Behind me lies 4 million tons of New Zealand's architectural heritage. Hundreds of Christchurch's beautiful buildings were damaged by the earthquake and, heartbreakingly, many ended up here. But one couple couldn't stand by and watch the destruction, so they set out on an extraordinary rescue mission. ...proud sponsor of Three's Grand Designs New Zealand. Queenstown ` tourist mecca and adventure capital of New Zealand; surrounded by the vast landscapes, deep gorges and lakes of Central Otago. Builder Jamie McMurtrie moved here from the small town of Fairlie nearly 20 years ago to become a paragliding pilot. Jamie met Melissa when she was on a working holiday here from Australia and they married four years ago. They live on 3 acres amid the dramatic grandeur and vineyards of the Gibbston Valley where they plan to create their dream home. They're currently living on site in a tiny cabin with their first baby, 6-week-old Daisy. She's a little darling and, you know, we're really happy that we've got this rural property out here to raise a family and to have kids running around. You know, they can climb trees and build cubby houses and play in the mud. So this is going to be a fun little environment for her. Before buying this bare block, Melissa and Jamie used to live next door in one of the two villas which they relocated from the rubble of the Christchurch quakes ` a journey that began with a visit to Christchurch after the earthquakes first struck. We were driving around Christchurch and we, basically, pulled up, and we were watching a digger smash a beautiful old house into tiny little pieces And we just both kind of went, 'Oh, we should have one of those before they destroy them all.' And before you knew it, we had one. Yeah. Jamie and I have always really appreciated old homes and the quality of the homes and the history of the homes. Oh, I'd love to save them all. If I had the time and money, I'd get each one under my arm and bring them back down to Queenstown; find a home for them. The couple restored the villas to their original glory and decided to keep one for themselves. That was supposed to be our forever house but we have kind of blew the budget on that one. So after a few years of living there, Daisy came along and we just thought, 'Right. We need to not be paying a huge mortgage, sell it and start again.' After selling the villas, they bought a bare lot next door. But after two villa renovations, back to back, Melissa wasn't keen to repeat the experience so soon. I know what it's like to live in a home that you're renovating, and then to add a wee one in the mix and to be juggling everything, I knew was going to be a lot, a lot to take on. So we decided we'd build new. We're going to build a brand new house but we wanted to put some cool features in it, so we thought we'd get some old stained glass doors and we'll find a cool, old staircase, and that sort of thing. So I started looking on Trade Me for a staircase. Even five years after the initial earthquakes, there's no shortage of broken houses in Christchurch. Jamie's search for antique materials brought him here to a 130-year-old quake-damaged house in the central city, built in the late 1800s by one Henry Adams. Listed only as a 'gentleman', it was one of the first houses in the area built in the Queen Anne style making it significantly more ornate than most of the other houses at the time. It was modified mid-century before it was bought in the 1980s by current owners, the Brodys. It sheltered them and remained relatively intact during the Christchurch earthquakes but its foundations were shattered. We were going to build new. We'd scribbled a bit of a plan on a piece of paper. Decided that we needed a big old staircase to go in it, so I found one but it happened to be attached to an entire house... ...in which the current owners said, 'You can't just have the staircase. You have to have the whole house.' First impressions must have been, 'This isn't a house to go and buy.' I mean, it's been doctored. It's not exactly your most beautiful villa that you would imagine. When I turned up, I was still trying to convince them just to let me have the staircase and maybe a couple of the big doors. And it wasn't until we were having some discussions, and they brought out this picture of what the house looked like in 1888 when it was built. Wow. And that's when, in my brain, I started apologising to Melissa cos I knew we were going to buy ourselves a new house. (ALL LAUGH) How did you respond to that? I think I rolled my eyes and just shook my head. I said, 'No. No, we're not doing it. 'It's not in the plan.' And I guess it wasn't until I came to Christchurch and I saw the house and I saw the beautiful features in it, and just kind of looked at Jamie and went, 'Yeah, it's on. 'We're doing it.' So is the idea to restore it like this? Yeah. Absolutely. And restore it to what it once was. Before making its perilous road trip, the old mansion needs to shrink. The roof and the 1960s addition will be demolished, bay windows will be removed and the second storey walls ingeniously flat-packed. The compact bundle will be relocated to its new home where the second storey will be raised and bay windows re-attached. Jamie intends to restore the original steep Victorian roofline and recreate an ornate turret. Inside, a large living-dining area will sit beside an open-plan kitchen and butler's pantry. The entrance, with its original floor tiles, will lead to a library and guest bedroom. The restored staircase will lead upstairs to two bedrooms, a bathroom and a master suite. From here Jamie and Melissa will be able to access an adult's retreat in the turret. They plan to add a garage, over which will sit a private family theatre, the one modern addition to an authentic recreation of the grand old mansion in a grand new landscape. Big commitment in terms of time and resources to do justice to a huge villa like this. I'm confident with his ability. Very confident. And the funny thing is, Chris, that somehow we wing it. We just do. And there's never really a budget involved. No budget, no time plan. It just all works out. Everyone else on the planet has to work to a schedule and a budget, but it seems that doesn't work for you guys. Nah. Of course we have boundaries but if we're going to put too much of a cap on things, we could do the house a disservice. And it's not to say that things don't get tight, but we make it happen. Sometimes I don't know how it happens, but we'll be OK, won't we? I love that self-confidence. And, I suppose, also just the confidence that you know what you're doing. I don't know if I'd say that. I'm good at winging it. Jamie and Melissa paid just $16,000 for the house and have a deadline for removal. The Brodys plan to build a brand new home on the site and work starts here in three weeks. So it's all hands on deck to gut this historic house and prepare it for its massive journey ahead. One of the demo crew is the Brodys' son, Tom, a builder's apprentice. He's putting his skills to good use in familiar territory. Hi, Tom. Gidday. How ya doing? Did you grow up here? Yeah. Yep. I've been here since I was a wee thing, since I was 3 months old. Oh my goodness. So you've lived here pretty well all your life? Yes. Yes. How does it feel to actually be involved in pulling apart your old family home? It's tough. It's... I dunno. I guess it's like putting down a family pet in some respects. But to know that it's going to be reborn, I guess, it makes it worthwhile. And that's what makes it possible for me to be doing this. You know, like, if we were demolishing it, I wouldn't want to have anything to do with it. I'd be in another country cos I just couldn't see it. Jamie plans to salvage as many of the original features as possible. Through here, when we were taking the stairs apart, we found the mosaic floor which, if we can, we want to pull this up tile by tile and lay it back down. So that's a jigsaw puzzle for later on. And we thought we were getting a staircase with big, box posts but when I hooked into it, we found beautiful old turned woodwork hiding in among it. Oh, right. I love Jamie and Melissa's determination to save this house, but the journey ahead is fraught with risk. Jamie's idea of flat-packing the top storey sounds good in theory but nobody knows if it's ever been done before anywhere. And there's no guarantee it will work. Even if it does, moving a house of this size across rugged country and getting it to the new site unscathed is just the beginning. (DOG BARKS) With only three days until the house needs to be trucked off site, Jamie and his band of deconstructors are hard at work. Despite the time pressure, Jamie is determined to preserve with the painstaking task of saving the tiles. So if we can get all these up whole or close to it, then it's a bit of a bonus. We get to keep another 125-year-old original feature of the house. Then we just need to find a 125-year-old tiler to put them down again cos I don't think the guy I usually use is going to like me very much if I show him this. He claims he has a square metre rate that never changes, but I think it might change for this job. (LAUGHS) The roof and the 1960s top-storey addition have been demolished. Jamie's home-grown plan to flat-pack the second storey is about to be tested. It's an innovative and ingenious way of shrinking the house so it can be trucked 450km to Queenstown. See if you can roll it down a bit. Yeah. All right. Hold it. Let me out of there. Righto. It's all yours. For Jamie's plan to work, the antique rimu timbers must hold their shape with just a minimum of bracing. Shut up. You're making me nervous. Making me really nervous. Jamie's ad lib attitude seems to be working, but this house is starting to look like little more than a broken puzzle. Let's close the windows and go home. The task of moving the structure to Queenstown now falls to house removals specialist, Grant Willis. Gidday, Grant. Hey, Chris. Nice to see ya. Same. Grant, you've obviously got loads of experience because clearly there's quite an assortment of builds in your yard at the moment. Yes. This business has been in our family for over 50 years. Does this house present for you any specific challenges? Age and size. Yeah. There is a fair bit of work in it. There's 5.2m at the outside walls, so we've got quite a height out wide. So that makes it hard. Most houses, you're coming down to your eaves, which is only 4m, and you can duck under the limbs of the trees. Grant's father invented a specialised hydraulic lifting and steering trailer allowing houses to be raised and tilted from side to side to navigate obstacles while on the move. But the road to Gibbston will be particularly challenging. So this is a huge amount of forward planning. Yes. There's a lot involved. So it's not just putting it on the back of the truck and hitting the road. Just getting the thing out of the city, the traffic lights, bollards, overhanging lights and the distance, of course. It's 450-odd kilometres down there. And then there's the gorge as well. There's a gorge. Yeah. I heard maybe it's, I dunno, a metre` No. A lot less than a metre. A lot less?! Yep. We're going through with about 150 on each side. 150mm? Yep. Wow. That's cosy. Oh, it gets tight. With 24 hours to clear the old home off the site, Jamie is happy for Grant and his team to remove the last bay window. The amount of physical work that's gone into it in the last three weeks is just phenomenal. Not so much for myself cos I was just standing back pointing and yelling, but the labourers that we had and Tom, who grew up here, especially, just worked like absolute animals for three weeks. Oh well, it's off. If me and Tom had tried to do that it would have been upside down in the swimming pool. No. These guys are going to lift the house up to about 1.5m high and back a truck under it and get it all set to roll out. The side up a bit, Jonesy, is it? At 10 o'clock it's going to drive out of here and get out to King's Yard, just outside of Christchurch, where it can come down and sit in its new home. Pretty exciting to think that it will be on the road tomorrow night. By evening, the house is free of its shattered foundations and ready to roll. Previous owners, Tom's mum and dad, the Brodys, are delighted to see it leave the property on a truck instead of a demo skip. The outcome just couldn't be better. Rue and I kept pinching ourselves. Jamie and Melissa are just, obviously, so enthusiastic about the house, they'll just carry right on where we've left off and bring their family up in it and have as much fun as we've done. I'm really looking to watching that unfold, you know. It's just a great feeling, actually. That looks pretty random, doesn't it? I'd quite like to follow it but I've been drinking. (ALL LAUGH) I had a wee tear in my eyes seeing our new family home travel off its former site and down the road. It's really exciting. I mean, I keep saying how exciting it is, but it really is wonderful to have this gorgeous old beauty, you know, in our possession now and to restore it to its former glory. And we're very proud to be able to do this. If we have any more to drink, Melissa and I are going to have to sleep in the box bay window tonight. Beautiful night for it. The next place I expect to see this house is Gibbston Valley, but a few weeks later, I'm unexpectedly back in Christchurch. This time in an eerie parking lot of quake-damaged buildings. It feels kind of weird, doesn't it? It's almost like a bit of a graveyard where houses come to die. Oh, we've got our own village there, haven't we? Sure have. In a back corner sits a strangely familiar house. Gosh, I barely recognise this place. It's really something quite different now. Yeah, it's definitely different. Shortened by two-thirds with broken windows and flapping tarps, Jamie and Melissa's house is a broken shell of its former stately self. Grant, I thought the plan was off site and straight down the highway to Queenstown. Yeah. Originally, that's what the plan was. Yeah. But Jamie's having consent issues down there. Jamie's wanting to put it back to original with the turret and the high-pitched roof whereas the council are wanting him to put a lower pitched roof down there. We can't turn up with the house unless there is consent on the property or we have a letter from the council to say that the consent is coming through and it's safe to put it there. Hopefully, it's all done by the time winter comes along. We don't want to be doing the Lindis Pass in the winter with the ice and snow on the road. Oh boy, yeah, I bet you don't. The last thing we want and the last thing Jamie wants is matchwood. It's gotta be right. The Central Otago region has a unique architectural character and I commend Queenstown council for their commitment to preserve the quality and diversity of scenes like this. But allowing Jamie to bring the house in only if he agrees to compromise its original proportions doesn't make sense on any level. To figure out why Jamie and Melissa are having so much trouble getting consent, I'm meeting Quinn MacIntyre, a planner with the local council. So, Quinn, tell me a little bit about some of the challenges around the restrictions for this house being brought into the area. The house in question here is something different. We haven't seen it before in the Gibbston zone. I look at this environment around us and I see this amazing diversity here, and I kinda think, 'Why not out there too?' You know, in these built-up areas, we've got all sorts of styles. It's an urban area. That's what we expect. That Gibbston zone has got a special character, and that character is one of open, natural landscapes where, I guess, houses are more of a secondary to that landscape. I mean, it's a major, large scale, physically huge international landscape. It's absolutely enormous. What's an extra half a metre or metre in a landscape like that? You could think of those rural landscapes as a golden egg. People come from far and wide to see those landscapes as open, natural beauty areas. I think there's a really strong desire to keep those open, natural landscapes sacrosanct. It takes five months and compromises on both sides before negotiations with Queenstown council are resolved and the house can begin its 450km two-day trek across the country. But it's now, as feared, mid-winter. Last night wasn't so good, but tonight's pretty good. The only thing is we were watching the weather forecast and it's predicted 140 K winds. Oh, I'm feeling cold and tired and nervous. I don't really get nervous but we've waited five months to see this go down the road. So I guess there's a reasonable amount at stake at the moment. Oh well, here we go. We're doing this over two days. It's 400 and something Ks, and the roads are getting... or can get quite treacherous this time of the year, especially through the Lindis. As the behemoth load makes its way through the outskirts of Christchurch, pilot vehicles surround the truck calling distances and heights on all sides to help Warren navigate the house around and over the multiple hazards. Yeah. It keeps you focused, you know. You don't really get too tired being a rear pilot cos you're always doing something. Other pilot drivers race ahead to clear the way. It's a relentless task and the crew is like a well-oiled machine. How's that set of traffic lights, bud? You're all right. You'll get through it. You've got 100 there, mate. But less than an hour into the journey, as the house pulls on to a central island to let traffic pass,... Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Bit of suspension. It looks like the old back wheel, eh? I've just got out of the vehicle, mate. Got a flat tyre already. Yeah. The guy driving the truck must be a nervous wreck. It's quite a spectacle watching your house roll down the road through the middle of town. Poor Jamie. The shaky past of this house is starting to look like the calm before the storm. We're not going to get very far now. Get on to the right, mate. Five months after being lifted off its Christchurch site, Jamie and Melissa's house is making its way across the country to its new home. Don't get much tighter than that. Delays have meant the journey is being made in the middle of winter, something everyone wanted to avoid. Pretty wintry out there. The first few kilometres when we left Christchurch, was a bit nervous. But they seem like they've got everything under control. I've got a pretty small part of the house ` the bay window on the back. I feel like a bit of a spare wheel pulling this tiny little thing along when you look upfront and see a four-lane-wide house cruising along. The convoy must be off the road by 7am, but hold-ups getting out of Christchurch mean they aren't anywhere near their planned stopping point. Is there anywhere down there, you reckon, we can park in? As the sun comes up, forecast storms and high winds start to move in. This is still ferocious as down here. At the tiny town of Tekapo, Warren makes the decision to pull in under a windbreak and wait out the storm. (THUNDER RUMBLES) We tried to look for a better place up the road. It was just terrible. This is just gonna have to do for the night. Pain in the arse, eh? Jamie's run of bad luck doesn't seem to be improving. It looked like it was going to be the worst weather possible for this, and it is, so... Go and have a sleep now. Warren's decision to pull over early may well have saved Jamie and Melissa's house. High winds wreaked havoc across the region overnight, forcing the convoy to stay off the road for 24 hours. But by next morning, the storms have blown through and the crew is back on its way across the wintry Lindis Pass. Jamie, with windows in tow, has already made it back up to Queenstown. The anticipation of it arriving has been, you know, coming for so long now, and it's like one day after the next, after the next with delay, delay, delay. So we're just pleased that finally it's on the road and there's no turning back. Yeah. The last 25km of the trip are the most difficult as the house must pass through the rugged Kawarau Gorge with rocky slopes towering above and dropping away hundreds of metres to the river below. Like an auction running in his ear, the drivers of the pilot vehicles keep up a commentary to Warren of distances from cliffs and other hazards. MAN: 400. 350. 250. The skill required to drive and navigate this giant, lumbering load is incredible, but despite the weather and unexpected challenges, Warren and the team are finally just moments away from Melissa and Jamie's site. Just about to turn up around the bluff, hopefully. I'm a bit nervous, actually. There we go. There's our little house. Woo-hoo! (ALL CHEER) Yay. Look at that. Home sweet home. It's a bit dream-like, I think. You know, watch your house come down the road, literally. It's a combination of butterflies and, you know, elation, and just unbelievable that our family home's here where we're going to raise our kids. Yeah. It's amazing that it's happening. I'm just hoping like hell I've put the foundations in the right spot. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) Before they can get their teeth into the rebuild, there's another hold-up. Jamie and Melissa are heading to Australia tomorrow to visit family for a month. The holiday was booked months ago, and Jamie's intention was to have the house secure and watertight before they left. Thanks to five months of delays, they're now forced to leave it to the mercy of the fierce southern winter once again. (SLOW, DREAMY MUSIC) One month later and Jamie is back alone. Melissa and Daisy opted to stay in Australia for a few more weeks while Jamie launches himself into the rebuild and faces an abrupt reality check. If I look too closely, it's terrifying cos there is a lot of work to do. I showed my aunt and uncle in Australia a couple of photos of it, and his words were, 'What a piece of crap.' It looks pretty awful, really. Um, I'm just trying to figure out which bits of wall goes where and come up with a plan. I haven't really thought about it too much. Yeah. I guess we'll start somewhere and see what happens. It's five months since I last saw the house in a storage yard in Christchurch, and apart from the new backdrop, not much has changed. Gidday, Jamie. How ya going? Good, man. She's looking a bit rough. LAUGHS: Yeah. That's what everyone says at the moment. It looks like so much work. I mean, has there been any moment when you've just gone, 'Oh, this is crazy. What am I doing?' Oh, it pays not to think about it, really. I dunno. There's something about working on these old places that motivates me. I kinda feel like I'm getting away really lightly cos there's all this beautiful detail that was done by hand with no electricity 130 years ago, and I sort of get to put it back together and claim it as my own. I admire your raw ambition to restore these things. I could be out of my depth. Who knows? We'll find out. I guess we will. The house is still like a broken antique kit set. I'm hoping Jamie's got a vision for how this will all come together. Come in. Come in. This is the front door. Wow. Don't have a floor. (LAUGHS) So this is what we bought it for. Not exactly for this, but... Not much of a stair left, though. I dunno. I haven't figured out how I'm going to fix that yet. I'll probably take a few months to think about it. Well, I guess it's not the first thing on your mind at the moment. No. No. I still think it looks good even though it's a fraction draughty. After six months lying flat in the rain, there are no guarantees that the 130-year-old timbers will take kindly to being resurrected. Ooh, bit of a twist there. Got to say, the wall's looking very dodgy. It's extremely wet and quite rotten ` a lot of these studs. But Jamie's keen to re-use it, so let's see what we can do. Yeah. It's not my favourite wall in the house, this one. I'll probably modify it a little bit. We'll just get that corner in first and then pack it Oh, look at that. It's perfect. Look at that. Pretty well dead straight. Oh, that's pretty much it. Bang on! Not bad for a rough old wall. Not bad for a rough old building. Towards you. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Almost... Yeah, pretty well bang on there. Happy? Yep. Done. Now we get to do a big one. For a man without a plan, Jamie's drive and determination is impressive. In just one day, most of the top three walls are up and it seems that Jamie's audacious flat-pack design has worked perfectly. Two weeks later, and Jamie has made unbelievable progress. He's reassembled and mostly reroofed the house, and much of the internal framing is complete. With Melissa and Daisy away for one more week, he's a man on a mission. So we've just got this window which has to come out. When we do the extension, the roofline comes up here somewhere, and conveniently, we need a window in that hole over there. So we've got a dodgy rope tied to the top of it, tied back to a bit of framing, and, um, we're trying to... push it out, turn it around and bring it back in. So... Hopefully we don't drop it. So far, putting it back together has gone pretty much to plan, as much as you can plan it. A wee bit more. Bit more. Cos you never know what you're going to find. Some walls have been perfect. They've gone back up. Others, we've had to replace most of the framing, so there's no point planning too much. We just make it up as we go. Beautiful! A few ropes and muscle power. It's easy. The biggest challenge I've got now is... sticking to the budget, and I know when we started this, we actually said there is no budget cos,... um, well, I couldn't be bothered coming up with a number. We sort of got to a point with the bank where they wanted to know how much more money we needed, so we've come up with an end budget. So hopefully I can stick to that. Although the house cost a mere $16,000, getting it to Gibbston has already added another $100,000. As well as building the house, Jamie is still working as a paragliding pilot to help keep the mortgage down. It's an exhausting workload. He's also begun work on the turret. With only an old photo of the original house as a guide, this was never going to be easy, but it's been further complicated by the council's ruling that the roof and turret must be lower than the original height. That's probably been the biggest challenge so far ` trying to scale everything down a little bit I'm worried that Jamie's noble intentions to restore the house to its original glory have been stymied. The council may have concerns that the house is going to look out of place in this environment, but I'm more worried that the squat turret and flattened roofline that they've insisted on will ruin what was once and could have been again, a beautifully proportioned house. Nine months since the project began, spring has come to Gibbston Valley. Jamie has worked day and night since he returned from Australia five weeks ago trying to finish as much as possible before today. (GASPS) Wow. It's gorgeous. (LAUGHS) Welcome to our humble abode. Wow. Jamie set his sights on getting the house watertight before Melissa's return and he's far exceeded his goal. Only two months after the house landed on site, decking and a veranda roof are already in place, and framing is complete upstairs. Oh no, it's wonderful. The bright and tidy work site bears little testament to Jamie's graft and perseverance over the last few weeks. And I'm not sure Melissa fully grasps just how much he's achieved. I think he's done what I expected he would do and that is put the walls up and the roof on. Yeah. (LAUGHS) Easy as that. And I'm sure you've done so much more than I can see. Sitting around, really. (BABY CRIES) The house originally bore all the typical hallmarks of the Queen Anne style of architecture with its decorative posts, round turret and steep roof pitch. But I think the council's height restrictions have cast it into an architectural no man's land. Luckily, this hasn't dampened its charm from the inside. Oh, it's amazing. I love it. It's the coolest room in the house. Well, the nice thing about it is there's these little pockets of different vistas, so I like it. You can survey our empire and look up to Coronet Peak. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Such a cool wee space. While Melissa might be a turret convert, it's another six weeks before I can take a look for myself. Jamie and Melissa are still living in their studio where today little Daisy is recovering from her first birthday party. Outside, Jamie's dad is hard at work fencing the property in anticipation of his granddaughter's first steps. The house is finally starting to look more renovation than rescue. I'm keen to see how Jamie has managed to alter the proportions of the turret. Building an octagonal roof around windows is no easy task. Oh, this is a pretty cool space. Yeah. It's the favourite room in the house, I think, so far. So, how did you come up with this? Did you get somebody to set it up from the photographs or did you draw it up yourself? No. Just looked at the photo and I drew it out on the floor downstairs and then just started playing with things. We made this wee octagonal block, stuck a couple of rafters together and stood them up, and it just sort of evolved from there. So it's totally improvised? Yeah. I couldn't have worked it out if I tried to plan it cos all the angles were different everywhere. It was a complete brain bender. From the original photo, I remember a completely different scale for the turret. It's already the tallest building that's ever been approved in rural Wakatipu. So we're doing quite well there. Architecture is also about good proportions. Yeah. And I feel really bad about changing the roof pitch, but, um... Yeah. We just couldn't keep on arguing about it. Just had to get on with it. Who is going to be affected out here? Oh, passers-by on the road might be offended by our house, I suppose (!) I would have thought it would be the reverse. You know, they'd be offended by bad proportions. Yeah, but, um, I think it still looks good. Jamie's parents drove 200km from Fairlie to celebrate Daisy's birthday but quickly found themselves with a job to do ` painting 80 wooden roof brackets or corbels, handmade by a craftsman on the West Coast. Aha! So they've even got you guys rolling your sleeves up. Yeah. I got them undercoated yesterday. Apparently I'm painting them today. This is the first time I've actually done this. I'll be able to look at them and say, 'Oh, I painted those.' So, tell me a little bit about Jamie. I mean, has he always been so relaxed, you know, not worried about timeframes or budgets? As a child, I don't think he was particularly calm. He was stubborn. Stubborn? Very, very stubborn. Well, it certainly helps doing stuff like this. Yeah. Yeah. Once he starts, he'll get it finished no matter what, so... I can certainly feel that. Him and Melissa have got this fantastic dream and it's becoming a reality. It's amazing. It's gonna be great to come back in a few months and see how much further ahead they've got. Cos, certainly, nothing stands still here. In another room, boxes of carefully preserved tiles lie in wait for Melissa. What do you think about this one? Oh, just another piece of the puzzle, really. Yeah? Yeah. So have you got a pretty good idea about how the jigsaw all goes together? Um, only by the picture, Chris. (BOTH LAUGH) But when it was in Christchurch, straightaway I loved it, and both Jamie and I thought that we had to keep this, and now it's here. You know, it's got to go back down and it's a different story. Some people would say, you know, 'You're crazy. Why don't you go and get a bunch of new ones?' Many people have said, 'You know, they do replicas of these tiles.' Um, but for us it's about preserving the history of the place, and we just treasure every original piece we can. So to be able to pull the tiles up` They're not going to be perfect but they're going to be original. And, you know, they're over 100 years old and beautifully crafted and so on. It's part of the house. It has to come. It's upcycling too, you know. When Jamie and I came into Christchurch and we saw diggers literally ploughing through the roofs of these gorgeous old villas, we couldn't believe our eyes. Our hearts sank. And we felt gutted that this is happening, and that's what started this journey for us. So lovely to see what Jamie and Melissa have done to bring this grand old lady all the way from Christchurch with so much care and love, and to give it a new life. But what I'm worried about is how it's going to work in its new environment. And it feels already that it's struggling to fit in. They've had to deal with a completely different environment but also different planning rules and regulations. I'm worried that it might never look like it really belongs. he'd never find a big hairy surprise in his letter box again. You're watching the instant Steve conceived that with a wholesale power price, no dodgy estimates and an easy weekly bill, he'd never find a big hairy surprise in his letter box again. That's enough, Steve. It's early spring in the Gibbston Valley, almost a year since I last visited Jamie and Melissa. I'm really looking forward to seeing if they've finished transforming their moving mansion and how it fits now into this epic landscape. Architecture is all about good proportions, and the last time I met with Jamie, I was a little bit concerned about the roof and the turret, so I really hope he's managed to do something special with them. On approach, the house is breathtaking. The roofline still frustrates me but the house sits well in its surroundings, rising magnificently before the majestic Nevis Bluff. Boy, it's come up well. Hello. Hi. Nice to see you. Gidday, Chris. How are ya? Lovely to see you. Wow. And a new baby as well! Number two. Yes. This is wee Matilda. Wow. Wow! Yeah, it's come a long way since you were last here. What a transformation. It's had a wee freshen-up. I think that's fair to say. Lick of paint here and there. I think it's had a bit more than that. I can't wait to get inside and have a look. Come on, then. Look at this. The stairs have come up so well. Yeah. Pretty good. That was the reason for this house, wasn't it? It was. And it was actually the last thing that I finished. And these tiles on the floor look fabulous. Yeah. It was worth taking them up, every tiny little tile. All the broken pieces. They all went back down. What a puzzle to try and recreate. Similar to what it was, anyway. Jamie and Melissa have worked hard to preserve the original feel of the house. Downstairs, the once dismantled rooms have been transformed into stylish and functional spaces. Gosh. What a lovely ambient room. It's amazing. I'm just looking at the recycled bricks. And what have you got there? An old coal range? Yeah, the Rayburn. So the bricks we pulled out of the chimneys of the original house. Wow. You've reused so many things. Reused everything. The large dining table was built by Jamie using offcuts. Even the vents from the original house have found new purpose under Melissa's keen eye. Tributes to the house's origins continue throughout the butler's pantry and the rest of the downstairs rooms. In the laundry, tiles painstakingly rescued from the house's original exterior veranda have found a new more sheltered home. Upstairs, a new family theatre sits above the garage with seats rescued from a demolished Christchurch theatre. Melissa's design flair is evident in the magical, dreamlike spaces that she's created for Daisy and baby Matilda. The main bedroom en suite is a restful area retreat with a knockout view from the Crawford bath. Oh my goodness. Accessible from their bedroom is Melissa and Jamie's own retreat, the recreated turret. Very nice. This space caused Jamie some headaches, but I reckon it was worth it. What a great spot! It is. It really does have a kind of ethereal, almost spiritual quality to it. It's quite a strange, little room. It's very, very peaceful. So this will be your thinking space. Get a nice book. It's dodgy when I start thinking. I come up with crazy ideas. (LAUGHS) I love the simple, white finish everywhere so the light just bounces around. Nice touch! Thanks. (GLASSES CLINK) Jamie and Melissa's attention to detail inside and out have returned the house to its original Victorian aesthetic. It looks gracious, beautiful and stately. Congratulations, guys. It's an amazing achievement. Do you regret the decision to buy a house instead of a stair? (LAUGHS) Even with the effort that it's required, the time, the energy, you know, the time away from our newborn baby, I think the word 'regret' doesn't come into play at all. It's been challenging at times but we would never regret` Yeah. You couldn't regret saving a piece of history, could ya? No. No. I'm certainly looking forward to catching our breath and having that family time together. A bit of relaxing is definitely on the cards. Yeah. So, how did you do in terms of cost? We definitely spent more than we thought we would. We probably doubled the amount of what we thought we'd spend on it. And we always said from the start, 'We're just going to spend what we need to to make it exactly right.' What was some of the challenges that you had along the way that you kinda think, 'Wow. Not sure if I'd do that again'? I don't know that we think like that. I don't know that we would think, 'Oh, we wouldn't do this again.' We would do it again. Does that mean there's another one coming? Oh, not yet. Not yet? I think we need to catch our breath for the immediate future. You never know what's around the corner, but we haven't got anything in the pipeline at the moment. But you know what, Chris? I say 'stay tuned' cos I'm feeling it. (ALL LAUGH) The previous owners, Jeff and Rue Brody, have come down from Christchurch to see their old home in its new location. Gidday. How are ya? (LAUGHS) Wow. Doesn't this look so good. It looks just like home? It does. Seeing new life in their old house is everything Jeff and Rue had hoped for. We lived in it for 40 years so you're slightly attached to it, slightly familiar with it. To suddenly see it again transplanted. Well, we hope you feel like we've done it justice. BOTH: You have! We've had you in our thoughts the whole time. We really have. I think what you've done with this is just outstanding. I'm just thinking of this classic number that you two pulled on him, which is he didn't come for the house, he came for the stairs. (ALL LAUGH) And then what do you do when he says... looks at the house and goes, 'No, no. I'm just after the stairs.' And so you pull out that picture, and I'm thinking, 'You cunning devils.' (ALL LAUGH) Well, here's to the crazy stairs. For Jamie and Melissa, this process has been an exercise in commitment and passion. And it all came down to this photograph. If Jamie hadn't seen it, then their grand and beautiful home would now just be amongst the pile of rubble in Christchurch. They not only saved it from demolition but brought it back to life and added new dimensions. It's clearly been treated with reverence, respect and artistic flair because in this house you really can feel the love. Captions by Anne Langford. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017