Louise King and Dean Taylor are looking forward to a wonderful 2023 in their first house together, located in Meadowlands, Christchurch.
As their lush green landscaping and new lawn takes shape, it offsets the stunning black external features of their Halswell home.
Views of the Port Hills and an easy commute add to their feelings of comfort and joy, as they slowly unpack in their dream home it’s like unwrapping presents.
“This is our very first home and our first build. It was an amazing experience,” Louise says.
They appreciated the guidance and support of their Sales Consultant Marcel Fekkes.
DEAN
When we first started looking, we focused on existing homes and went to an auction. The whole process costs money – to get approval from the bank we had to get a property evaluation and building inspections. I think it costs about two-thousand dollars just to be able to go to an auction. We sat there and noticed a lot of people competing.
LOUISE
I don’t think we even got a bid before it had gone over our budget to a ridiculous price.
DEAN
I said if we are going to be paying that sort of price for a house, I’d rather just build a new one. At least you’re going to get a brand-new house. You’re not going to get an older house and not know if there’s potentially any issues with it.
LOUISE
We then had a thorough look around. We visited quite a few show homes just to get a little bit of a feel for the different companies and what their style of houses felt like. A house is a house, but there are definitely differences in the way the plans are laid out that fits your lifestyle.
LOUISE
We met Marcel from Generation Homes and built quite a good rapport with him. We really liked one of the show homes we saw, and the finishes looked really nice. It was also good quality and it wasn’t a crazy price. The layout had a really good flow to it.
DEAN
The fixed price was one of the main factors we went for. There are not a lot of building companies that offer that. For us it was certainty – that’s what it’s going to cost and it’s not going to cost any more.
LOUISE
Because it was our first build, it’s a little bit scary. You hear horror stories of builders out there. So, for us the fixed price seemed like it was eliminating a big risk and Generation Homes had excellent reviews.
LOUISE
We looked at Lincoln initially. We really didn’t think we would get a look in (price wise) in the Christchurch city area and in Halswell the subdivisions were selling very quickly or were very expensive for the land packages. It was our preference to be in the city and we were lucky enough to find this section in Meadowlands in Halswell. We liked the views of the Port Hills, and it is close to our work.
DEAN
We were offered the corner section. It’s probably a bigger section than some of the others.
LOUISE
That was an extreme stroke of luck. As soon as we spotted exactly where it was, we realised it’s not too close to the main road – it’s a pretty quiet little spot.
DEAN
The whole process was seamless and transparent. We were given a flowchart and we could see what happened each week.
LOUISE
That was very reassuring. Marcel kept us in the loop solidly all the way through considering we were right in the middle of the big gib shortage. Obviously it wasn’t actually as bad as what we thought it would be. Generation Homes managed the build really well because we found that while there was a small delay, but it wasn’t massive. The whole team who we dealt with were really professional and Marcel must have answered the same questions a million times from us but he was so reassuring and relaxed, which made us feel like they were on top of it. If there were any supply issues, for example if we had chosen something and maybe when the time came the supply just wasn’t there, we always had solutions offered to us, which was helpful and to be honest there weren’t really many instances of that.
DEAN
It was out of their control, too. It wasn’t caused by them but by external factors.
LOUISE
We did drive-bys all the time. It was a really fun experience watching the house come together.
It’s quite exciting and it’s funny because you have different stages, where it’s like, wow, everything seems to go up really, really quickly and then all of a sudden, it seems as if nothing’s happening, but only because you can’t see what’s actually happening behind the walls. Then you go through the little panic stages of have we chosen the right colours and the carpet and flooring and all those sorts of things. There’s always that little nervous patch where you’re not sure if it will all come together the way you imagined it.
LOUISE
The whole Generation Homes team was fantastic, really awesome. It was just so seamless. A friend of ours who has built quite a few times commented on how smooth our build has been.
DEAN
Yes, seamless, and quite enjoyable really. We didn’t have to experience the stuff that was going on in the background. We just turned up and chose what we wanted for the house. Marcel was great, for example, he went off and explored options for our heat pump hot water system. He looked at different brands and came back with price comparisons.
LOUISE
We’ve really enjoyed the whole process. We would definitely build again. It’s fun. I think as long as you put a bit of thought into it, it will go pretty smoothly. I can see though, how couples could argue if you’re not on the same page for colours, or style, you know.
LOUISE
My biggest tip would be to watch the extras you can add on, because they are quite tempting and you could spend a lot. I think you’ve got to really think long and hard about if they are necessary. Are they going to really improve the overall esthetic of your home? Also, think of how your home functions.
DEAN
If you are going to add something, will it add to the value of the property? Will it make things cheaper in the long run? For instance, we added a ducted heating system with a clean air system. It keeps your house dry and filters the air. It makes the heating cheaper to run. We were thinking about the future too, and chose a heat pump hot water system, something which isn’t common in New Zealand but is used more in Australia and Europe.
LOUISE
We made a list and didn’t make any knee-jerk decisions. We were shuffling the list around for priorities. We tried to make practical choices rather than getting carried away. What’s a priority for us, may not be a priority for someone else. I think ultimately, it’s good to sit down and really think about how you can make your house beautiful but cost effective because it takes pressure off your power bill in the long run while making your mortgage payments and life a little bit easier.
DEAN
They had heaps of different styles of home designs that you could go through and have a look at on their website.
LOUISE
A lot of them had little videos, including walkthroughs, and that was great to give us a much better idea of what homes looked like inside, and how the plan flowed.
DEAN
The original plan, called Wainui, came with a mono pitch roof but because of the position of the house and the recession plan considerations, we changed it to a traditional style roof which wasn’t going to cost any more.
LOUISE
It looks fantastic. The architects who helped modify the plan made it look like that’s actually what it was meant to look like. We had a restriction that the size of the house could be 80% of the section. That narrowed down what we could choose. The shape of your section denotes what suits best. We liked the layout of the one we chose because it fitted our needs and is partially open plan.
DEAN
We have a separate TV room while having a living area off the kitchen to enjoy as a more social space as well.
LOUISE
It’s not one big room – they feel like different places. The kitchen and the living room have defined spaces but have an open feel. It did have a small upper window, but we really wanted to build a fernery on the outside so we made that into a massive, big window so we could enjoy that little garden area.
DEAN
It gives the room a better sense of space and light too. On the other side you’ve got sliding doors that open up into a patio.
LOUISE
We opted not to put a bath in as we wouldn’t use it. It also meant that we could have a bigger shower and linen cupboard, which was great.
LOUISE
The kitchen is definitely my favourite spot, and it opens up onto the patio.
DEAN
The kitchen is my favourite as well, and I love our ensuite.