Big surprise in small family home

Nelson couple Kathryn Alborough and Glyn Lewis-Jones built a house with addition as an option but such is the pleasure of living in a smaller space, stage two of the project has been put on hold. with the story.

AS FINANCIAL planners, Kathryn Alborough and Glyn Lewis-Jones meticulously planned their new home in Ruby Bay, with every dollar considered, a budget firmly set and future expansion established. But the unexpected has happened to this well organised family, a discovery they never imagined.

Life in their small space is proving to be functional and fun, perhaps even perfect for this family of mum, dad and three children under five.

‘‘I’m surprised at just how easy and comfortable it is, after all it’s just 120 square metres and two bedrooms. But the two older children love sharing a bedroom and it’s so nice to have all the children close by so I can keep an eye on them when they are playing,’’ Kathryn says.

‘‘Little children want to be under your feet, so while they are young doing the second stage would just be creating an extra place to clean. Small is far better. We will build that next stage when the children have friends for sleepovers but until then this is great.’’

The development is the result of a good understanding between the family and architect Andrew Stephenson, of Motueka firm Bell Stephenson Architects.

Stephenson says the brief was for a passive solar home based on permaculture principles, to maximise the views with the potential to go off grid.

‘‘The house was broken down into stages with the finished house resembling a cluster of sloping roofs,’’ he explains. ‘‘The form is simple with a sloping monopitch roof falling to the north to allow for solar panels in the future. The windows are set back into this form and maximised to the north following passive solar principles. This way it stays cool in summer and warm in winter. Locally milled vertical shiplap redwood cladding on a cavity has been used on the northern elevations. Recycled horizontal corrugated iron on the southern facades as a rain screen on a cavity over plywood to give a rustic appearance and to key off the local vernacular of the barn.’’

For Kathryn and Glyn it’s their ‘‘forever’’ home.

‘‘Glynn is in his 60s, so looking to the future we’ve made it suited to a wheelchair. We did that thinking of Glyn in old age but in my third pregnancy I had such trouble with my back I ended up at home in a wheelchair for a month.’’

Important was a seamless flow from the inside to the outside with no height interruption. Insulation critically mattered and the insulated concrete pad base acts as a heat sink, dissipating heat stored during the day as the outside temperature drops in the evening. Kathryn says a woodfire amply heats the home and adds to the passive heat generated from the concrete pad.

‘‘The mistakes we’ve made are our fault, but they say it takes three homes to get everything right and this is our first. The covered outdoor area is too windy, I should have realised it would be exposed, we’d owned the land for long enough so I should have known. And the entranceway is the other mistake, there is not enough space for hanging wet jackets outside or shoes, we should have made the covered area a bit longer and there’s no seat, so when my 94-year-old grandmother comes, if she takes her shoes off, there is nowhere for her to sit.’’

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