The Block contestants Alex and Corban have already renovated a home at Muriwai.
Photo / APN
The Block contestants Alex and Corban have already renovated a home at Muriwai.
Photo / APN
Previous experience renovating award-winning house is no problem says TV3.
Corban and Alex Wall's previous renovation experience is already becoming evident on TV3's popular show The Block.
But, while the couple's handyman skills are widely known, it's only now that the real extent of their talent is revealed as a designer home they previously created features in a lavish new book on eco-conscious homes.
Mr Walls, a mechanical engineer, spent three years co-designing and building a spectacular three-bedroom house out of six disused shipping containers with a wooden macrocarpa facade high on a hill above Muriwai Beach on Auckland's west coast.
Image 1 of 10: Corban and Alex Walls outside their property at 71C Taiapa Valley Road, Muriwai. New Zealand Herald Photograph by Michelle Hyslop.
Soon afterwards, Mr Walls met Alex, a fashion buyer who dedicated her skills with colour and fabrics to the building's interior design.
Although the couple have since sold what became their first home for an undisclosed sum believed to have exceeded $1 million, Mr Walls' legacy and that of architect Fraser Horton is among 15 featured in Green Modern: Eco-Conscious Contemporary New Zealand Homes,
Full page pictures in the book show a modern and high-end home, including a living room that features a squared framed picture within a circle. The innovative couple replicated the idea, but using a different image, during an artwork challenge in the show, which they won in week three.
That win came after they kicked off the series by winning the garage challenge with a record total of 18 out of 20 - the highest given to a couple in the show's history.
Speaking about his designer home Mr Walls told the Herald yesterday the result of all their work was "quite a large mortgage that we weren't happy to grin and bear for the rest of our lives - which is why we decided to move on".
They were "currently homeless and living on The Block" but hoped to win some money from the television show to help buy some more land on which to build another house.
Asked whether their experience may given them an unfair advantage over the other three pairs of contestants, he said: "That would be like saying the All Blacks can't fight for the World Cup because they're better than everyone else."
MediaWorks senior publicist Megan Stuart said TV3 had been aware of Mr Walls' building experience, and had no problems with it.
"We just see it as another great element of the show. Each of our contestants has different skill sets that could potentially be an advantage or disadvantage - at the end of the day it's the public who buy the houses who will be the deciders."
