Just 15 months old, young Jayden Lin gets live lessons in arithmetic from the upstairs bedrooms of his family's home in Henderson, West Auckland. In the arms of his mum, he gets to count the eight horses that graze on the slopes of the sizeable block of farmland at the back of their property.
"He counts them every day," says dad Airy Lin with pride. All this was a bonus when Airy and his wife bought this property in June last year, shortly before Jayden was born.
They ticked off everything they needed for their extended family in its three-level interior with its big urban views.
But when they ventured up the central staircase to the top level and the three bedrooms with their rural outlook, they realised they'd gone one up in the home and lifestyle stakes.
"We got a lifestyle block without paying lifestyle block money," says Airy.
"We haven't got the lifestyle block but we've got the views."
The views from their lounges on the opposite side of their elevated house remind them of their place in the wider picture that is urban Auckland. And down below the deck is the lifestyle feature that Airy, who was born and raised in Hong Kong, could only ever dream about as a child.
"You never have a chance to own a pool," he says of their in-ground, heated salt water edition that is their "go to" place during the warmer months.
This property has been better than perfect for the eight people who are the immediate and extended family of Airy and his wife. Its bespoke form was the vision of its original owners, a similarly large family, who made full use of the bedrooms and living areas on each of the three levels, the main living areas of which open to the deep, sheltered verandas to the northeast.
Designed and built in 2007, this home's architectural designer Denise Oliphant of D J Design says the collaborative brief was for a home with traditional lines and quality materials that would do justice to its elevated position at the top of the driveway.
Gallery
A luscious Hendersen lifestyle block
The veranda soffits are a key part of how this was achieved with their timber detailing enhancing the soaring, flared pillars in New Zealand schist that anchor this brick home to its surroundings.
The schist is repeated in the water feature in the light-filled 5.7m atrium entrance and in the asymmetrical gas fireplace by the main kitchen and the family room on the middle level.
Timber is a key feature inside from the framing of the wrought-iron balustrades up the central carpeted staircase to the high gloss timber floors in the family room and carpeted formal lounge. In the main living areas, the bi-fold doors and windows out to the veranda are another key element in aluminium timber composite joinery that complements the aluminium joinery elsewhere.
The bathrooms here are tiled, as are the walls of the large scullery where Airy's mother, Mrs Lin senior, prefers to work when cooking for the adults.
"She can look here out to the view," says Airy. His wife -- "please call her Mrs Lin too" -- prefers the main kitchen where she cooks for the children. For Airy, it's the island bench with its waterfall-style top and sides in engineered stone that most intrigues him about this kitchen.
As an IT specialist, Airy loves the the CCTV and automation from the front door to the blinds, the lights and the heating.
A shift to his parents' smaller home in Flat Bush will enable him to better support them and for them all to enjoy more convenient extended family living.
