French Bay House
Description of the House at 67 Otitori Bay Road cont.
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| West Elevation Dec 2003 Photo: Graeme Burgess |
The pathway from the street ends in a random tumble of a few steps which turn towards the house. The area around this side of the house into the entry porch and beyond is a concreted levelish cut. The concrete outside the entry is almost level with the floor of the house. The concrete is all very rough shell aggregate concrete with occasional decorative panels set into it formed with broken ceramics or shell. The paths and steps were begun by McCahon and carried on by the Amoamos. A concrete terrace extends out beyond the building to the west. On the bank above this another level platform has been formed. This is finished in the same random brick and concrete work and similar decorative tile work to that used elsewhere. According to William McCahon this area was formed after 1960.
The house itself is a very basic building. The core of the building is a simple gable running East/ West, (3.2m wide x 5m long), with a lean-to at the Western end. The entrance to the building is to the side of a lean-to on the northern side of the building. There is an enclosed “porch” at the eastern end and a roof, supported by a simple post, extends out to form the entry alcove. This feature was extended to its present form by the Amoamos. There is a proprietary concrete chimney at the internal intersection of this alcove. A further lean-to “wing” has been added at the south-east corner of the building. A raised deck terrace (360mm above the floor) extends from outside the lean-to at the end of the main gable and out beyond the south east lean-to. The external access to the deck is a single step of 100x50s set on edge, built by McCahon in 1955. The ground slopes down from the centre line of the main gable to the south on a gradient in excess of 30 degrees. Beneath this southern section of the building is a sequence of “open rooms”, which were the childrens’ bedrooms, and, at the eastern end, the laundry/ bathroom.
A set of ill-formed (and decorated) concrete steps leads past the western end of the deck down to the “open rooms” below the deck. According to Jacqueline Amoamo these were built by McCahon using ponga logs with gravel infill. According to William McCahon the steps were formed of mudstone from French Bay. Between the steps and the house is a retaining wall formed in a free curve of bricks, laid staggered apart, which was built by Jacqueline Amoamo. This runs back behind the wall of the excavated basement, and is now filled with ferns.
In the garden at the lower side of the house is a large fig tree. This is the last remaining fruit tree. The McCahons planted a peach, grapes and cape gooseberries, acanthus, and small pink begonias. Victoria McCahon has cuttings from the begonia in her garden. The family encouraged some native shrubs, mahoe and fuchsia in particular, around the edges of the house. The bush was cleared down into the valley below the house. The rest of the bush around the house was thinned and the children could run freely through it.
Exterior Finishes
a. Roof
The roof is corrugated iron with plain rolled barge flashings. The barges at the eastern end of the main gable are 200x 25 and the barge to the entry lean-to “porch” is 150x 25. The awning shelters at the western end of the building and above the deck are of clear corrugated material on unpainted pine framing. These were added by Jacqueline Amoamo. Most of the spouting on the building is new p.v.c. There is a remnant section of 1/4 round galvanised spouting along the south eave of the main building. All the spouting discharges straight onto the ground.
The chimney is a stacked prefabricated concrete chimney. The gable end soffits are plain boards which were replaced by Tairongo Amoamo to match the original. The soffit at the entry is painted hardboard and batten. There are large gaps between the weatherboards and the soffits/ barges. According to William McCahon the roof was painted in K16 tar based aluminium paint.
b. Sub-floor
The subfloor of the building, excluding the “open room”, is all timber on concrete piles. Most of the sub-floor framing is borer ridden. There is no proper retaining beneath the house.
Under the house was a tree stump known by the family as “Mr Mason’s stump”. The “open room” area is fully described later in this section.
c. Cladding
The cladding on the building varies. On the core gable the remaining cladding is 180mm cover weatherboards. This remains at the Eastern end of the building (where it is strangely butted, without soakers, part way across the wall ) and on the internal wall of the entry alcove.
The odd butted boards on the Eastern wall were explained by Victoria and William. To create a reasonable hanging surface Colin removed a large window from this wall. There are corner boxes and boxed vertical junctions on the Eastern wall. The base of this wall is finished in random width vertical whalings, mostly around 150mm but with some 75mm. The enclosed “porch” is clad in narrower, random cover weatherboards on the eastern side and by vertical shiplap boards on it’s other walls. The base of this wall has malthoid sheeting run under the concrete pathway and back up under the cladding. Vertical shiplap boards have also been used to clad the lean-to at the western end of the main gable. All the vertical shiplap boards were added by the Amoamos..
Around the deck area the cladding changes to creosoted wide board and batten. Below the deck and around the outside of the lower area the cladding is plain butted vertical rough sawn boards, all creosoted. The walls inside this area are a mixture of rough sawn vertical boards and battened fibrolite. There are no window facings, except on the kitchen window, and no soakers over butt joints in the weather boards. Malthoid has been used to weather the base of the building where concrete has been poured against it. On the Northern side of the building the finished exterior ground level is very close to, and sometimes above, the level of the house. The exterior was painted in Ferric oxide and creosote.
d. Joinery
The joinery on the building is an odd mixture; some recycled, one casement and some purpose built “light walls” formed of glazed framing timbers. These last windows are sculptural, and were created by McCahon The Group architects used joinery to spectacular effect in their houses of this period. The gap between the window frames and cladding is filled with putty. The front door is a bungalow door with a high glazed top panel and three sunk lower panels. Jacqueline Amoamo fixed linoleum sheets into the panels to stop draughts. This door was painted forest green.
e. Deck/Terrace
Deck 1950’s
Courtesy of McCahon Family Archive
The deck, as previously described, is an open platform which has been built as the roof to the “outdoor room” below. It is 360mm above the internal floor of the building. The deck was originally of broad timber boards, covered with malthoid sheeting. This has been overlaid with concrete in a falling wedge. The concrete has been laid on a malthoid barrier and a tarry substance has been used to seal the new deck to the weatherboards. The deck is unrailed.
There is a single step up to the deck, formed of 100x50s placed on edge across a pair of concrete blocks. The only other access is through a window from the extended living room. Above this area of the terrace is a clear roofed lean-to, supported by a post seated directly on the deck. This lean-to is not original.
The deck is framed in 150x50 joists running across it. These are supported on 100x75 bearers which are supported 100mm back from the exterior line of the deck on 100x75 posts set on 10mm diam. bars on raised concrete plinths. There is a 100x 50 tie between each post at the outside line. The posts were faced with rough sawn 250x25mm boards. Most of these have now fallen away.
The facing boards were also carried across the head between the posts to frame each opening. There are remnants of very plain rough sawn shelves which ran between the posts in the second, third, and fourth bays from the West end. The entire structure is fully exposed. The original wide board decking runs between the joists. The ends of the boards are affected by rot. The area below the deck is a sequence of “open rooms”.
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