History in the making
Given our relatively short architectural history and the unfortunate tendency to pull down old buildings, it’s a rare and wonderful thing for a New Zealand home to have been kept by the same family for more than 130 years. That’s the history behind this distinguished Canterbury house, which has now been home to five generations of the Osborne family.
Four years ago, Simon Osborne and his wife Angela carried out the fourth series of renovations on Simon’s family home in Doyleston, just south of Christchurch. The house began as a colonial cottage built in 1876 by Simon’s great grandparents, and was first extended 16 years later. When Simon’s grandparents married in 1917, they redid the old cottage part of the house in an Art Deco style with a flat roof.
Half a century later, Simon’s parents moved in and put their stamp on the home, carrying out their own 1960s-style upgrade. Unfortunately, by the time Simon and Angela took on this grand old home, it had fallen into a bad state of repair, and the couple even considered knocking it down and starting again.
‘We were going to demolish the whole house because it was in such bad condition,’ says Simon. ‘It needed to be completely re-clad and I didn’t want to use timber weatherboards at all.’ But with impeccable timing, James Hardie had just launched Linea™ Weatherboard onto the market, and it provided the low maintenance, traditional-style cladding solution the Osbornes were looking for.
The house became the first major renovation project carried out using Linea Weatherboard. Through the Osborne’s architect, Roger Buck, James Hardie recommended builder Arthur Edwards who had been involved in the development of Linea weatherboard and was well qualified to install it.
‘The detailing gave the house its character,’ says Simon. ‘But it also presented the biggest challenge from a maintenance point of view. Early on it occurred to us that if we wanted a lower maintenance house we also needed to render as much of the detailing as possible in Linea Weatherboard.’ Arthur Edwards and his team created the corbels, window sills, plinths, fluted window facings and window aprons out of Linea Weatherboard – developing their own techniques to laminate many thicknesses of Linea together and laser cutting it into shape.
‘We’ve cut the maintenance costs and the bonus is that we’ve retained the original weatherboard look and the authenticity of the original detailing,’ says Simon. ‘It’s been a massive job to re-clad the entire home and rebuild the southwest wing, but in the long term it’s a great investment.’
In addition to the new cladding and detailing, the house was re-plumbed and rewired, a modern new kitchen and bathroom were added, and double glazing and full insulation installed. Despite having a young baby and a farm to run, Simon took on the role of project manager, organizing many of the subcontractors himself, and admits it was extremely time consuming and stressful.
‘If you haven’t done it before, renovating really is uncharted territory,’ he says. ‘Do your homework before you begin. Look thoroughly at the house, pull some weatherboards off in critical areas and have a look underneath to see what’s there.’
There are always going to be surprises when you renovate. Among those the Osbornes encountered were live borer in the roof and rotten framework from a leaking toilet cistern. Plus, Simon says their renovation ended up costing one and a half times what they’d budgeted. As a result he recommends a 30-50% contingency margin over and above what you’re planning to spend.
PRODUCTS USED
Linea Weatherboard by James Hardie
