Access to this five-storey wonder is limited - one must drive down a long, steep road that has rock wall edges and barely allows two cars to pass one another. It can't be seen from the road due to the overgrown forest that surrounds it. It was originally four levels but Kerr made it five. In fact, he has greatly altered its architecture and floorplan over the years he's owned it (sometimes by his own hands, usually via contractors). It is a sprawling beast of an abode, built upon terraces cut into the cliff face that presides over a restles bit of ocean and a small, secluded beach (Patterson Cove). There are metal stairs that lead down to it from the first floor outdoor area.
The terraces decrease slightly in area as the floors ascend, with the first the largest and the fifth the smallest. The stories of the house don't overlap directly so there are many roof sections at different angles, pitched quite slightly (for it never snows here) and covered with corrugated iron. From the sky, the house would look somewhat like an undulating curve splayed across the terraces much like a hand of cards might be (convex and concave as the land it is built on dictates), generally following the curve of the cove.
The cove is roughly a horseshoe shape with the steepest cliff on its left, which the house sits upon and the staircase is attached to. The cliff opposite doesn't jut out into the ocean quite as far, making the mouth of the bay uneven. The air therefore travels these oddly-shaped faces at differing speeds and follows the walls around and into the curve of the cove, swirling upward and about in a violent, breathtaking display (when it takes water vapour with it and became visible, that is) at times. The funnel effect is most noticeable when the tide is in. When the tide is out, the beach is a curve of golden sand punctuated with a few gatherings of dark, oyster-shell-covered rocks and plays host to a random assortment of beach detritus that comes from all over the city.
First LevelDriving down the driveway, the house is on the right and a six door garage stands ahead, dominating the end of the white-stoned drive. The garage basically stands free of the house, they only meet at their front corners (enough for one door to provide internal access). The main entry to the house is actually in its side wall. The door is set towards the garage end of the house. It is a wide, heavy wooden affair with a stained glass half circle panel inserted and is accessed by climbing the four stone stairs up to the two metre wide stone porch that runs from the garage to the back edge of the house, to the right. Plants and a wooden garden seat are placed along it, many of them hanging from the overhead roof.
The first floor is the largest in area, though it has the fewest rooms, for they are all spacious. The ceilings are vaulted to a height of ten feet.
There is no foyer beyond the front door, one is just inside a wide hallway that curves gently to the right (and back to the left at the end, though this isn't visible from the front door). The floor is a warmly-coloured polished wood and this continues into the living room, ballroom and down the other two hallways. A couple of hall tables, artworks and furniture features are placed along this first, extra long corridor.
A short way along there is a doorway to the left that leads into the kitchen. The flooring in here is black slate, which matches the counters and doesn't detract from the red feature cupboards and accessories. From this doorway, the wall ahead is curved inward and made entirely of bifold doors (with a few stabilising posts breaking them up), the appliance-laden kitchen counters and a large island are to the right and a huge, ten seater table and chairs made of a highly varnished dark timber is to the left. A door is set in the left wall beyond the dining table; this leads in from the garage. Beyond the bifold doors, the entertaining area, pool and the back end of the garage is visible.
Beyond the kitchen - as the central hallway begins to curve back to the left - is a bathroom with a generous shower, toilet and double sink. It is accessed from the patio as well, for convenience when returning from a beach or pool swim. It is well stocked with linen in the vanities beneath the sinks.
The hallways ends in an open doorway into the primary living room. It has a flat back wall on the right and a rounded bifold door wall that curves (convexly) from the left all the way around to the flat wall, making the general shape of the room an enormous quarter of a circle. The doors are broken into two sets by a large, deep fireplace pit, designed to be the focal point of the room in place of a television (the only place a television is found in this house is on the fourth floor). The view through the bifold doors either side is a spectacular ocean vista, appreciated best from the enormous beige suede couch set up against the flat wall. This couch has been changed a few times over the years and is currently a
five seater with a chaise end closest to the bifold doors. There is a large, solid coffee table in the lee of the corner-style couch that is more of a storage cube than a table. Part of the top lifts to reveal a stored wealth of board games, including a very expensive crystal-pieced chess set. In the corner of the room (against the bathroom wall) there are four huge suede bean bags, two beige, two chocolate brown, just waiting to be sat in on the other side of the coffee table. An enormous sheepskin rug (surely the skin of twenty sheep) covers the polished floor from the couch to the fireplace and is obviously custom-made, for there is a void in the centre where the games cube/coffee table sits.
Beyond the kitchen and living room glass doors is a huge, stone-paved entertaining area. It boasts an enormous inground pool with a generous spa at one end, a large outdoor table, chairs and lounge setting and numerous loungers spread out around the unfenced pool. A low stone wall runs the perimeter of the property out here, though there is a break in it where access to the staircase that leads to the beach is found.
Halfway along the main hallway from the front door, another hallway branches to the right and leads directly to a set of stairs to the next storey. This hall features a grand set of double doors halfway along on the left, a bisecting corridor on the right not far in and a less ornate wooden door farther along on the right, a few feet from the base of the stairs.
The grand doors on the left lead to the ballroom, the humbler door on the right is one of two that open into the library. The other library door is found down the bisecting corridor that leads to a huge painting hung on the perimeter wall of the house.
Down this hallway (which runs parallel to the main, entry hallway), the first room on the right is the computer centre of the house, from which the central sound system, security system and wireless network hub run. Beyond that, directly opposite the library's second doorway (on the left), is the entry to the first games room and bar area, which features a full sized billiards table, cards gaming table and many comfortable lounges. A large portion of the ceiling is a rectangular glass panel made of plain and stained glass in a dazzling array of colours (in the daylight). The library sports two simpler rectangle panels for star gazing and light. It also holds a couple of comfortable lounges and two four-person study tables with lamps in the centre of the vinyl-covered wooden structures placed strategically around the large room. The shelves that line or stand to attention in lines into the room are empty, the dark wood gleaming to an impressive eight feet in height (a wheeled stepladder sits, forlorn, in one corner).
The ballroom is a painstakingly well restored feature. Large enough to host a hundred dancers, its wooden floor is patterned with variously-coloured woods and the ceiling drips with electric chandeliers around an hour-glass-shaped glass ceiling that offers a staggering view to a star-laden sky (weather permitting). There are only three solid walls in this room, for the one at the far end (opposite the grand entry) is made of five French double glass doors that allow breathless dancers to step out onto the stone pavers and gaze at the ocean or perhaps find a quiet nook in shadow, where quite a few loveaseat-style benches and a small fountain have been scattered.
The three solid walls of the ballroom all feature paintings put there by a former resident. The left wall is covered with red silk or floor-to-ceiling mirrors but there is a central panel that depicts an expansive beach front - not unlike the one the house faces - during the day. To the right, the wall directly opposite shows the same shoreline at night and bears the same silk and mirror combination that gives the room an even grander feeling of space. Both beach paintings are equally detailed and accurately show the view visible just outside the bifold doors in the living area.
There is no silk or mirrors on the small walls either side of the grand opening, both sections have been painted. The right shows a quaint market place complete with sidewalk café, cobblestone road and several points of intricate interest, including a cat. The wall to the left is less obvious, for it was a passionate representation of the artist's feelings for the house owner. Her loving emotions are illustrated with random yet vibrant shapes and colours, a strange combination of seemingly haphazard colour for a meaning and purpose no-one but she would ever understand; warm tones mixed with cooler hues, perpetually intertwined though never truly connecting, contrasting shades, in a state of constant chaotic turmoil, no matter how badly one wanted to blend with another. Looking at it give sthe viewer a feeling of intense passion, despair and desperate longing; it's a good thing much of it is covered when the ballroom doors are flung wide open.
Second LevelA less extravagant floor, this storey looks much like a hotel, featuring eight bedrooms strategically placed around six well-fitted bathrooms (some share a bathroom). All the bedrooms are furnished in styles that are individual and might challenge Risk for originality. Each room has at least a queen sized bed or one or two singles with built in wardrobes, an armchair and an antique highboy dresser. Some rooms have combinations of queen beds and singles, because they are so large. Very often there are antique touches such as washstands or chamber pots placed inside them and three of them also have a desk with a network cable and convenient powerpoint nearby. The rooms on the ocean side of the house have large windows but four have no view at all and are completely closed in. The staircase to access the next storey is in the far left back corner, for the next level is set farther back and to the side of the second level, on its own plateau of stone.
Third LevelThe third level is a reflection of the first in many ways, with concave then covexly curved bifold doors helping dictate the wave shape of the ocean-facing wall and a stone patio beyond it. This patio has a generous cover that blocks the occupants from being harrassed by sleet or rain unless a very strong wind blows and has a collection of four sun loungers made of a dark, heavy wood with thick, comfortable looking mattresses attached to them spread around the extra wide lap pool (that runs almost the whole length of the balcony). The padding on the loungers is covered with beige material, rather than water-friendly plastic, which shows that these chairs - despite being beside the pool - are designed truly for lounging, not for resting after a swim. There is an inground spa at the master bedroom end of the balcony. The edge of the terrace is defined with glass fence that allows for an unobstructed view. Standing against it, one may peer down into Patterson Cove to the right, or into the ballroom to the left.
Three bedrooms are found on the ocean-side of this storey; two modest rooms with a bathroom between them at the driveway end and the extravagant master bedroom at the cove end. It has a generous ensuite and walk-in robe and is shaped much like the living room is; a quarter circle with a solid back and side wall with a glass bifold curve fronting the ocean. The curtains here are thick and there are solid block-out blinds behind them that can be secured to the closed and locked doors so that no light penetrates. From the doorway, the bed is to the right and an exquisite antique dresser and loveseat line the wall to the left, around the doorways to the walk in robe and the bathroom.
The master bathroom is expansive and well-fitted, boasting a perfunctory double shower to the left (something had to give for the sake of the swimming pool-like spa, after all), huge spa bath to the right and a toilet, bidet and two sinks set into the large counter on the back wall and beside the shower stall.
On the windowless, cliff side of this level there is a professionally-stocked gymnasium, sauna, bathroom and indoor spa and a large, empty room with plush carpet that has got sound-proofed walls because it was going to be a music room, though there are no instruments in there as yet.
Fourth LevelThis storey is much like the first, though on a smaller scale and it has far fewer walls. It is an entertaining level that holds an open-plan kitchen, dining area and living area (which the stairs from the previous level lead up into) on the ocean-facing side. There is a modest balcony with glass fencing along it, with an outdoor table, chairs and lounge suite beyond the obligatory bifold doors. A large television can be found in this living area, it is attached to the wall with a huge circular couch set across a vast amount of space in front of it. This space is designed to give plenty of room to play the selection of consoles there. A rack filled with games stands against a wall nearby.
The open plan continues beyond the spacious living area to a games region that features a ping pong table, foosball table, an air hockey table and two pinball machines spread around a small bar. The gaming area is at the back, at the cove end of the floor. The driveway end is devoted to two bathrooms, storage areas and another small room that's closed in, carpeted and also undefined as yet.
Fifth LevelThe fifth storey was added by Kerr after he bought the house. A great portion of it is made of glass because it houses a 20 inch RCOS Mersenne telescope on a
compact mount, positioned beneath a glass dome. The computer array that goes with the telescope is complicated but it can also be ignored for casual star-gazing at the amateur astronomer's heart's content (though a professional would be hard-pressed to find a system this advanced at their work place).
There is a greenhouse/conservatory (bereft of plants, at this stage) on the cove end of this level (this is where the stairs from the games area emerge), though there's a tangle of tables, hanging pots and lounges arranged in such a way that the glass-encased area is just begging to be filled with exotic plants that give off heavenly scents. The walls at this end are made of bifold doors that can open up to catch the farthest reaches of the coastline view and breathe in the salty air where it is thinnest; only a bit of forest stands behind this level, leading up just a little higher to the road that travels along the coast itself.
The driveway end of this storey has solid walls around a small bathroom but the rest of it is a glassed-in artist's studio, complete with (empty) storage cupboards, deep sinks for washing out paints and racks and tables for storing or propping up vast canvases on. There is a large, empty easel in the centre of the room, as well as a life-sized wooden (moveable) mannequin and staging area. The bifold doors open up onto a little courtyard with a bubbling fountain and an outdoor lounge. A set of stairs begins here and leads - in a zig-zagging manner - down all the levels on the outside of the house to the stone verandah that leads to the house's front door. This stairway can be accessed from all levels to go either up or down externally.
Kerr's thoughts on why he's so attracted to the oceanOn the coast, there's always something different and nothing ever looks the same twice, because the ocean is ever-moving. It gives the illusion of depth and alternate facets when there really aren't any. There's just the one we eternally witness; the nighttime version. When there's a whole half of every twenty-four hours we never see anymore, we have to find variety where we can and I think that's what the sea offers. We may not consciously miss the daylight - for its subtleties are long-forgotten and all we associate the sun with now is burning, painful brightness - but I think it's there, inside us. The knowledge that we're missing out. The softer ends of the day, at dusk and dawn, are occasionally witnessed as a feeling, not by sight, but that's it. Variety. That's what the ocean represents; turbulence in an monochrome world. The moon shows reflected light from the sun but it's just a cheap trick, an illusion. Life could be filled with such falseness. The ocean may just be another aspect of that, but it's enchanting enough to be a comfort, too.
