Like we often do, we went for a bit of a twilight stroll around the bays tonight. We find it’s a great source of inspiration for materials and ideas. Although Kylie’s starting to think maybe we should have bought a beach front section instead. Of course she’s dreaming unless she’s won lotto and hasn’t told me!
Building round a giant pohutukawa. How’s that for an idea?
Ooooooh. Glass. Kylie thinks floor to ceiling windows are the way to go.
Without a doubt you guys have a gem there! Nice sized section, and being able to step outside and listen to the Tui’s will be bliss. Looking forward to watching your section being transformed into a beautiful home. Best of luck to you both. (Certainly helps that you have chosen the best builders in town
)
Hey Dana….thank you, we’re pretty stoked with our little slice of paradise
Haha, absolutely, looking forward to getting the dream team back on board!
Hi Ben and Kylie
What was the outcome at the pre-application meeting from an engineering/flooding/stormwater perspective? I know of a development though non identical yet similar at Robson St, Rd or Pl in Auckland that sits over a stream, watercourse that had similar flooding challenges in regards to habitable floors, debri effect from flood, flow continuity etc. You guys also may want to check with insurance companies in regards to insurance premium of your future home. Even though you may be able to demonstrate to them that flood will not affect your property through engineering reports, they may still look at it differently and charge you higher premium which does have a compound effect financially. just a few thoughts.
Hi Ahad.
Thanks for your comments. Definitely concerns we had to begin with too. However our pre-application meeting went very well, with the Council agreeing that we could do what we hoped to do, provided we followed the usual steps to gain Resource Consent. So that meant an updated geo-tech report which found no problems with regards to stability, although we do need to drive our piles to 5m or resistance. Along with an ecology and landscaping assessment and plan. Then an updated flood assessment report which included a recommendation that we alter the stream channel to have a larger capacity, therefore ensuring it would hold any volume of water within its banks, even the theoretical 100-year events. Naturally we’re going to do this. Given there will be no water risk whatsoever, insurance is ok with this. The funny thing is, because the stream is so visible and we are so conscious of its potential flooding, we have designed away absolutely every possible risk it poses, making the house more protected than many houses that have hidden water hazards, such as those in low lying areas or catchment areas that only find out in heavy rain fall every few years.