This blokey home looks like a country lodge. But it’s in the heart of Auckland city.

Chris Burke’s home feels like a blokey high-country lodge, but it’s actually in the heart of inner-city Auckland

The smell of waxed wood and worn leather furniture greets you as soon as you push open the heavy front door to Chris Burke’s lodge-like home. Girl, the outdoorsman’s hunting companion, waits on the landing at the top of the entranceway stairs where two deep armchairs beckon, draped invitingly in furs. A few steps beyond, in the living room, an old painting of several men on horseback hangs above the fireplace.

“It’s a painting of the poem The Man from Snowy River by Banjo Paterson – a wonderful, wonderful story,” says Chris, who starts reciting. “There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around/That the colt from old Regret had got away, And had joined the wild bush horses – he was worth a thousand pound…”

Listening to Chris it’s easy to think you’ve been transported to a remote, high-country station and forget for a moment that you’re smack bang in the middle of New Zealand’s biggest city.

Chris’ mountain lodge in St Marys Bay, Auckland, has been a two-year labour of love for the civil contractor and his good mate, designer and builder Tony Burgess, who completely embraced Chris’ vision of transforming a brick and tile 1940s house on a quiet cul-de-sac into his dream home.

“We started creating, putting our thoughts together a year before,” says Chris. “We’d exchange photos. We’d meet each week and discuss themes, all sorts of stuff.”

The pair pulled off a makeover of monumental proportions, and not much remains of the previous home. >

“We left the floor and the fire and then dug in underneath,” says Chris. “Getting the floor level right was a bit challenging. And finding somewhere to take all the dirt. I can’t tell you where we took it, but there were a few favours called and we got rid of it. I would think it would be a couple of hundred truckloads.”

In this expansive excavated space downstairs you’ll now find the guest quarters (complete with a kitchenette, well stocked with wine, for Chris’ frequent visitors), not to mention an enormous double garage (something of a rarity in these parts).

Upstairs is Chris’ bedroom and the open-plan living area. Raw materials, including exposed brick, steel and a leathered granite kitchen bench, contribute to the rustic-meets-industrial aesthetic and the home’s distinctly masculine feel. Milling marks are visible on the enormous rimu beams in the vaulted ceiling and wooden walls. The century-old timber was salvaged from an old building that was being demolished in Wellington. “A friend of mine is in demolition and he was aware I wanted to build a lodge,” says Chris. When his friend won the job to pull down the building, he called Chris and told him he had to come down and collect the wood. “We brought it up on a truck and a trailer and we sorted through it and used what we wanted.”

The exposed bricks might appear original, but they were also salvaged. “We bought bricks off Trade Me and were driving all over Auckland at all hours of the night to pick them up,” says Chris. “The bricklayers were bloody good, because we wanted the mortar to be a bit aged, so there was quite a bit of mucking around to get it looking really good.”

Rescued materials have been used throughout. The handle of the 400kg front door was made from a bolt that came out of one of those huge rimu ceiling beams. >

‘Everyone who has worked on the house has embraced it and taken a lot of pride in it’

In each of the bathrooms, the copper handbasins were made by lopping the bottoms off discarded hot water cylinders.

“Tony’s very, very clever at that fine detail,” says Chris of his designer, builder and project manager. “He ate, breathed and slept this project for two years and that enthusiasm was contagious. For most of the people who worked here, it was just another job at the start, but the more they worked on it the more they got caught up in Tony’s passion for it. I think, by and large, everyone who has worked on the house has embraced it and taken a lot of pride in it. It’s different and I think that probably appeals to most tradespeople. Even some of the dry old tradesmen got swept along with it and had a contribution to make somewhere.”

Chris says there’s not a part of the house he doesn’t love. “I’m thrilled with it. Do you know what? Sometimes I’ll come home in the quiet of the day and I’ll have a cup of tea and sit out on the deck and just watch the world go by for 15 or 20 minutes, and then go back to work.”

THIS PAGE The leather armchairs on the landing at Chris Burke’s home in Auckland’s St Marys Bay are a favourite spot to read; he bought the painting of a horse in Denver, Colorado: “I’m not into art, but I’m into horses,” says Chris; the light fixture is from Urbano Interiors. OPPOSITE A slab of leathered granite tops the kitchen island, which features salvaged wood and a black, powder-coated steel frame: “It’s very heavy, I would estimate it at 600kg. We had to crane it in,” says Chris.

THIS PAGE Chris’ dog Girl greets visitors in the entranceway; designer and builder Tony Burgess suggested the George Nelson light shade as a soft contrast in the masculine space. OPPOSITE (clockwise from top) The vaulted ceiling in the upstairs living area features Japanese cedar and salvaged rimu beams; the sofas are from French Country Collections and the enormous cowhide is from Koko Classics in Auckland. A painting inspired by the poem The Man from Snowy River by Banjo Paterson hangs above the fireplace; the fireplace is original, but the copper and powder-coated steel surrounds and the recycled timber mantelpiece are new additions. The door to the kitchen cupboard that holds the glasses is made of wired glass: “Like we used to have at school,” says Chris.

THIS PAGE (clockwise from top left) Girl makes a great guard dog: “If she’s growling or barking you need to pay attention,” says Chris; an offcut from one of the rimu beams has been repurposed as a side table. Salvaged bricks collected from all over the city feature in the stairwell. The glass shower door in the en suite bathroom was inspired by doors Chris came across in a store dressing room: “I was in there buying something and I took a picture and sent it to Tony.” A glimpse into the main bedroom.OPPOSITE An old copper hot water cylinder from a demolition yard has been turned into a handbasin for the downstairs guest quarters bathroom.

THIS PAGE (from top) Chris does almost all his cooking on the barbecue in the sheltered loggia overlooking the harbour: “Tony calls the oven ‘a very expensive towel rack’ – I think it’s only been used once and it wasn’t by me.” Jack of all trades Tony Burgess also landscaped the property – Chris says the pair drove all over Auckland buying shrubs and rocks.