Dig deep for your dream home
Most people build up, but this enterprising couple did the opposite at their parents’ home. Catherine Foster reports.
With a housing shortage and affordability a big issue in Auckland, David and Rebecca Lee tapped into their parents’ spare space to create a new home. The Lees were forced to act when an unexpected redundancy and a consequently unaffordable mortgage pulled the rug from under many careful years of life planning.
Even renting out the mortgaged property and moving in with David’s parents in Auckland’s Avondale was not financially viable, so a complete rethink was necessary. Happily, two years later, life is different, but in no way inferior. For a start, there is baby Jia. She would not have fitted in with overseas travel and high-powered careers, and neither would David’s retraining as a pilot.
‘‘None of this would have been possible if David’s redundancy hadn’t forced us to do some serious rethinking and come up with a Plan B,’’ Rebecca said.
‘‘Luckily, David is very good at looking at the big picture and it was his idea that if we ‘liberated’ the storage area under his parents’ house and made a small home for ourselves there, we could protect our financial future by buying property out of Auckland with the balance of his equity, and he could take the time to retrain at something he’s always wanted to do,’’ she said.
The space beneath the Lee family home was well-suited to the plan. A pole house on a site that fell away to the rear, it offered ample ceiling height below and few structural pillars to interrupt the floor plan.
Best of all, the rear facade faced north to a small, private courtyard area, letting in plenty of natural light. Outdoor living could flow directly from what would become the living room.
Private access down the side of the house was easily achievable, and the big area to the front of
the house had always had parking and manoeuvring space for four cars, even before part of the double garage to the front of the storage area was included.
Rebecca remembers how she and David immersed themselves in the design of small houses. ‘‘For our first stage we had 33 square metres to play with, which is twice the size of a tiny house, but we still needed to make every corner work.
‘‘We came up with a floor plan that placed the kitchen and living space along the outside wall, with the bathroom and our sleeping area-cumoffice space tucked in behind. There was room for a second bedroom for Jia in the garage to the rear of this – together these brought the total floor area up to about 50 square metres.
‘‘We knew that easy-to-access, permanent storage was essential and so something like a Murphy bed, which doubles as a desk when it’s not pulled down as a bed, wasn’t going to work.
‘‘We’d seen pictures where a raised platform hid a rollaway bed while working as an office or living area, and we could see this would work in our space. Making it bigger than the bed meant we could hide lots of storage into it as well.’’
Careful measuring made it all fit – just – even though the newly built bathroom wall had to be removed and rebuilt to allow room for the bed to fully extend.
They placed the kitchen and living space along the outside wall, with the bathroom and David and Rebecca’s sleeping area/office space tucked in behind. There was room for a second bedroom for Jia in the garage to the rear of this.
With Rebecca’s builder father Nigel doing most of the work, the bulk of the job was completed in three months.
The existing concrete floor (already dampproofed) was polished, double-glazed bifold doors were installed and a luxurious bathroom and fullsized kitchen were installed.
‘‘It’s a small space so we had the budget to upspec the fittings and appliances. And polishing the concrete floor allows it to act as a passive solar sink. We have so much energy stored in it that it’s only for Jia’s very early morning feed that we need to use a heater – and even then, it’s only for a very short time. Our utility bills are tiny,’’ David said.
Proud smallhome dwellers, they went to Auckland Council expecting an easy passage through the regulatory maze. Instead, they were
‘‘This works so well for us in so many different ways. Is it forever? Right now, it’s perfect.’’
David Lee
informed they were in breach of so many regulations they would have to remove every last part of their new home.
‘‘We were so naive,’’ remembers David. ‘‘We’d gone down there, so proud of what we’d achieved, and to be met with that was shattering. Here we were, upcycling empty space into a small home for an Auckland family, outfitting it to a high spec, and yet being told that because it didn’t comply with regulations it would have to go.’’
Employing an independent planning consultant was the only way forward and eventually common sense prevailed. The worth of the Lees’ small home in the light of Auckland’s ferocious housing shortage has been recognised and eventually a Code of Compliance certificate was issued, much to their relief. ‘‘This works so well for us in so many different ways. Is it forever? Who can say, but right now, it’s perfect.’’