With Grand Designs coming to NZ to shoot an
Aotearoa version of the “Build your own dream” plot line, a few friends and
acquaintances have asked if the experience of building a home is really like
Grand Designs, the TV show. We enjoy watching it ourselves… and of course the
best telly is when things don’t necessarily go smoothly and when tempers flair
onscreen.
Duncan and I are a fairly easy-going couple, but
the process of self-building (costs and timeframes can flucuate and the
upheaval of living in temporary accommodation) has been stressful…
Have we got very grumpy with each other? Yes, we
have!
Have we had days were we wonder why we are doing
this? Yes, we have!
Being at home with the latest
‘post-moving-house-flu’ I guess I have had more time to reflect on this… Why
did we start building in the first place? What is it we hope to achieve by
building?
Maybe it is timely to remind ourselves why we
are doing this as we gird our loins for the final six-month push to get the
house finished and get ourselves moved in (oh no, not another move… I can’t
even contemplate that yet; it is too soon).
Well, we were quite happy living in the little
house in the orchard… We hadn’t been very brave with our design, but we were
warm and snug and reasonably debt-free… but…
we always had this dream of working with an
architect and building something more contemporary that was better designed to
meet our individual needs. Also, living on a lease-hold section on a community
offered its own challenges and our family had changed too. Now we have a 5¾-year
old and occasional visits from older children who are rapidly turning into
adults and having their own lives/boyfriends/situations.
Building a new home on a free-hold section ticks
many of these boxes and offers us more options to meet the future needs of the
family, too.
The building becomes a reality as it slowly
emerges from the ground… and the dream feels closer… exciting times in
the Hide-Bayne household…
here are some photos of the latest progress on
site.
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| Front view facing north (to the midday sun in the Southern Hemisphere) |
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| End view showing entry to Garage/workshop |
