AC Builders wins regional silver award for Parapara home
Alan and Liz Clingan with property owner Bertha Newman. Photo: Neil Wilson.
AC Builders of Parapara brought home a silver award from last week’s regional Master Builders award ceremony. The prize-winning project is the home of Mike and Bertha Newman in Parapara.
“It’s a different sort of house,” said AC Builders project manager Liz Clingan. “It’s totally off-grid, with solar power, solar water-heating and a Rayburn stove for cooking and radiated heat. It’s about 230 square metres. It has a lovely spacious feeling because of its seven-metre raked ceilings.”
The Newmans’ home was thoroughly pored over by an independent panel of professional judges before attaining its silver award status. A silver is given to homes that are at least 65 per cent above what is called “industry standard”.
“The assessors look at craftsmanship, finish, attention to detail, and problem-solving,” said Liz. “They don’t have to talk to the clients but they did talk to Mike and Bertha.”
Mike said that he and Bertha moved here to become part of a community. “Our plan was to use the tradespeople who are our neighbours are far as that is possible. Being a neighbour is not just a matter of geographical proximity, it’s a state of mind. That meant we first asked Alan and Liz about building. They and their whole team—designer Dave Slater, all their workers and all the other tradespeople—have been flexible and great to work with. We don’t really want publicity. We only allowed our house to be entered in the contest to express our solidarity for AC Builders.”
Liz explained that the silver award came as a pleasant surprise to the AC Builders team.
“There were more architectural kinds of houses in the contest,” said Liz. “The Newmans’ home must have impressed the judges with its welcoming sense of space.”
AC Builders’ rebranded website will be launched very soon. Its slogan, “10,000 words, 1000 nails”, encapsulates what Liz says is the firm’s commitment to “talk and listen very carefully about what the client wants.”
Neil Wilson
