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Hi all, I’ll be building a residential home early in the new year. I’m currently working on the design and am after interior and exterior product recommendations suitable for a modern design in a coastal location. I’d like to use as many non-toxic/minimally off-gassing/sustainable products as practicable, keeping in mind they need to be comparable to ‘conventional’ materials in relation to cost, labour input and durability as this will be built entirely by tradies. I have decided against straw bale, mud brick and earth ship builds as they’re not going to give me the modern look that I’m after. Hemp seems to be too hard to source at the moment for the exterior, but I am looking into hemp insulation batts for walls and ceiling. If my budget can stretch, I’ll put in a couple of rammed earth walls. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

To be fair , that Queenstown property is 1250 sq mtrs on an 1800 sq mtr property . Queenstown is often called one of the most attractive places in the world , it is very sought after . There are world class skiing mountains on 3 sides , that lake , and absolutely superb restaurants and other faciklities . So it is internationally sought after , especially wealthy Americans and Europeans who like skiing , lifestyle , but also being away from the Northern Hemisphere if self-preservation is important haha . So you have an almost perfect storm -- highly sought after with only a very finite land area available . This place has one of the more spectacular sites and views too . It seems okay .

The build was appatently 'over $4 million' . It is in the established part of Takapuna , so my guess is that someone paid well over $2 million for an old home and demolished it or moved it to Northland or similar . So you are at least $6 million . I'm not sure if that counts as a family home ? From the street , it would be relatively easy to drive past it and not think it is anything special But it seems a bit more than a 'family home' inside