"It's so much fun that we don't want to finish it and do something else," Caroline Robertson said.
She's the only registered architect among the group. The others, Ben Mitchell-Anyon, Sally Ogle and Tim Gittos, are all graduates who are not yet registered.
All trained at Victoria University and are used to working together in various ways.
The idea of buying a section and designing and building a house on it began about two years ago.
"We have been looking pretty much everywhere in the North Island to see what was affordable," Mr Gittos said.
They ignored Wanganui because it seemed "too obvious".
But the Bastia Hill section with sun, a sheltered microclimate, privacy and a view of trees won them over. It was steep, but no steeper than a Wellington section, and they got it for a song in September 2010.
After that they started designing, passing drawings back and forth. The design process was surprisingly harmonious.
During it, the four camped when they could on the section's flat building site, and planted native trees.
All of them were in Auckland or further north when the slip happened on New Year's Eve.
"Sally and I came back because I was really nervous that the shed was going to slip down the hill as well. We took everything out, and a neighbour moved the building materials," Mr Mitchell-Anyon said.
None of the four has major building experience and construction has gone relatively slowly, with weather delays.
They have a modest budget to get the house closed in, and plan to do as much of the work as possible themselves. They've had help with concrete finishing, will get plumbing advice and will have to hire an electrician.
It's all valuable experience for architects at the beginning of their careers.
"It's part of trying to understand what it's like to build what we draw," Ms Ogle said.
For blog, more pictures, visit www.patchworkarchitecture.tumblr.com
