[DaveW]

So I sold up my business a month back and after a short holiday/unemployed bum period I am now putting the sale funds to work building a new home on my rural lifestyle block of land.

Been playing with ideas for house designs for a lil while.
lol the castles in the sky I kept coming up with all end up waaaaaaay past my budget!

In talking to building companies and architects I could never get what I wanted.
I'd give them a detailed brief and show them examples of what I want/like.

Holiday Home by Orange Architects is a timber-clad cabin with a flexible interior

Dutch office Orange Architects has completed a compact holiday home on the island of Texel, featuring an interior that adapts to its occupants' changing needs throughout the day.

www.dezeen.com

Woonpioneers hides prefabricated Indigo cabin within Dutch forest

Amsterdam studio Woonpioniers has hidden a prefabricated wooden cabin with large windows and tall, curving interiors within a forest glade in the Netherlands.

www.dezeen.com

And every time it'd be a case of
"Dave asks for Blue..... designer goes, "wow that's really cool, great use of light and wood!" and then proceeds to give Dave Green... or Green with purple highlights"

Kinda frustrating yeah.

But finally got a design I love, now I need to see if I can get it built within my budget.
I'm buying this design and making a couple of small changes

Taieri Mouth Bach — Mason&Wales Architects

Taieri Mouth, Clutha

www.masonandwales.com

 

[DaveW]

This is going to be a long winded project with lots of setbacks along the way I'm sure.

 

[Changleen]

This is cool, Dave, good for you. Hope the supply chain issues don’t slow you down too much. What are you doing in terms of efficiency?

 

[jimmydean]

That looks damn nice, Dave.

 

[OGRipper]

Looks awesome, good luck!

 

[6thElement]

The house my wife and I always say it's our favorite was one in your neck of the woods, along Hahei beach..

Looks like a nice design you've chosen.

 

[stevew]

this might stiffen @Changleen pants....

 

[Changleen]

this might stiffen @Changleen pants....

Errr, OK?

The real @stevew ?

 

[DaveW]

This is cool, Dave, good for you. Hope the supply chain issues don’t slow you down too much. What are you doing in terms of efficiency?

Short term not a lot.
OTT insulation, LED lights and double glazing.
Rain water harvesting (No town water or sewerage out here any way!)
But I'm a super low energy user anyway.... my traditional power usage is just under half of the limit to be a low power user at Meridian, my average daily use is about 9kw a day.
Longer term grid tied PV's
I'm going to install a high efficiency wood fire (yes bad I know I know) as I know how it gets out here and I insist on having an off grid heating source. But the main heating will be heatpump (I don't expect to use it a lot anyway).
Water heating I'm torn between heatpump hotwater cylinder and instead just having 2 electric califont's one for the kitchen and 1 for the bathroom (I never use hot wash for the laundry anyway) as heating up large volumes of water to just have it sit there unused 99% of the time seems like a silly waste of energy.

 

[CBJ]

This hot water tank is cool both being a battery if you have renewable and only heating as much as necessary when no renewable available plus learning water needs

 

[DaveW]

Had a good meeting with another architect today, James Warren from Upoko.
I've worked with him before on another job 9 years ago and he was always awesome to work with.
Reason for this is that I realized that it was 10k for those other plans and then I'd need to get them modified by an architect and then also have a new foundation/base structure done, so I'd end up largely starting from scratch!

Was funny walking in and realizing a number of his staff were clients of mine at the bike shop!

Got a quote in for getting the geotec report done.... fuck me it's $5250!
One building company I was talking to a few weeks back was suggesting $1200 was about the price for that report.

 

[DaveW]

Had a good meeting on site today with the architect James.
He's def running with the same playbook and ideas that I am so stoked with that!
He thinks rough plans early next month for us to work over and refine layouts, submitting to the council mid January.
This is one of his (many) award wining builds.

The necessity of small | Upoko Architects | HOME Magazine

We spoke to architect James Warren of Upoko Architects about the challenges, design, and why tiny homes are gaining popularity.

homemagazine.nz

This tiny 36-square-metre home has the most inspiring design

Architect James Warren deftly crafts a compact cabin in a nikau glade where clever proportions and exquisite workmanship are on full display

homemagazine.nz

 

[kidwoo]

Makes me want to pick back up my dream of a shipping container house with makita cut custom windows illegally located in a national park. Powered by biodesiel processed from the blood of murdered landlords.

So jealous....

 

[SkaredShtles]

Had a good meeting on site today with the architect James.
He's def running with the same playbook and ideas that I am so stoked with that!
He thinks rough plans early next month for us to work over and refine layouts, submitting to the council mid January.
This is one of his (many) award wining builds.

The necessity of small | Upoko Architects | HOME Magazine

We spoke to architect James Warren of Upoko Architects about the challenges, design, and why tiny homes are gaining popularity.

homemagazine.nz

How little are you thinking your pad is gonna be?

 

[DaveW]

Around the 60-70sqm range.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Around the 60-70sqm range.

I've always thought that 750 - 1000 sq ft range was the sweet spot for a small home... with a full unfinished basement, of course.

 

[jimmydean]

I've always thought that 750 - 1000 sq ft range was the sweet spot for a small home... with a full unfinished basement, of course.

This is our objective. Up to 1200 if 2 bathrooms.

 

[chuffer]

We just finished our new place 942 sq ft residence including two full baths. We needed the second bath as a rest room for the 4800 sq ft shop / commercial space that’s attached.

Interested to see and hear how things go with the red tape and the bureaucrats.

 

[DaveW]

We just finished our new place 942 sq ft residence including two full baths. We needed the second bath as a rest room for the 4800 sq ft shop / commercial space that’s attached.

Interested to see and hear how things go with the red tape and the bureaucrats.

Generally speaking a building consent isn't too hard to sort in NZ for a normal house site.
But yeah the resource consent will not be fun due to the SED zoning (specified engineered design, everything has to be engineered custom to the site, no off the shelf plans/designs).
But I should be able to lower the wind zone rating thanks to the report I had commissioned, should drop it from extreme to "very high".
Next up is surveying and the geotec report as it's a steep site near a major fault line.
But I should be able to get the consent done by Feb/March before the proposed SNA act becomes a thing.
SNA, Significant Natural Areas ruling will halt all subdivision, new private farm roads, major earthworks and retaining, new homes and removal of trees.
So basically I will get to keep my rural views forever once it comes in, the above can still be done but the regulatory hurdles really get ramped up.

 

[Jm_]

Makes me want to pick back up my dream of a shipping container house with makita cut custom windows illegally located in a national park. Powered by biodesiel processed from the blood of murdered landlords.

So jealous....

This is somewhat my idea. Squat for 10 years.

 

[chuffer]

That SNA business sounds like a can of worms. I bet people are losing their minds!

 

[kidwoo]

This is somewhat my idea. Squat for 10 years.

Tough to do a full 10 without discovery. Fortunately you have more firearms training than I.

I just have to rely on running outside pantsless screaming latin. As I have always done.

You have the ability to go full ruby ridge.

hella jelly

 

[Jm_]

Tough to do a full 10 without discovery. Fortunately you have more firearms training than I.

I just have to rely on running outside pantsless screaming latin. As I have always done.

You have the ability to go full ruby ridge.

hella jelly

The key is to make it look legit so no one asks questions.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

The key is to make it look legit so no one asks questions.

So DHS sign surrounded by boulders?

 

[kidwoo]

The key is to make it look legit so no one asks questions

 

[jumpr]

Generally speaking a building consent isn't too hard to sort in NZ for a normal house site.
But yeah the resource consent will not be fun due to the SED zoning (specified engineered design, everything has to be engineered custom to the site, no off the shelf plans/designs).
But I should be able to lower the wind zone rating thanks to the report I had commissioned, should drop it from extreme to "very high".
Next up is surveying and the geotec report as it's a steep site near a major fault line.
But I should be able to get the consent done by Feb/March before the proposed SNA act becomes a thing.
SNA, Significant Natural Areas ruling will halt all subdivision, new private farm roads, major earthworks and retaining, new homes and removal of trees.
So basically I will get to keep my rural views forever once it comes in, the above can still be done but the regulatory hurdles really get ramped up.

Sing out if you need a advice on the resource consent side of things (I work in the RMA space in NZ) - the new SNA provisions could prove problematic if they proceed as proposed. If you are currently allowed to cut vegetation on your property, I would break out the chainsaw now!

 

[DaveW]

Had another great meeting with James this morning.
Total design change!
And I love it.
The big deck out the back is the bracing to stop front/rear movement as having vehicles drive thru under the building stops subfloor bracing in that direction on the poles. (3.2m clearance above ground)

 

[DaveW]

 

[DaveW]

 

[DaveW]

 

[DaveW]

 

[Changleen]

Looks great. I take it the deck is Northish?

 

[rideit]

Do you guys have any seismic activity?

 

[DaveW]

Nope otherside.
Having had to come out that way for the bracing we're turning it into a deck with outdoor fire/pizza oven at the end of it. But you can see right thru the house longer term there will be a deck out the front as well but for cost reasons (it would be 5m high!) that will have to wait.

 

[DaveW]

Do you guys have any seismic activity?

Shit tons.... hense the bracing.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Can't really tell - the kitchen area is beside the living area?

 

[DaveW]

Yeah kitchen living is one room.

 

[jimmydean]

That looks awesome, damn. Nice work @DaveW

 

[DaveW]

Had to move the submitting for building consent back to early/mid feb due to the engineers being swamped.
On the plus side the forcast for next year is that home construction will slow dramatically in NZ due to the rise of mortgage rates and that will free up builders and make the current supply issues largely (lots of shortages at the moment) disapear.

 

[chuffer]

Wow! Stunning!

We did the one room for everything floor plan also. When we’re in the house, we’re mostly in the kitchen or dining room anyway. So, it made sense…