Design & build: Digging in for the long haul

The Block NZ 2012 winner Ben Crawford and his girlfriend Kylie are building their dream home. Share their proud moments and pitfalls here every week.

Like excited and giggly school kids, Kylie and I rang our builders at Haven Renovations as soon as we found out our building consent had been issued. Ray and Garrick were equally excited about getting stuck into the construction so, with the ink still drying on our consent, the guys were on site.

That was just over a week ago and it's been scary how fast things have progressed. Almost too fast. I don't have any children yet but I reckon the feeling must be similar to sending your child off to school for the first time.

For the better part of a year, our dream home dream has just been our little baby. It has consumed our lives as we've lived it, dreamed it and stressed about it every day. Then slowly it has come to life as we've nurtured and cared for it from the early planning stages through to the creation of our beautiful stream.

But the time came this week to hand our child to our construction team so it can blossom and grow into the home we've been dreaming about for so long. And it feels a little strange. Once we had full control and were hands on; now we're taking more of a spectator role. Our team is first class and we trust them 10 times over, but it's still a funny feeling.

The week started with Ray and Garrick profiling the site. This is where the entire house is mapped out with pegs and string lines to identify the perimeter and the finished floor heights.

Kylie checks out the view. Photo / Ben Crawford

Ben standing in the hole made to accommodate the garage below the living pod. Photo / Ben Crawford

It was an amazing sight to behold when Kylie and I first set eyes on these profiles. Suddenly we could see our home in multiple dimensions. A highlight was scaling a ladder and taking in the view from our dining area. It was so cool. We had smiles a mile wide for the rest of the day as we talked about the dinner parties we'd have with this remarkable outlook surrounding our dining table.

I'd been a little nervous that the image I'd had of sitting inside and feeling like we were in the bush wouldn't materialise. But the view from that ladder gave me goose bumps. It's going to be 10 times better than I'd hoped, with a stunning perspective looking directly into the tree canopy and to the stream below.

The majority of the initial earthworks completed. Photo / Ben Crawford

Subsoil drains being dug. Photo / Ben Crawford

Then the earthwork contractors moved on to the site, forming the building platform at the correct levels and laying the subsoil drains specified by the geotechnical engineers to help control any ground water. After a winter of tremendous rainfall, we couldn't have asked for better conditions. Two weeks of sunshine in the lead-up to the works, then brilliant sunshine for the three days the diggers were doing their thing.

While all this has been happening, Kylie and I have tried to be on site as much as possible. It's so enjoyable to see everything come together in front of our eyes and we don't want to miss a thing. In fact I'd love to be full-time on site as a labourer, but I have a business to run and a mortgage to pay.

Watch episode 7 of Ben & Kylie's Brand New Build here:

Although at one point during the excavation work it would have been less stressful if we hadn't been there. The guys were digging around the sewer pipe running through the section and suddenly the hole filled with water. Cue a sick-to-the-stomach feeling, with visions of the contingency budget disappearing on day three. But luckily, after some investigation and a few brave sniff tests, it was only ground water and not sewage.

By the end of the week everything was looking a million bucks. Our beautiful stream now has a well-formed building site around it. The drainage is in, there's base course along the driveway and everything is ready for our piles to go in next week. That will be a great spectator sport as 46 timber poles up to 9m long are thumped into the ground and our home starts to rise out of the dirt.

Our builders Ray and Garrick from Haven Renovations setting out the profiles of our house - yellow lines indicate finished floor levels. Photo / Ben Crawford

• Find out more about Ben and Kylie's dream home at ourdreamhome.co.nz

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For more information on the Kiwibank First Home Buyer's Guide visit: kiwibank.co.nz and search for "first home".