It is always inspirational when someone passionately embarks on a house project, putting their heart and soul, blood, sweat and tears into making their dream home a reality.

Husband and wife, Luke Lennox and Alice Gironella, are no exception. They have thrown themselves wholeheartedly into a project to build a healthy and comfortable home with minimal environmental impact, on the off-grid piece of land they own near Raglan.

Luke, 33, has an extensive background in numerous trades, but has considerable residential building experience. Alice, 33, is an architectural designer with 10 years’ experience from concept to completion, and is also a qualified Homestar Assessor.

“I’ve always wanted to build my own home, and Alice has always wanted to design her own home,” says Luke.

A lengthy country-wide search for suitable land ended in November 2014, with the purchase of two hectares of hilly, bare land just outside Raglan. The north-facing section with stunning elevated rural and ocean views, and proximity to Raglan’s surf breaks, ticked the boxes.

The section cost had cleaned out the budget, so the couple had to re-group to plan the next stage.

“With such an inspirational setting and jaw dropping view, we had to go all out!” says Alice.

Re-grouping involved three years of living in a “makeshift campsite” with a composting toilet, a few solar panels, saving in earnest, until they could afford to start building.

They spent many hours researching options for solar power, and this led to further research about energy efficient, passive homes. During this time Alice’s original design plans for the three bedroom, 232m2 home evolved as they incorporated new ideas.

Alice commuted to Hamilton daily for work, and Luke worked away from home for weeks at a time. Luke was able to give up paid work on October 15, 2017, to tackle the build. While part-time on the tools, Alice continued to work in Hamilton and later started her own company, Rubix Architecture.

Luke works on the house as a foreman under the project management of Matt Nichols, Ryse Construction. Alice also works on the house and according to Luke, “she can definitely swing a hammer”.

The foundations
The foundations use the Cupolex, 100 per cent recycled plastic dome system delivered on a standard trailer. The domes easily clip together.

“Being an engineered system, the slab provides an incredibly strong base, allowing a final polished floor with no saw cuts and minimal cracking.

“It’s like a floating foundation adapted to NZ conditions,” says Luke.

Before the concrete was poured on top, the hydropipe from Solar Rosa for the underfloor heating was laid over the mesh. Three core, plastic and aluminium pipe was chosen for its rigidity and durability.

The external, exposed perimeter of the concrete foundation slab has been insulated with PIR foam to stop heat escaping.

The frames
In keeping with their environmental goals, the couple used treated pine from a sustainable source for the external framing. The timber was 140mm x 45mm, rather than the usual 90mm x 45mm.

“This allowed for the thickness of the proposed wool insulation,” says Alice.

The couple were delighted to acquire a substantial amount of fallen macrocarpa trees from a neighbouring property.

Luke milled the macrocarpa himself, using Alice’s design and the engineer’s calculations and dimensions for the rafters and beams. It was signed off by a timber auditor.

“It was a real pleasure to work with wood at that level, completing the whole process from logs to profiled boards. I learnt so much,” says Luke.

The home’s general stud height is 2.55m, with 3.6m raked up to 4.5m in the cavernous open plan living area.

The roof
The roof has a five-degree pitch causing it to look almost flat from ground level. It was lined with Pro Clima Mento 3000+ roofing membrane.

“It’s like the luxury version of roofing membrane. It’s strong, self-supporting watertight, breathable and self-taping,” says Alice.

Dimond Roofing 0.55mm Trimline profile, was used in Gull Grey, a light colour to reflect the heat. The roof design involves internal guttering outside the building line.

“To avoid any concerns, we used Viking Enviroclad TPO waterproofing membrane, which is heat welded to ensure complete water tightness,” says Luke.

In other areas copper guttering and downpipes have been used and the couple are looking forward to the verdigris patina that will appear over time as the copper oxidises.

External cladding
Instead of a normal building wrap, the outside of the building has a layer of homeRAB (Rigid Air Barrier), that not only braces the house for the high wind zone, but keeps the house more airtight, and quieter and drier inside.

The external cladding is vertical shiplap on a 20mm cavity which provides airflow and drainage. The macrocarpa shiplap was milled, machined and hand-sanded by Luke, and Alice spent many hours staining all four sides with Dryden Wood Oil, in Elm, before it was hand-nailed on the house.

For contrast, some of the elevations are clad in 12mm treated ply and macrocarpa battens, stained in Dryden Black Teak.

Luke has painstakingly cut lengths of Japanese cedar, stained with Dryden Birch, for the soffits. The stylish result is worth the effort, and the same effect has been used on the sectional garage doors.

The joinery
While on a mission to Tauranga to buy some machinery, Luke met Graham – a master craftsman and very experienced joiner. Unable to make the joinery in his own small workshop, Luke is very grateful for the many weeks he was able to spend with Graham in his workshop, making the joinery together using totara Luke had previously accumulated.

“It was a very big job. Alice’s design had one six-panel and one four-panel, extra height bifolds, three sets of French doors, and numerous large windows, designed to accentuate the panoramic views,” says Luke.

All the windows are double-glazed with Low-E (low emissivity) glass, oiled on the internal faces, with light coloured paint on the outside to maximise protection from moisture and temperature changes.

“Luke did an amazing job with the front door, meticulously placing 150mm totara boards to laminate both sides of an 18mm thick sheet of marine ply like a big sandwich,” says Alice.

The pivoting masterpiece has pride of place at the front entrance.

The insulation
The walls have been insulated with R3.2 and the ceilings R5.1premium wool blend insulation from Terra Lana.

“It was a no brainer,” says Alice.

“It’s healthy, sustainable and warm, acting like merino by holding moisture and releasing it naturally. It’s also safer and less irritating to install.”

On top of the wool insulation the house has been wrapped internally with Pro Clima Intello, a high performance humidity-variable vapour retarder and airtight membrane.

“It creates a moisture-proof, airtight layer for the bones of the house,” says Luke.

To complement the airtight nature, a true heat recovery and ventilation system from Zhender by Fantech, has been ducted through every room.

Now that the house is structurally finished, Luke and Alice are turning their attention towards the interior and will be inviting MySpace back in six months to see the finished house in all its glory.