Over the past five years Cambridge Park has become a second home for Waikato Master Builders Supreme Award winner Vida Homes.
Their 2019 House of the Year winner, a classic villa, is the jewel in the crown and they have also been developing a distinctive English-style village around the subdivision’s central green space, along with other builds.
The handiwork of owners Chris Hodgkinson and Sharon Connolly is visible as soon as visitors turn into the subdivision, which is on the outskirts of Leamington.
An earlier classic-style villa they built is on the left at the entrance. Initially used as a show home for Vida Homes, this build also attracted Gold and Gold Reserve Medals from Master Builders in 2016.
This was their first house in Cambridge Park, completed at the start of 2015 as they found a way to stand out in a crowded field of new home builders and highlight their point of difference.
Since then they have completed 14 more houses in Cambridge Park, with a total of three in the classic villa style.
The latest villa overlooks a dramatic gully that rings part of the subdivision.
It won Gold in the $1m to $1.5m Carters New Home category at the Waikato Region’s awards night on August 2, along with winning the overall Category, and the Supreme award.
Subsequently, it has also been awarded a Gold Reserve ranking which places Vida Homes in the top 100 houses in New Zealand.
Judges said the build demonstrated detailed workmanship.
“This home has been finished to perfection,” they said.
“The thoughtful and precise attention to detail is clear throughout the home. From the outside in, the high-quality is evident in the implementation of the home’s external cladding and decking.
“There is complex carpentry throughout the build and the selection of product and finishing lines are all consistent with the home’s established architectural style.
“Vida Homes has delivered a home that is well deserving of the Supreme Award.”
Chris and Sharon are naturally delighted with the win for Vida, but also for the myriad of trades and suppliers who contributed to the final product.
Chris says the Supreme award means a lot.
“To be judged by your peers to have built a house that’s worthy of being the number one house in Waikato, that’s pretty special,” he says. “Master Builders have a strong presence in Waikato and it’s a great organisation to have supporting you and to be recognised by.”
The outside finish of each of the villas is meticulous with many of the detailed finishing items being custom manufactured by local Waikato companies.
The build does, however, draw on many suppliers and mediums – for example, the external chimney bricks were hand made in Europe, while the basalt paving cobblestones are from Christchurch.
There is not a nail or bolt to be seen on the extensive verandahs, with rafters notched into the board along the house and into the beam.
“I’ve been able to work with the guys to utilise traditional methods, and now I need to have very little input,” says Chris.
Inside, the owners have all the benefits of a modern spacious design with features suited to their own needs.
As Sharon says, people often have childhood memories of villas and that’s why they love them.
“But those childhood memories may also include going to bed fully dressed in the winter because of draughts, marbles rolling along wonky floors on their own, and doors and windows that won’t open or close properly.
“A Vida villa, built to today’s building standards, provides all the original character along with standards expected in a new home today.”
Vida Homes is also making its mark in Cambridge Park with a series of handsome red-brick homes that ring three sides of the oval off Pengover Avenue, the subdivision’s central street.
On one side of the green space the single-storey homes with attics are designed with a cottage aesthetic, while across the oval the design shifts to double storey with prominent chimneys. There is a uniformity of look that still allows for individual differences.
They have roofs of the same pitch, and all incorporate a smaller than usual, custom blended red/black clay brick, sourced from Darfield in Canterbury.
The design makes the most of the village feel. For instance, Chris told their architectural designer, Albert van Vliet in Pukekohe, he wanted the occupants to be able to see the oval through the house as they came up the driveway. Generous glazing makes that sightline possible.
New owners have commented that they enjoy the sense of community developing around the oval.
“We’ve gained some good friends out of here,” Chris says. “It hasn’t been just about the villas for us – it’s been building this, the community it has created.
“With most of our houses, I sit and think, ‘I could live here’. And that’s the standard we drive to achieve.
“If we think we could live here, and we’re pretty picky, then maybe somebody else could too.”
