'It's like Lego': Christchurch red-zoned home gets new life at Nelson eco-village

From https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/home-property/smart-living/75168655/its-like-lego-christchurch-redzoned-home-gets-new-life-at-nelson-ecovillage. Written by Adele Redmond

Alison Locke and Mike Moss moved to Nelson in March, but their home has been in a container for almost three years.

The Christchurch couple's recycled home project survived the two big Canterbury earthquakes, but a red-zone classification on the land meant their house couldn't remain on its city centre site.

In 2010, the couple were about to embark on their plan to build a new home using materials salvaged from Locke's parents' 1880s cottage and their previous house. 

"We were going to pour the concrete on September 4, but then it rained and we had an earthquake instead," Moss said.

Locke said the initial big quake didn't do "a spectacular amount of damage, nothing to be concerned about," and that the house was nearly completed when the February earthquake occurred. Again, damage was minor.

"We found a little crack in the gib board. If we hadn't had to leave we wouldn't have even bothered to make an insurance claim."

Alison Locke and Mike Moss with saw horses and the container holding their disassembled Christchurch home. MARTIN DE RUYTER / Not-For-Syndication

But because they had built through the earthquakes, their new home wasn't eligible for the Earthquake Commission's (EQC) rebuilding entitlement.

"We found out we were going to get only half the value of the land, which was a pretty disquieting thought," Moss said.

A later revision of the EQC's policy came too late for the couple, who had already decided to dismantle their year-old home, paying EQC $10,000 for the privilege.

"We had taken the Government offer which does a full payout for the land so we had to negotiate with CERA, the earthquake authority, to get as much as we could," Locke said.

"We had seen people in Christchurch who made fast decisions about moving and we didn't want to do that. If we were going to build again we were going to do it right."

They took everything except the framing, wiring, gib board and wallpaper, piling it into a 40ft container which arrived at its future site at the Braemar Eco-Village in October.

"We were nomads for a long time," Locke said. "It took us the best part of two years to decide where we were going to live and find a section."

Moss said most subdivisions stipulate a certain size for houses, but the Braemar Eco-Village did not.

"[The house] has to be sympathetic with the space. Our recycled house fits with [the village's] ethos," he said.

The couple said the brief now is to reuse as much of the salvaged house as possible, although storm-struck timber from the Grampian hills will also be used in the roofing.

"It's like Lego. You pull the bits out of the box and make something different to what you did last time," Moss said.

Locke said the new 140 square foot, three bedroom house will be "fairly conventional, really".

"The architects have called it 'the keep house' I guess because we have built it from materials we've kept and because it's a house you would want to keep."

While they hope to have the house built by October next year, Locke said she and Moss know now that building a house attracts unexpected difficulties.

"We're not so focussed on the world being predictable anymore."