A Hawke’s Bay builder and his artist wife let their imaginations go wild when it came to creating their own home, building everything from a hobbit cave, Gaudi and Hundertwasser-inspired mosaic toilets to a cathedral-style playhouse.
The unusual art property has attracted so much interest from people visiting the village of Waimarama that the owners had to install large wrought iron gates to stop people from driving in.
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George Ashcroft purchased the 5661sqm property as a blank canvas in 1982 and built an American-styled blue and white villa on the property.
He met his wife Marina Richter, who was originally from Europe, a few years later and it eventually became their family home for their three children and various foster children.
Richter told OneRoof that Ashcroft had been building “fairly straight buildings” for customers so wanted to create something special when it came to his home.
The property then slowly evolved over four decades as the couple looked at developing more accommodation for guests.
The main four-bedroom residence resembles an American villa and is one of four dwellings on the 5661sqm property. Photo / Supplied
“We wanted to invite strangers into our lives by building these houses,” Richter said.
A second three-bedroom, one-bathroom property, known as the chalet or the Tea Castle Cottage due to the vast number of teapots in it, resembled a church-like building. It is located at the bottom of the property and is in the process of being subdivided on its own 1000sqm section.
They later renovated their workshop into a fully self-contained two-bedroom home for their adult children to stay in when they visited. Upstairs in another fully self-contained ‘surfers’ apartment.
The three properties are run as Airbnbs and in the peak summer season return a combined rental of $840 a night.
Each of the properties are artworks in their own right with Richter, who has an arts degree, drawing inspiration from her famous Spanish architect Anton Gaudi and Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who transformed Northland’s Kawakawa public toilets into a piece of art.
Their colourful influence led to her installing bright mosaic creations around the property including the bathrooms and garden sculptures.
They also stamped their personalities all over the homes and gardens. The living room in the main home had pictures of angels reading music on the wall, while one of the bedrooms had a castle on the wall to reflect their foster son’s obsession with Lord of the Rings.
Angels reading music decorate the walls of the lounge or music room in the main house. Photo / Supplied
One of the bedrooms has a castle backdrop to reflect the owners' son's love of Lord of the Rings. Photo / Supplied
The couple and their kids clearly had a lot of fun creating various European structures in the extensive garden from a sandpit with a two-storey playhouse that resembles the Basilica in Vatican City to a mosaic shallow kids paddling pool with a giant yellow duck, as well as a myriad of archways that saw a couple recently hiring the venue for their wedding.
Visitors from all over the world have stayed with them to learn about their sustainable gardens, which included nine different varieties of banana plants as well as other unusual fruit, also collaborated on certain artworks while they were there, Richter said.
Some of the displays had slowly evolved and others had happened by accident such as the replica hobbit cave on the edge of the man-made duck pond that was built as a cool room to store items such as pumpkins and preserves.
Over the years the property has become a real point of interest in the village with people curious about what’s hiding behind the gates, she said.
“Everyone wants to have a look – because there are so many things – sculptures, in the gardens, mosaics in the archways. You discover new things wherever you walk.”
The hobbit cave acts as a functional cool room to store some of the produce grown in the expansive fruit and vegetable gardens. Photo / Supplied
Three additional dwellings are rented out as holiday homes including the chalet that returns $340 a night during the peak summer season. Photo / Supplied
Richter’s children were now in their 30s, but she said their foster children, aged 12 and 14, now expected all houses to be like theirs.
“They probably think it’s normal that children can have four different places where they can go to play and live and have unlimited spaces to invite friends and their families to stay overnight.
“They think this is normal and people live a colourful life like we do.”
Their unique holiday homes have attracted a range of guests from people on yoga retreats, youth groups, weddings, artists and families with young children.
She said visitors were always blown away with how many things there were to look at, often pointing out the mother and baby elephant weathervane or trumpet perched on top of the chicken house.
“You are in a different world and that’s what we wanted to achieve that our guests can get a real holiday feeling of being in a different colourful world – it’s not what people usually have at home.”
Even the two-storey play house over the sandpit holds some resemblance to the Basilica in the Vatican City. Photo / Supplied
However, the couple are now in their 60s and are selling to downsize and spend more time with their children.
They believed the property had a range of uses and could suit someone looking for a home and income property where they could rent the additional accommodation as either holiday homes or rentals, extended families, or groups wanting communal living and to live off the extensive fruit and vegetable gardens.
Ray White Hasting listing agent Sebastian Nilsson said, in his listing, said the “art-filled paradise will amaze”, adding, “the property truly needs to be viewed to be fully appreciated”.
Those wanting to view are invited to join one of the private scheduled tours or make a separate appointment.
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