Toowoomba home wins best residential build between $500,000 to $750,000 at Master Builders Awards
A home with a secret kitchen and enormous ceilings has been declared the best new house in Australia for its price range. Check out the photos here:
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Someone walking through Colin Wilson’s home just outside Toowoomba will see all the architectural and design elements that helped crown it as Australia’s best new home for its price range — the massive ceilings, Croatian-inspired stonework, symmetrical his-and-hers ensuite with two toilets and even a hidden kitchen.
What they won’t see are all the personal challenges the Scottish-born builder, his partner Keira Pepper and their two kids Achilles and Harper had to overcome to complete “Callista” at Gowrie Junction earlier this year — including serious health concerns and (ironically) housing insecurity.
The stunning four-bedroom house overlooking the beautiful Darling Downs has taken home the best build award for $500,000-$750,000 at the 2024 National Excellence in Building and Construction Awards by Master Builders, after winning both the regional and state awards for the same category earlier this year.
Mr Wilson, who owns construction firm The Renew Company that specialises in renovations, designed and built Callista as the culmination of his and Ms Pepper’s ideas.
These features included ceilings tall enough to fit a real Christmas tree in, massive doors, a pantry that turns into a full hidden kitchen, energy-efficient walls, external elements like a pool and fire pit and the heavy use of glass to enhance natural lighting.
“When it comes to the point where you were gonna be planning to build, that’s when we really started bouncing ideas off one another and the trip to Croatia inspired us with the finish of the stonework and the shape of the ceilings and some of the structures over there,” Mr Wilson said.
“We combined a lot of trends that we liked and made it our own.
“The height (of ceilings) always gives a home that grand gesture and then, once we had got the floor plan and structure laid out, that is when we started piecing together our creative ideas like the curved wall at the pool.
“When we bought the lot we spent a lot of time here visualising and orienting the house to be facing the views (of Gowrie Mountain) and that was why we used all the glass here for the natural light and the views.
“When you open this front door, it’s a breath of fresh air with the views you see in front of you.”
A notable theme is Mr Wilson’s commitment to symmetry, right down to matching toilets for the couple’s enormous ensuite attached to the master bedroom.
“We used a lot of symmetry in this build as well, as you can see the left and right wings from the front are very symmetrical,” he said.
“This is where a lot of people laugh, but because everything is so symmetrical here, we’ve got two toilets.
“When I designed it, I realised ‘s--t, I’ve got to put two toilets in now’.”
But the one-year build was not trouble-free, especially after Ms Pepper’s health started to suffer due to a rare condition.
Mr Wilson said matters were further complicated when the landlord for their rental property last year asked them to move out ahead of time.
“It was quite mentally and physically challenging for both of us — Keira had a lot of surgeries and illnesses, she has a super-rare disease (that) nobody knows much about,” Mr Wilson said.
“Trying to run a business and build your own house (was tough) and we were renting previously and we got a notice that had to be out before Christmas, which put extra pressure on us to get this finished as well.
“I was working day and night just to get over the line at times.
“So there were a lot of factors playing into this that made it very challenging.”
But Mr Wilson said the struggles only made the couple’s three award wins all the more satisfying.
“This is the first home that we’ve built through the business – I designed and built it and I don’t think there are many people who have achieved that (with their first home) in the region as a builder,” he said.
“It makes me feel really good, it’s a good accomplishment and also considering I wasn’t expecting it.
“(We first one) the regional award, which was something I’d always dreamt of winning, and then the state and the national awards were mind-blowing.”
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Originally published as Toowoomba home wins best residential build between $500,000 to $750,000 at Master Builders Awards
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