Simply spectacular

When Mary and John Washer were designing their home on the Taranaki coastline, they wanted to do justice to the site and the sea views.

They also wanted something befitting the work they had put into their development of Tapuae Country Estate, where their home is on one of 30 sites in a gated community.
The Estate is only seven minutes’ drive from New Plymouth but provides residents with the benefits of a rural lifestyle without the hassle or time
pressures of farm work.

Residents have 4000sq m freehold house sites within the 58ha farm that are all positioned to maximise sea and mountain views. Their title also comes with an equal 1/30th part share in the farmlands and amenities. The farmland is leased to a professional farmer for dry stock grazing. Amenities include tennis courts and a central lakeside pavilion, which serves as a gathering place for residents. There are also more than 4km of bush walks and walkways around waterways and the central lake. Tracks provide private beach access as well as weaving along the river and up to the adjacent award winning restaurant and vineyard of Okurukuru Winery.
John and Mary chose Lot 18 in the Estate, an elevated site about 50m above the beach with views out to sea and up and down the coast.

With the help of Mike Johns, of Mike Johns Design, they drew up plans for a 745sq m single-storey house that hugged the coastline, and brought in builder Tony Farmer to see the project through.

Mary says, “It’s funny because a lot of people around our age are down sizing but we are up sizing for the sort of spaces that we love.”
She says the brief for the design was very straightforward: “I wanted a spacious house with very clean lines – I wanted a linear look; I wanted everything to be symmetrical.”

Selecting the right style of roofing was a big part of getting the lines and symmetry right as Mike Johns explains: “Because the driveway winds down the hill to the house, the first thing you see is the roof. With the scale of the house, we needed to go for as wide a tray as possible so the roof wasn’t cluttered with too many lines.”

With that in mind, Roofing Industries’ Eurostyle profile was a logical choice, in unpainted aluminium for its durability in a marine environment.

Phil Prior, of Roofing Industries, says, “The material was run on site, due to the handling of long lengths, size of the job and ease at which the profile can be damaged in transport.  When we arrived a Taranaki storm blew in.  To start with the material was run in the hay shed down the road until the shed ran out of space.  Then the machine and material got Hiabed into the big hallway of the actual house that was under construction.  All the roofing material got stacked in the kitchen and lounge as it waited installation.”
Mike Johns says the roof, with its low pitch and big overhangs – 900mm eaves and 1.5m gable ends – was reminiscent of a Frank Lloyd Wright design and also evoked images of wings and seabirds in the coastal environment.

He says he was impressed with the Eurostyle product and installation right down to the precise placement of the gutter clips and the use of mitred downpipes to maintain the clean look.

“It’s the first time I’ve been involved in a project using Eurostyle and I think the roof looks fantastic.”

A flat roof canopy over the central entrance way, which is framed by 3.5m high stone walls either side, separates the two gable-roofed wings of the cedar-clad home.
A pivoting plasma glass door – 1100mm wide by 2.7m high – opens to a 3m x 8m foyer and then into a 22m long gallery that is 2.7m wide to provide a sense of arrival and spaciousness.

The eastern wing of the house is largely living spaces with “Mary’s garage” at the end and this has access into the elegant kitchen, which is a product of Kitchens by Glen Johns. The western wing has four bedrooms with tiled en suites, a laundry and “John’s garage” at the end. Floor to ceiling stacking, sliding doors are used extensively throughout to provide access to the kwila deck and to embrace the wide views of the sea. Because the two wings are angled away from each other, there is always a sheltered deck to be found around the house.
Mary says with the expanse of glass on the seaward side of the house, the double-glazing has a thermal break for improved insulation and has been tinted green to highlight the colours of the ocean.

The two main living spaces are warmed by gas fires, and there is also underfloor heating.
In the kitchen/family living space, a cantilevered steel frame has been employed so that one corner of the room has no mullion, allowing stacking sliding doors either side to be pulled back so the room can be opened right out to the deck and sea views.

John has his own “man cave” with a bar and TV screen as well as an antique billiard table that has just been reassembled.

The centerpiece of the home, though, is a room called “the bridge” on the seaward side of the house. The 4m x 5m room is stepped down from the formal dining/living area and cantilevered out and glazed on three sides to provide panoramic views.

Mary says, “When you are standing at the front of the bridge, you can look up and down the coast, probably 30km each way. When the waves come in, you are looking through the waves at the rock.”
Mike adds, “I wanted to achieve the views that took in the changing tides, the exposed beach, and the rocky outcrops down by the mouth of the Tapuae Stream.

While Mike wanted to maximise the views from the home, the aim was also to minimise its visual impact on the coastline.

“I wanted to keep the bulk of the house nestled into the surrounding rolling topography of the site, partly due to the extreme weather conditions that nature can throw up on the west coast and also to retain the sense of remoteness for the users of the beach below.

“When you walk up the coast in the direction of the house, the only thing you see is the bridge cantilevered out from the house. And because the owners used green-tinted glass it’s a good look from the outside as well as the inside.”

Mike says he loves the result, with the home having “a timeless quality”.Mary agrees: “We’re thrilled to bits with it; it’s working perfectly for us. We love the spaces and it’s very good for entertaining.”