As southern house of the year category award winners, five Queenstown homes are in contention for Registered Master Builders’ national awards, announced November 26.
Mountain Scene last week profiled Trinity QT Construction’s Lake Hayes pearler, which won six awards including supreme house of the year over $1 million.
This week we feature the other four.
M&S Construction took the Resene new home $2m-$4m category for a 336 square metre Queenstown Hill home.
It’s on Martys Lane, which is named after M&S Construction owner Marty Hulsman, who also lives there — the name initially arose after his brother, working for Carters, sent a load of blocks to a house site, off Hensman Road, and wrote ‘Marty’s lane’ on it.
The winning home, designed by former local Christine Hall, features vertical cedar, schist cladding and a curved roof.
‘‘All the frames are curved so you had to build them standing in place,’’ Hulsman says.
He’s delighted his team’s been recognised — ‘‘we’re all in our 50s, pretty much, guys with a lot of experience, so we get to pool our ideas to come up with solutions’’.
YBL Building won the new home $1.5m-$2m category for a 210sqm healthy home at Jack’s Point, designed by Wānaka’s Rafe Maclean as the dream home for a couple who’ve moved down from Christchurch.
The house is clad in reclaimed hardwood, and the living room features a monopitch ceiling lined with Southland beech and a mezzanine with great views of the Remarkables.
‘‘It’s a pretty racy wee house,’’ says YBL owner Scott Yardley, who also project-managed the build.
‘‘We had to bring our A-game.’’
Wānaka’s Buildcraft won the Carters new home $1m-$1.5m category with a 174sqm Jack’s Point holiday home designed by Wellington’s First Light.
‘‘A couple of little cantilevers on it makes it stand out from the rest,’’ owner Hamish O’Carroll says.
Contrasting dark and golden cedar cladding mirrors the light and shade of the Remarkables, right above, while schist steps and basement cladding anchor the house to its site.
‘‘It’s actually the first house I’ve built with my own company,’’ says O’Carroll, who also has a Wānaka home in the national finals.
‘‘The level of finish we’ve been able to achieve has probably got us over the line and, obviously, a pretty out-there design helps.’’
David Reid Homes Queenstown took out the GIB showhome award for its pavilion-style 301sqm Hanley’s Farm showhome.
It’s a ‘‘stunning’’ home, franchise owner Fraser Mackenzie says, that’s been replicated at least four times around New Zealand.
The home’s rustic, alpine and dramatic with soaring timber-lined ceilings, bagged schist features like the fireplace surrounds, a wine cellar with burnt-larch cladding, and floor-to-ceiling glazing making the most of the mountain views.
