Double Down

“We found that you could alternate the Oblique™ Weatherboard from 200 to 300mm boards. This helped achieve a design difference at relatively little expense”

This striking pavilion-style home is purpose-built for life in the country. Low maintenance cladding by James Hardie is a major part of its charm.

Hayden and Ashleigh regularly build a new house – about every three years, in fact. They own a building company, so it’s part of their business strategy to change homes regularly. By experiencing a wide range of housing styles, they get a true to- life view of new design directions and concepts.

“We enjoy seeing all the new ideas and styles coming out and want to try them,” admits Hayden. The Dam’s newest home is a four bedroom, 286m² house near Palmerston North. They were keen to try a pavilion style home, which is essentially two buildings connected to a central walkway.

They’d seen a pavilion home on a trip to Taupō and were impressed by its live ability, especially for a young family (their son George is three). Built on a flat site in a semi-rural location, the home showcases how Oblique™ Weatherboard can tick a lot of boxes. It’s practical, cost-effective and, most importantly, aesthetically pleasing.

Material selection

For practicality, around 80% of the home is clad with Oblique™ Weatherboard. This ensures the home can stand up to extreme weather, because the location is classed as a ‘very high’ wind zone. Oblique™ Weatherboard can also be painted a large variety of colours, including the modern darker shades, so the new house was able to fit with the subdivision’s covenants about tying into the natural landscape. The Dam’s new home is finished with Dulux Ebony, a dark and deep near-black.

When it comes to aesthetics, Oblique™ Weatherboard is a contemporary classic that offers inspirational installation options. It can be used both horizontally and vertically, plus it’s available in two sizes. For the Dam’s new home, Oblique™ Weatherboard was installed vertically with width variations.

The couple love how easy the home is to live in. The outdoor living faces north to get the sun and two skylights in the pitched roof capture additional natural light. Other special features include an outdoor gas fire and Bluetooth built-in speakers by the pool.

“Nothing beats cooking a barbecue on a warm, clear summer’s evening with views across the Manawatū to Mt Taranaki and Ruapehu in the background, and doing bombs in the pool with George, then warming up in front of the outside fire roasting marshmallows,” says Hayden.

The house build cost just under $750,000 - including the pool, driveway and landscaping - which was only 2% over the planned budget. As you’d expect, Hayden and Ashleigh’s new home was built by their building company – Hayden Homes. Hayden confesses that the home is 99% complete, because “there will always be that one percent of a builder’s home that’s not finished”.