor above.
On that level the Italian kitchen has a fire engine red splashback and is part of an open plan space that joins the deck to the north and one facing east that enjoys Hauraki Gulf views.
On a split- level, the media room opens to its own covered deck facing east, which can also be accessed from one of the bedrooms. On this floor there are two more marble- tiled bathrooms and a bedroom facing the street. A skylight floods this floor and the atrium with light.
A short flight of stairs takes you up to the master suite, which has an office at the top of the stairs Riaz would use at all times of the day and night to stay in touch with overseas markets.
To one side of the master bedroom, which has a walk- in wardrobe behind the bed head, is an en suite with glass shower and a deep standalone bath facing a window that frames a view of Rangitoto Island.
The northeastern corner of the bedroom is glazed and opens to a deck wrapping around this corner of the house and looking out over the gulf.
“We used to have a table and chairs out here and it was a great place to sit in the morning and sip your coffee,” says Alisha.
She says when they rebuilt the home they packed it with features such as sound systems, TVs and a video security set- up to make it comfortable for family living and create what Riaz calls “an oasis of happiness”.