We have a roof! Just as it's about to get really wet in New Zealand a roof has appeared on our house nestled into the hillside. It feels like a massive day and more than anything gives us a real sense of how the house is going to work into it's environment. It's also cause for celebration and the customary 'roof shout'...but as total newbies to this, what do we even get for a roof shout?! There doesn't seem to be a handbook on this sort of stuff, but after chatting to a few of our builder friends, here were a few things we picked up:

• If you're going to do it - don't be too stingy. Some of builders will drive over from other sites, so you may as well make it worth their while.
• Who doesn't love food! The roof shout these days isn't necessarily the 'leer up' of yesteryear - so think about food as well.
• Work in with your building team. Let's be honest - they have friends and family they want to spend their free time with, so maybe don't organise it for an awkward time.
• Just ask. Some builders drink, some don't. Some love a pie, some love a salad. Chat to your builder and see what the crew would be keen for. Lunch? Dinner? Drinks? Pizza?  Sushi? The main thing is.... you have a roof!

At risk of sounding like a broken record - wow it pays to trust a professional who is an expert at what they do. RIght throughout this build we have met different trades and professionals who just know their stuff through and through. That specialist knowledge of a subject matter is something you can't glean with a few hours of googling, and every time we have chatted to someone about their specialty field, we've ended up with some sort of improvement to the end result of our future home. 

For the interior of our house, we decided to get the team at Bibby & Brady to run their eye over our floor plan and make some suggestions about the furniture and layout. We had an idea of the 'feel' we were after (fairly minimist and clean), but were struggling a bit with the general layout. After creating the beautiful 3-D renders above, Bibby + Brady walked us through all the furniture and fabrics they had picked out and sold the story on why they used them. They even picked up on a couple of things that we hadn't even thought about (the bench height for example), and all in all we are super happy with the the direction they've pointed us in. Coming from a one bedroom apartment we have the luxury (and stress!) of starting from scratch, so knowing that all the furniture is going to work well together is just one more thing we don't have to worry about come move in day.

If there was one thing we'd been looking forward to the most since this build process started it was the day the frames went up! A few of our builder friends had already prepped us - they love the frames days because it seems like HEAPS happens for the clients, but it's just another couple of days at the office for them. We weren't disappointed either - one day the site was a nice flat concrete pad with a sub floor on the top level - and overnight it turned into the skeleton of the structure we'll one day be living in. It's a very cool feeling being able to finally look out the square where a window will eventually be and get a feel for what the view will actually look like.

The frames going up really sums up the entire building process. It's a bit of a roller coaster of fits and starts. One week it might be windy and rainy and next to nothing happens, while the next it's all hands on deck and an entire structure will take shape. The biggest learning for us (which we've passed onto the guys at Building Logic) is that 'not knowing' is actually far worse than having a week of slow going. When we know it's a quiet week because there is a wait on materials or a contractor, we put it to the back of our minds and just chug along. It's the weeks that we set ourselves up, hoping for big visible changes that can sometimes disappoint. So to all the would be owners of a new home - see if you can get your builder just to drop you a message once a week or so - it will definitely help keep the expectations where they should be, and you'll be able to appreciate the big milestones like frames going up with a little bit less stress.

As we roll into the middle of winter 2022 and I finally get a minute to catch up on the house blogging - the phrase "expect the unexpected" is definitely resonating for us at the moment. For all the house building reality TV shows we've watched, we really should have realised that building a home on the side of a hill was going to include a more complexity than we initially anticipated - but I think like most excited new home builders, we probably underestimated what was involved.

Looking back to my last post at the start of this year, we were definitely thinking the hardest part was conquered. The excavation was done, the concrete was poured, and our foundations were all good to go. To a certain extent that was true - but then as you start to gain an appreciation for the moving parts involved in the build, you can begin to understand where delays come from, and why things aren't necessarily straight forward. Take the installation of our swim spa for example. You'll see in the photos below that it's nestled nicely in behind the garage, below the top storey deck. The trick is, because it is behind that garage it needed to be craned in - before the garage frames popped up, using the garage pad as sturdy ground for the crane to position on. That meant co-ordinating an overseas delivered swim spa to work in at the small window between the pad being finished and the frames going up. Any delivery delay bumps back the frames, which has a knock on effect to everything. Planning is beyond critical,  so understanding your builder's timelines and making sure you are know what is happening and when can be really helpful. A good builder will get everything lined up to timelines that work smoothly - but while they may have 3 or more other houses they are building....your home is the only build in your mind - making you a super helpful resource to your builder when needed.

We'll undoubtedly run into a few more occasions where something unexpected pops up - and we are getting very good at being ready for those moments. Matt, from Building Logic, is the same - staying a step ahead in his planning enough that most of the wobbles the building industry is facing haven't seemed to affect us too much yet. I can't even count how many articles I've ready about a lack of gib in the country....and Matt has had to deal with being sent half of those article links (!)...but our gib is sitting ready to be used, so there is hope we'll start to see less speed bumps as the build gains momentum.

As we crack into the new year, we are getting closer and closer to having our foundations finally completed. According to Matt from Building Logic 'this one's a bloody stagey job!' -with the nature of building a slightly architectural home on a slope meaning it has a few complexities that have seen other more straight forward builds pop up around us and leap frog us in the build process.

The slope, and the way it has to be retained, has meant that rather than being able to come in and do all the footings at once, then all the blockwork at once, and all the concrete pour at once, Matt has had to do different sections (stages) of the site for each particular part of the process, then loop back to the start for another part of the site. The garage pad and downstairs pad have been poured for example, while the top storey pad (further up the slope of the hill) needs to wait for the block work for the downstairs to be completed before it can be poured as well. Having a great builder means that those stages are all laid out and planned well, but every time you have a trade onto site, then have them leave after finishing a stage, you will need to then wait for that trade to finish on another job before being available to do your next stage. As I mentioned in our last post, there are alot of moving parts with a job like this, and it just means something that might have taken one month on a conventional site, ends up taking two as you wait for small delays of 2-3 days between part's of stages that quickly add up. Alas, that's the joys of building something a wee bit different from the norm!

The reason I've included this blog post is really for both those considering a conventional build AND those with a slightly trickier one. For those with a square house on a flat section, you'll pop up in no time. While we've been watching blockwork slowly go up on our site, across the road we've seen a conventional house foundations and frames pop up within a few weeks. For those of you with a trickier house, or one on a slope, just remember that you might need things like cranes dropping materials into different parts of the site, and different trades coming in at different stages of the build based on their schedule with other projects as well. We wouldn't change it for the world - we want a house that isn't the norm - but with uniqueness comes complexity.

The good news is that once you are out of the ground, things should start to speed up. Although...that may be a blog for next month as we sneak towards having our foundations completed.

At the start of this build project we distinctly remember both Matt (the builder) and every building and renovation show we'd ever watched telling us "there are always delays" in building. Of course we appreciated that, and it's something that is fairly unavoidable, but now living the process, it's something we definitely underestimated on day one. When we first grabbed the section back in August 2020, there was a glimmer of hope of being in the house by December 2021, but then along came a whole host of factors which slowly pushed that move-in date out again and again. There have been covid related material delays, high demand on trades and professionals meaning longer than usual waits at different stages, and, of course...the weather. It's now feeling more like a 2 year timeframe from buying the section to moving in - and that actually feels reasonable. If you'd told us that at the start of the project we would have been aghast, but now, seeing the complexities and moving parts involved, that longer timeframe does start to make sense. We're hoping it is a bit quicker than that, and for the most part it's out of our hands, but there have been some key learnings along the way:

1. The seasons are important - this was one that we didn't fully appreciate, and had we been a little bit luckier, could have saved quite a big chunk of time in the build journey. When it's wet, things slow down. Excavating a steep slope in particular is something that's very unlikely to happen in the wetter months - and even things like the laying of blocks is going to be hindered by wet weather. If you can recognise this fact and make sure to push your planning and engineering through early enough in the year to leave enough time for your consent to process and the earthworks to be completed in the drier months, that overall build time could be as much as 3 months quicker.
2. Plan, pick and order - this has been an area that Matt and Building Logic have been incredibly onto it. We had all our bathrooms, kitchens and fittings picked out super early in the process, and Matt was way ahead of the curve in terms of ordering things like timber and materials. That has ended up being doubly important with the covid supply chain issues - so being two steps ahead of the curve definitely helps the process.
3. Be ready for a delay - if you are building, and the builder says they'll have you 'in the place in 6 months' - maybe make sure you have an extra couple of months up your sleeve wherever you are staying. If we'd moved into our parents place thinking we were going to be into the house 2 months ago...tensions may be fraying by now!
4. Make the most of the build time - having settled into rolling with the punches and delays, we are now trying to see the positives in it. We've got a bit more time to save for things like furniture, we're getting stuck into the planting and maintenance of the rest of the site, and we really are trying to celebrate each little milestone that comes along.

I don't think anyone goes into a building project wanting delays, but there is a reason everyone says to expect them. A good building team will keep those delays to a minimum, but when you are building something on the scale of a house, there are so many different trades and materials involved, its very easy for one piece of the puzzle to drag slightly and cause a knock on effect down the line. We keep reminding ourselves that all of these trades (and the builder) have an incentive to finish the work as fast as they can - so if there are hold ups there is generally a really good reason behind it. Be firm, keep guiding things forward, but make sure you enter this process with a level of empathy and understanding. If you have a positive mindset throughout, the process and the final product is going to be so much more enjoyable for you.

And on the note of celebrating milestones - the foundations are definitely taking shape!

​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.

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.