Comments on: 8 Months In

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 08:27:36 +0000

Thanks Danielle! Sure, there are quite a lot of the interior posted in early diary updates if you go back through our blog, but here is a link directly to an image of our main bathroom – http://www.ourdreamhome.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/DSC_0384_2.jpg and here is one of our ensuite – http://www.ourdreamhome.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/DSC_0436_2.jpg

Hope that helps.
Cheers
Ben

By: Danielle Dunn

Danielle Dunn — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 08:21:18 +0000

Thanks for sharing your journey. I live your imagination and the finished result is amazing!

I was wondering if you could post a picture of your main bathroom please? I would like to see how the bath and shower work side by side like that.

Cheers

Danielle

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 20:49:27 +0000

Thanks Angela. Awesome! I’m not going to lie, the cost to build in NZ is expensive, especially compared to what you are used to in the UK. Of course it all depends on your site and the quality of the end product. To give you a guide, a group home build on a flat site with limited to no architectural input would be around $2,000 – $2,500 per square metre. A relatively simple architectural home would be maybe $3,500 – $5,000 and then upwards. All excluding the land. These are Auckland prices as I have no experience of costs outside of Auckland.
As you may have seen in headlines, there is a housing shortage here, and a a shortage of quality tradies. So labour is tight and makes up a decent proportion. Hope that helps!

By: Angela carr

Angela carr — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 08:34:44 +0000

Hi guys, your home looks great. We are a UK couple in the process of getting a visa. My husband is a builder and site manager myself an interior designer. We have self built in the UK and are wanting to do so in NZ but now with the dreadful exchange rate are wondering how far our cash will stretch. Could you tell me what your build costs were and what amount of that was for material costs trying to guage if we can build a decent standard of home in NZ. Regards Angela

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 21:32:09 +0000

Hi Julia
We are nearly done & dusted. The build went really well & we are impressed with the way sips work. Our house is a full passivhaus. The internal climate is different to any other house I have been in and we haven’t completely sealed it (internal garage door is off its hinges) and the ventilation system is not yet commissioned. Regardless of how hot or cold it is outside it is perfect inside. No issues with the builder. Some advise, if you are not using the passivhaus programme make sure you pay very close attention to solar gain and buy the best windows you can afford.
Good luck and have fun
Richard

By: Julia

Julia — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 09:11:47 +0000

Hi Richard we are looking at building using Habitech – how has your build gone? Did you manage to find a builder ok?

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 05:10:59 +0000

Tom/Ben
My sips arrived in port last night (wangled a ride on a tugboat to meet the ship). Happy to give you a timeline at the end of the job if that helps. Like Ben this is a first for the builders and we have a bunch of other things just waiting to slow the job down. I’m confident that from laying the bottom plate to being weather tight on 2 identical builds sips will win over say conventional framing and rab.
Cheers
Richard

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 04:19:17 +0000

Hey Tom, thanks mate. It’s pretty hard to give you a figure as we had 2 external things slow the process down – structural steel was very late in delivery as was one of our doors. On a flat site and all phased well, I’d estimate 25%-30% – we were the first to use it up here, so a lot has been learnt and the guys have even more efficient processes in place now. You could be even faster if you wanted to leave the internal walls the sip panel vs lining it too.

Our total build, from first sod to move in was 7 months. Given the complexity of our site and estimated hold ups as mentioned (lost maybe 6 weeks and then another 2 over Xmas), that’s pretty fast – c. 5 months. You literally could have the shell up in a day if well planned, on a concrete pad with standard openings etc.

Hope that helps!

By: Tom W

Tom W — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 00:14:09 +0000

Hi Ben, great house, well done. Just wondering if you’d been able to quantify how much time the SIPS had saved you on the build?

Also, from the time the SIPS went up, can you recall how long it took to get the house watertight? And then completed?

Cheers

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 13 May 2016 03:02:45 +0000

Hey Ben
The good old “in by Xmas”
Cheers
Richard