Many of us dream of retiring somewhere beautiful, peaceful and sunny, so why on earth would you build right next to a busy main road on a tidal estuary with a risk of rising sea levels, and then paint the whole thing black? www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017 Triathlon's been my sport now for 35 years. I stopped about five years ago competitively, but I now sort of focus on coaching and basically keeping fit. For 68-year-old George Hilgeholt, a retired architect and triathlete, retirement isn't about slowing down; it's a chance to fulfil his architectural dreams. He's designed a lot of houses, but this will be the first time he's built one. For me, it's all about positive energy. I quite enjoy anything physical, and it'll be different on the site, but I'm looking forward to it. George and his wife, Yvonne, married 17 years ago, and between them, they have three children and three grandchildren. Yvonne was a nurse with Sports Medicine in Christchurch. Yeah, I started with an injury... Our eyes met over a... I think it was my butt, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something like that. (LAUGHS) Yvonne's always easy-going, loving, sharing person, and that's why I married her. You know, she's got the best qualities that anyone could wish. Oh! Three years ago, the couple decided to retire from big-city Auckland to laid-back Nelson, where they are currently renting. But George has a plan to build a retirement dream home that doesn't cost the earth. I get that it's most architects' dream to build a house, and who's going to complain about living in a brand-new house that's been architecturally designed? I'm certainly not. You don't build into retirements, you just live the life you want, and retirement will show up one day ` you deal with it. Normally, a dream house would come with a dream location, but they've chosen a flood-prone site in an estuary between Nelson and Motueka, right next to a busy main road. It's extraordinary. It's beautiful, yet it has all these challenges. How did you come across it? We drove by one day. No, we drove to Mot` Motueka. No, we` we` we use the 'we'. I didn't see it. 'We' were looking. Oh, right. We drove to Motueka, and on the way there, of course, we saw this site. There were a number of issues that made it really challenging to say, 'Well, could you actually build a decent house here?' So I saw that probably as a challenge, and, yeah. So, what have you got planned? I think one of the things that we had to think about, cos the road's quite close, was mitigating that noise, so I talked to my designer,... (CHUCKLES) and he's designed a pavilion so that we've got a big chunk of outdoor living where we won't have the road noise, because the building will mitigate that. The building challenge here, I think, was dictated by the council in saying that we had to take into account the inundating sea levels. One of the things I thought of is if you build them to a format, that they can be relocatable on the back of a truck, and that's the way it's been designed. The connections between the pavilions are basically just entrances that can be, with a chainsaw, just chopped in half, and you can just truck your pavilions away. George and Yvonne's house may one day have its feet in the water, so 90 wooden piles will be driven into the ground to sit the floors well above the rising seas. Specially made noise-reducing and heat-retaining panels will form the walls of two transportable pavilions. One is a bedroom wing, the other houses an open-plan kitchen and living space. A third garage pavilion will be built conventionally from scratch. This will also house an office for George's retirement projects. Inside, George wants a minimal black space opening on to a deck that's enclosed on three sides, giving shelter from the wind and constant traffic noise, facing away from the motorway, towards the Western Hills. A cladding and roof of corrugated steel will reflect the iconic apple packing sheds that pepper the coast. The outside too will be all black. It's all starting to sound a little dark. Black. Black. Why black? My designer... (LAUGHS) ...recommended it. (LAUGHS) How much black are we talking? Is it the whole thing? There's a significant amount of black, externally and internally. Internally as well? Mm. All the external walls inside and the ceilings are all dark. When you say 'dark', are they black? Nocturnal's the colour. (CHUCKLES) What kind of black is this? A night-time black. Very dark. It's kind of experimental. You know, I haven't lived in those colours before, but because of the volume of spaces, I can see these working quite nicely. We also think that` We love art, and art presents itself very nicely against the black backdrop. I suppose I was the driver of it. I think Yvonne is on board with it all. (LAUGHS) And, yeah, you know, the project will show us, in the end. I love this area. I love the estuary. Like, right now, that you can actually hear, and that's the thing that I suppose is quite confronting with this road. Clearly, you guys are getting more and more deaf, so it's not a big deal (!) But it would be for me. But I think it's awesome that you're bringing design to address those issues, because you can always think around those kinds of challenges, so I'm looking forward to seeing it. Good. Well, we hope to see you again, then. (ALL CHUCKLE) George is determined to finish the build in six months and keep the budget under $500,000 to prove that it's possible to build affordable, energy-efficient housing. I get the sense this is as much about leaving an architectural legacy as it is building his dream home. With George planning to spend every waking hour on site, Yvonne will keep working as a health and safety officer in a small Nelson hospital. He's got an enormous amount of energy, and... it never stops, really. If he's not working, he's not happy. His downtime is when he's sporting. So, yeah, that's just who he is. Tiring at times, but... (CHUCKLES) ...it's all good. The back of the garage is this building here, so from the deck, we've got one left here, one there, one there. It's a big day for George ` the build is under way. The house needs to be built at least 2m above the high-tide mark, which means putting the pavilions on poles ` 90 of them. The design is based on three pavilions around a courtyard that's also raised, so everything that we're building has to be on piles and off the ground to combat the inundating sea levels that they're predicting for the next 100 years. As well as keeping the house above rising sea levels, these timber poles are fast to put in and cost-effective for deep foundations. Not removing any earth is good for the environment and the bank account. That one's moved about that much at the bottom. Ramming them into soft or wet ground adds to their strength and stiffness because it compacts the soil around them. Unless, of course, they hit rock beneath the surface. (CRACK!) Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! I think I heard it crack. Perfect marks on the ground, of course. You try to get the piles in exactly on the spot, but it seems there's some big rocks underneath this base, and as soon as you hit one of those, it actually rolls a bit to the side, and then you've got to basically counteract that. Got 400 left. Yeah, just have a check, boys. You've cracked one pile. That's gotta come out, and that's the first one out of now nearly 30. So, hopefully we don't have too many of those happening. George's team includes local builder Darryl, who, as a licensed builder, should be in charge. But I suspect George, as architect, project manager and client, might give him a run for his money. Those ones are pretty much perfect, anyway. Are they? I like the word 'perfect'. You'll hear that a lot on this job, George. (CHUCKLES) The programme that I've pretty much got planned is a fast-track project that actually needs to be run on time, A) for cost reasons, but also, you know, I wanna be living in this house before it's winter 2017. It may look like it's all go, but George is taking a gamble starting as Tasman Council hasn't yet signed off the build. With his legacy hinging on a fast, efficient build, and with a site that will bog up in winter, he doesn't want to spend the summer negotiating with planners. We've got approval to do the piling without the consent, but the next stage, when we do the bearers and the joists, we'll have to have a building consent proper, so we've gotta wait till we've got that, and that's hopefully gonna be signed off before Christmas. Thank you. It's all about timing and staying on track. They're a little bit mad, I guess. Quite a few people looked at the section before them, and no one really considered doing anything here. I think a lot of people thought that they couldn't, but, yeah, George just had a look and loved it instantly and ran with it. The whole town's actually talking about it at the moment. It's a big of a contentious project locally, but doesn't bother me in the least. A contentious project, starting without building consent ` George's optimism has put him in a place I wouldn't want to be. To get the house closed in by winter, he's going to need the Tasman Council to cooperate. (BLOWS) Kia ora. (SIGMA'S 'CHANGING' FEATURING PALOMA FAITH) # Hell down, heaven now, livin' in the same town, trying to find somethin' new. Hello. (HORN TOOTS) (BUTTONS BEEP) Hey! # Everythin' is changin'. No, it's a wee one. (OINKS) (INDISTINCT CONVERSATION) Jambo. Salaam alaikum. (DRONE WHIRRS) Hello. I'm home. (BEEP!) (BEEPING) ALL: Hey! (ELECTRONIC WHIRRING) Hello. (BUZZING, CHILDREN CHUCKLE) Hello from the children of Planet Earth. on a tidal estuary with a risk of rising sea levels, and then paint the whole thing black? By January, building consent has come through here in Tasman Bay, and I'm curious to know how George and Yvonne's plans were approved for a site so vulnerable to flooding. Sharon, it's amazing to really enjoy and witness this. How on Earth did George and Yvonne manage to get to build on a site like this? I know. It's just incredible, right? So, the particular piece of land they've selected is a legacy title, so it's been titled way back in the late 1960s, and so it was always able to be built on, it was just about identifying someone with the right dream to be able to make that happen. George has been very focused on the need to engage really early with Tasman District Council and had a really good think about how he can create a fabulous design, make it work for himself, make it work for the neighbours, and, of course, all of those physical environmental elements that we see. So, what exactly did George have to change? Some of the elements that needed to be considered are around the fact that the property is only 2m above mean sea level, for example, before you get started, you know, so it's not a lot to work with there. George and Yvonne have elected to raise the dwelling itself, and to be able to relocate that property in the future should environmental change drive a need to do that. That's innovative stuff. George is driving construction as hard as he drives himself, and the build is well and truly under way. The first three weeks, after a nine-hour day and then half-hour travel to and from work, you know, they're pretty long days, I'd get home, sit in a chair, and I'd fall asleep, you know? Even though I'm a quite` by standards of fitness, I'd be called quite fit, but this kind of work's another level. But I must say now, you know, I feel adequately competent to participate on site all day and come home and have a beer. (LAUGHS) There are two separate builds going on today. George has brought in a team to knock off the traditionally constructed garage, which will then provide storage and shelter on site, while he and Darryl race to get the two main pavilions ready for the arrival of the noise-reducing, heat-retaining SIP Panels. And the length is right ` 1080. The polystyrene is` again, this is a high energy-efficient house, so we are doubling up on the code for the floor insulation, so we've got this thick insulation happening, which also stiffens the floor up. All good? Yep. Perfect. While George readies the house for cold, South Island winters, keen gardener Yvonne is making the most of the summer sun. Oh, I just like being out here. It's such a` I mean, you don't even notice the road noise. It's just quite a peaceful spot, and I can` George works, I potter, evidently. And he sometimes doesn't get that not everybody's like him. He finds that quite frustrating, so I have to try and temper that in tolerance a little bit. You know, 'Why aren't people at work at 7 o'clock every morning?' and not everybody functions quite the same way. Yeah, it's... George. As it turns out, this isn't the first house in Nelson George has designed. Well, this is something a little bit different, George. Yes. My goodness. Bit more majestical. It's abstract, and it's elegant. It's refined. It's... very super modern. So, this was your first build in Nelson. It was. Yep. It was intended to be our retirement home. No way. Yes. I'm kind of shocked. I thought George was building his retirement dream home, but he's done that already. Wow. What a view. My goodness. And you left this. I did. Oh, that's magnificent. You know, a good martini or a glass of wine, I'd be quite happy sitting right here. What were you thinking? (LAUGHS) This was to be our dream retirement home. And that all went very well until it was finished, and I'd had my chores list from Yvonne, went through that and thought, 'Well, what's next?' Is it less about literally the object that you're creating and more about the process? You know, it's not about` necessarily about the building, it's about how you feel you want to live and express yourself. Where there any ideas that you explored here that you've extended or tried in a slightly different way? This house is a high-tech, energy-efficient house. The one we're doing over there, we're gonna go for better insulation, better glazing, better mechanical ventilation, heat-recovery system, so that level is gonna be upped. What can I say? You know, both houses are lovely houses, and we would have been happy to live in either, but we've just made the choice that... But you just got itchy fingers. (LAUGHS) And the process is clearly a deep passion for you. (CHUCKLES) Yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I love what I do, and as I say, you know, we don't know how long we're gonna be in the next house for. If health takes us to a ripe old age, we might stay there for a long time, but you never know what's around the corner. Since selling the first house, George and Yvonne have been renting close to Yvonne's work, but George reckons he loses too much time commuting to the new building site. So, they're moving in. This is it. End of the project. (CHUCKLES) So, this is gonna be it for the next two months. Why pay big rent in town? Security for the site. I like being on site anyway, so I might as well sleep here. And I don't have to travel and hour and a half a day. So it all makes sense to me to come out here. It's all we need. Toilet, shower and a bed. I wonder whether Yvonne is going to be as enthusiastic about their new accommodation. The garage is now complete, and the team is ready to start hoisting the steel frames on to the removable pavilions. From here on, there's no room for error. Everything has to be precise or George's prefabricated panels won't fit. We're trying to coordinate as much as we can because we've got a HIAB coming. So anything that we can` or we don't have to lift physically, we use the HIAB for, I think is a bonus, but it does put a bit of pressure on people to have that work ready. I think most people have struggled with keeping up. (CHUCKLES) (DRILL WHIRRS) But then, why should you tell a nearly 70-year-old to slow down? It makes no sense, does it? We're trying to get three-quarter frames up, and they're the basic structure that's gonna support structurally. Insulated panels ` we wanted to have them on the inside of the house, not in the walls, because the walls are all insulated and steel's a conductor. You don't want that in contact with outside air, so they're gonna be visible. And we're gonna keep them in black steel. We're not gonna paint them. So, again, a bit of a feature. It's gotta go my way, eh? Timber's forgiving. You can put a planner on it, and, you know, but steel, you've got 1.5mm on each side of the SIP panels, so everything has to just fit perfectly. Perfect. That's what we wanna hear. We good? Yeah, I think today's aim has been achieved, and it went pretty well. I'm happy that all the preparation work we put into it was worthwhile. The next stage of the build is going to be critical. George has meticulously designed 120 insulated panels that must all interlock perfectly to form the structure of his house, and they're all pre-cut, so any mistakes will be a big problem. It's the day of reckoning for George. His structurally insulated panels have arrived on site. His design depends on these panels for sound and heat insulation, and his budget depends on how quickly he and builder Darryl can put them together. Really incredible seeing all of this. Basically, the walls, the roofs, everything ` the whole building is already here. It's just waiting to be assembled. Hello. Good to see you again. Nice to see you, George. It is. So, am I guessing right that you're the only one that's camping out here? You've left your wife presumably in a sensible place. Look, there's a plant here. Oh, she's here. There's a plant by the front door. Oh, that's not you? (BOTH LAUGH) That's a feminine touch. Mind your stomach. Yeah. Boy, this` Pull your belly button in. (CHUCKLES) So, where have these come from? Going backwards, Nelson port, China and the States. No way. Yeah, and it's kind of crazy, isn't it, that that is necessary to get this kind of product in New Zealand. Are they expensive? My sums say that on average for the roof and the wall, we're paying $200 a square metre. But we're getting a better construction ` I believe ` and a better insulated house than traditional, so the saving is in the labour, and that's probably up to 25% to 30% less. So, a benefit in terms of savings, but particularly, the amount of labour and the equipment. That's right, yeah. It's, I think, something that... needs to be demonstrated a bit more in New Zealand, that people can see the alternatives to just timber-framed houses. I agree with George. I'd love to see more prefabricated systems like this, not only used in New Zealand, but made here as well. Just like a bought one. This has been sitting around as a way of making buildings for actually, quite a long time. We just needed somebody like George to kick it off here. The panels fit together perfectly, which is a testament to George's planning and design. Made out of two layers of strandboard with thick polystyrene sandwiched between them, their ability to interlock means you can build about 30% faster. The real test will be whether they're enough to keep out the road noise and the South Island cold. Darryl, you've done a lot of traditional construction. How do you find it in terms of speed? Well, it's pretty much a finished product on the inside, so there's no Gib. Everything's straight. Not having to plane your frames down or insulate it. Huge savings. And this was put up in minutes. Yeah. Yeah, it's looking pretty good so far. While the panels may be contemporary technology, George has future-proofed the pavilions with an idea as bold as it is simple. You did design this in the first place to be able to cast off, didn't you? I mean, the idea of a relocatable. Well, you know, we don't know what the future's going to bring, whether we ever get this metre rise in sea level or not. But I thought, well, if you're going down the track that far, you might as well make it a house that actually could be... not floated off, but trucked off-site. So, yeah, the whole thing is three pavilions connected with two bits of corridor and a flat roof that you can put your chainsaw through, as it were, and drive the truck underneath the house and away you go. I just suddenly realised it's a raft that you're building. You're building the Ark for the 22nd century. Yeah, it's an airtight house. (BOTH LAUGH) I'm actually really enjoying this. The sense of what this landscape brings to your house and what you're doing with it, and it just makes so much sense to me. And one of the reasons it does make sense is it draws so heavily on local architecture. This entire coastline is full of buildings like this ` old agricultural packing sheds that sit with their toes in the water. And it's clearly a big inspiration for George and Yvonne's build, which is only just around the corner. And, of course, this area isn't just about the buildings, it's about the environment. And Yvonne is keen to plant their section sympathetically. I'm really looking more for both productive and native. Probably use fruit trees as screening round the water tanks and just as fillers, and, um, yeah. That's probably it. I don't want to be a slave to the garden, so I'm gonna have to be quite selective about what I do. I'm not sure how much a few trees will soften the black house, but while the black house is George's decision, Yvonne's planting decisions are going to be vital for how their home is seen from the road. Definitely a joint project. And he talks to me all the way through. And it's gotta be a space that works for both of us. But the design and build is definitely his project. (PEACEFUL MUSIC) I've done my fair share of living in tents. But life in a caravan in the middle of a building site is hardly the dream home George promised Yvonne. ALL: Cheers. Cheers. Well, exciting day. Yeah. Getting those first panels up. It's funny, isn't it? It goes from almost two-dimensional, even with the framing there, to suddenly have those panels and to immediately see where the windows are. Yeah, because basically you're building a solid wall, and that's the thing ` it's no longer transparent. This must be a special moment, because the preparation that's gone into this is huge. Almost as special as when he married me ` almost. (LAUGHTER) No, it was a good day. I'm always intrigued by people who do something really extraordinary, create a beautiful house, as you two have done, and then think, 'Oh, that was too easy. - 'Let's go on to the next adventure.' And here you are,... - (LAUGHTER) ...and this is the next adventure. How on earth does it feel to be living in this? It wouldn't have bothered me if it was a tent, as long as it was waterproof. But once you get to that point of completion and code compliance, you can look back and think, you know, 'It's been all worth it.' But you say completion, George, and I'm really wondering is that the goal, or is it the journey that you love? I think you're right. By the time we get settled here... What does that mean? (LAUGHS) The next journey? ...I'll be scratching my head and thinking, 'Well, what's next?' But, you know, we do wanna stay here for a significant period of time, I think, and enjoy the area, in particular. Mm. Quite an adjustment, actually. The fantails following you around the section and flying into the garage when you're in there and out again. And mice following you around. (LAUGHS) You've got a whole lot of new friends. Yeah, yeah. I had to share my Easter egg with the mice. Oh, really? Yes. It's the time of the year that those little creatures find warmth and comfort, you know. - And clearly they worked out who is Mr Insulation. - (LAUGHTER) Sharing a tiny caravan with visiting rodents may feel novel now. But with the cold weather on the way, I'm wondering how long their optimism will last. It's the start of winter, a time when George had hoped to have the build already closed in. Today they're finally lifting on the ceiling, which has taken a lot of preparation. Hey, we need to mark those chains, at some point, for the right height. The team has assembled 24 small roof panels into six large panels. The theory is the six panels will go together more quickly, saving both time and money. The prefab should really prove itself to be a bonus doing it this way. Rather than lifting 24 panels up to make up a roof, we're now lifting six up. So hopefully it'll save us a lot of time. Start pulling your way, pulling your way. We've done all the prep work to make sure it can go as smoothly as possible. So we know pretty much where the panels have to land on the edges. It's gotta come about... 5ml. Extremely precise cuts means a tight fit, and George and Darryl persuade the panels into position. One more. So that was the first panel of six. The next one will be the same size on the other side of the roof, and then we've got four large panels which are about twice the size of what we just did to finish off this building. So if we can get them on as we got the first one on, we should be all right. Yeah, keep coming. These larger ceiling panels are 22m2 in size and weight about three-quarters of a ton. The idea of lifting a roof on in such big pieces is exciting. But George and Darryl will have to get it exactly right. If they don't, they'll find the last panel doesn't fit. So if you push your end a bit further, Darryl. The top's about 7; the bottom here is 10. These are seriously big pieces of roof they're levering precisely into place. Keep going. It's coming. (MALLET BANGS) Yep. That us? That's us. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yep, OK. Darryl is keeping continuous communications with the crane operator to help guide the huge panels into place. We're gonna bring her down there. No, we're not. You'll end up in that wall. With both builder and owner feeling the pressure, tensions are running high. GEORGE: Stop. Stop! Keep going. No, stop! Yeah, OK. - (THUD!) - (BLEEP) George, you need to be quiet, please. No, you need to give the proper instructions, Darryl. I am. No, you're not. To add to the stress, there's another problem. The connecting timber is glued into the wrong end of the panel. So that needs to be rectified in the rest of the afternoon, and then we'll come back tomorrow and do the other two remaining panels of this roof. So a bit of a disappointment. Even with the best laid plans, things can go wrong. A disappointment for George, who has to keep the crane for another day, adding both time and cost. (LYRICAL PIANO MUSIC) A trip to Christchurch to see daughter Sam and visit Yvonne's brother, David, lets George escape the pressures of the build and gives Yvonne a break after six weeks in the caravan. Iggy likes George. Will Iggy come with me? Mm, no. (LAUGHTER) It's really cool catching up. It's the first break since January, isn't it? To get away from the site. Yeah. Flush toilet ` tick. (LAUGHS) Shower with power ` tick. It is quite nice just pulling out of the project for a couple of days and just putting your feet up. George is building a new house. Yes. So you'll be able to come and stay when it's finished. Yes. Yes. Good. I'm intrigued to see what it's going to look like. I think it's going to be very... All I think of black is dark. So I'm sure it will all come together. You've both got good creative eyes. You've never been one to go with what everyone else does. No, probably not. YVONNE: That would be an understatement. (LAUGHTER) I think it's doing what George has always wanted to do, which is nice. Um, but I hope this is the last one. With a spare room for David to come and stay, there's also room to hang some of his artwork. GEORGE: He has a very good eye for form and colour. YVONNE: And detail, too. Meticulous. Yeah. Now that we're getting this big, long hallway, we've got more room to actually hang a few things of his up as well. (LIGHT, EXPECTANT MUSIC) By July, the team have managed to get the house closed in ` though it's now a month past when George wanted to have the build finished. Today he's installing a sewage system designed to prevent any pollution to the estuary site by separating and filtering waste. Well, we're trying to get a profile of what the sandbank should be before the topsoil goes on. And again, it's because it's new territory for all these drainlayers. So once we get the first section set up, they'll know exactly what they're doing and they can take it from there. This is pretty much maintenance-free, other than getting your sludge out of the septic tank every three to five years, depending on the use. It looks after itself. No power, gravity-fed, and scientific evidence also shows that it comes up with the most clean end result. So for this environment here, it's probably the only system that I think justifies being near the sea. Basically child's play, really, laying these pipes out on a nice, level sand bed, and then seeing them covered up basically within the next two hours or something. So I'm very impressed. It's been interesting to work on it to see how it all works. The raised bed keeps it out of that water table. So that prevents any sort of ingress into the local estuary. So it's been well thought out, well designed. (BIRDS CALL) A month later, the walls are primed. And it's time for the all-important black paint. Pretty unusual. Yeah, I think it's probably a first for me in 25 years, painting most of the house black. Probably be 25 years before I do it again, I'd imagine. Yeah, well, the painters warned me. They said, 'Look, you're committed. Once it's on, it's on. 'It's gonna take five or six coats to change this colour.' I thought, 'No, go for it, boys. 'That's it. I'm happy.' This is a big moment for Yvonne. It is the first time she's seen the black paint actually on her new walls and ceiling. (REFLECTIVE MUSIC) It's, uh, black. (LAUGHS) It's dark. Right from the word go, I've always been, 'Ugh, black inside? Not sure.' Um... but I trust my husband, as always, and I think he's made a good choice. It's quite a soft, warm black, I think. Love the sheen on it and the way the texture of the Strandboard's shown up. It's very cool. Very cool. We'll obviously add a lot of colour ` and some more black. Um, yeah. I think with the views and the light, it's going to be lovely. Really nice living space. Can't wait to get stuff in. It's good. Really good. Yvonne has given the black her stamp of approval. But it looks like the feature wall colour conversation is not over yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're good. No, they're not. Don't like the blue. The green's good. Blue's too light. I think the blue needs a bit more depth. You maybe can add a bit of black to it. Ohh. (CHUCKLES) With consultation, of course. Always consultation. Sure. It'll be on the... on the test board. I'm not yet fully convinced about the black interior, but you can't fault George's boldness. The question for me is whether the finished house will be a beautiful, peaceful home or a noisy black box. on a tidal estuary with a risk of rising sea levels, and then paint the whole thing black? It's been a month since I was last here in Tasman Bay, and I'm feeling a little nervous. I can't wait to see George and Yvonne's home. Is it gonna be a black, brooding shed or a really elegant home? Oh, wow. Gosh. So elegant. (FUNKY, RELAXED MUSIC) Oh, look who's here. Gidday! Chris, nice to see you. Wow. Congratulations. Mwah! Well done. Thank you. My goodness, it looks amazing. Thank you. As it should. (LAUGHTER) The exterior detailing adds bursts of red to the black sheds, and the Corten steel window surrounds balance the two removable pavilions perfectly ` almost like eyebrows looking out to the main road. Show me around. I can't wait to have a look inside. Come on in. Pleasure. Oh my goodness. This isn't anywhere near as black as I was expecting. Where's all the black? It's there. It is. Come on through. Ahh, OK. Oh, gosh. This really is black in here. Yep. Wow, love the texture. And it feels nice, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. It feels quite different than I was expecting. It has a lot more warmth. And perhaps that's the sheen. But the texture's beautiful. Mm, yeah, we like it. Mm. We've got another colour in here. Lovely. It just breaks the black a little bit too. Not that the black's a problem, but, you know. (LAUGHS) It's the highlight. (LAUGHTER) The black makes it feel surprisingly cosy. And with the house finished, the insulated panels have reduced the road noise to a background murmur. Oh, this is nice. This is our white gallery on which we like to display art. I'm looking at all sorts of details here too, like this. Yes. That handle, by the way, is something that I designed in Turkey back in 2003, I think it was. Beautiful. And what are these? Ahh, these are David's pictures. We've got quite a selection of his work, which we're going to put up on this wall. Wow. Yeah. Gosh, look at this. I can't believe this. This is gorgeous. It's the most gorgeous black space I think I've ever been in. There's a lot of windows and it gives it a lot of light, so certainly I wasn't too shocked when I walked in here for the first time. I'm really excited about how it's all come together with the art and the shelving, the curtains and the lights. There is quite a bit happening, but I think it's all complementary to the black. Very. But equally, the texture of the Strandboard really works in here, but in contrast, the huge refinement of little details, like the curtain rails. Yeah. They're super elegant. It is the modified, elegant internal side of a shed, and that's what we wanted. Magic. So I guess what I'm getting here, then, is that you guys are staying. It sounds like you've dug in. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, you know... Yes. Yeah, we are, Chris. We're staying here for a bit. The outdoor courtyard connects the pavilions perfectly. And the fact that they can be detached and removed if the sea level rises adds another layer of genius to George's design. And then you've got this lovely little gap. It's the separation between the two pavilions. It accentuates the connection. And it just feels very natural. The whole winter-summer thing as well, I guess, is a big thing here. What I love spatially, there's more going on in between these posts... ...than the posts. - It's an un-post. Typical George. - (LAUGHTER) And the flow through here is magnificent. Where's this going to? The walkway to the mountains? This leads to... nowhere, really, but it's a good representation of what is in the area, there's a lot of broken-down piers, and I think it just fits into the whole environment really nicely. What a great spot. It is, yeah. Yeah. I am utterly blown away. I love what you've done. I think you've taken a bunch of big, hairy, audacious challenges and created a gem which, to me, feels like it really belongs here. - I love it to bits. It's got a bit of attitude in there. - (BOTH LAUGH) I think we've been a little bit more adventurous in this than the last house. But I'm really, really happy with it. Really happy with it. The acoustic performance of the house is also really important. I mean, that road is busy. We can hear it. How do you feel about that? There's road noise, but it's not invasive. We have double glazing on the road side, non-opening windows. And if you had a radio or TV on at low level, you wouldn't even hear what's happening in the background. But we think it's quite acceptable. Because it was a modular build and your ambition was to have it done in six months, how did you do? It was eight now, wasn't it? Eight, yeah. Eight. But I reckon you could knock off another 10%, 20% in that time frame. What about budget? The budget at the beginning was... remind me. 550. 550. So what did it come out at? 572. - 572? - BOTH: Yeah. Wow. And that includes council fees. And architecture fees. No, no` Well... (LAUGHTER) That's extraordinary. And it's a nicely finished house, too. And it's 300m2, roughly. That was part of my goal, was to design and build something that I thought was going to be worthy to live in. And I can say, well, you know, if you can do that at an affordable cost, then why aren't we building more of these things for the people that need it? So all I'm left with is asking Yvonne, you know, isn't it too black? (LAUGHS) For me, there's so much light anyway. And in the daylight it's, like, a warm black. The painter said, 'Do you mind if my wife comes and has a look at it?' He confessed the other day that he's now got black in his own house. (LAUGHS) Well done. It's magic. (POP!) The huge deck comes into its own for its very first party. And I get the sense there'll be many more to come. Well, here's to George and Yvonne. Well done. Thank you for all your support. George set out to showcase a way to build affordable and energy-efficient housing. In the process, he designed and built a home that is both modest and striking. But having achieved this extraordinary build, I'd like to think that George and Yvonne can take the time to enjoy this beautiful home they've created here in Tasman Bay. Captions by Julie Taylor and Tracey Dawson. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017