Description of the House at 67 Otitori Bay Road

House from the pathway down December 2003  Photo Graeme Burgess

Introduction

The property is located on the Southern side of Otitori Bay Road almost at the bottom of the road (which finishes as an esplanade along French Bay).  The section falls away from the street down into a bush filled valley.  There is a single garage on the street at the top end of the property which is cantilevered out over the bank.  A crude sleep-out has been built below this cantilever and out from it. The house is sited on a bench made in the slope about six metres below the road and thirteen and a half metres in from the street boundary.  The house is level with the cut ground on its northern side.  A half-basement has been formed beneath the house on its lower side, facing south.  The entire section is bush covered.

Description

Entering the Property
A winding pathway leads back from the lower street boundary, along a falling contour, to a sleep out and deck, which have been built under the garage. The path then runs back between kauri trees and turns down to the house. The path is now very rough and broken.  The original path was beach sand and shell concrete hand raked in place by McCahon.   Along the first section of the pathway from the street are the remnants of a white painted handrail, 760mm high.  This is constructed of arissed 75x 50 posts, set at uneven centres, with a horizontal 150x 10mm rail, set on edge, built by the Waitemata County Council when they widened the road.  

According to William McCahon, the original rail down the top section of the pathway was a plain water pipe rail.  On the “cut” side of the path are the remains of vertical ponga logs, which appear to have been used as a primitive form of retaining.  In some areas these have been replaced by 1/2 round tanalised posts, also set vertically.  The banks around the house are similarly treated.  The 1/2 round posts have not been set into the ground.  There is a plain board letter box in an abstract style at the top of the path.  This was built by the Amoamos to match the original McCahon letterbox.  According to William the letterbox was a plain American hoop letterbox.  Another letterbox story, as yet unconfirmed, is that the artist Billy Apple now has the original letterbox.

Garage from the street. Dec. 2003 Photo: Burgess & Treep.

Garage
The garage, used as a studio by McCahon, is a plain shed with a skillion roof across its width.  It is built right up to the street. The entry is tar sealed. The entry doors are bi-folding vertical tongue & groove framed doors, installed by the Amoamos.  The roof is corrugated iron on timber sarking. Originally it was roofed in malthoid sheeting. In the 1950’s when the garage was level with the road, it dominated the corner. 

The width of the garage is a bare 2.67m.  It is 4.74m long on its right hand side (from the street) and 4.67m long on the left.  The internal height is 1.9m on the left rising to 2.23m on the right.  The rafters are braced down to the right hand studs with 25mm wide boards.  The walls are weatherboard clad and unlined.  The timber framing is minimal, both studs and rafters are 100x 50 framing at 700mm crs.  At the end of the garage two timber braces, meeting at the sarking, have been fixed on the surface of the studs.  There was a single window in this wall which was removed by Jacqueline Amoamo.  There is a pair of casement windows set just back from the left rear corner of the garage, facing  east.  The floor is decked in butted timber boards.

Below the end of the garage a room was built by McCahon for his sons as a bedroom.   This room is located partly under the garage and partly beyond it.  The exterior of this room is finished in vertical wide rough sawn boards with 50 x 10mm battens.  The door into the room, which directly faces the pathway, and the eastern base of the garage, is similarly finished.

There is a tiki on the door which was fixed there by Jacqueline Amoamo.   The room is not lined. At the outside line of the garage above is a 150x50 post which supports the central bearer of the garage.  The joists of the garage run across the room and are also exposed.  The room is set back 1.5m under the garage, and 1.3m out beyond it. The projecting section has a lean-to roof framed of rough sawn 140x 50 pine.  The floor is of wide timber boards.  The clay floor mentioned by McCahon was the bike shed area back under the garage.   There are sections of wide board shelving within the room. 

In the end wall of the sleep out is an extraordinary glazing arrangement, formed of two demolition sourced double hung window sashes, one set vertically on the floor, the other on its side across it.  These were set to run on coloured glass marbles.   The windows no longer function and have lost their marbles. Outside the end of the sleep-out is a deck which was constructed by Jacqueline Amoamo in an attempt to stabilise the garage.  Before this was built there was only a narrow ledge/ platform barely 300mm wide outside this room. 

The sub floor of the garage and sleep out, in contrast to the new timber piles of the deck, is redolent of an earlier time.  Under the garage the sub floor structure is set on concrete piles.  There is a brace between the second and third line of piles.  Some of the concrete piles are no longer stable.

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