When we started to have this idea of a house in the bush, we wanted something genuine, not a box with plastic cladding and aluminum windows. We didn’t want an ‘airport’ as we call the outrageous black and grey concrete platforms city people tend to build on beautiful coastal slopes. We wanted to go back in time, when early pioneers had to cut their section in the wild and build small places for themselves and their families. Two options were at hand. Buy and move an existing house, or build a new house. Unfortunately, the size and configuration of our driveway wouldn’t allow a house to come through so we had to move to the second option.[SinglePic not found]

If you don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest, there is the ‘kitset home’ option. Many providers out there have catalogues and can even customize the plans to your requirements. It is a fun process going through all shapes and styles and debating what kitset could provide a good base to our dream. We played with the American Barn, the Polynesian cabin, the typical cottage and more to eventually find the one. A business in the Wairarapa was making settler’s cottages in 4 different sizes and after we saw them we decided that’s what we would build.

On a business trip to Wellington, we escaped by train to Masterton where we visited the cottages at different stages. Their shape was close to what we wanted but there would have been too much work on their plans to make it to our requirements. But the most essential aspect to consider was the building consent process. The plans they provided were council ready in the Wairarapa, but not in the Coromandel! What seemed a cheaper option at first could end up being a more expensive one if things went wrong there. So in the end we decided to use the kitsets for inspiration and go for a local drafter, who was familiar with the Coromandel Council and would straight away know what to do and what not to do.

At an early stage, after we decided on a design, we then started our hunt for windows and doors. It has been an exciting – yet sometimes painful – process. We visited demolition yards, spent a lot of time on trademe searching for the quaint windows and doors that would achieve our goal. One after the other, we bought doors and windows, some very cheap, some not. We found out the hard way that an untidy window would eventually require hours or days of work to be restored. We then spent week-ends sawing, drilling, sanding, scraping and painting. Overall, the result is amazing! On some, we have recovered and exposed beautiful kauri timber, which will be fantastic when installed. Now safely stored in a storage unit, they are impatient to have a second life!

Silly enough, we started this process even before we had bought the land, were sure our design could be done on the land, or found a drafter! We were convinced that we knew what we wanted to do that, here or anywhere. We were also lucky not to do that at the end of the year… As it seems a new law will require double glazing on all new building – which will be fatal to any recycling project in a near future (very sad).

Lucky enough, and after some research on the Internet, we identified a builder living in Whitianga, who seemed available at the projected building period, and he referred us to a local drafter, who was also available. All seemed to fit in nicely. We met the next week-end with the drafter, Trevor, on the land – amidst the clearing of our land, knee deep in clay and power cables – and went through our detailed plans Seb had meticulously drawn on millimeter paper. He seemed fine with our ideas and was able to start the following week. After we gave him all the dimensions of our doors and windows and three weeks later we were delighted to have the first draft and really see our dream finally unveiling.

When you buy a piece of land somewhere in a remote place, you will usually need more than a shovel to make your way in and get a building site! As we were impatient to start working on the property we had identified local tradesmen to help us move some dirt and install power. The dirt moving part went quite well, minus the unfortunate problems occurring (truck getting stuck, tools breaking, rain, etc.) making everything twice as long as planned, and a bit more expensive. Alan James and his team were always very helpful and did the jobs in the time frame we needed it to be done. The earthworks were just a matter of agreeing on what to dig, where to flatten land, where to dispose of dirt and trees, and give a hand when needed. The clearing of the building site was like opening a present at Christmas, with Dave the digger operator in the role of Santa. Can you dig a bit more the parking area? Can you make this area flat? Just ask and Dave will do it. Karen had to laugh at those boys with big toys. After the building site, the driveway had a face-lift. It was surprisingly in very good shape for not having been maintained for so many years. Its shape had not moved and the water table was still doing the job. So it seemed an easy and fast job to the earth moving company. But, burying a thick cable 80 centimeters in the ground and graveling 150 meters in one day happened to be very optimistic – with the odd issue arising – so it took 3+ days and a number of truckloads to make it to a drivable standard.

The power in itself occupied me almost full time for a long time! Before purchasing, we had discovered that the transformer was not there. So to make it from this box on the road 200 meters from our driveway to our building site 150 meters down the driveway there was quite a lot of project management to be done! It involved sorting who has to do what from installing the transformer, to finding the buried cables at our driveway entrance, to burying our cables and connecting the whole lot. I had to spend hours on the phone with Powerco (the infrastructure people), Energex, Tenix, Metering System, Power and Gas Commission of Wellington, and 2 local electricians. We discovered, after fruitless negotiations that we would have to pay for the transformer, but not own it. Not owning the transformer has been extremely frustrating as this means the two lots near us that will depend on our transformer are not actually obliged to assist with the cost of the transformer. We had looked into going off the grid (solar) but that would have cost us at least $30,000 to start. After quotes from all (ouch $18,000) and choosing the right team, it involved getting them to fit in the schedule with diggers, cabling and rain. It eventually went well, with everyone coming and doing their job mostly as planned.

We couldn’t be there for all of the work so one Friday night, after completion, we were surprised to find that power was connected to our temporary box on the building site. Yeah!

When you believe that you can get your finance sorted, you then enter the painful and exciting process of negotiating the price with the seller. In that process, we have been doing a lot of research about the property, to evaluate its fair market value and to find ways to put advantages in our hands. As you might imagine, at this stage, you are entering a mind game, where you are trying to understand who the sellers are, what drawbacks the property may have that would bring the price down, or any other data that can be a negotiating tool. We found out on www.qv.co.nz that the property was bought in 2004 for $170,000. We were also able to discover that the owners were in their mid-thirties and that the woman was a solicitor in a law-firm, which made us think that they were potentially not in the need and desperate to sell. We also found out that the property had been on the market for eight months already and that there had been very little interest from other potential buyers. It seemed odd to us considering the quality of the land and its potential, but it also made sense since most people want to be closer to the ocean, even with tiny sections. This fact was actually a good thing for us and we made up our mind to push an offer through, starting low.

While we waited for the response on our first offer we returned to the Estate and met with Kevin, one of the other land owners who provided us with valuable information in regards to features and history of the subdivision. It was started in the 1990’s by local ‘characters’ who had a dodgy reputation but an amazing vision for the Estate. They fought with local authorities to create this giant subdivision secluded in the Coromandel Forest Park, which they thought they would sell for big bucks to wealthy weekenders. The council made them bury power and phone, seal the whole subdivision road and provide a flood of crazy reports on archeology, landscape, roading, natural and visual impact. Surprisingly enough, they did it all. The council made them wait another 6 month before giving the green light – combined with low number of potential buyers – they went down, leaving the Estate with great infrastructure but no governing body. Some lots were used as payments for contractors, some other turned into weed farms. Fortunately, over the years, this jewel was discovered by passionate individuals who started to take over the place…building sheds, then cabins, then starting to really look after their environment. Nowadays, the Estate has its own incorporated society and a great mix of members with complementary skills and will in funding pest control, road maintenance and the well-being of all.

The process of offers and counter offers is especially nerve-wrecking. You never have any direct communication with the owners and what the agent says is always tinted with suspicion as he is primarily working for the adverse party. At some stage, you have great hopes that they will accept your offer, encouraged to think that by the agent who wants to keep you excited, then deception when the counter-offer arrives. In our case the negotiations dragged on for about 8 weeks. We expected a counter-offer on our first offer but had to wait ages until it arrived and then it was a week later than promised by the agent..leaving us with days (and nights) on an emotional roller-coaster. Finally when it arrived, our offer had been scratched through and another, outrageous offer written below.

The closer you get to a reasonable figure, the more you look into details about the property. The Real Estate Agent, Kim Radick, was actually very helpful in the whole process, going the extra mile to make the thing happen with sincerity. We purchased the LIM report (Land Information Referendum) from the council – $200 – and had a read through the 500 pages that arrived by mail! At this point we started calling local trades to find out if our project was even feasible. Is there an available builder around? Can a digger come soon to start preparing the site? How much will it cost to gravel the driveway? …is there power?

All went well, apart from that last question. With the help of a Powerco contractor, we discovered that the nearest transformer box had no transformer in it! We had to track down up to the installer of the network at the time to understand why us (all other lots seemed to have a transformer in their box) and how to deal with that? After quotes, long phone conversations with the power infrastructure people and institutions in Wellington. No escape, we would have to pay for that transformer, and not even be the owner of it! It was an extra cost of $8200 for that.

This last find allowed us to eventually settle the price we were willing to pay for the property.

After 2 month of a tiring process, Champagne!