There's no way this would have been possible without Ray, and in particular his main man, Garrick Henderson, who lived every high and low as he almost single-handedly rebuilt our house, room by room, week by week.
I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and Libby is even more so and in Garrick we found a kindred spirit. His attention to detail and desire for absolute perfection, even under the most intense working environment, was second to none. Plus his problem-solving and design ideas were invaluable. So when it came to building our dream home, the decision for Kylie and me was an absolute no-brainer - of course we wanted Haven Renovations on board.
Kylie and I met Ray and Garrick one sunny afternoon to chat about our plans. We loved their response, which immediately validated our decision to work together. Rather than looking at the potential problems, they saw exactly what we saw, an amazing opportunity to create a unique home by using the natural assets the land provided.
Ray Sale and Garrick Henderson making some early sketches.
When I asked Garrick if he thought our plan was doable, he replied "anything's possible with enough money". A great answer as he didn't think we were trying to achieve the impossible, but it made us slightly nervous because we didn't have a firm handle on our construction costs just yet.
Sure, we had been able to pull all of the recommendations together for our Resource Consent application and that helped scope our project, but we were yet to get engineering inputs and have our full construction plans drawn up, which Ray needed to give us the fixed-build contract we were seeking.
The Block NZ house.
It was clear we'd need a lot of steel and bracing to build our huge cantilevers, achieve our desired large spans and frame the massive window openings integral to our design. Then one of the biggest unknowns was the cost to get our house out of the ground. Based on the information we'd collected, we had earmarked $100,000 to get the house to a point where the framing was ready to go up. That included all consent, professional and drafting fees as well as the earthworks and laying the piles and subfloor.
One way we hoped to save on costs, and also preserve the bush as much as possible was to pre-fabricate the house off-site.
Given it is essentially two large rectangles connected by a smaller one, it seemed tailor-made for a modular solution. We thought it could be built in its entirety in a nearby warehouse. Ray and Garrick agreed the theory was a goodie, especially because it would eliminate any delays due to the weather, saving us a lot of time and money.
But they said it would be virtually impossible to transport entire pods down the road, let alone crane them into place once on the section. Hmmm, that was a bit of a bummer.
Ben and Kylie are delighted to have Garrick Henderson, back left, and Ray Sale from Haven Renovations on board..
But Ray, always the ideas man, came back to us quickly with a suggestion. He had been researching pre-fabricated solutions and had found a new company in Christchurch offering exactly what we were looking for.
It was music to our ears. We excitedly got in touch and accepted their invitation to visit them in the Garden City in a couple of weeks' time so we could see the product first hand. Everything was starting to fall into place and we were fizzing with excitement.
• Find out more about Ben and Kylie's dream home at ourdreamhome.co.nz.
Watch episode 3 of Ben & Kylie's Brave New Build below:
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For more information on the Kiwibank First Home Buyer's Guide visit: kiwibank.co.nz and search for "first home".
