Design options
Our first workshop on design options in March 2026 in the Additional Dwelling Series brought together over 120 people from the Paekākāriki community. A show of hands revealed a significant number interested in building a dwelling on their property, with also strong representation in the room from professionals with experience in this area, and many current owners of additional dwellings.The following are brief notes from seven workshop presentations and interviews exploring different design options.
1. Architecturally designed additional dwelling to rent out main house - resident Pam Fleming
Pam Fleming’s dwelling is 60 square metres. It’s one bedroom with an open plan living room and kitchen, a separate walk-in wardrobe (for efficient storage) and bathroom. It has a nice high stud and lots of windows, with a small north facing sea view and lots of trees around. It also has good decking, sunken outdoor bath and outdoor areas: “It’s is awesome - you just open up everything” Built in 2017 the project cost then in its entirety approx. $150,000, including its own septic tank. Design: Gilpin Plans - architect Ben Gilpin. Builder, local: Tim Nolan.Pam paid neighbours approx. $3000 to get flat walk-on easement access close-by to Tarawa Street (otherwise it is situated at the bottom of a steep sand dune section). In total this aspect cost $12,000 when including engineer reports and council to make it official.
History: After doing renovations to her original main home Pam rented it out and got permission to put a caravan for visiting where the dwelling is now, allowing her to test out the idea. She then built this small dwelling and her daughter and family moved into the main house. After her daughter bought her own home, she now rents it out. She may move back up one day: “Who knows?!”
2. Moving a garage for a studio flat, freeing up your main house for rental - engineer Steve Bright
Structural engineer, Steve Bright, after some time planning, realised that they would need to move their garage forward to free up the needed land for a studio apartment. They shifted the garage forward eight metres and put the studio apartment behind it. A crane moved the garage (a permit was needed ) onto a new concrete slab.
The studio itself is a 32 square metre Versatile kitset that the company constructed. It has a shower and toilet, so a consent was needed. It was an artist’s studio for a while but after a marriage separation, the studio was rented out.
Later on, when Steve became an empty-nester, he and his partner Stacey rented the main house out. Steve notes that 32 square metres is a lot of downsizing from a 100 square metre house but they kept the garage for storage. They also bought a lifestyle block up Ōtaki Gorge where they had a house moved onsite by Brittons.
What does a structural engineer do for you? A structural engineer (like Steve) is a licensed professional who designs, analyses, and plans the structural components of buildings to ensure they are safe, stable, and durable. A geotechnical engineer tests to ensure the ground is stable.“If you want a house or studio there are different ways to do it. You will often get a geotech engineer to check that the ground is solid and work out how you will drive in piles, or have a concrete slab.
If you have a kitset you don’t really need an engineer - as they will have their own engineering works done. If you are adventurous: there is a non-engineer designed building code which allows you to build your own home out of timber. It can be tricky, but done if you can read tables you can design your own home.
"If you want to do something which is a bit more out of the box you will need an engineer to tell you what you will need in terms of strengths of walls and beams. Ideally we are brought in as early as possible.” Normally, Steve says, an architect will do plans and then pass onto an engineer for input.
3. Dividing up a four bedroom house to create a one bedroom flat - owner Kathleen Sanders
“I wanted to stay in the house - it started there. The house just seemed to lend itself to division - partly because I was only living in part of the house. Sometimes I think buildings tell you what the possibilities are. I noticed that the other part of the house could be quite independent, because the previous owners had put a bathroom and bedroom on at the opposite end of the house from the other bathroom. And it just so happened that a hallway separated them, so I put a doorway in the hallway. The house divided itself quite naturally.”
The owner put an entranceway into a small bedroom - a french door with a small deck as entrance to the new flat. She asked around and got a lot of advice. And the first step was moving a washing machine into the garage as a shared space.
“I liked moving towards cohousing - sharing things.”
They also got people who were tenants to see what they thought it needed. “People came up with some really good ideas - like, ‘you will need a light in the hallway’. Thinking about making it really nice.”
This was a very affordable project - Kate estimates about $12,000 with various materials collected over time and sourced locally. See the case study here on this project for more details on how they did it.
4. A producer of kitset small homes and cabins - Dan Frost, Nordic Spaces
Dan Frost, Nordic Spaces has more than 10 of these Finland-imported kitsets in the village now (see website here) - a lockwood-style construction. He is also looking at putting one in on a friend’s land up the back of Paraparaumu to live in - which they could move if circumstances change. He’s designing this: it will be 30 square metres with a bedroom at one end, bathroom, hallway, and living area with kitchen. Enough for two people.
There are other wooden kitset cabin providers (on a Paekākāriki walking tour we also saw one by Allwoods from Nelson) and many other kitset options.
The Nordic Space units come with the option of single wooden skin (44mm) or a double skin (with a woollen insulation in between) - a substantial price difference. “We try and aim it at all different price levels”. But even the single have doubled glazed windows (which are cheaper to produce in Europe) and have underfloor and ceiling insulation.
“Probably warmer than 50% of the houses in NZ - which maybe isn’t saying much but for the price it's a really good product". Dan estimates a cost of $10,000 per 10 square metres, and double that to finish them off.
Dan’s wife is from Finland so he’d spent time there and fell in love with the easy-ness of them. “The big drawcard for me was the ability for people to build them themselves and save money that way. It’s also the idea of using natural materials - solid timber. My father was a builder, I’ve been on building sites since I was two years old, and for me there’s an appeal in natural products.”
The biggest downside is the travel of the materials from Finland in terms of sustainability - but it still works out as carbon neutral he says given the carbon in timber. It’s all natural kiln-dried timber - slow-growing Nordic spruce.
A 30-square metre cabin, with no bathroom and Dan doing the building, requires no consent and cost currently estimated $50-60,000, and would be a livable one-bedroom dwelling. But once you put a bathroom in there are complications, and consents. Dan isn't a licensed builder - so once you need a bathroom you need a licensed builder. They are doing one cabin at the moment for about $150,000. So it depends on your needs, he says, and whether you follow the rules.
5. An architectural draughtsperson - Carol Stewart, CS Plans
A draughts person creates technical drawings and plans, acting as a bridge between design concepts and construction.
Carol has worked as an architectural draughts person her whole career across a range of projects. She now runs her own small business draughting and helping people out with their building projects.
“In the building process I’m a person who can help with the planning and the paperwork.”
Architects offer a range of services from just doing the plans at the beginning to seeing the whole project through, working with the contractors. It's similar with Carol’s service.
Normally, she says, she will take things through to building consent and that’s in conjunction with talking to people like engineers. She and Steve Bright (see above) have worked on several projects together. It’s then a cheaper option for the owner to project manage themselves, “and pass it onto capable builders, like Matt Ralph.”
“Come and have a chat any time about your ideas. You can come with what you’re trying to achieve and we can discuss what your options are and how the rules apply. All the options come with different rules. It’s good to do your homework first. Talk to people around you, come to sessions like this - doing the homework will save you money and time in the long run. Changing your mind costs time and money. Have a bit more of a focus. Get recommendations from people around: builders and other professionals. Do lots of homework. These workshops are a good start.”
Carol and her husband Rob have a sleepout near the road on their property, which has a bathroom. It’s used for family and storage but they do sometimes discuss the option of moving into it while travelling for example.
6. Matt Ralph - additional dwelling builder and designer
Matt has lived in the village for 19 years and as a builder has done 95% of his work in the village. Over the years he has been asked by people to help in the design and building of small dwellings.
He’s done several for his own family including on a steep section in the Marlborough Sounds. One of them was flatpacked here on the Kāpiti Coast, trucked over and assembled over three days, with “the kids running around my feet.” These were in the 10 square metre area. Now you can go much bigger.
"Each one has been different - everyone has different requirements for their space use. Now we are thinking ourselves about what we are going to do with our property with spare space, and the options out there.”
“I suppose I’m a little bit artistic. I don’t do sculpting, but I try to put a bit of art into my work. I have a workshop with John Cruikshanks and Andrew Driver, two creative guys, and we try to bring that into our builds. Andy and I will do a lot of joinery, with some artistic ideas. Or if Andy is doing a kitchen it’s ‘what your idea on that Andy?”
Is it more expensive than simply going to Mitre10?
“It is bespoke but it doesn't have to be expensive. We generally don’t work to quoting - it costs what it costs. We’ve always tried to be fair.”
What are key pitfalls?
“People getting caught out by boundaries. Like: ‘Oh that concrete post, everyone knows that’s the boundary’ - but it turns out to be two metres out. That’s really important, particularly with a dwelling close to a boundary. It's the first thing council ask: ‘Show me the boundary’. They want to see markings. Your build can be stopped by that."
“Septic tanks - we know they can be a problem here in Paekākāriki. Like our one was made out of bricks. It wasn’t going to cut it. Getting those basics right first I think. People at JB’s will do a survey for you but it comes down to size and your zoning I think. In one property on Tilley Road they were allowed to divert grey water - which brought down the size requirement of the septic tank. So there are lots of rules which you discover. On another project they had to put in an expensive system because there was no alternative."
“But you also have to think: it's for the land as well. The old systems didn't work that well and we don’t see it - so we have to do it right. That’s the way I see it - you have to do it.”
See our Septic Tank workshop notes (published soon) for more on this important topic.
7. Anne Woodside - converting an outside room into additional dwelling and office
Anne and Alan Woodside have downsized from a five-bedroomed house to a three-bedroom house. But Anne also works as a therapist, and needed to have a place or another part of the property where she could continue to work. The house had a studio at the back but it was just a room and there was no toilet in it.
Architect Will Giesen helped transform in design this small studio into an additional dwelling, a standalone unit, so that it has a bathroom with a shower and it also has a kitchen, without a stove.
They had to get a building consent because they were putting in new plumbing. And had to show how it was going to be plumbed into the existing septic tank.
They used plumber Pete Bartholomew, who had the septic tank cleaned out by JB’s. Cleaned and dried. And they noticed there were holes in it. So Pete Bartholomew and their builder re-concreted all the holes.
“This saved us thousands. But we still had to put a whole system of pipes from the new dwelling into the septic tank.”
“I wanted it to be that it could be somewhere for somebody to live. Whether it's family members, or somebody wants to come and stay, or somebody rented.”It's only one room, like a bedsit, but it's got a separate kitchen and a bathroom with a shower.“I think getting advice from the experts is really important.”