Following the success of a Queenstown home being named New Zealand’s finest Southern home at the Registered Master Builders 2016 House of the Year competition, its builder M&S Construction is now back on the same street for its current build with the same architect and hoping for a similar outcome.
“It will be quite impressive once it’s finished,” says M&S Construction managing director Marty Hulsman.
“It’s got five split ground floor levels then a guest floor on the sixth level as a second story. The floor levels are all about following the lay of the land. It’s exciting to build – it’s anything but a square box.
Marty met his clients as they had a look around their new empty section, which was next door to his own home. Kelly Deeks “We got chatting, and I showed them what we were doing at the house we won the award for.
“I put them in touch with the architect Christine Hall, who used to live in Arrowtown, and her local knowledge was one of the reasons they liked her. Now she is in Auckland, and the clients were living in Hamilton at the time, so she was a logical choice.”
The design includes an exposed honed concrete block wall that runs from the steps up to the street, through the inside of the home’s entryway, and divides the living and master bedroom half of the house from the other bedrooms, garage, and laundry.
“We had to build that 6m high wall first, and have it completely finished and sealed before we could attach the rest of the building to it,” Marty says.
“So there was a foundation and a couple of floors installed, then all you could see from the street was this great big wall.”
Other features of note include the property’s view south across Lake Wakatipu, and the six metre wide sliding door accessing the views and a timber deck from the living room, with a matching sliding door and deck on the north side, and the property’s 1360sqm section, terraced to allow for as much flat outdoor space as possible.
M&S Construction has been building homes in the Queenstown, Wakatipu area since 1991, and is equally confident on challenging hillside terrain as the bowling green flat.
Marty says the team at M&S Construction are all older builders, in their late 40s and 50s, including a 45-year-old apprentice. “We aim to get things right the first time.
With the amount of experience on the team, we can identify any potential problems before they arise. We are all about quality and giving the clients what they want.
“Over the years we’ve learned communication is as important as construction, because it enables us to truly partner with our clients to deliver exactly what they want, and ensures they enjoy the process from beginning to end.”
