Grand Designs: $1m log home blows the budget

A man's 30-year dream of building a log house in Horopito has come true - after months of family squabbles and a major budget blow out.

But the finished result moved last night's Grand Designs NZ star, Ash Brownrigg, to tears.

Brownrigg opened the episode by revealing why he'd been held back from building his dream home near Mt Ruapehu, one designed to be "a magnet for family and friends to get together" and be close to the ski fields in winter.

"I've always wanted to build a true log house (but) in the past 30 years, life has taken over, so there's work, marriage, kids, divorce," he told host Chris Moller.

"I've always wanted to do it. I've only just been, in the last year or so, in a position to do it."

Ash Brownrigg's log house in Horopito included 90 per cent untreated timber. Photo/Three

Using 90 per cent untreated timber, and including room for an outdoor fire, pizza maker, petanque court and local boulders dotting the landscape, Brownrigg estimated his budget for the build to be around $600,000.

"I don't think there's going to be a lot of change out of (that)," he told Moller.

But he also revealed the home was the cause of a rift between his children, Ben and Natalie.

"My son Ben loves the idea but my daughter Nat is a modernist," Brownrigg said.

"They're poles apart in terms of their ideas for interior design and building things."

The lounge in Ash Brownrigg's Horopito log house. Photo/Three

Nat's influences on the home's interior design included whitewashed beams, questioning the colour of stain used on some of the timber, requesting a skylight above the kitchen, and having a say on flooring.

"We can't treat it like a Danish hotel in the bathrooms and have nana's Canadian hut in the lounge," said Nat, admitting she was a perfectionist. "They've got to talk to each other."

Ben was more laid back but tried to influence his dad to choose a wood fire over gas to heat the log house.

"I think he'll regret it. I think he'll put a fire in in five years," said Ben.

One of the finished bedrooms in Ash Brownrigg's Horopito home. Photo/Three

During the big reveal, Moller said you could see Nat's influence throughout the house.

"Nat's touch seems everywhere. There's a patchwork of white beams, blonded logs and gold stained panels. In a way you could say there are many authors in here."

But he appeared to be won over. "There's a feeling that this place has bedded down," Moller said.

Chris Moller with Ash Brownrigg outside his Horopito log house. Photo/Three

At the end of the episode, Brownrigg revealed the home had cost him much more than the $600,000 he anticipated.

"I didn't have a budget. I had an idea on what it would cost, and it's cost significantly more than that," he told Moller.

"But once you go down the road, there's no going back ... you've gotta complete. With the land it's a seven figure budget, give or take."

Ash Brownrigg's finished home in Horopito.

And he broke into tears over how his family had come together to help him build his dream home.

"We've nailed it," he declared. "I want this to be in my family forever."