Bloubergstrand Village, sited alongside such Cape West Coast restaurants as Ons Huisie, On the Rocks and the Blue Peter Hotel, has always, says Mike Abrahamse, the Rawson Property Group’s franchisee for Blaauwberg, had a certain exclusivity, panache and distinction.
The village, which is made up of 732 houses in all, says Abrahamse, has from the early 1920s onwards been a favourite holiday resort of upcountry farmers and businessmen from all over South Africa – and the homes here have tended to be handed down in family trusts from one generation to the next. It has, he says, from the onset always had a number of beautiful and large upmarket homes, the stock of which in recent years has been added to by further injections of mainly modern, even avant garde, homes, while some of the older homes have been beautifully and innovatively renovated.
One home of real distinction in the area, now on the market for R8,995,000, says Abrahamse, is considered by many to be the jewel in Bloubergstrand Village’s crown.
Sited on a 760 m2 plot, number 2 Starfish Close was designed by Kirsty Carmichael, who was previously named South African home builder of the year and who is well-known for clean, uncluttered, minimalist interiors and the use of exceptionally superior finishes and cool white or neutral tone colour schemes. These are particularly evident in this home, says the Rawson Property Group’s agent for the home, Michèle Pecorelli, and the full length glazing in many of the rooms gives the home a wonderfully light-filled Mediterranean feel.
The home was built by Carmichael in partnership with her father, Ted Bunning, a former mechanical engineer who has specialized in upmarket homes for over a decade and who has also won many awards.
The triple storey building has ample space – 554 m2 in all. This includes three spacious balconies with open views of Robben Island, the ocean and Table Mountain and a small separate flat, which has its own kitchen, bathroom, plunge pool and enclosed garden.
In the main house there are three large bedrooms, all en suite, and no less than five reception rooms. The kitchen is open-plan, has its own pantry and is fitted out with a gas hob, an electric oven, a bar fridge, a Bosch refrigerator and freezer, LG SolarDOM microwave, convection oven and an extractor fan. Additional features in the home are another beautiful swimming pool, a Jacuzzi and a bar area with a large wine rack and at ground level there is garaging with enough space for four cars.
The floors in the bedrooms, kitchen and living rooms are all of solid Jarrah, a dark and very hard wood imported from Australia. Anodized aluminium American security shutters are fitted to all windows and the entire house is air-conditioned, although the mild climate of the West Coast makes it seldom necessary to use this facility. The living areas have both a wood and a gas stove – and there are televisions in all the bedrooms, as well as the living room and the flat. The irrigation of the garden is controlled by an automatic computerised system and the home is fully protected by a burglar alarm, sensor beams and an electrified fence.
“As on all Carmichael/Bunning homes,” says Pecorelli, “the attention to detail in this home is immediately obvious and exceptionally impressive. It must rank as one of the top Cape West Coast homes.”
