Family is important to Umberto and Jacquie Benucci. They have built their dream home a few minutes from their family in rural Waikato.
The Christian couple plan to expand their marriage guidance business outside of Auckland and have moved to a lifestyle block near Raglan to establish their new base.
Umberto and Jacquie say building their own home was more affordable than anything they looked at buying. They’ve been able to design their place rather than take on someone else’s ideas and have to contemplate renovations.
They describe their experience building with Generation Homes as incredible and they’re happily settling into their rural idyll in Te Uku.
UMBERTO
One reason was obviously the dream of building our own place and having what we wanted versus buying someone else’s views. Also, most of what we looked at was overpriced, so we wouldn’t have bought anything that compares to what we’ve built. It was also about the proximity to our daughter, Steph, being two minutes down the road from our new home, rather than 15 minutes away if we bought an existing place in Raglan.
JACQUIE
We could have bought an existing house at a big price, and we were still going to have to find money somehow to alter it to suit us.
UMBERTO
That didn’t make sense. Then we got the idea of what the fixed price contract for this house would be and it has come out way under anything you could find.
UMBERTO
We were looking at smaller homes with a limited budget. We looked at a couple of options like pre-built buildings. Our initial dream was to build a container home. Then the next dream was to build a barn home. They were too difficult. Then we met a couple of other building companies, and everyone seemed very hectic. I couldn’t sleep one night, and I was browsing the internet around 3am, and saw Generation Homes. I loved the sound of what they did, who they were, where they came from, and how they started.
So, I presented them with my A3 design drawing which was a bit of a hodgepodge of things that we’d seen, but also considering where we were building because people had advised us to build north facing as the sun comes across the front of the house. For protection from the prevailing wind, we angled the garage to one side to give us a bit of a buffer.
UMBERTO
We had an amazing response from Angus. I’m very, very big on communicating and the communication was incredible.
JACQUIE
We liked the quality of what we saw at the show home. Also, it seemed like Generation Homes had a real family heart behind it. It wasn’t just a business. They wanted the build to be a good experience for us, an experience that didn’t have all these headaches you hear about.
UMBERTO
The fixed price guarantee was very attractive. Other building companies had stepped away from that in the economic conditions.
JACQUIE
Initially we thought the fixed price guarantee wouldn’t be available anymore (because of the rising building industry costs for materials and labour) and they hadn’t updated the website. We did double check that!
UMBERTO
After we gave Angus our plan, the Generation Homes draughtsman did some refining and adjusting. There’s three bedrooms and a study. It’s single-story, a 200sqm home with a double garage.
JACQUIE
The kitchen layout and island and pantry ideas we basically took from the show home. In fact we have the same living, dining, and kitchen ideas.
UMBERTO
We also looked at the roofing materials. We were not familiar with metal tile roofing. We were a little bit sceptical about the metal tiles, but we are really happy with it.
JACQUIE
We were living in Auckland for 18 years in the same house.
UMBERTO
We are Christian, and we run a marriage ministry, which helps couples have good marriages or better marriages or to rebuild their marriage. We felt drawn to extending our ministry around regional New Zealand. We knew if we stayed in Auckland, we would always be too busy there. Raglan is as good a place as any to be based.
Our only child, Steph, lives here. She married into a dairy farming family who have farmed here for 110 years. We have our first grandson living here now.
This subdivision where our house is built has five sections. It was actually part of the farm that our daughter’s mother-in-law grew up on. It is a two-acre lifestyle block in the small community of Te Uku, 10 minutes from Raglan.
UMBERTO
Seamless. The progress payments forecast, and completion date was set in November for 21 April and that was the day we got the keys.
JACQUIE
People don’t believe it when we tell them. We came here 10 months ago and we spent the first couple of months deciding what to do. Within 10 months not only have we looked around, but we have moved in. Some people are taking two years to build an actual house.
UMBERTO
The communication was incredible – that was the main thing. The tradies themselves rave about Generation Homes. They love how organised the build is as they know exactly when they need to be on site and how long they’ve got to complete their job before the next subcontractor arrives. You could see that in action. One thing flowed into the next and they made the building seem effortless.
JACQUIE
There wasn’t a question that we felt we couldn’t ask. When we did ask, they were more than happy to answer, and they always answered in a really good way.
UMBERTO
The team are incredible. Clinton was here in his gumboots on a Saturday raking the grounds or delivering accessories or marking up certain areas, he had his wife alongside him too, and their dog. The team were invested in their service as if we were their only client.
JACQUIE
I think they work with each individual couple for what they want. They were hearing our heart for what we wanted and doing the very best to make it happen. For example, we wanted to change the deck in front of our living room from concrete to wooden, and they just accommodated that.
JACQUIE
The pantry. I love it. It’s a dream come true. I love cooking and we love having people over and having a space where you can work properly.
UMBERTO
We see this as our final home, so it is designed to suit us. The study is the size we want, the grandies room is the size we want. It might not be the optimum home for resale. Other people might think of having two double bedrooms, or two single bedrooms, but this is what we wanted. I like the fact that we’ve made it with a big lounge area so we can have a lot of people over and there’s a big deck in front. And I’ve got a gym.
JACQUIE
The finishings, the joinery, all of that is wonderful. Even the way they’ve done the architraves – they’ve got detail in there which is cool. This is not just a house; it is a home. It feels solid.
UMBERTO
Everyone was particular with their finishings.
JACQUIE
When you’re building for the first time, make sure you understand what you’re asking for and what you’re getting. It can be confusing. There are different packages that you can do with things like landscaping and each party must understand exactly what that package means.
UMBERTO
You must know what you want upfront to minimise the variations.
JACQUIE
ust ask the questions! Know what is important to you. It’s easier to do things now than later so you need to think about future proofing. For instance, we put in a spotlight outside in case we put in a spa one day.
UMBERTO
We put USB points in the plug points in the kitchen so you can charge your phone easily.
JACQUIE
It was hard to resist the temptation of upgrades. But you have to be balanced – there’s nothing wrong with the standard offering.
UMBERTO
You must be happy to offset something for something else. Make sure that you go through each room to understand what you want there. That is really important.
JACQUIE
Envision what you will use the room for. For example, think about your lighting and the switches and how you want to be able to have some lights on and off at the same time, like when you’re watching TV.
