Moving house is almost second nature to Andy and Sharee Hill.
The Mosgiel couple have built five houses for themselves, the most recent featuring a soaring ceiling and large expanses of glass.
Their digs have not always been so impressive though. They started out in a house they describe as small and basic, and have worked their way up the property ladder over many years.
In 2020, they had their sights set on an elevated, 1480sq m section that promised panoramic views and plenty of sun.
Mr Hill recalls bidding for it at a blackboard auction attended by more than 100 people.
"Sharee had gone off to the toilet and of course if I hadn’t kept bidding on it, I would have been dead," he jokes. "So I just had to keep going up ..."
The resulting design features four gables, connected by a flat roof that ensures the large house does not look out of proportion on the site.
Steel portals and a pitched ceiling create a large living space inside.
Builder Todd Ford says the section had a height restriction and this required them to build down into the ground.
Pitching the flat roof to ensure the correct falls away from four separate wings was a challenge but ultimately, it was a great aspect of the design.
Both he and Mr Fahey agree the owners’ design flair was also a key part of the project.
"The cemintel cladding was a product we'd never used before but looks fantastic," Mr Ford says.
"The house is also full of extras — custom joinery, steel portals, oversized doors and aluminum joinery, a curved wall, beautiful feature lighting, multiple outdoor living spaces and much more."
The curved wall he refers to starts in the standard-height entry and leads into the main living area — a contrasting large, airy space with a stud that is almost 5.5m high.
Vertical timber slats divide this area from a media room and on each side of that is a wing containing two bedrooms, a separate toilet and a bathroom — an ideal layout for when their adult children come back to stay.
Mrs Hill, who works in interior design, wanted a timeless, "lodge-style" interior that was cosy and inviting.
She settled on a black, white and grey palette, warmed up with wood.
The rest of the exterior cladding is plaster and dark, grooved fibre cement panels.
The couple took lessons from their previous builds, paying attention to indoor and outdoor lighting, and ensuring the outdoor areas and all the bedrooms — not just the master — were a reasonable size.
They also knew that small details matter and the curtains are a case in point.
The tracks are gib-stopped into the ceilings for a flush, seamless look while the curtain linings are black on the outside to match the dark aluminium joinery and cladding.
Mr Hill, who paints aircraft and machinery for a living, even spray-painted the heat pump condenser units black for the same reason.
One drawback of new builds is having to wait for a garden to become established so they started planting a year before building began, Mrs Hill adds.
The developer of the subdivision had already planted the gully in front of the house with flaxes and grasses but they removed most of those because they wanted to "mix it up" and include flowers.
Some of their plants are ones they grew from cuttings.
While the build took about a year and the finishing touches outside another 12 months, it all ran smoothly.
"Every tradesman we had was great so we were very lucky."
With five builds behind them, the pair have a few ideas about what it takes to ensure a successful outcome.
"Get a good architect and an honest builder, Mr Hill says.
"And make sure that your builder has good plumbers, sparkies, gib-stoppers and painters."
It’s important to have open communication, to stay one step ahead of your trades by making decisions early on and to think about things such as services in the ceiling or outdoor taps and wiring at the outset because adding them later can be too difficult or too expensive, they say.
They also recommend enlisting the help of a colour consultant or an interior designer.
While Mr Hill is adamant this property is their forever home, his wife is not ruling out doing it all again.
"It’s always a challenge to see what else we can do," she says.
