The team at Todd Newman Builders has added to their year of success by taking out an award for best custom home in the Master Builders Excellence in Building Awards on Friday night.
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The business beat out all other contenders in the category for a particular price range, which the home’s owner requested remain confidential, in what Mr Newman described as an “extremely strong” field.
He said the finished product was a team effort, involving the customer, architect Lucas Hodgins of Bendigo-based e+architecture, and the small army of tradesmen, subcontractors and suppliers who pitched in to bring the building to fruition.
The main feature of the building’s design is the white mesh that surrounds it which Mr Newman described as “the hero of the build”.
“It’s surrounded by white mesh and it allows the customers to really see out but no one can see in,” he said.
“They’ve lived there for probably 15 months now and they still have people pull up in the street, even walking into the front yard and touch the mesh while they’re looking at them, but no one can see [inside].”
Mr Newman said the key to a successful build was “execution”, again praising the skill of the tradespeople and subcontractors he employs.
“Execution’s a big word I use, because if a project’s not executed correctly it just doesn’t work,” he said.
“[Any] Tom, Dick and Harry can’t build these things so it’s extremely talented tradespeople.”
Mr Newman said the Quarry Hill house fitted in well with its heritage surrounds and made the best of what had been a small parcel of land.
“The building is surrounded by the old red brick homes, so the contemporary part of this home made it even more unique,” he said.
“It was a tiny block of land and it had a fair bit of fall on it so Lucas really made fantastic use of how he made the building sit on the block.”
Mr Newman said the project took about nine months to complete, but he knew they were on to something special right from the get go.
“We saw the 3D images as we were pricing it and we new it was special then,” he said.