Mountain home on design show
BUILDING a house with your best mate might just expose you to a side of them you’ve never seen before.
For Tamborine Mountain parents David and Sarah Hobart, whose new house will appear on next Wednesday’s episode of Grand Designs Australia, David quickly learned his architect friend James Russell was a smooth talker.
“He’s got an amazing capacity to actually listen and then to get you to do what he wants anyway,” Mr Hobart said.
“He has you eating out of his hand, he makes it feel like it was your idea. He’s very good with clients. I’m a bit of an observer of things, I just found it all just very interesting.”
It was through Mr Russell that the family’s eclectic Hinterland house build ended up being documented by the reality lifestyle show.
“Grand Designs contacted our architect James. We didn’t particularly want to be on the show, but we were happy to support James,” Mr Hobart said. “And we thought it would be good for Tamborine and the Gold Coast.
“It was down to the wire towards the end, which made it seem like more of an episode of The Block than Grand Designs.”
Mr Hobart said the couple had two criteria – to build a small but spacious house, and an outdoor bathtub for soaking up the serenity of the location.
“It’s a beautiful block of land, we wanted to capture the aspect, make the vista and the block of land the highlight,” Mr Hobart said.
While the original 32-week construction plan went out the window, the family are now happily enjoying their mountain retreat.
This episode of Grand Designs Australia screens Wednesday, September 11 at 8.30pm on Foxtel’s Lifestyle.