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Grand Designs New Zealand S09E02
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00:00Autumn is a time of change and loss. The change of season and temperature, the loss of leaves
00:10and daylight. And we feel that loss all winter. But we know that come the springtime we'll get
00:18it all back. Now there are some things that we lose that can't be replaced no matter how hard
00:26we try. But so much can be to a certain extent. And so the question is, how far would you go to replace
00:35something you've lost? A house for instance, not just the bricks and mortar, but the life, the memories,
00:41the lifestyle, all of it. How long could that take? How much could that cost? Not just the money,
00:48but the emotional investment, the physical effort. Could you do that? Should you even try?
00:56Lake Ojo is a long way from anywhere.
01:26Secluded beneath the Southern Alps. Three hours drive from Queenstown, four hours from Christchurch.
01:34The climate here is extreme. Fiercely hot and dry in summer. Brutally cold in winter.
01:42Woohoo! Look out. Get in the water.
01:52Artists Janet Muir and builder Richard Brown, brownie to his mates, discovered the lake and
01:57its small village in late 2004. They didn't have children at that stage, but were looking
02:03for a special place to holiday with family and friends. We just came over that hill and I just
02:12was like, wow, this is just amazing. Ticked all the boxes, hit a lake, hit a mountains. I was sold.
02:19The attraction was so strong that the couple made a bold decision. They bought a section in Tiny Lake
02:28Ojo village and in late 2006, they moved out of their Auckland rental and into a caravan on the site.
02:35I was pregnant. So, you know, of course, that's a terrible time to start building, especially living in a caravan.
02:42I think the locals had a bit of a fright.
02:44They didn't know what had happened.
02:45We were like trailer trash. We just drove in and hitched off our caravan.
02:48Pregnant. A hillbilly.
02:53I mean, I'm glad we did it because if we'd known what we were launching ourselves into, we would never have done it.
02:59Three years and two children later, their house was complete and it would become a place of good times
03:06and great memories shared with whanau and friends.
03:09The house was built with Aroha and I think you found it as soon as you walked into it.
03:14You know, you could feel it was a beautiful home.
03:18However, this is an extreme alpine location and often buffeted by severe winds.
03:24And one October night in 2020, life descended into a nightmare.
03:29Janet was said, oh, look, there's lightning.
03:34That gave me a fright, a big flash of lightning.
03:38And I'm waiting for the rain to come and there's no thunder and there's no rain.
03:44I didn't know at the time, but it was, you know, arcing power lines.
03:55The siren, I knew what that meant. It meant fire.
03:59I just thought, oh my God, here we go.
04:00I knew that we had to get out really quickly, banged on all the doors.
04:09We had eight people in the house, so.
04:12Yeah, we just ran.
04:16We thought we were coming back.
04:18We'll be back in a few hours, this will blow through.
04:20Just as we were going over the brow of the hill, looking back into the village, and I said, oh my God, the fire is in the village.
04:31The fire, fanned by those winds, took nine days to put out, and left a path of total devastation.
04:4448 homes and buildings destroyed, more than 5,000 hectares of land damaged.
04:49Incredibly, there was no loss of life, but plenty of heartbreak.
04:53Going back to the house was like saying goodbye to my old friend.
04:59It's like a body.
05:01Just lay there.
05:07There's nothing left.
05:10It was our home, and it's not bricks and mortar.
05:15It's the memories.
05:16Like, that's the birthdays we had there, and the friends that we had around the dining room table, and the parties we had, and, you know, and the fact that everyone helped us build it, and you have all those memories.
05:31And that's what's the hard thing.
05:34It's not the stuff.
05:36It's the home.
05:37For some Oahu village residents, it was all too much, and many moved away.
05:43But Janet and Brownie are dead set on rebuilding and moving forward.
05:49We're so lucky no one died, right?
05:51You can't bring people back.
05:53But for us, we're bringing a home back.
05:55It's going to be resurrected.
05:57And even better.
05:58That's what I hope, that we're going to be able to do things that we wanted to do the first time around that we couldn't afford to do.
06:04Happy birthday to you.
06:09Happy birthday to you.
06:11The Browns now live in Auckland, but for son Harvey's 14th birthday, the family, plus Janet's mum, Anne, have come down to Oahu and rented a house in the village.
06:22For Harvey and his younger brother, William, there's no place they'd rather be.
06:27We get to go skiing, snowboarding, going on sleds, playing in the snow.
06:32I just feel like at home.
06:35Oh, you really have one?
06:36Yeah.
06:38I'll take this slowly because I'm going to die.
06:42I've got to always remember just how incredibly lucky we were.
06:46And that just keeps me going.
06:48Because I could have lost my children.
06:50Absolutely breathtaking location, but also quite surreal.
07:04All around are signs of the absolute devastation of six months ago.
07:08Hello.
07:12Hi.
07:13Nice to meet you, Richard.
07:13Yeah, yeah.
07:14Pleased to meet you.
07:15Nice to meet you.
07:16Hi, Janet.
07:16Nice to meet you.
07:17Janet, you too.
07:18Well, so this is you.
07:19A sign over there that tells me this is the Brown House.
07:22Yeah.
07:22But not very much else here.
07:24No.
07:25Yeah.
07:26Total devastation.
07:27Mm-hmm.
07:27The only surviving thing is our picnic table.
07:31Yes.
07:31Here's a little artifact from the fire.
07:33Right.
07:33That's our window.
07:35Goodness.
07:36Left of it.
07:37Completely melted.
07:38Yeah.
07:39If we'd left it ten minutes, we'd be dead, really.
07:42So thank goodness.
07:43Yeah.
07:43Thank goodness for that.
07:44Yeah, really lucky.
07:45And it was a lovely house.
07:46Beautiful house.
07:47It was a beautiful home.
07:48Our view was this, you know, and we would look up to the ski field in the mornings.
07:53I'd always like to be the first one up the mountain if there's a fresh snowfall.
07:56Have a look, and then it's on, we're off.
07:59Mm-hmm.
07:59It must be very hard to talk about it.
08:01I'm sorry.
08:02Mm-hmm.
08:03I'm okay.
08:04I'm ready to move forward now.
08:05Yes.
08:05We've tried lots, and it's been hard.
08:07Oh, I'm sure.
08:07But no, we're good.
08:09We'll have to just try and recreate that again.
08:11Yes.
08:11Oh, I'm sure you will.
08:12Mm-hmm.
08:12The new house will rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes of the old.
08:17Largely the same design, but this time protected by a firebreak.
08:20In through the front door and onto a slate floor, turning right past a shower room, bathroom,
08:26second bedroom, master bedroom, and around to the bunk rooms, one with double bunks and one
08:31with singles.
08:32Then onto the toilet and the laundry, kitted out to handle ski boots and wet weather gear.
08:37Across the corridor, there's a concrete fireplace, warming the whole open-plan living wing, and
08:43a large dining table, a kitchen equipped with two ovens to feed the hordes, and a kitchen window framing
08:49Janet's favourite view to Ben Orho.
08:51The large living room ends with an enticing window seat with expansive mountain views.
09:01Bi-fold doors lead out to the patio, now fireproof concrete rather than timber decking.
09:06And at high level, no plastic guttering either, is all steel this time.
09:11The garden has been completely rethought with rocks, hard landscaping, and ground-covered plants,
09:17instead of flammable grasses and shrubs.
09:20The living wing is a double-height space with exposed timber trusses.
09:24On top, the roof is corrugated steel, and the cladding is charred larchwood, paying homage
09:30to the old house, and finishing off a home ready for the rebirth of good times and great memories.
09:39A new house coming. Tell me about that.
09:42We want to build, you know, better for the future, and hope that this house stands for our children,
09:47and hopefully their grandchildren.
09:48Sure. And the story of the house grows and changes as your family changes.
09:53Yeah, and we would never have done that if a house hadn't burned out.
09:55So, you know, you have to look at the positives and go, right, well, this time we can make
10:00some changes that are going to be good.
10:01Yes. And the build will be a little bit different too, won't it?
10:04We can't build it ourselves now.
10:06Yeah.
10:06We don't have the energy.
10:09And those logistics of getting going again, you're at a point where you have enough funding
10:13for the new build from that insurance.
10:16Well.
10:17Yeah, we hope so.
10:18I hope so.
10:18Yeah.
10:19Because that's all we've got.
10:21You know, it has to be.
10:23So what's it going to cost?
10:24So it's 946,526 cents.
10:29There you go.
10:30There you go.
10:30I've never heard such an exact answer.
10:33That's it.
10:3426 cents.
10:3426 cents, yes.
10:35Yeah.
10:36So that's what we've got to do.
10:37And there's no more than that.
10:39There's no more than that, no.
10:40No.
10:41First time around, three years to build.
10:44This time?
10:46Well, it's a tough question.
10:48Mm.
10:48In this location?
10:49In this location, you know, you've got a lot of travel and distance and materials to come in.
10:54And it pushes what you think would be a normal, you know, snow.
10:59So that's about a year and a half.
11:00A year and a half.
11:00I like the sound of that.
11:06Much like the weather, life changes.
11:10Once on this bare section stood a home, a place of shelter, safety and love.
11:15How traumatic, then, for that home to be erased so violently and completely.
11:21Could you start again, rebuilding in the same location with signs of that dramatic fire everywhere?
11:29It's a big ask.
11:31I really hope that Janet and Richard's new journey is kind to them.
11:35Ten months later, at their rented house in Auckland, a demoralised Janet and Brownie are dealing with the double whammy of Covid and a chronic shortage of building materials.
11:59The prices of everything has gone up, what, 25% since we, the house burnt down?
12:08We've got to cut down on labour costs, so you and I are going to be heading down there to do jobs, no doubt.
12:14The bottom line is, the new house can no longer be built for the amount of the insurance payout.
12:20So it's back to the drawing board, literally.
12:23It's a real challenge, because our business came to a grinding halt.
12:29And so there was one point where we thought, well, we've lost the house again.
12:33You know, and then with the hiking prices, it's a constant, like, how are we going to build this house, you know?
12:39And, yeah, like I said, we're going to be ending up flying down there to paint the house and bringing up old friends and going,
12:45hey, you know, can you come back and plaster for us again, second time around?
12:50You get a holiday, and we'll feed you.
12:55Last time out, self-building might have been hard, but this time it's looking even harder.
13:01Rather than gaining extras, they'll have to face up to a reduced redesign, while finding the strength and resolve to go on.
13:10It's really hard to even talk about it.
13:12It's like, you know, my children were born there, and I just can't turn my back on it.
13:17You know, I mean, I think that's it. I just cannot turn my back on that house.
13:22Yeah, it is such a big part of us, of who we are.
13:26Our biggest thing is we do not want to have to go to the bank and get a mortgage.
13:30You know, we were almost mortgage-free when our house burnt down.
13:33We do not want to have to get another mortgage.
13:35We do not want to have to go to the bank and get a mortgage, that would just kill us.
13:37Spring 2023 at Lake Orho, and finally some action on Brownie and Janet's site with the first concrete pool.
13:57It's now a full three years since fire destroyed their first house here, and while they had hoped to rebuild it pretty much exactly,
14:08those plans have been scuttled by the soaring cost of construction.
14:12We went through three different redesigns.
14:14It's basically why it's taken so long.
14:16I think we've broken the back of it.
14:18We've made a few changes to the inside and to the shape of the building,
14:22but the footprint still remains pretty much the same.
14:29Janet and sons Harvey and William are staying in Auckland, where the boys go to school.
14:34Brownie is renting at Orho and project managing the site here,
14:38while running his and Janet's Auckland-based building company as well.
14:42The build's well, I'm truly underway now.
14:44It's, you know, we'll be in there soon.
14:48I always knew we'd get there, but when was the question.
14:52Yeah.
14:53There were times we thought we wouldn't, yeah.
14:55It's three years now.
14:56It's a long time.
14:58It's a tribute to Brownie and Janet's tenacity that the build has started at all.
15:04But maybe there's something in the ground here, because there's another against the odds story.
15:12When we first arrived here, my mother died, and my first son was born,
15:17and mum wanted to be buried with our first child.
15:19And so we put the placenta and her ashes under this tree.
15:24And then, of course, the fire took it out.
15:25And so when I came back here, I said, oh, wow, I wonder if that's our old tree.
15:30Had a close look at it, and it was.
15:32It's the only thing that survived, yeah.
15:33The resilience of the little crabapple tree has to be a good omen.
15:40There's no shortage of focus and belief as the build begins, but a little extra inspiration never goes amiss.
15:47The redesign that allowed building to begin is the work of award-winning Auckland architect, Lisa Webb,
16:02a long-time friend of Janet and Brownie's.
16:05Lisa also designed the house that burnt down.
16:07That, I can see, was a real delight.
16:11These are lovely photos, Lisa.
16:12The house that was.
16:14And there's no more.
16:16No, yes.
16:17Janet and Brownie put so much love and care and effort into it,
16:21and so much of themselves, and people really responded to that.
16:25You know, people, you know, genuinely seemed to really love staying there,
16:28and obviously it's a beautiful environment,
16:30but it was also a very, you know, thoughtful, lovely sort of place to be in and to stay in.
16:37It means a lot to many different people.
16:38Yeah, exactly.
16:40I mean, everything that you see in the photos, they built.
16:44With the original house now too expensive to recreate,
16:49Lisa had to come up with a less expensive version,
16:52one that was also quicker and easier to build.
16:55One option was to basically build something and track it to site,
16:59and then we started looking for six panels as a solution.
17:03So that's an insulated panel, rigid insulation, strambled on the outside, there's your wall.
17:09Yeah, exactly.
17:10It's like a 3D jigsaw puzzle, like you get these, as far as I can sort of see,
17:14you kind of get these pieces on site and you just click them together.
17:17Yeah.
17:17So obviously as soon as you get prefabricated pieces that can be put together on site,
17:23you're saving on labour time.
17:26What they've lost is the garage rumpus room.
17:29It's completely gone, but they've actually gained living space by redesigning the roof
17:33and putting in a mezzanine floor for overflow guest accommodation.
17:37Yeah, and then the other thing is rather than cladding the whole thing in timber,
17:41we're cladding it in corrugate.
17:43So it's the opposite brief really to the brief for the first house.
17:47The brief for the first house was around we have to do it all ourselves,
17:51everything has to be handmade.
17:53Right.
17:53So there was no prefabrication.
17:57So this, you know, it's gone from one sort of extreme to the other.
18:00In theory, structural insulated panels, SIPs for short, do just click together.
18:06Although it may not be quite that easy if you haven't built with them before.
18:11Using them should, however, reduce the amount of labour required in this very remote location.
18:20A month into the build, the team is making final preparations for the panels to arrive
18:25and checking that the concrete pad they'll land on is completely level.
18:30Brownie has chosen Richards from his and Janet's Auckland Construction Company as lead builder,
18:35and he's brought in his two sons, Soni and Samisi.
18:42This is the first time the builders and Brownie have used SIPs
18:45and hope they'll be a big part of staying on budget.
18:49But they won't replace all the basics of building.
18:52The carpentry discipline still applies.
18:55You know, you've still got to get it level and plumb and all that.
18:58It's intended to go up real quick.
19:02Once we put it in, we are ready to clad, pretty much.
19:11Keenly watching the build our close neighbours and friends, Chris and Ray Spears,
19:16the couple met Brownie and Janet in their very early days here
19:19and gave them a helping hand when they really needed one.
19:24We decided that it was too damn cold for them to be in that caravan with a brand new baby.
19:32We were lucky enough to be able to offer them accommodation,
19:37which they lovingly accepted and moved in, and they just became part of the family.
19:44Janet's my second daughter.
19:45Ray and Chris also lost their house in the fire,
19:50but were able to move into a small, relocatable home
19:53placed on family land elsewhere in Orho village.
19:57Like Brownie and Janet, they're looking forward to starting again.
20:02We thought we were at the end before, but now it's starting all over again.
20:07And there's a really good feeling amongst the community now.
20:10And it's going to be nice.
20:11The boys are growing up, and they'll be bringing their mates,
20:15and no doubt we'll get a phone call.
20:17The boys are down just to keep an eye on things, I would say.
20:28Richens and his team made short work of getting the internal framing up,
20:32and now the Sips can go in to form the walls.
20:35However...
20:36In Te Reo, Orho can be translated as windy place,
20:49and indeed, regularly gets blasted from all directions.
20:53Not good for lifting unwieldy Sips into place.
20:57Not good at all.
20:58They like big sails, and so once the wind gets those and they're off,
21:02we're out picking up out of the lake.
21:04So that's our biggest issue we face.
21:10So while the hope is using the Sips will keep the house on budget,
21:14remember that the team have never built with them before,
21:17and the panels are proving difficult to install and potentially dangerous,
21:20as Orho very much lives up to its name.
21:23At Lake Orho, with the spring weather so changeable,
21:40the team has to take full advantage of any fine, still conditions
21:43to install the Sips that form the walls of the new house.
21:47It is a lot quicker to do it this way.
21:50It's just some things we can't control,
21:53and as we get higher, the wind gets a little bit shaky,
21:56so we have to pick our days now.
21:58It's hard to focus when the wind's blowing everything around.
22:02So it's been tricky, but it's been fulfilling.
22:06We're going through a learning curve, but the product's good, you know,
22:12and once it's up, then we've got our inside done as well.
22:15Normally you might have a jib board or you paint it or something.
22:18We're just going to leave that.
22:20The polystyrene is the insulation,
22:23so that cuts a lot of time out for us.
22:25But the challenges of building first time with Sips
22:31plus the often extreme conditions
22:33are not the only things the team has to deal with.
22:36Shortages of materials and the remote location
22:39are regularly disrupting the building schedule.
22:43We're a shorter bit of steel as it turns out now,
22:46so without the steel, it all grinds to a hole.
22:48You can't say, oh, can you just show up tomorrow?
22:50It might be another week out, you see?
22:54So you lose that time.
22:57For me, it's really frustrating.
23:00It's, you know, I wanted to get the place closed in
23:02as soon as possible,
23:04but because we can't get the roof on,
23:05we can't get the walls up,
23:07they can't measure the last windows,
23:09it all, you know, snowballs.
23:14It's either laugh or cry, you know?
23:24In Auckland, Janet's got her own challenges,
23:30looking after the couple's two sons
23:32and helping Brownie run their construction company.
23:35Plus, she's got an exhibition coming up soon
23:37and is still working on the centrepiece painting.
23:40Here, I don't want to disturb an artist at work,
23:44but hello.
23:45How are you?
23:46How are you?
23:46Very good.
23:47Good, good.
23:48This is incredible.
23:50But what does it mean?
23:51It's called Night Flight
23:52because, I mean, I've thought about it over the years
23:55since the house burned down,
23:56about, you know, why birds fly at night,
23:59and there's two reasons.
24:00They're either migrating
24:01or they're fleeing from some danger
24:04and their goal is to survive.
24:07So, down here, I've got the childhood memories,
24:10the buttercups, the daisy chains,
24:12the sparrows making nests,
24:14and you work your way up.
24:16And that is our little house that we had,
24:18and that's burning.
24:20So, I mean, everyone always thinks
24:21it's going to happen to someone else
24:23in another backyard, not their own,
24:25but as we experience,
24:26well, we had to flee our own backyard.
24:29So that symbolises the escape,
24:31the great escape.
24:32Yes.
24:33And they fly up, up into the mountains,
24:35and that's the kia.
24:36So there's a sense of, you know,
24:38you have escaped and you've found freedom
24:40and you have a guardian above you.
24:41Right.
24:42And on your flight from danger,
24:44there are always obstacles.
24:46A week after we got back from the fire,
24:50we had a meeting with our bank,
24:52and they sat us down,
24:54and they told us that they were going to
24:56take our insurance money
24:57and put it on our business loan.
25:00Even though we had serviced that loan
25:02and we had never defaulted.
25:04And so a week after we lost our house,
25:07we were losing it again to the bank.
25:10And so we fought them.
25:13And that battle went on for seven months.
25:15It prevented us from getting started.
25:17It's amazing that in the situation
25:19where you sort of need the most support,
25:21then that happened.
25:22And it was unnecessary, you know.
25:24But thanks to the support we had,
25:27we escaped, we held out,
25:29and the bank actually did concede defeat.
25:37It's a tribute to the couple's tenacity
25:39that the rebuild has survived
25:41all the challenges so far.
25:42However, Janet and Brownie
25:44are still making sacrifices.
25:47Well, it must be very different,
25:48quite hard, I guess,
25:49for both of you being separated.
25:51Hmm.
25:52Particularly this first time round,
25:53building the house.
25:54It was a team effort, right?
25:56Yeah.
25:56No, that's been the worst thing
25:58about the rebuild,
25:59is the separation, actually.
26:02But yeah, just...
26:03I'm glad we stuck on that journey,
26:06and, you know,
26:07because it would have been
26:08so easy to not.
26:10Yeah.
26:11Um, it's taken a lot of determination
26:14to just keep at it.
26:17But I think it'll pay off.
26:28By late November,
26:30Brownie has managed to get
26:31the remaining steel he needs to site
26:33and rebook all the necessary tradespeople.
26:35So, although he's behind
26:38on his building schedule,
26:39it's time for another milestone,
26:42the roof going on.
26:48The builders keep a close watch
26:50on the weather
26:50and go hard on days
26:52the wind is light enough
26:53to crane the panels
26:54safely into place.
27:00And they soon discover
27:02that constructing a pitched roof
27:04with sips
27:04is not as straightforward
27:06as using them as walls.
27:10The beams that they provided
27:12are too white.
27:13It's 150 versus 140.
27:16That's a bugger, eh?
27:19It's not as quick
27:20as we had hoped.
27:22They're big panels,
27:24and they're in the air.
27:26They're heavy.
27:27The roof's got a slope on it,
27:28and we had an issue
27:29with one beam
27:30that wasn't quite the right height,
27:31so we had to readjust that.
27:34We're going to have to
27:34take that first one off
27:35and lift this beam up.
27:37It's always the fear of the unknown.
27:38Is that right?
27:39Have I done it right?
27:40Is it going to fit?
27:44We know we got one or two in,
27:46understood the process.
27:47Like anything,
27:48it's started to flow.
27:50It's been a big effort
27:54for Brownie so far.
27:55Not just the work,
27:57but the separation
27:58from his family,
27:59time away from his
28:00and Janet's construction business,
28:02and the fact
28:02it was never the plan
28:04for him to be so involved
28:05in the build anyway.
28:06Considering all of that,
28:08he's doing pretty well,
28:09but he's still pushing hard.
28:12I've set targets for us,
28:14you know,
28:14which are really aggressive,
28:15and it's just me.
28:19I'm just competitive.
28:22We'll get there,
28:23you know,
28:23it's just time's money.
28:33At Lake Orho,
28:34the new Brown house
28:35took a long time
28:36to get going,
28:37but now is racing ahead.
28:42Work on the roof
28:43is going well,
28:44leaving just the windows
28:46to be installed
28:47before the house
28:47can be closed in.
28:49Brownie wants that done
28:50before Christmas,
28:52and anyone with hands and legs
28:54has been called to help,
28:56including son Harvey
28:57and his mate Marcus.
28:58This stuff sits in the sun,
29:00it all beams and twists.
29:03He's been bossy at times,
29:05but it's a really cool thing
29:07because we're actually
29:07a part of the build.
29:09Janet's on site too
29:11with one of her best friends,
29:12architect Lisa.
29:13It's the first time
29:14Janet's been back
29:15since the very beginning
29:16of the build.
29:17She's also taken the chance
29:18to indulge in a little luxury.
29:21I'm going to have
29:22an affordable Japanese
29:23soaking tub
29:24in my wet room now,
29:26and I'm pretty excited
29:27about that.
29:29So you can sit in the tub
29:31and look out at this,
29:32you know,
29:33the mountains.
29:35Good memories.
29:36It was pretty cool.
29:41I'm pretty emotional.
29:42I think I broke down
29:44and cried.
29:46There were a few tears
29:47for sure.
29:48It felt really good,
29:50indescribably good
29:52to see it out of the ground.
29:56Lisa also has to exercise
29:58some demons from the past.
30:00The memories of that
30:01fateful night
30:02in early October 2020
30:03are still crystal clear.
30:07I was on the Coromandel
30:08and a journalist rang me
30:10and asked my comment
30:11about the brown house
30:12and I knew that you were here
30:13about the fire.
30:14and my immediate assumption
30:17was they were ringing me
30:18because you were dead.
30:20Oh, Lisa,
30:20I didn't know that.
30:21It was terrible.
30:23It was just terrible.
30:25It was like,
30:25thank you for the juice.
30:28And we were out of service,
30:31so I couldn't, you know,
30:31I couldn't reach the news
30:32or anything like that.
30:34So that was my immediate thought
30:35was thank God you were alive.
30:40For Janet and Lisa,
30:41this visit has been a revelation.
30:43It's restored their spirits
30:46and, crucially,
30:48confirmed to both owner
30:49and architect
30:50that rebuilding
30:51was the right thing to do.
30:53And I love it.
31:03Home in Auckland,
31:05Janet's been frantically
31:06trying to finish
31:07all the artwork
31:08for her new exhibition
31:09and her deadline
31:11has just run out.
31:12It's opening night.
31:14It's probably
31:15one of the scariest days
31:17of my life.
31:18I have been terrified
31:19for weeks.
31:21Oh, you look gorgeous.
31:25Janet's exhibition
31:26is entitled
31:27Night Flight,
31:29after the painting
31:30she was working on
31:31when I visited her studio.
31:32It's the centrepiece
31:34of the show
31:34and the first painting
31:36Janet's completed
31:37since the fire
31:38in October 2020.
31:40How are you?
31:40How are you?
31:42Oh, there's a beautiful
31:43blue bellbird.
31:45Oh, that looks sad.
31:46The bellbird's over there.
31:46It feels good.
31:47It feels really, really good.
31:49Like, I have actually
31:49worked through a lot of stuff,
31:51a lot of anger,
31:52and I've got
31:52gone out the other side now
31:54and I'm ready to,
31:55you know,
31:56do more painting,
31:57which is good.
31:58And I'm, yeah,
31:59I'm happy.
32:00I'm actually happy,
32:01which is great.
32:01I would never have thought
32:06that I could actually
32:07pull something out
32:08of what happened
32:09and make it positive.
32:11But now it's like,
32:12I know I'm going
32:14to have a home
32:14and that's what's so special.
32:18I'm going to be back
32:18in that beautiful place
32:20with my family.
32:23It's a good place to be,
32:25back home.
32:31Into the new year
32:38at Lake Orho
32:39and the brown house build
32:41is back on schedule.
32:42Most of the windows are in
32:44and the roofers
32:45have just arrived.
32:46So it's all go.
32:51I'm back too
32:52and very pleased to be.
32:56Now there's progress.
32:57Great to see.
32:59I think that's a really
33:00Kiwi thing, isn't it?
33:01The modest house
33:01in the vast landscape.
33:03Brilliant.
33:11Hello.
33:13Well, hey.
33:14How are you?
33:14Nice to see you.
33:15You too.
33:16It's so good to see this.
33:18To be inside a building.
33:20Yeah.
33:20Well, it's good to be in here.
33:21Now this OSB finish,
33:23the inside of those SIPs panels,
33:26will that survive anywhere?
33:28Everywhere.
33:28Everywhere.
33:29I love it, actually.
33:30The more I'm in it,
33:31the more I love it.
33:32And I'm sanding it,
33:33so it's going to be,
33:34you know, that's my job.
33:35I'm the sander
33:36and it's going to look great.
33:38Well, yes, maybe.
33:39But oriented strand board
33:41or OSB
33:41was never really intended
33:42to be a visible finish.
33:44The look is busy.
33:45Could floor-to-ceiling OSB
33:47be a little too much?
33:51We've just got to line these walls,
33:53which we would do
33:54with the OSB board.
33:55More OSB.
33:56More OSB board everywhere, yeah.
33:57It's the OSB here.
33:58It's going through.
33:59And no staining
34:00on the OSB boards this time?
34:02Just a sealer.
34:03I mean, if we walk in
34:04and we go,
34:04oh, God, this is too much,
34:05then maybe we will
34:06do something about it.
34:07I expect the cost of building this house,
34:12like construction all over the country,
34:14will have jumped dramatically
34:16in recent years.
34:17And cost-cutting,
34:18wherever possible,
34:19has been critical.
34:21And while Brownie and Janet
34:22must be mighty relieved
34:23to have got this far,
34:25I wonder what the emotional cost
34:27has been,
34:28and still is.
34:30There's the resentment
34:31that we've actually got to go
34:32through this process
34:33and rebuild it,
34:34because there's a lot
34:35of hard work, time,
34:36and energy, you know,
34:37and we did have a great house.
34:40It must be really cathartic
34:42to now have something
34:43that represents all your effort
34:45and struggle
34:46and trauma over the years.
34:48Actually, something now
34:48that's come out of the ground
34:50and it's a tipping point, right?
34:51Yeah, it's very much
34:52a tipping point.
34:53We can see the light
34:55at the end of the tunnel now,
34:56and it's a good place to be.
34:58Great.
34:59It's been tough,
35:00but now we're here
35:00where I'm really optimistic.
35:03So how are you coping
35:05with money with this rebuild?
35:07Well, we've just run out.
35:11So now we're into mortgage.
35:14Debt.
35:15Which is a bit of a, you know,
35:16because we were mortgage-free.
35:18So that's...
35:19Very cruel.
35:21Yeah.
35:21We just hit just over $600,000
35:23at this day.
35:24So that's a sizeable mortgage.
35:26That you'd never imagine having.
35:28No.
35:29No, it's more than
35:30we originally had, actually,
35:31on the first house.
35:32COVID and in a couple of years,
35:34the prices of materials
35:36and things have just skyrocketed.
35:45At this stage of any project,
35:47you might be exhausted,
35:49but also sensing elation,
35:51the elation of finishing.
35:53And with finishing,
35:54you forget the trauma
35:55of what happened before.
35:55But here,
35:58there's this undercurrent
35:59of resentment, bereavement,
36:01the burden of an additional mortgage
36:03in your 50s.
36:05And I just hope
36:06that once they're finished,
36:07Janet and Brownie
36:08can enjoy their new home
36:09as freely
36:10as they did the original.
36:12It's about a three-hour drive
36:24to get here from Queenstown,
36:25twisting through the valleys
36:26to get to this little pocket
36:27of South Island paradise
36:29at the foot of the mountains.
36:31And for me,
36:31that's a great metaphor
36:32for Janet and Brownie's
36:34own torturous journey
36:35to get to this finished home.
36:36So I'm just hoping
36:37we find them elated
36:39and not brown-beaten
36:40by the challenges
36:41of the journey.
36:42What a little gem.
36:50It looks settled finish,
36:53but stand out.
36:54Beautiful.
36:55I love that beautiful
37:05full metal protective jacket.
37:08Really finely finished.
37:10And then this pocket
37:11of warm honey-coloured timber
37:13just kind of welcomes you in.
37:15I love it.
37:16Oh, and the door opens.
37:17Hey.
37:17Hey, how are you?
37:19How are you?
37:19Janet and Brownie.
37:21Hey, Tom.
37:22Great to see you.
37:22Oh, it's great to be here.
37:24You must be stoked.
37:26Nice step home.
37:27Just want to go inside.
37:28All right.
37:28All right.
37:29Come on in.
37:29Come on in.
37:36Look at this.
37:39Now that is a dramatic entrance
37:41if ever there was.
37:42Look, all the way up
37:44to the top of the building there.
37:45And this complexity of the stairs
37:47and the different levels.
37:50Quite tussock-like, isn't it?
37:52The strand board.
37:53Yeah.
37:54It's quite calming.
37:55It's coming up a lot better
37:55than we thought.
37:56You know, there's been
37:56a lot of people going,
37:58oh, you can't leave
37:59your walls like that.
38:00Right.
38:00It's not going to work.
38:01Yeah.
38:01But it's coming out stunning.
38:03This beats a boring piece
38:05of painted jib any day.
38:06Not every day.
38:07Yeah.
38:07Yeah.
38:07Yeah.
38:12Look, this is what
38:13it was all about.
38:14Yes, yeah.
38:15That view framed
38:16so beautifully.
38:17Yeah.
38:18Always changing that view.
38:19Yeah.
38:20It's never the same.
38:20Never get bored.
38:21World-class
38:22from your couch.
38:24Yes.
38:25It's pretty good.
38:26Oh, yeah.
38:27Yes.
38:28Home.
38:29Yeah.
38:30Home at last.
38:30Finally.
38:31Yeah?
38:31Finally.
38:32Yeah.
38:32Solid stairs.
38:45No creeps.
38:45Yeah.
38:46And they were following
38:47the birds of night flight.
38:49Yes.
38:49Up here.
38:49Lovely to see it here.
38:50Yeah.
38:52Found their way home.
38:53Yeah.
38:54Yeah.
38:55Budget constraints
38:56led to major design alterations,
38:58but these did allow for
38:59the addition of a second level.
39:02Despite needing a little finishing,
39:04it's become a fantastic bonus space.
39:07There are extra rooms here as well.
39:08Yeah.
39:08So you've got one,
39:10another one there.
39:11Yeah.
39:12It was my office,
39:13but it's been taken over already.
39:14I really love that room.
39:18Yeah?
39:18It's my favourite room.
39:23Downstairs again,
39:25and the Japanese influence
39:26is clearly felt
39:27in the calm
39:28and precisely finished
39:30bathroom areas.
39:31This is rather lovely.
39:33More strand board,
39:34and these bathrooms,
39:36very zen.
39:40Oh, now,
39:40here's a treat.
39:41Yes.
39:43It's an afura,
39:44a Japanese soaking tub.
39:45I've always wanted one.
39:47It's my special treat
39:49to myself.
39:50That's lovely.
39:52In this more private
39:54part of the house,
39:55there are bedrooms
39:55for sons Harvey and William,
39:57and for Janet and Brownie too.
40:00They're the master.
40:02Look at those views.
40:03Yeah.
40:03They're pretty good.
40:05This is the only room, right,
40:06with two views,
40:08corner views.
40:08You save them for your room.
40:09Yes.
40:09My one stipulation
40:12was that I could sit
40:13in the bed
40:14and see the ski field.
40:16Yeah.
40:16I can look straight up
40:17and see whether we're on,
40:18whether the snow's good
40:19and if we're on.
40:20Touching distance there.
40:21Yeah.
40:22Yeah.
40:27The new house
40:28is not the only thing
40:29that's risen
40:30from the ashes of the fire.
40:32The sole survivor
40:33in the garden
40:33is also thriving.
40:35So this is the special tree.
40:40Yeah.
40:40It certainly is.
40:42It was a scrappy little fella
40:43last time I was here.
40:44Yeah.
40:44No, it's good.
40:45It's a survivor.
40:46And this was kind of
40:47the first sign
40:48of hope
40:50amongst the nightmare.
40:51Yeah, it was.
40:52And as that's grown
40:53out of the ground,
40:54look,
40:54there is the house.
40:55Yeah.
40:55Yeah.
40:56Risen from the ashes.
40:57And what a fine house it is.
40:59Yeah, very happy, actually.
41:01Really pleased.
41:02Well, I have to say
41:14it's a great pleasure
41:15to be sitting here
41:16in your finished house
41:17because you're finished.
41:19Yeah.
41:19I mean, gosh,
41:20what a traumatic few years.
41:23Hmm.
41:24Really difficult.
41:25Unbelievable.
41:26What kept us going
41:27was just the kindness
41:28of family and friends
41:30and complete strangers.
41:33How does it feel
41:33compared to version one?
41:35I really, really,
41:36really love this house.
41:38You know,
41:38all that hardship
41:40we went through,
41:41it was worth it.
41:42And I'm so proud
41:43of my family,
41:44you know,
41:45that we stuck together.
41:47We didn't fall apart.
41:48No.
41:49I was sitting here,
41:50you know,
41:50sitting here last night
41:51and it was just like
41:52the old house
41:53and all the family
41:54out there
41:55playing and...
41:57It felt the same,
41:58didn't it?
41:58Yeah, it just,
41:59oh, it just felt amazing.
42:00And you haven't had that
42:01for a long, long time?
42:02Oh, a long time.
42:03No, no.
42:04It just felt so great.
42:11Very early on,
42:12you had a very precise figure
42:14for the cost of this house.
42:17And I'm going to have
42:17to look at what that was.
42:18Yeah, what was it?
42:19$946,500.26.
42:24Where are you at?
42:25How much?
42:26We're at 1.1.
42:28I thought it was pretty good,
42:29actually.
42:30Yeah.
42:30You know,
42:30for what we've done.
42:31But, you know,
42:32I don't like having a mortgage.
42:33No, that's a little bit hurts.
42:36Yeah.
42:41The town is now thriving.
42:43Yeah.
42:44I thought it was going to die
42:45after the fire.
42:46I thought people
42:46would never come back.
42:48But it's come back better,
42:50in a way.
42:50It's just beautiful.
42:51Seeing kids and their bikes
42:53and people kayaking
42:54and there's more activity
42:55on the lake.
42:56A true rebirth.
42:57Yeah.
42:58Let's make it special again.
43:00Yeah.
43:00Yeah.
43:01We did it.
43:02We did it.
43:03Yeah.
43:08When we analyze a house,
43:10we might admire
43:11the great architecture,
43:14marvel at the interior finishes,
43:16the light fittings even.
43:18But actually,
43:18that kind of analysis
43:19might be a little skin deep
43:21because I think
43:23in the case of a special house
43:25like the one that was here
43:26and is now,
43:27that's missing the point.
43:29The most important thing
43:30is the spirit of the place.
43:32And so to answer that question,
43:34is it worth trying to reclaim
43:35what we've once loved
43:37and lost
43:38in Janet and Brownie's case
43:40and despite the most difficult,
43:44unkind rebuild process,
43:45you'd have to say
43:47it is.
43:50One hundred percent.
43:51One hundred percent.
43:53One hundred percent.
43:54One hundred percent.
43:55One hundred percent.
43:56One hundred percent.
43:57One hundred percent.
43:58One hundred percent.
43:59One hundred percent.
44:00One hundred percent.
44:01One hundred percent.
44:02One hundred percent.
44:03One hundred percent.
44:04One hundred percent.
44:05One hundred percent.
44:06One hundred percent.
44:07One hundred percent.
44:08One hundred percent.
44:09One hundred percent.
44:10One hundred percent.
44:11One hundred percent.
44:12One hundred percent.
44:13One hundred percent.
44:14One hundred percent.
44:15One hundred percent.
44:16One hundred percent.
44:17One hundred percent.
44:18One hundred percent.
44:19One hundred percent.
44:20One hundred percent.