After over a year of owning our new section, the message to say "we'll start digging next week" could not have been a more welcome sight for us. With such a steep section, earthworks were always going to be a huge part of the equation. We'd done all the prep we could - with early geotech reporting indicating that the land was stable - but until you actually open the ground up, there is definitely a sense of nerves on everyone's part. For us, that meant all the professionals we had looking at the site weren't happy to start any digging until we got through the wettest months of the year. Of course, just as we were about to kick things off, the 2021 nationwide Level 4 COVID-19 lockdown was announced (literally the day after we'd confirmed digging would be a go!). Luckily, Hawke's Bay was into Level 3 pretty quickly, and within a couple of weeks, our new digging company - Fergusson Contracting - was under way.

Again, we feel hugely lucky to have ended up with the contractors we have had on site. Primarily, that luck is down to Matt Symonds of Building Logic having a very solid network of contractors that he uses often. Matt drafted in Wilson from Fergusson Contracting to take advantage of the GPS earthmoving equipment that Wilson operates. The digger has the electronic plans for the earthworks loaded into his machine, and Wilson was able to pinpoint the exact footprint of the build - digging no more and no less than absolutely necessary on the site. That was a huge win - with such a steep section, and the desire to surround the house with foliage, that pinpoint accuracy not only meant no wastage of time or dirt, but it also let us plant around the section in the lead up to the digging. We can't speak highly enough of Wilson, he was great to deal with, stuck to his schedules, and had all the earthworks done within a couple of weeks. He also worked with Matt to get the first cut done, drill and position the piles for the retaining wall, leave the site while Building Logic finished that wall, and then return to complete the rest of the job. That little bit of pre planning meant there was very little time that the top bank of our section was cut out and exposed with no retaining - helping ease everyone's nerves on that front.

Once again, we're just trying to enjoy the process, and we're getting a huge kick out of the smallest things. Right now we are in awe of the giant hole we have, and the 'best retaining wall we've ever seen'! Celebrating those little victories seems to make the long journey of building a house so much more enjoyable each week. We've largely tried to leave the guys on site to their own devices - and are trying to limit ourselves to a weekly visit to the site...but I suspect it's pretty normal to feel like you want to swing by every day to see the progress. 

For us, the learnings about what goes into a house continue. We've seen the site excavated, drainage go in behind the retaining wall, and that retaining wall go up. Next come the footings (the steel 'anchors' which the house is built up from), then comes the blockwork and foundations. It's all new to us, and even the scale of what's happening continues to impress. The piles for our retaining wall are about 4 metres below ground and 2 metres above - and needed something like a full truck of cement for every five posts. It's a mammoth effort, and while it's great to get an understanding of every stage, you really do need to trust your builder, contractors and team on site.

​We're super excited to start seeing the actual house start to take shape now.

​Disclaimer: Building Logic is constructing the home of the author - Jamie Twigg. Jamie is friends with Matt Symonds (of Building Logic), and the founder of 543 Website Design - which created the Building Logic website.  This is not a sponsored post - and is an honest reflection on how the build process goes for a keyboard jockey and newbie to construction. As such, nothing in this blog post should be considered expert advice.

As progress ground to a halt in the wetter months of the year, we seemed to find ourselves hunting around for anyway to be proactive with our build. From wandering aimlessly around furniture shops looking at couches we knew we weren't going to buy, to picking the finish of every surface we could think of, we must have been driving our builder up the wall. Delays are incredibly frustrating, and it's been a big lesson that a delay early in the project, can have flow on effects further down the line. For us, that meant the Christmas holiday break that slowed down the engineering side of things meant that by the time we had consent issued, our builder's original choice for earthworks wasn't too keen to start digging as winter and the rain hit Hawke's Bay. There is definitely an art to the project management side of the equation, and we do feel really lucky to have a builder that has been thoroughly proactive on that front. Unfortunately though, the unforeseen can happen, and no amount of hoping is going to make the build process speed up. It's a journey, and we need to keep reminding ourselves to enjoy it while it lasts.

In the meantime though, while the excavator wasn't able to dig, our arborist was more than happy to get in, cut down some trees, and start helping us bring the vision for the section to life. Once again, we are total newbies on that front, so found ourselves leaning into the advice that Darryl from Urbanscape Tree and Garden was able to give. His years of experience in the industry meant he was able to come up with a tree felling and pruning plan that took into account our steep section, tricky terrain and the windflow throughout it. By trimming a bit off the top of a few trees and felling a few others, Darryl managed to clear the building footprint while keeping the natural NZ feel we are after. He was also then able to help us pick out a selection of about 100 native trees and flaxes that would survive on the steep section, and his team had those planted within a couple of days. From the felling, to a bit of pest management, spraying, mulching and eventually planting the trees, we were once again stoked with what the right landscaping professional was able to bring to the table for us.

Hopefully, in a few years time our little house will be nestled in native bush and this time spent waiting for a digger will be an fading memory. Alas, there is only so much tinkering around a blank section you are able to do while waiting for a build to get started, and with a change in excavation company, it wasn't too long until it was time to finally break dirt...

Rewinding back to August 2020 when we stumbled across our section, I remember saying something along the lines of "it's going to take a while, there will be delays, and we just have to enjoy the journey". As we move through the building process, we do have to continually remind ourselves of that mantra - as building a house becomes such a central focus of your life, and you really do just want it to be built and ready. Obviously though, good things take time, and a house takes months to build. What we didn't really count on are the 'unknown times' - those periods in the building process where you know something needs to be done...but you don't really know when it's going to be done by. Coming from a professional world of appointments and shorter scheduled timelines, that's something that is definitely taking getting used to.

To give you a bit of a better idea of those 'unknown' timelines, below is a little bit of a summary of how each step of the journey up until today has gone for us. Everyone's journey is bound to be different, but hopefully this gives a little bit of a feeling for what to expect in the early stages of your project.

• Settlement on the section and issue of title: we purchased a section that already had titled issued, so haven't had to have any wait on that front. However, it's an important one to keep in mind - we know that a neighbouring property has been waiting for months/years for their title to issue, so have been on pause that entire time. As far as the settlement went - we pushed our settlement date out 6 weeks just to line up with our previous apartment sale, so took ownership by late September. A quick plug for Fiona Harper from Bayleys, and Andreea Poanta from Langley Twigg for their help in making sure those early stages of the process were nice and seamless for us.
• Geotech reporting & surveying: once again, the benefits of using a team our builder recommended paid off here. RDCL (geotech) and Warren Gunn from Technical Spatial (surveyor) prepared the reports and files we needed to pass on to our designers within a couple of weeks.
• Concept plan and detailed drawing drafts: as mentioned in our earlier blogs, we turned to Don Pitt Design very, very early on in the process to start getting our plans underway.  We had concept plans created while our offer was still conditional and the team at DPD actually had those concept plans turned around within a fortnight for us. From there it was another two months to get draft developed drawings ready to head off to the structural engineer.
• Structural engineer: really early on in the process, both Matt Symonds from Building Logic, and Don Pitt from DPD had flagged to us that the longest part of the initial design process is often the structural engineer. You don't really appreciate the complexity of their work until you see the calculations that come back ready for the consent application, and so it did feel like we were stuck in a bit of a pause as we went through the summer break and another 4 months ticked by before we had those structural design elements back.
• Final detailed drawings ready for consent: once the structural engineering was back everything definitely seemed to move a bit more rapidly. With a bit of back and forth between the designer and the structural engineer, it was another 6 weeks until we had the plans submitted to Council.
• Council for consent: the Council's rules give them 2 working days to do an initial assessment of your application (basically to make sure the paper work is all correct) and 20 working days to process the application. Every time they need to ask for more information, the clock gets paused until that information is provided for them. This is where the previous work of your professionals definitely pays dividends. We knew of other people that had their applications in the consenting phase for 3 months or so, whereas our consent was through that entire process within 6 weeks. 
• Getting out of the ground: and so we've reached the date I'm writing this blog! At this stage we can't give a firm timeframe for anything beyond consenting as we are in another holding pattern thanks to our steep site and the above process creeping us into winter.  It's just ticked over a month since we obtained consent, so we're obviously eager to get started, but with so many contractors being busy at the moment, and our earthworks being reasonably significant, we just have to put on our 'patience' hat again and let things unfold.

OVERALL TIME UP TO CONSENT BEING GRANTED: because a bit of the above overlapped (we had alot of the planning work happening before settlement date), it's a bit tricky to pinpoint exactly how long it did take. However, it was roughly 6-7 months from purchasing the property to receiving consent. That was starting with a completely blank slate, and locking onto a design fairly early in the process. Obviously this will vary depending on your own site, circumstances and your professional's capacity, but it's a good number to keep in mind. We probably didn't expect the process to take that long, and it may have helped with our patience levels if we did have that timeframe in mind from day one!

I guess the major takeaway from the process to date is that you'll have some real peaks and troughs in the building process. The elation of getting a concept design is quickly followed by the grind to get back your structural engineering. The high of receiving consent, can follow a pause while you wait for contractors to become available. All of this is obviously hugely normal, but our Netflix generation is used to things either happening fast, or knowing exactly when something is going to happen. That's unlikely to happen with your build process, and for us, we just have to keep reminding ourselves that we need to 'enjoy the process' of what is a pretty massive life event for us. Ultimately, you'll probably drive your builder nutty wanting things to keep moving, but if you've got a good one in your corner they'll keep you updated and will be wanting things to progress just as much as you. We continue to see the benefits of having worked with Building Logic right from the start, as Matt has a good idea of what contractors are busy, and how long this process does take. Our hope to be in the house at some stage this coming summer is still alive, and once the site is ready for Building Logic to get in there, the really exciting milestones will start to be notched up. For now, we'll stay patient, and look forward to every step along the way.

​Disclaimer: Building Logic is constructing the home of the author - Jamie Twigg. Jamie is friends with Matt Symonds (of Building Logic), and the founder of 543 Website Design - which created the Building Logic website.  This is not a sponsored post - and is an honest reflection on how the build process goes for a keyboard jockey and newbie to construction. As such, nothing in this blog post should be considered expert advice.

With the section purchased and the builders in the mix, the first big milestone for us was getting a concept plan put together for the site. Again, being completely fresh to the building process, our initial thought was our first port of call would obviously be an architect. We put in a few emails to local architects whose portfolio we liked the feel of, as well as a few friends of friends who were architects to start getting some price estimates. The fess varied a bit - in the 10%-15% range of final build cost - but I can't really give much guidance beyond that point. Soon after putting those original feelers out, we had our first chat with Matt Symonds and Building Logic, and on his recommendation, we engaged Don Pitt Design (DPD) - an 'architectural designer' to complete our initial concepts and eventually the full design and draughting. DPD's fees were definitely more affordable than an architect, and we couldn't have been happier with the end result, so again, it was another great piece of advice from our builder, that we just wouldn't have got if we hadn't involved him earlier on in the process.

In the days leading up to meeting Don and briefing him and his team, we definitely became 'back of napkin' architects. With zero concept of how to design a house or what was needed, we sketched up what we thought would be a fantastic design for the house. On our steep section we stepped stories up the slope and somehow managed to include a pool on top of a garage, and an overall concept that would have been monstrous on the section and on our wallets! Thankfully, we quickly put our own scribbles to bed, and instead offered DPD the following brief (copied straight from an email I sent through):

"Below is a bit of an insight into 'us' that might help out:

• Size - our style isn't 'big'. We like the idea of well designed smaller spaces that feel bigger. That square metreage we mentioned yesterday was just based on the covenants requiring 180m2 including garage. Having now talked to the developer, I'm pretty confident they would accept a floor plan smaller than that - so we're very flexible on that front. We currently live (and work from home) in a 69m2 one bedroom apartment...it's too small for us now, but equally it has given us an appreciation of what will and won't work for us re smaller spaces.
• Living space - we like an open plan living/kitchen, and would like to have at least some bench/prep space in the kitchen that lets us be in the kitchen prepping, while looking out into the living area and chatting to someone in that space. We also really like the idea of that living area opening up to an external space of some sort (deck/patio etc). The dream would be having a seamless transition from living space to deck/patio to pool. As I mentioned, I do enjoy my TV...I'd want it to fit into the layout of the living area, without it being the centre of focus.
• Pool - because we know how hot Havelock can get in summer, we are pretty sure we want to have a small pool. You might have some thoughts on this, but our hope would be to use the slope to be able to have it 'above ground' to save on installation cost, but integrated with the house at living room level.
• Rooms - we think for the next 3-5 years we would be extremely happy in a 2 bedroom, one bathroom setup, however, future proofing, it would likely become a 3 bedroom, ensuite and a bathroom layout further down the rack. We are extremely open to creating the 2 bedder with a plan to add to it in the future - but obviously that's a discussion to be had with you and Matt re how it would be done and costs of each scenario (all built now...added to in future if desired). One of the rooms I'd work from daily - so the 'second' room shouldn't be toooo dinky or dark.
• Cars/Garage - Grace works in Ahuriri, and I work at home, so practically speaking, while we would love to run only one car, realistically we would probably end up running a two car scenario. A garage would be great (I'd like to have a little bit of gym equipment somewhere in our setup - the garage being the natural place for that I guess) - but we aren't absolutely committed to that.
• Outlook/Privacy - personally I've always thought 'a view' is very important. I'd like to take advantage of the view out to the ranges in either the living/master, if possible. We chose that section because we don't want to feel like we are 'in the burbs'.

Hopefully that gives you a bit of an idea of how we function day to day! I wouldn't consider anything 'prescriptive' - we are totally open to any design suggestion/ideas you have to take advantage of the shape of the land while keeping the budget under control. Same goes for cladding/fittings/construction etc - we're very much open to things like prefab elements or smart construction materials to give the effect you/we are after - while doing it affordably (ie we aren't the type of clients to be wanting specific high end materials for the sake of it!)."

You'll see from that initial email that we tried to give the DPD an outline of how we live and what we value, without actually prescribing anything in particular. We really wanted to give the professionals a bit of creative license to be able to put together something clever that we hadn't thought of, while still making sure the things that were important to us were still in the mix. We found that balance of giving a designer a wide scope to play with, while being firm on the elements that you know will effect the way you live really, really useful. DPD created something stunning, designed for the section/setting,  that we never would have imagined ourselves (see the first concept above). Don also tried to sneak a fireplace into the spot where I wanted a TV though ("you don't cuddle up in front of TV Jamie!") - but we stuck to our guns on those things that were important to us, and the end result is something we are hugely excited about getting into.

Working with DPD and Building Logic to get the initial concept completed was incredibly easy and a huge benefit to us. We had that concept completed within a month, and that initial speed may have let us starting thinking that the whole build was going to be done and dusted in record time...unfortunately....we quickly learned that when it comes to building - patience is most definitely a virtue.

Disclaimer: Building Logic is constructing the home of the author - Jamie Twigg. Jamie is friends with Matt Symonds (of Building Logic), and the founder of 543 Website Design - which created the Building Logic website.  This is not a sponsored post - and is an honest reflection on how the build process goes for a keyboard jockey and newbie to construction. As such, nothing in this blog post should be considered expert advice.

The deeper into this build project we have got, the more we are appreciating the value that top notch professionals that work well together bring to the project. Early on in the piece we would have probably thought that you just need your house plan and a builder and that was that. What we probably failed to recognise was just how many different professionals and contractors you need to even get your house to the point where your builder is swinging a hammer. Just off the top of my head, to date we've needed:

• A geo-technical engineer to make sure the site was stable
• A surveyor to map the slope of the land and create a digital layout of the section
• An architectural designer to design and draught the house (we skipped the architect - but  they may also add value for you)
• A structural engineer to make sure the plans get consent
• An arborist to clear the trees from the section
• A valuer to create a valuation for the bank/mortgage
• A financial advisor/mortgage broker/bank man to get the finance in place
• An excavator to dig up the land to get ready for foundations 
• An appliance store to fit out the house 
• A kitchen designer to create the cabinetry
• A bathroom/fittings specialist to get the tapware etc ordered
• A tile store/specialist to choose the bathroom tiling
• A flooring store to choose our carpet and wooden flooring
• A pool provider to order the swim spa
• And  the builder to co-ordinate everything!

We've spoken and dealt with all of those people before a single piece of dirt has been dug up on our land. Obviously, not every home build will need all of those contact points, but when you add in electricians and plumbers, scaffolders and glazers - and the numerous other material providers, you start to get a feel for the number of cogs in motion in any single build. With that in mind, we're hugely happy with the decision we made early on in the piece to pick our builder early, and bring him into the process right from the moment we were even looking at the land. Once we'd purchased the section, we had Matt Symonds of Building Logic and Don Pitt of Don Pitt Design out on site within days to start talking about how we wanted to live, and what that might look like on our particular section. Matt's since told me that it's something he wishes more clients would do, as it let's the builder loop their practical feedback into the design process, and means you create a bit of 'team' around your build. From that moment we've heavily relied on Matt pointing us to his preferred tradesmen and suppliers, and it's made for a fairly seamless process along the way as each part of the puzzle knows how other parts of the puzzle work and fit together.

It's still early days for us as we wait to hear that the digger is on site, but we can certainly vouch for the value of bringing the builder into the process early on, and letting them have a guiding hand in the process. We're hoping that experience of trusting a team that's worked together in the past continues to pay dividends as we start to gear up towards real action on our site.

With the team coming together though, it was time to get a concept plan created.

Disclaimer: Building Logic is constructing the home of the author - Jamie Twigg. Jamie is friends with Matt Symonds (of Building Logic), and the founder of 543 Website Design - which created the Building Logic website.  This is not a sponsored post - and is an honest reflection on how the build process goes for a keyboard jockey and newbie to construction. As such, nothing in this blog post should be considered expert advice.

Having decided to build, and found a section that we saw potential in - it was time to get down to the nitty gritty of buying the section. We'd enquired about a few previously and there were a few fish hooks that we knew to keep an eye out for:

• Has title issued? This may seem obvious, but land and sections will be put on the market at various stages of the subdivision process. As an example, a neighbouring property began that subdivision process years before we bought our section, but title still hadn't issued on that property. That may not be a dealbreaker for you - you may know who is subdividing the land, and you may get a better deal because title hasn't issued....but remember - you won't be building on your land until that title is issued. Luckily for us, title had issued not long before we grabbed the section .
• What are the zoning rules? Wherever you are in New Zealand, you'll have a District and Regional Plan that will dictate what exactly can be built on your section without resource consent. Finding out what those rules will let you do is definitely something worth looking at before putting pen to paper. Look up your local District Council website, find the District Plan,  and check what the zoning is and what rules apply. At the very least have a conversation with the real estate agent and developer about those zoning rules. We were right on the cusp of a rural residential zone - so no real worries there.
• What are the utilities and services like? If you're building smack bang in the middle of town, then it's likely you'll be hooked up to all the town services. For us, this was a big one to find out about - we both work in the IT space (I personally run 543 Website Design out of a home office), so a good broadband connection was crucial. If you're further afield, you may need a septic tank etc - which can add to costs.
• What does the contract look like? Alot of blank sections will be within a subdivision of some sort - and often the developer will impose some building requirements on new purchasers. These can be HUGELY onerous - we looked at one development that required us to sign a contract that basically said "the developer can change anything - including the size and shape of your section - at any point.... and that all deposits were non-refundable....even if the development didn't go ahead." Scary stuff! Obviously you can negotiate any contract - but always be aware of what you may be required to conform to in terms of your build. For us there was a minimum spend per square metre (which building on a slope we were always going to end up spending), and a few clauses requiring a certain sewer pump and nothing too radical in terms of colouring. Again, no red flags for us, so we pushed on.
• What's going on beneath the surface? A big learning we've had in this process is that what the ground is like below the surface can be hugely influential on your build costs. A flat section may look perfect - but if it's mainly 'infill', then your foundations and excavation costs might pop up.  Some developers will provide you with a geotechnical report, but otherwise it's a good idea to investigate the land early. It's a couple of thousand of dollars that could save you hundreds of thousands in the long run. Obviously we were most worried about our steep section - so made our offer conditional on a geo-technical report being completed. Ben Bistouni at RDCL was fantastic in that regard - we expressed the urgency, he was out on site with us within days, and turned the report around with plenty of time for us to meet our condition. The good news was that while the site was steep, the underlying ground was solid.
• Understand your bargaining power. This one will vary from person to person depending on the section and the amount of interest in it. Obviously, if you are one of 10 bidders on a section, you aren't going to be in as strong of a position as the solo person interested. The good news is, sections do tend to have less interest than houses at the moment, so if you find yourself in a strongish position, you can always 'negotiate creatively'. For us, we knew we liked the section, and the price was OK, so rather than trying to push the price way down, we put in a couple of conditions in the contract to give us time to be sure about the purchase.  We signed with a settlement date a couple of months down the track, and made the offer conditional on both having the geotech report AND an acceptable design completed by settlement date. We gave ourselves as much certainty as possible that we could build something we loved, before being absolutely committed.

Purchasing land was definitely a new and exciting prospect for us. We knew we could build something awesome on the section we found, but we heard so many horror stories about 'steep sections' and the costs running up that it was pretty freaky making the commitment. What we did end up doing was spending a decent chunk of change (several thousand) before we went unconditional on the contract, to just give ourselves more confidence in the land we were buying. Looking back on it, it's been worth every penny - as we would have incurred all of those costs further down the line anyway. Ultimately, if the geotech report had been bad, or we couldn't get a design we liked...we could have not settled on the section and saved hundreds of thousands. We'd definitely recommend some good thorough planning up front.  And with that great planning underway....we really wanted a a great 'team' to make our home a reality - which I'll dive into in our next blog.

Disclaimer: Building Logic is constructing the home of the author - Jamie Twigg. Jamie is friends with Matt Symonds (of Building Logic), and the founder of 543 Website Design - which created the Building Logic website.  This is not a sponsored post - and is an honest reflection on how the build process goes for a keyboard jockey and newbie to construction. As such, nothing in this blog post should be considered expert advice.

Full disclosure - this is not a blog by a builder. It's not a blog by a handyman, a tradesman, or anyone else involved in the building process. This is a blog by someone who is building a house from scratch, coming into it with no knowledge about the building process and no ability to wield a hammer. It's a blog by a layperson for laypeople. A step by step trip through our journey from deciding to build, to choosing a section, and having Building Logic create the house for us. We'll try to take you through the highs and lows of the process, point out things you should be aware of along the way, and hopefully arm you with some knowledge that we definitely didn't have on day one. By the end of this blog, we're hoping that we'll be in a beautiful new home - and you'll be able to make some smart decisions in your own building adventure.

As I write this blog, we have consent granted and a Building contract in hand - but to really start this journey, we need to rewind back to the end of lockdown 2020 when it felt like every kiwi decided that instead of taking a holiday this year, they were going to renovate, build or buy a home. At that stage, we were living in a one bedroom apartment that managed to squeeze the living room, a home office, a kitchen and a dining room all into space that would be smaller than most garages. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely apartment and suited us well for the last few years, but both of us sharing that space to work and live in over lockdown definitely pushed us into looking for a new home earlier than we may have previously been thinking. We scoured TradeMe and quickly realised that for the budget we had in mind we were going to have to look further afield than our 'ideal' neighbourhoods, and even doing that, our initial budget may need to jump up a bit. But, with our filters on a lower price bracket, sections popped up in the search result, and on a whim we decided to go take a nosey at one in particular. 

Almost immediately we fell in love with the section. It was surrounded by trees, close to town, had some outlook....and in the craziness of the property market, the price seemed extremely reasonable. In fact, it had been sitting on the market for a while, and there were other sections around it that were also for sale - so if we wanted it...there wouldn't be a bidding war. The one big catch - it was an extremely steep section. Unworried, we had a couple of builder friends (including Matt Symonds of Building Logic) come out to site to give us a rough idea of building costs. Neither of them were completely scared off, and so after comparing the rough cost to build they gave us, with what we could buy already built in the current market, we took the plunge and decided that we were going to build.

That's where this journey starts, back in August 2020 - exasperated by the cost of decent quality housing available and a gut instinct that we'd be able to build something cool on a section no one else wanted. Next up...we bought the section.
​
Disclaimer: Building Logic is constructing the home of the author - Jamie Twigg. Jamie is friends with Matt Symonds (of Building Logic), and the founder of 543 Website Design - which created the Building Logic website.  This is not a sponsored post - and is an honest reflection on how the build process goes for a keyboard jockey and newbie to construction. As such, nothing in this blog post should be considered expert advice.