- Jason Tidmarsh’s renovation of his Whangamatā holiday home turned into a two-and-a-half-year rebuild.
- The project resulted in a luxury five-bedroom home with high-end materials and a Hamptons vibe.
- The Tidmarshes are selling the property to pursue wakesurfing at Lake Karapiro.
“I want it to be like a submarine.” That was the brief Jason Tidmarsh gave the builders renovating his 1980s-era holiday home in Whangamatā.
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He initially planned six weeks for the project, which comprised new windows and a new roof, as well as the re-plastering of the exterior walls. However, the project blew out to two-and-a-half years after the builders found some surprises.
What Tidmarsh ended up with was, in effect, a brand-new five-bedroom luxury home with new floors, a state-of-the-art kitchen and three tiled bathrooms.
The house makes the most of the sea views. Photo / Supplied
What the house looked like before the builders started pulling off the gib. Photo / Supplied
He told OneRoof that the amount of work required escalated from day one when the builders removed the ceiling. “I said, ‘I never realised you were going to replace so many trusses’, and they said, ‘Well, neither did we’, but the old ones had been chopped up and modified and we just couldn’t leave them in there.”
The builders found more and more problems, so Tidmarsh and his wife, Catherine, decided to expand the scope of the build. “It was pretty disheartening for those 18 months, where we just kept pulling it to bits. The last 12 months were great because we could see it coming together, and we had got all the gremlins out of the house.”
The Tidmarshes, who have owned the property at 101 Esplanade Drive for 17 years, carefully selected materials that would make the new bach “beachfront proof”.
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They used anodised aluminium joinery, replaced gas with electrics and even switched the warped wooden timber inserts in the concrete fence posts with handmade galvanised steel inserts to better cope with the elements.
“I just didn’t want anything that was going to fail because of the environment the house was in,” Tidmarsh said. “Anything that wasn’t going to last in the salty environment, we didn’t want to put in.”
Tidmarsh oversaw the building work, while Catherine styled the inside with the help of a friend who is an interior decorator. She opted for a Hamptons coastal vibe with oak flooring, wool-loom carpet and a modern kitchen with porcelain benchtops and premium Bosch appliances. Splashes of subtle blues and greens create a warm beach feel.
“I do love it. The outcome is absolutely amazing,” he said. “When people say, ‘Oh, you’ve renovated the house’, I reply, ‘We haven’t renovated the house – we’ve rebuilt it’.”
The luxury home has a Hamptons coastal feel. Photo / Supplied
The materials used in the rebuild were chosen to withstand the salt air. Photo / Supplied
However, just months after completing the build, the couple have decided to list it for sale – something they would have never dreamt of when they first started the project.
“It was going to be our forever house,” Tidmarsh said, explaining to OneRoof that the family’s new shared passion for wakesurfing had resulted in them buying a boat to use at Lake Karapiro.
“As a family, we all started wakesurfing, and we love it. We’ve sort of said let’s embrace it and make the most of it,” he said, adding that they were also on the hunt for a holiday home by the lake.
“Should we be keeping it? Definitely. But we’ve got new adventures – that’s what I keep telling myself.”
Ray White agent Tanja Stevenson said 101 Esplanade Drive was a standout property in Whangamatā. The only other property that she could think of that was comparable was a new build bach on nearby Pipi Road that sold at the start of 2024 for what is understood to be a record price.
She said the Tidmarshes’ house would suit someone looking for a permanent home or a large bach. She declined to give a price indication, but the 2023 RV, issued before the building work was finished, is $4.4m.
Whangamatā beachfront properties are some of the most coveted in the Coromandel. Earlier this year, a beachfront bach on Beverley Terrace was listed for sale “as is, where is” and sold under the hammer for $8.5m. The four-bedroom beach home had been owned by the same family for over 50 years and was one of the last undeveloped chunks of beachfront land in the town.
- 101 Esplanade Drive, in Whangamatā, Coromandel, is for sale, tender closing December 15
