“We designed the entire property ourselves – room size and everything – which allowed us to get all of the building blocks in place on paper first. A draughtsman that used to work for architect Simon Carnachan then submitted the plans to the council.
“We’d never owned a triangle roof and that’s something we wanted, but we also wanted it to look grand on a single-level property. In the end, we took inspiration from a house in Norway, an image I still have as my phone screensaver.
“We love the rustic Scandinavian look, but wanted our own modern twist, too. A perfect example of this is a 140-year-old recycled beam we had delivered, split into two, and then had LED lights installed.
“You wouldn’t believe we were only 45 minutes away from Auckland because there is no light pollution at all and the stargazing at night is just incredible.