Attention to detail has made this Waitati house a winner. Kim Dungey reports.
A sophisticated beach house was the vision Colin Thom started with when he built his own home.
And it perfectly describes the house he and wife Leeann now live in, with its water views from every room and seamless flow from indoor to outdoor areas.
The sprawling Waitati house won the builder's own home award at the recent southern region Registered Master Builders House of the Year event, as well as the awards for bathrooms, outdoor living, energy efficiency and craftsmanship.
The couple and their three children had always loved Doctor's Point with its views across Blueskin Bay but land was not easy to come by. Their .4ha section was subdivided from one of the area's original homes and before construction began, had an asphalt tennis court, small lawn and old stone fireplace.
Twenty years ago, the Thoms built their own home in Andersons Bay but it was one they designed themselves.
This time, they knew the site was so special it deserved an architect's input.
The couple imagined the four-bedroom, three-bathroom house running across the secluded site. But Francis Whitaker came up with a series of rooms built on three levels and spilling down the slope under a monopitch roof.
Victorian ash features inside and cedar on the exterior, the extensive use of timber giving the home a timeless appeal and allowing it to blend with the surrounding bush.
With high ceilings, oversized doors, and floor-to-ceiling windows making up half the wall area, there is also a sense of light and space.
Large cavity-sliding doors make it easy to separate and heat the living areas, including a dedicated television room.
The spacious kitchen has Victorian ash cabinets, with the grain running horizontally, and white stone benchtops.
Though the floor area, including the garage, is 350sq m, the roof is 500sq m because of the covered decks, says Mr Thom, who started a builder's apprenticeship at 15 and set up his own business at 21.
The project was treated as a job rather than being done in his spare time. While the work was done in "segments", the time spent on site would have been about a year.
Care had to be taken with the set-out of the roof to get clean lines and the correct margins, particularly where the windows and doors went right to the ceiling.
Some of the walls are thicker than usual, at 150mm, to make the house stronger and to accommodate extra insulation.
Solar panels heat the water and, except for louvres used for ventilation, all the glass is double-glazed, low emissivity and argon-filled for thermal efficiency.
Large stacker doors open onto the decks and a gravel path leads down to a small jetty.
While landscape designer Wayne Butson created the garden design, the couple did the planting themselves, putting the last of 1500 plants into the ground at Easter.
"The outdoors gets used a lot in summer for barbecues, swimming and canoeing," Mrs Thom says, as a tui lands on a nearby bird feeder and breaks into song.
"It's a very family-orientated home."
Asked what advice he would give others contemplating building, Mr Thom said members of reputable organisations such as the Master Builders and Certified Builders associations had good contracts and guarantees and it was important to have a realistic budget.
"If you were building new, I'd recommend getting a fixed price from a builder. Then the only time you pay more money is when you change things."
As the couple look out on the water, it's hard to imagine them wanting to alter anything about their relaxing home in a tranquil location.
"It's got a holiday feel to it," Mrs Thom says. "My dad calls it 'the resort'."
