Beauty and sustainability combine in this award-winning home on the banks of the Wairarapa stream in Merivale, the pride of a 40-year career for its owners from Home Trends Builders.

WORDS Shelley Sweeney PHOTOGRAPHY Bevan Triebels

For the uninitiated, having a home built is a daunting process involving a long list of experts. For those in the trade, with knowledge and experience of their own, it’s an opportunity to innovate and have free reign over every element.

Experience is something that homeowners Elaine and Peter De Gouw have plenty of. Their business, Home Trends Builders, coupled with Peter’s experience building hundreds of homes throughout Canterbury, has served them well with this commanding central Christchurch build.

LUXURIOUS COMFORT The snug lounge has been fitted with a luxurious Bremworth Transpire 100% wool loop pile carpet from Floorpride who also provided the carpets in the upstairs and bedrooms of the home.

Peter says sustainability is at the heart of their work and Home Trends Builders is proud to be ahead of the current New Zealand standards for sustainability in building. “Sustainability is where the industry is going,” says Peter. While the current government is moving towards improving the sustainability standards in our homes in the next two years, Peter says, “Right now, New Zealand is miles behind the rest of the modern world with sustainability and energy efficiency.”

The couple built their previous family home in Marshlands, where they raised their five children. Elaine and Peter looked for a suitable city section, and when they found this picturesque 1500 square metre streamside site, they knew they were ready to sell their alpacas and move to the city.

BRONZE BEAUTY The feature copper mosaic tiles were meticulously placed by CV Tiling who carried out all of the tiling work in the home.

This build was a smaller but no less modest 657 square metres, with five bedrooms, four bathrooms, several living areas, including a home gym, swimming pool, cellar lounge bar and a lift to access all three levels.

“We complicated things by putting in a cellar underground, and we didn’t expect to find such a significant river flowing through the site. We dug a very small hole that became a big hole by the end of the day, thanks to all the water. We had to sheet pile it around the cellar area to hold back all the gravel and water filling in the hole and had to pump two million litres of water out every day. The water also had to be clarified, with the dirt filtered out before being pumped back into the river,” says Peter.

CUSTOM CUTOUTS The beautiful window louvres with a tree motif from Louvre Solutions are a stunning feature, providing shade and privacy for the upstairs bedrooms.

Many aspects of this project were ahead of the curve, with a fully insulated foundation system underneath the concrete and around the sides of the foundations. Peter says, “This technique will be common practice within ten years. We’re looking for innovation and technology in a lot of the things we’ve done.”

This eye for innovation and future industry standards saw Home Trends Builders win several accolades at the 2021 Registered Master Builders House of the Year Awards. This breathtaking home was the Canterbury Regional Category Winner for Builder’s Own Home, the highest-scoring Gold Award Winner, and a Regional Lifestyle Award Winner.

“It’s always about all of the builders and other trades working as a team towards the common end goal,” says Peter, who is glad that the sustainability has been recognised and worked hard to combine new energy efficient elements into the build; including the thermal break, argon gas, Low-E and reflective glass windows. The view out of the windows is clear, but from the outside, the tinted glass affords them privacy during the day. This exceptional glazing is highly energy efficient.

INDOOR OUTDOOR FLEXIBILITY The electric louvres from Louvre Solutions create a sheltered outdoor room that flows from the kitchen, creating an ideal space for entertaining.

When it came to the roofing and cladding of the home, Elaine and Peter wanted the look of copper without the environmental impact of the real thing. The aluminium standing seam colour-coated roofing complements the natural tones of plaster and cedar cladding of the home.

Peter also used Warm Roof technology, placing a polystyrene layer directly underneath the roofing membrane substrate to stop moisture, which occurs with many modern flat-roofed homes. The roof has been fitted with a 15 kW solar panel system and battery, making the large home nearly self-sufficient in terms of power.

All rooms have ducted heating air replacement systems and engineered heat-pumps that power the in-floor hydronic heating. “New homes don’t get enough air exchange, and the moisture accumulates in them, making them unhealthy,” says Peter. “This is a mechanical system that heats up the new air from outside, ventilating without having to open any windows.”

Despite the challenges in the early stages of the build, the couple is thrilled with their new home and its position on the Wairarapa stream. Elaine likes the cosy lounge and the beautiful master bedroom with its wall-sized leather and velvet upholstered bedhead and windows with views out to the stream.

The master ensuite and powder room feature exquisite copper tiles that shine like coins in the light. The powder room, with its luxurious velvet leopard print wallpaper, features an electric toilet and a tap that works on a sensor.

The lounge bar cellar is a favourite room of the couple, who have no regrets about the work that went into it. The cellar gets natural light from a glass floor panel in the entrance hall, and the walls of the stairwell are coated in Venetian plaster with a pearl-like finish.

The build took 16 months, and the couple faced many delivery delays due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. “The supply chain was a challenge with COVID. The granite countertop was delayed by eight months as it kept getting bumped from one ship to another. It eventually got here, but after we had moved in,” says Peter.

“We had to move in two months before the build was completed, as we’d just sold our house,” says Elaine, who loves their new home but admits it was a challenge living on a building site. “I’d come downstairs in the morning, and there’d be 20 subbies there,” she says.

When it came to the decorative details in the home, Elaine chose sprayed metal coating on the kitchen cupboards and the fireplace surround in the main living room. The engineered wooden flooring was imported from France, but the stunning result was well worth the wait.

AGED BRONZE A bespoke Aged Bronze metal coating has been applied to the fire surround by Remarkable Surfaces, who also used this increasingly popular liquid metal coating technique on the kitchen drawers.

Peter incorporated printed glass feature walls throughout the home. Even the outside wall behind the swimming pool shows a gently flowing waterfall surrounded by ferns.

The four upstairs bedrooms have feature louvres on the windows with a delicately cut tree motif for privacy and shade. The rooms are always ready for the frequent visits from Elaine and Peter’s grown-up children.

Reflecting on the challenges of this complex self-build experience, Peter says, “Compromise is key. Everyone has to be happy with what’s been chosen, and you have to think about the big picture.”

This is one big picture that looks stunning and has a wonderful surprise around every corner.

At the time of going to print on this issue of Abode, Elaine and Peter received the news that had also won a Registered Master Builders Top 100 Award, putting them in the running for the national House of the Year competition for this home and the house next door which they also built.