Stonewood Homes wins regional Supreme award 2014

Stonewood Homes picked up two prizes: the New Homes $350,000-$450,000 category in Manawatu-Wanganui and then went on to take out the region’s Registered Master Builders Supreme Award for the 2014 House of the Year. As a new home consultant for Stonewood Homes in Palmerston North, Kaye Cunningham has helped guide clients through the house building process for the past five years.

And Kaye drew on all of that experience when she and her husband built an award-winning home on land that the Awapuni Racecourse had sold off for subdivision.

“We had already built one house before with Stonewood but we were real novices then – and that was supposed to be our one and only until retirement,” says Kaye.
But when the chance came up to buy one of the racecourse sections for a good price, the Cunninghams jumped at it because the subdivision offered superior sites.

Again, Stonewood Homes was the builder and Kaye worked closely with franchise owner Peter Robson and Steven Butterworth, of SWB Design.
“They say it takes you two or three houses to get it right, and we are very pleased with the results,” says Kaye.

The Cunninghams’ feelings were also shared by the judges for the Registered Master Builders House of the Year awards.

The judges said, “This home was built with a great deal of love and care. A fantastic family home, the quality of the build and attention to detail throughout is something to be proud of. Designed to capture the sun and featuring functional, easy-living spaces, this is a home that a typical New Zealand family would be delighted to own.”

Kaye says, “I expected it to win gold in the first category but I was blown away when it won the supreme award because the judges crawl all over these houses to make sure everything is right – they even use compasses in each room to make sure it sits like it’s supposed to sit.”

Driving the design process was a desire for an easy-care, low maintenance but comfortable home.

“I am a big fan of low-maintenance and we wanted to make sure it was a house that we could look after in our seventies,” says Kaye. “It’s single-storey, of course, and although we have a big section, we have very little garden.”

Kaye says the design of the home was based on a standard plan from one of Stonewood Homes old plan books and then “tweaked” with the help of Steven Butterworth.

“We also grew all the rooms so the house went from 202sq m to 260sq m with 50sq m of veranda,” she says. “I work with Steve all the time with our clients because we use him as our main designer and he is great.”

In line with the low-maintenance policy, the house is clad in brick and Linea weatherboard with aluminium joinery and a COLORSTEEL®  roof.
“I like the long-run roofing because I think it has a nice, clean look,” says Kaye.
Inside, tiled floors feature in the kitchen/dining area and bathrooms, with carpet in the lounge, media room and four bedrooms.
“It’s a very warm house because it is perfectly positioned for the sun coming into all the living areas,” says Kaye.

As well as double glazing and above-code insulation, the home has in-slab underfloor heating on a meter and heat pumps.

The living areas and master bedroom open out to the wrap-around veranda, which has plastic drop down sides to protect the space from the elements.
“With the plastic curtains it’s like an outdoor room all year round and it has a beautiful outlook over the Mangaone Stream.”As well as being the perfect space for outdoor entertaining, the veranda boasts a spa pool sitting outside the master bedroom.
The 890sq m section is mainly grassed but has a large concreted area outside the oversized double garage that provides plenty of off-street parking in the meantime but, in another future-proofing exercise, could also accommodate a motor home or boat.