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The Lovely Home of Mr. & Mrs. K. B. Myers, East Tamaki

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On the preceding page are two exterior views of the beautiful modern home of Mr. and Mrs. K. B. Myers at East Tamaki, one of the most notable houses erected in Auckland for many years and now reviewed for the first time. The first illustration shows the front of the house from the drive and conveys excellently the effect of solidity and comfort achieved in the design. The lower illustration is of the front from an angle, showing particularly in greater detail the interesting main entrance and porte cochere.

The home is notable for the harmonious blending, in relation to the general design, of a wide variety of materials. The exterior bricks are common red wire cuts from New Lynn, with an admixture of darker burnt bricks. The joints are struck and are in the natural cement colour. Uniformity of temperature and weather-tightness have been considered, and all the outside walls have a two-inch cavity.

In harmony with the walls, the roof is of brown Marseilles tiles. Interest is added by the columns of the loggia and porte cochere which are of wood as also are the entablatures. Spouting and downpipes and flat roofs are copper.

On the ground floor are the hall, gun-room, library, drawing-room, dining-room and kitchen, butler's pantry, stores, maids' sitting-room and flower room, cloak-rooms and lavatories.

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A corner of the library, which is all finished in Australian walnut, is shown on the left. The suitability of the furniture and decorations here is of particular interest.

The illustration at the top right shows the drawing-room, with, in the background, the doors leading into the dining-room, another view of which is shown below. The mantels in both these rooms as well as the furniture, which, as will be noticed from the illustrations, is of particularly noteworthy design, are of sycamore finished in the natural colour. Furnishings in perfect taste add the final note of beauty to these harmonious interiors.

In the main rooms the floors are of polished parquet, specially imported from England and laid by a local firm. All the internal walls on the ground floor are of brick and finished in plaster, tinted and stippled.

The main rooms are lit by indirect lighting, all bulbs being hidden behind the cornices, as shown in the photographs of the drawing-room and dining-room. The niches are lit indirectly by the use of strip lighting.

The kitchen, illustrated on page twelve, incorporates all the features dear to the heart of the modern housewife. Plain surfaces are everywhere employed, and there is practically no opportunity for dust or dirt to find a resting-place. Both here and in the butler's pantry extensive use has been made of staybright steel.

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The splendid lines of the main staircase form a very important feature of the whole design. The illustration on page twelve is from the upper portion looking down into the hall, and shows in the upper left-hand corner the hammered wrought iron balustrade, topped by a handrail of Australian Blackwood. The staircase is of kauri, painted.

On the first floor are six bedrooms, three bathrooms, dressing-rooms and housemaid's pantry, etc., while on the second floor, the dormer windows of which can be seen in the illustration on page nine, are three maids' bedrooms and bathrooms, nursery, box-room and hot-room. The partitions on both first and second floors are of timber framing and cedar lining and half-inch fibrous plaster sheets. Insulating board has been used extensively for sound deadening. The three principal bathrooms are tiled in colours to suit the baths and basins and the floors are rubber.

Laundry, heating chamber and wine-cellar are located in the basement. An unusual heating system has been installed, heat being obtained by passing air through special radiators over flanged hot-water pipes.

The property occupies a large site at East Tamaki, the house being built on a rise overlooking the Tamaki River. The principal rooms all face north, and outside the drawing-room and dining-room windows is a paved loggia, looking over the river to the islands in the gulf.

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