Grand Designs New Zealand Season 9 Episode 2
#GrandDesignsNewZealand
#PrimeUSTV
#GrandDesignsNewZealand
#PrimeUSTV
Category
š¹
FunTranscript
00:00Autumn is a time of change and loss. The change of season and temperature, the loss
00:09of leaves and daylight, and we feel that loss all winter. But we know that come
00:17the springtime we'll get it all back. Now there are some things that we lose that
00:24can't be replaced no matter how hard we try, but so much can be to a certain
00:30extent. And so the question is, how far would you go to replace something you've
00:36lost? A house for instance, not just the bricks and mortar but the life, the
00:41memories, the lifestyle, all of it. How long could that take? How much could that
00:47cost? Not just the money but the emotional investment, the physical effort. Could you
00:52do that? Should you even try?
00:56Lake Ojo is a long way from anywhere.
01:24Lake Ojo is a long way from here. Secluded beneath the Southern Alps. Three hours drive
01:30from Queenstown, four hours from Christchurch. The climate here is extreme. Fiercely hot and
01:38dry in summer. Brutally cold in winter.
01:42Woohoo! Look out, it's in the water. Artists Janet Muir and builder Richard Brown, Brownie to his mates, discovered the lake and its small village in late 2004. They didn't have children at that stage, but were looking for a special place to holiday with family and friends.
02:06We just came over that hill and I just was 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 Ojo village and in late 2006, they moved out of their Auckland rental and into a caravan on the site.
02:34I was pregnant. So, you know, of course, that's a terrible time to start building, especially living in a caravan. I think the locals had a bit of a fright.
02:41They didn't know what had happened. We were like trailer trash. We just drove in and hitched off our caravan.
02:47Pregnant. A hillbilly.
02:50I 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 and great memories shared with whÄnau and friends.
03:08The house was built with araha and I think you found it as soon as you walked into it. You know, you could feel it was a beautiful home.
03:17However, this is an extreme alpine location and often buffeted by severe winds.
03:23And one October night in 2020, life descended into a nightmare.
03:29Janet said, oh, look, there's lightning.
03:32Lightning.
03:33That gave me a fright, a big flash of lightning.
03:37And 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.
03:58I just thought, oh my God, here we go.
04:03I knew that we had to get out really quickly, banged on all the doors.
04:08We had eight people in the house, so.
04:12Yeah, we just ran.
04:16We thought we were coming back.
04:18We know we'll be back in a few hours, this will blow through.
04:23Just 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.
05:02Just lay there.
05:03There's nothing left.
05:10It was our home and it's not bricks and mortar, it'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.
05:25You know, and the fact that everyone helped us build it and you have all those memories.
05:30And that's what's the hard thing.
05:34It's not the stuff.
05:36It's the home.
05:39For 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.
05:48We're so lucky no one died.
05:51You can't bring people back.
05:53But for us, we're bringing a home back.
05:55It's going to be resurrected and even better.
05:59That'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. Happy birthday to you.
06:11The Browns now live in Auckland.
06:13But 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.
06:28We get to go skiing, snowboarding, going on sleds, playing in the snow.
06:33I just feel like at home.
06:35Oh, you really have one?
06:37Yeah.
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 because I could have lost my children.
06:59Absolutely breathtaking location.
07:01But also quite surreal.
07:04All around are signs of the absolute devastation of six months ago.
07:11Hello. Hi.
07:13Nice to be Richard.
07:14Yeah, yeah.
07:15Pleased to meet you.
07:16Nice to meet you.
07:17Hi, Janet. Nice to meet you.
07:18Janet, you too.
07:19So this is you.
07:20A sign over there that tells me this is the Brown House.
07:22Yeah.
07:23But not very much else here.
07:24No.
07:25Yeah.
07:26Total devastation.
07:27Mm-hmm.
07:28The only surviving thing is our picnic table.
07:30Yes.
07:31Here's a little artifact from the fire.
07:33Right.
07:34That's our window.
07:35Goodness.
07:36Left of it.
07:37Completely melted.
07:38Yeah.
07:39If we'd left it ten minutes, you'd be dead, really.
07:42So thank goodness.
07:43Yeah.
07:44Thank goodness for that.
07:45Yeah, really lucky.
07:46And it was a lovely house.
07:47Beautiful house.
07:48Beautiful home.
07:49Our 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.
07:58Mm-hmm.
07:59It must be very hard to talk about it.
08:01I'm sorry.
08:02Mm.
08:03I'm okay.
08:04I'm ready to move forward now.
08:05Yes.
08:06We've tried lots and it's been hard.
08:07Oh, I'm sure.
08:08But no, we're good.
08:09We'll have to just try and recreate that again.
08:11Yes.
08:12I'm sure you will.
08:13The 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 the shower room,
08:25bathroom, second bedroom, master bedroom, and around to the bunk rooms, one with double
08:30bunks and one with 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,
08:43and a large dining table, a kitchen equipped with two ovens to feed the hoards, and a kitchen
08:48window framing Janet's favorite view to Ben Orho.
08:52The large living room ends with an enticing window seat with expansive mountain views.
09:01The high-fold doors lead out to the patio, now fireproof concrete rather than timber decking.
09:06And at high level, no plastic guttering either.
09:09It's all steel this time.
09:11The garden has been completely rethought with rocks, hard landscaping, and ground cover 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 larch wood, 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.
09:41Tell me about that.
09:42We want to build, you know, better for the future, and hope that this house stands for
09:46our children and hopefully their grandchildren.
09:48Sure.
09:49And the story of the house grows and changes as your family changes.
09:53And 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,
09:58right, well this time we can make some changes that are going to be good.
10:01Yes.
10:02And the build will be a little bit different too, won't it?
10:04We can't build it ourselves now.
10:05Yeah.
10:06We don't have the energy.
10:08And those logistics of getting going again,
10:11you're at a point where you have enough funding for the new build from that insurance.
10:15Well.
10:16Yeah, we hope so.
10:17We 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.
10:31I've never heard such an exact answer.
10:33That's it.
10:3426 cents.
10:35Yes.
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?
10:45Well, it's a tough question.
10:48In this location?
10:49In this location.
10:50Yeah.
10:51You 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.
10:58So that's about a year and a half.
10:59A year and a half.
11:00Yeah.
11:01I like the sound of that.
11:03Much like the weather, life changes.
11:09Once on this bare section stood a home, a place of shelter, safety and love.
11:16How 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.
11:36Ten 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 the house burnt down?
12:07We've got to cut down on labour costs, so you and I are going to be getting 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 and 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 going,
12:45Hey, you know, can you come back and plaster for us again the second time around?
12:51You 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'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.
13:21Yeah, 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.
13:29You know, we were almost mortgage free when our house burnt down.
13:32We do not want to have to get another mortgage. That would just kill us.
13:38Yeah, yeah.
13:39Spring 2023. At Lake Orho, and finally some action on Brownie and Janet's site with the first concrete poor.
13:57port it's now a full three years since fire destroyed their first house here
14:04and while they had hoped to rebuild it pretty much exactly those plans have
14:09been scuttled by the soaring cost of construction we went through three
14:13different redesigns especially what's taken so long I think we've broken the
14:17back of it we've made a few changes to the inside and to enter the shape of the
14:21building but the footprint still remains pretty much the same
14:29Janet and sons Harvey and William are staying in Auckland where the boys go to
14:33school Brownie is renting at Orho and project managing the site here while
14:38running his and Janet's Auckland based building company as well the builds well
14:43I'm truly underway now it's you know we'll be we'll be in there soon I always
14:49knew we'd get there but when was that was a question yeah it was times we
14:54thought we wouldn't yeah it's three years now it's a long time it's a tribute to
14:59Brownie and Janet's tenacity that the build has started at all but maybe
15:04there's something in the ground here because there's another against the odds
15:09story when we first arrived here my mother died and my first son was born and
15:17mum wanted to be buried with our first child and so we put the placenta in the
15:22ashes under this tree but then of course the fire took it out and so when I came
15:26back here I thought oh wow I wonder if that's our old tree had a close look at
15:31it and it was it's the only thing that survived yeah the resilience of the little
15:37crabapple tree has to be a good omen there's no shortage of focus and belief as
15:42the bill begins but a little extra inspiration never goes amiss
15:56the redesign that allowed building to begin is the work of award-winning
16:00Auckland architect Lisa Webb a longtime friend of Janet and brownies Lisa also
16:05designed the house that burnt down that I can see was a real delight these are
16:11lovely photos Lisa the house that was and there's no more no yes Janet and
16:18Brownie put so much love and care and effort into it and so much of
16:22themselves and people really responded to that you know people you know genuinely
16:27seem to really love staying there and it's obviously it's a beautiful
16:30environment but it was also a very you know thoughtful lovely sort of place to be
16:36in and to stay in means a lot to many different people yeah exactly I mean
16:40everything that you see in the photos that I built with the original house now
16:47too expensive to recreate Lisa had to come up with a less expensive version one
16:52that was also quicker and easier to build one option was to basically build
16:57something and track it to sign it and then we started looking for six panels as a
17:02solution so that's an insulated panel rigid insulation strambled on the outside
17:08there's your wall yeah exactly it's like a 3d jigsaw puzzle like you get these as
17:13far as I can sort of see you kind of get these pieces on site and you just
17:16click them together so obviously as soon as you get prefabricated pieces that can
17:22be put together on site you're saving on labor time what they've lost is the
17:27garage rumpus room it's completely gone but they've actually gained living space
17:32by redesigning the roof and putting in a mezzanine floor for overflow guest
17:36accommodation yeah and then the other thing is rather than cladding the whole
17:40thing in timber we're cladding it in corrugate so it's the opposite brief
17:45really to the to the brief for the first house the brief for the first house was
17:48around we have to do it all ourselves everything has to be handmade right so
17:54there was no preparation and so this you know it's gone from one sort of extreme
17:59to the other in theory structural insulated panels sips for short do just
18:05click together although it may not be quite that easy if you haven't built with
18:10them before using them should however reduce the amount of labor required in
18:15this very remote location a month into the build the team is making final
18:23preparations for the panels to arrive and checking that the concrete pad they'll
18:27land on is completely level brownie has chosen Richards from his and Janet's
18:33Auckland construction company as lead builder and he's brought in his two sons
18:37Sony and Samisi this is the first time the builders and brownie have used tips and
18:45hope there'll be a big part of staying on budget but they won't replace all the
18:51basics of building the carpentry discipline still applies you know you
18:55still gotta get it level and plum and all that it's intended to go up real quick
19:01once we put it in we are ready to clad pretty much
19:11keenly watching the build our close neighbors and friends Chris and Ray
19:15Spears the couple met brownie and Janet in their very early days here and gave
19:20them a helping hand when they really needed one we decided that that it was too
19:27damn cold for them to be in that caravan with a brand new baby we were lucky
19:34enough to be able to offer them accommodation which they lovingly accepted and
19:40moved in and they just became part of the family Janet's my second daughter
19:46Ray and Chris also lost their house in the fire but were able to move into a
19:52small relocatable home placed on family land elsewhere in Oho village
19:57like brownie and Janet they're looking forward to starting again we thought
20:03we're at the end before but now it's starting and there's a really good
20:07feeling amongst the community now and it's going to be nice the boys are growing
20:13up and they'll be bringing their mates and yeah no doubt we'll get a phone call
20:17the boys are down just keep an eye on things I would say
20:21Richard's and his team made short work of getting the internal framing up and now
20:32the sips can go in to form the walls however
20:44in Te Reo or Ho can be translated as windy place and indeed regularly gets blasted from
20:52all directions not good for lifting unwieldy sips into place not good at all
20:57like big sails and so once the wind gets those and they're off we're out picking
21:03them up out of the lake so if that's that's our biggest issue we face so while
21:10the hope is using the sips will keep the house on budget remember that the team
21:15have never built with them before and the panels are proving difficult to install
21:19the sips that form the walls of the new house it is a very difficult and potentially dangerous
21:26and potentially dangerous as Orho very much lives up to its name
21:33at Lake Orho with the spring weather so changeable the team has to take full advantage of any fine
21:40still conditions to install the sips that form the walls of the new house
21:46it is a lot quicker to do it this way it's just some things we can't control and as we get higher
21:53the wind gets a little bit shaky so we have to pick our days now it's hard to focus when the wind's
22:00blowing everything around so it's been it's been tricky but it's been fulfilling we're going through
22:09a learning curve but the product's good you know and once it's up then we've got our inside done as
22:15well normally you might have a jib board or you painted or something we're just going to leave
22:19that the polystyrene is the insulation and so that cuts a lot of time out for us but the challenges of
22:29building first time with sips plus the often extreme conditions are not the only things the
22:35team has to deal with shortages of materials and the remote location are regularly disrupting the
22:41building schedule we're a shorter bit of steel as it turns out now so without the steel it all grinds
22:47to a hole you can't say oh can you just show up tomorrow it might be another another week out you
22:53see so you you lose that time for me it's really frustrating it's you know I wanted to get the place
23:01closed in as soon as possible but because we can't get the roof on we can't get the walls up they can't
23:07measure the last windows at all at all you know snowballs you know it's either laugh or cry you know
23:15in Auckland Janet's got her own challenges looking after the couple's two sons and helping Brownie run
23:33their construction company plus she's got an exhibition coming up soon and is still working
23:39on the centerpiece painting hey I don't want to disturb an artist to work well hello how are you
23:46very good good good good this is incredible but what does it mean it's called night flight because
23:53I mean I've thought about it over the year years since the house burned down about you know why birds fly
23:58at night and there's two reasons they're either migrating or they're fleeing from some danger and
24:05their goal is to survive so down here I've got the childhood memories the buttercups the daisy chains the
24:12sparrows making nests and you work your way up and that is our little house that we had and that's burning
24:19so I mean everyone always thinks it's going to happen to someone else in another backyard not their own but
24:25as we experience well we had to flee our own backyard so that symbolizes the escape the great
24:31escape yes and then fly up up into the mountains and that's the kia so there's a sense of you know
24:37you have escaped and you've found freedom and you have a guardian above you right and on your flight
24:43from danger there are always obstacles a week after we got back from the fire we had a meeting with our
24:51bank and they set us down and they told us that they were going to take our insurance money and put
24:58it on our business loan even though we had serviced that loan and we had never defaulted and so a week
25:06after we lost our house we were losing it again to the bank and so we we fought them and that battle
25:13went on for seven months it prevented us from getting started it's amazing that in the situation where you
25:19sort of need the most support yeah then that's that and it was unnecessary you know yeah but thanks
25:25to the support we had we escaped we held out and the bank actually did um concede defeat
25:33it's a tribute to the couple's tenacity that the rebuild has survived all the challenges so far
25:42however janet and brownie are still making sacrifices well it must be very different quite
25:49hard i guess for both of you being separated particularly first time around building the
25:54house it was uh it was a team effort right yeah no that's been the worst thing about the rebuild is
26:00the separation actually but yeah just i'm glad we stuck on that journey and you know because it would
26:08have been so easy to not yeah um it's taken a lot of determination to just keep at it but i think
26:17sure it'll pay off
26:19by late november brownie has managed to get the remaining steel he needs to cite and rebook all
26:34the necessary tradespeople so although he's behind on his building schedule it's time for another
26:41milestone the roof going on
26:48the builders keep a close watch on the weather and go hard on days the wind is light enough
26:53to crane the panels safely into place
26:55and they soon discover that constructing a pitch roof with sips is not as straightforward as using them
27:07as walls
27:10the beams that they provided are too white it's 150 this is 140.
27:16that's a bugger eh
27:19it's not as quick as we had hoped
27:22um they're big panels and they're in the you know and they're in the air they're heavy
27:27the roof's got a slope on it and we had an issue with one beam that wasn't quite the right height so
27:31we had to readjust that i'm gonna have to take that first one off and lift this beam up it's always
27:37the fear of the unknown is that right have i done it right is it gonna fit
27:41we know we got one or two and understood the process like anything it's uh started to flow
27:53it's been a big effort for brownie so far not just the work but the separation from his family
27:59time away from his and janet's construction business and the fact it was never the plan for
28:04him to be so involved in the build anyway considering all of that he's doing pretty well
28:10but he's still pushing hard i've set targets for us you know which are really aggressive
28:15um and it's just me i'm just you know competitive we'll get there you know just times money
28:33at lake ojo the new brown house took a long time to get going but now is racing ahead
28:39work on the roof is going well leaving just the windows to be installed before the house can be
28:48closed in brownie wants that done before christmas and anyone with hands and legs has been called to
28:55help including son harvey and his mate marcus this stuff sits in the sun with all veins and twists
29:03he's been bossy at times but it's a really cool thing because we're actually a part of the build
29:09janet's on site too with one of her best friends architect lisa it's the first time janet's been
29:15back since the very beginning of the build she's also taken the chance to indulge in a little luxury
29:21i'm going to have an affordable japanese soaking tub in my wet room now and i'm pretty excited about that
29:29so you can sit in the tub and look out at this you know the mountains good memories
29:36it was pretty cool
29:41i'm pretty emotional i think i broke down and cried
29:46there are a few tears for sure it felt really good
29:49indescribably good to see it out of the ground
29:57lisa also has to exercise some demons from the past the memories of that fateful night in early october
30:032020 are still crystal clear i was on the coromandel and a journalist rang me and asked my comment
30:11about the brown house and i knew that you were here about the fire and i and i and my immediate
30:17assumption was they were ringing me because you're dead oh lisa didn't know that it was terrible it was
30:23just terrible it was like thank you for the juice and we were out of we were out of service so i
30:31couldn't you know i couldn't reach the news or anything like that um so that was my immediate
30:35thought was thank god you were alive for janet and lisa this visit has been a revelation it's restored
30:45their spirits and crucially confirmed to both owner and architect that rebuilding was the right thing to do
30:53and i love it home in auckland janet's been frantically trying to finish all the artwork for her
31:08new exhibition and her deadline has just run out it's opening night it's probably one of the scariest
31:16days of my life i have been terrified for weeks oh you look gorgeous janet's exhibition is entitled night
31:28flight after the painting she was working on when i visited her studio it's the centerpiece of the show
31:35and the first painting janet's completed since the fire in october 2020
31:39it feels good it feels really really good like i have actually worked through a lot of stuff a lot
31:51of anger and i've got on out the other side now and i'm ready to you know do more painting which is
31:58good and i'm yeah i'm happy i'm actually happy which is great i would never have thought that i could
32:06actually pull something out of what happened and make it positive but now it's like um i know i'm
32:13going to have a home and that's what's so special i'm going to be back in that beautiful place with my
32:21family it's a good place to be back home
32:37into the new year at lake ojo and the brown house build is back on schedule
32:42most of the windows are in and the roofers have just arrived so it's all go
32:51i'm back too and very pleased to be
32:56now there's progress great to see i think it's a really kiwi thing isn't it the modest house in
33:01the vast landscape brilliant
33:11hello well hey how are you nice to see you too it's so good to see this to be inside a building
33:20yeah well it's good to be in here now this osb finish the inside of those sips panels will that
33:26survive anywhere everywhere everywhere i love it actually the more i'm in it the more i love it
33:32and i'm sanding it so it's going to be you know that's my job i'm the sander and it's going to look
33:36great well yes maybe but oriented strand board or osb was never really intended to be a visible finish
33:44the look is busy could floor to ceiling osb be a little too much
33:48we've just got to line these walls which we would do with the osb board more osb more
33:56osb board everywhere yeah it's the osb and no staining on the the osb boards this time just a
34:02sealer i mean if we walk in and go oh god this is too much then maybe we will do something about it
34:09i expect the cost of building this house like construction all over the country will have jumped
34:15dramatically in recent years and cost cutting wherever possible has been critical and while
34:21brownie and janet must be mighty relieved to have got this far i wonder what the emotional cost has
34:27been and still is there's the resentment that we've actually got to go through this process
34:34and rebuild it because there's a lot of hard work time that energy you know and um and we did have a
34:39great house it must be really cathartic to now have something that represents all your
34:45effort and struggle and trauma over the years actually something now that's come out the ground
34:50and it's a tipping point right yeah it's very much a tipping point it's uh we've we've we can see the
34:55light at the end of the tunnel now and it's it's a good place to be great it's been tough but now
35:00we're here we're um i'm really optimistic so how are you coping with money with this rebuild uh well
35:08well we've just run out so now we're into um debt mortgage debt which is a bit of a you know because
35:17we were mortgage free so that's very cruel yeah yeah we just hit just over 600 000 to this day so
35:24that's a sizeable mortgage that you'd never imagine having no no it's more than we originally had
35:30actually on the first house covert and uh and uh in a couple years the the prices of materials and
35:36things are just skyrocketing at this stage of any project you might be exhausted but also sensing elation
35:51the elation of finishing and with finishing you forget the trauma of what happened before
35:55but here there's this undercurrent of resentment bereavement the burden of an additional mortgage
36:03in your 50s and i just hope that once they're finished janet and brownie can enjoy their new home
36:10as freely as they did the original
36:12it's about a three-hour drive to get here from queenstown twisting through the valleys to get to
36:26this little pocket of south island paradise at the foot of the mountains and for me that's a great
36:32metaphor for janet and brownie's own torturous journey to get to this finished home so i'm just
36:37hoping we find them elated and not brown beaten by the challenges of the journey
36:49what a little gem it looks settled finished but stand out beautiful
36:55i love that beautiful full metal protective jacket
37:09really finely finished and then this pocket of warm honey colored timber just kind of welcomes you in
37:15i love it oh and the door opens hey how are you how are you janet and brownie hey tom great to see you oh
37:23it's great to be here you must be stoked nice step home just want to go inside all right all right come on in
37:36look at this
37:36now that is a dramatic entrance if ever there was a look all the way up to the top of the building there
37:45and this complexity of the stairs and the different levels
37:51quite tussock-like isn't it the this strand board yeah it's quite calming it's come up a lot better than
37:55we thought you know there's been a lot of people going oh you can't leave your walls right there right
38:00and it's not going to work but it's it's kind of stunning this beats a boring piece of painted
38:05jib any day every day yeah yeah look this is what it was all about yes yeah that view framed so
38:17beautifully yeah always changing that view yeah it's never the same never get bored world-class
38:23from your couch yes it's pretty good oh yeah yes home yeah i'm the last finally yeah finally yeah
38:43yeah solid stairs no creeps yeah and then we're following the birds of night flight
38:48yes lovely to see it here found the way home yeah yeah budget constraints led to major design
38:57alterations but these did allow for the addition of a second level despite needing a little finishing
39:04it's become a fantastic bonus space there are extra rooms here as well so you've got one another one
39:10there yeah it was my office but it's been taken over already already i really love that room yeah it's my
39:18favorite room downstairs again and the japanese influence is clearly felt in the calm and precisely
39:29finished bathroom areas this is rather lovely more strand board and these bathrooms very zen
39:36well now here's a treat yes it's an afura japanese soaking tub i've always wanted one it's my special treat to
39:49myself from that's lovely in this more private part of the house there are bedrooms for sons harvey and
39:56william and for janet and brownie too now the master look at those views yeah they're pretty good this is
40:05the only room right with two views corner views you save them for your room yes my one stipulation was
40:13that i could sit in the bed and see the ski field yeah i can look straight up and see whether we're on with
40:18the snow's good and if we're on touching distance there yeah yeah the new house is not the only thing
40:29that's risen from the ashes of the fire the sole survivor in the garden is also thriving
40:38so this is the special tree yeah certainly is yeah it was a scrappy little fella last time i was here
40:44yeah no it's good it's survivor and this was kind of the first sign of hope amongst the nightmare yeah
40:51it was and as that's grown after the ground look there is the house yeah yeah risen from the ashes
40:57and what a fine house it is yeah very happy actually really pleased
41:11well i have to say it's a great pleasure to be sitting here in your finished house because you
41:18finished i mean gosh what a traumatic few years really difficult unbelievable what kept us going was
41:27just the kindness of family and friends and complete strangers how does it feel compared to version one
41:35i really really really love this house you know all that hardship we went through
41:41it was worth it and i'm so proud of my family you know that we stuck together we didn't fall apart
41:48no i was sitting here you know sitting here last night and it was just like the old house and all
41:54the family out there yeah playing and it felt the same yeah it just oh it just felt amazing and you
42:00haven't had that for a long long time a long time no no it just feels so great
42:11very early on you had a very precise figure for the cost of this house and i'm going to have to look
42:17at what that was what was it 946 500 and 26 cents where are you at how much uh we're at uh 1.1 i thought
42:28it was pretty good actually yeah you know for what we've done but you know i don't like any mortgage
42:33no that that's a little bit hurts yeah
42:41the town is now thriving yeah i thought it was going to die after the fire i thought people
42:46would never come back but it's come back better in a way it's just beautiful seeing kids and their
42:52bikes and people kayaking and there's more activity on the lake and a true rebirth yeah let's make it
42:59special again yeah yeah we did it we did it yeah when we analyze a house we might admire the great
43:12architecture marvel at the interior finishes the light fittings even but actually that kind of analysis
43:20might be a little skin deep because i think in the case of a special house like the one that was here
43:26and is now that's missing the point the most important thing is the spirit of the place
43:32and so to answer that question is it worth trying to reclaim what we've once loved and lost in janet and
43:39brownie's case and despite the most difficult unkind rebuild process you'd have to say it is