Design & Build

Ben Crawford

HOLY TOLEDO BATMAN. After months of investigating, problem-solving and planning, we finally had the green light to proceed and our dream home was going to happen. But after being issued with our resource consent and having excitedly cleared the section, the enormity of what we were embarking on began to hit me.

I started having sleepless nights. I wasn’t scared of the hard work ahead but I was afraid the grand design we’d conceived wouldn’t materialise as we imagined. And my main worry was the stream. I’d lie there through the night overthinking every possible detail and scenario, from how we’d ensure it looked as natural as possible to how we would protect it from erosion.

What if it was too small and out of proportion to our house? Would our beautiful glass bridge look silly and out of scale over a little ditch? Would our massive windows and doors that we had positioned to optimise the view over a tussock-fringed stream be looking over a man-made stormwater channel instead?

Luckily for my sanity we had arranged to begin modifying the stream immediately after clearing the site. As part of our hydrological engineer’s recommendation, we had been given approval to enlarge the stream’s dimensions so of love on the stream. First, we needed to line it entirely with geotextile fabric to prevent erosion. Kylie and I slipped and cursed our way up the length of the channel as we rolled out 200sq m of pristine white material. But the worst was to come as we secured the heavyduty fabric to the banks with barbed ground pins. It was like trying to push plastic through concrete, nigh-on impossible, however we eventually got the job done.

The big concern troubling us at this point was how to turn this white channel into a normal-looking stream. As part of our resource