A Tauranga couple loved their first house plan with Generation Homes so much they returned to build the same house again on a new section, but this time with a few extra modifications.
Wayne and Heather Thompson built their first property in Tauranga’s Milford Estate in 2015, and selected Generation Homes’ Durham plan, which features four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a family room, separate lounge, and double garage.
A few years later, the Thompson’s bought a slightly smaller section about 200 metres from their first home. The land was originally set aside for one of their daughters, but circumstances changed, and the Thompson’s decided to build the same home again with some new custom variations to better suit their lifestyle.
Wayne has been a traffic safety and planning specialist at Tauranga City Council for 30 years, while Heather worked as an accountant at a local legal firm for the 11 years, and they are now looking forward to an active retirement in their new property.
The new house had to cater for a large family, too. The Thompson’s met 44 years ago on a blind date and have two daughters, an adopted daughter and six grandchildren.
WAYNE
We picked about five different house plans when we started preparing for our second build. We knew we wanted something that was about 200m2 so we could have room with a reasonable outdoor area. We just really liked the Durham layout because Heather and I don’t like big open planned areas too much, so we just kept coming back to it.
HEATHER
I also wanted to have a wraparound kitchen. Having built the Durham house already, and knowing exactly what we wanted from it, made things a lot more practical and easier on us.
WAYNE
We lowered an internal wall between the dining room and the lounge to make it a little more open planned, and my wife got a lovely stone benchtop in the kitchen. The only other variations we made were to fully insulate the garage, add a heavier underlay under the carpet and get an extra heat pump so we had one in the lounge and one in the family room. The house is so warm we don’t really use it this winter, but it will be great for air conditioning in the summer.
HEATHER
We have a nice set of red shelves that are part of the dining room, and I’ve put my white Crown Lynn pottery collection on them. The shelves are where the computer nook was supposed to be, but we don’t have a computer because we just use iPad’s, but the wiring is still there if we want to change it back later on.
WAYNE
There are all the facilities out here. Papamoa College is right behind us and the sports field backs onto our property so when the grandchildren come and stay, we go there to play and kick a ball around.
HEATHER
Everything is flat. There is nice cycling and pedestrian walkways, and there is also the supermarket and a few nice cafes and bars all within a five kilometres drive. We also have a good bus service out here. Our daughter Claire, her husband and three children live in the area so we can help look after them. As we get older, it’s nice to know that they are just up the road.
WAYNE
When we decided we were going to build a new home, we had a look around Papamoa and went to the Generation in Doncaster Drive, and met our sales consultant Debbie Kennedy. We knew the section that we wanted, and we decided to build the Durham, so we just negotiated with Debbie. We didn’t go to any other building firm at all. We were going to buy an existing house but we actually found that if you build the house and land package with Generation, it was cheaper than buying an existing home and having to renovate it.
HEATHER
Debbie was our main contact and she was just awesome in terms of the level of customer service she offered us! All of the staff were excellent. We had no problems with anybody and they just bent over backwards for us. We found that anyone we dealt with was never pushy, and that was the best thing. No one ever made us feel like we have to make a decision then and there.
HEATHER
The other house was quite different. The outside was more earthy coloured with the cream-beige brick and the inside reflected that tone with beige on the walls. For the new build we have a nice white, modern looking brick on the outside and a warm grey on the interior, so they are both quite different colour schemes. But in saying that, all of our furnishings fitted into each house beautifully because we have a lot of red accent in the house. It’s also really easy to know where the furniture goes when you’ve built the exact same house – you know exactly where to put it!
WAYNE
Susan did a marvellous job at helping us choose our new colour scheme. She provided examples for the floor, carpets, drapes and all that. We just picked what we wanted and she made a subtle suggestions on things that would go better together.
WAYNE
I did that all myself. I got the plan of all the drainage that Generation put in, and then I designed all the hard standing areas around that. The dining room, family room and the lounge all have ranch sliders that open onto a large outdoor area. The outdoor area where we sit most of the time is weatherproof and shade proof, so it looks really nice. Then I just designed the gardens around where everything was. I have some raised gardens and some sleepers.
HEATHER
We haven’t quite completed it because we have done our own garden on both of our houses. Generation offered to do our landscaping but we would rather do it ourselves because it’s something we enjoy.
WAYNE
The only thing that really happened was we had a month delay on the build due to weather. The timber got quite wet, so they couldn’t pre-line or anything like that until it had dried out, which took an extra month and we agreed to it. In the end it was an advantage to us because it meant that they made sure that everything was dry before they lined it, so their won’t be a problem with the structure any time soon.
HEATHER
I love my stone bench in the kitchen, but one thing that we would both say is not having a house 1.5 metres away from our outdoor area. When we would sit outside at our old house, we could hear the neighbours. What we like is that we can sit in our lounge suite outside quietly now.
WAYNE
The outlook out the back of our property is lovely. It backs right onto a sports field and there is always something going on there that you can watch, but it doesn’t interfere with our privacy.
WAYNE
We’re not planning to build again anytime soon, but we would never go anywhere else. We have recommended Generation Homes to family and friends, and some of them have already built with them.