A little way back this Grey Lynn project was one of numerous terrace home schemes I was involved in for a prolific developer. In this case helping marketing and development/project management.
In a narrow deep terrace- where basically a garage +front door access determine the width module, light comes at a premium for the internal units.
In this project the living was put on the top level with clerestory windows along a vertical upstand wall (creating a sawtooth roof pattern) running the entire depth.
The result: Luminous luxury!
Uncategorized — Comments Off on This made my day! 25 Apr 24
“Andrew’s service was first rate. Prompt, detailed and it raised a whole lot of questions that I simply would not have known to ask. It’s not legal advice but to my mind is worth even more. A lawyer will give you the basics to protect your position but Andrew takes a complete view in terms of the long term impact on the home owner. If you are thinking of a new build or renovation, I could not recommend Andrew highly enough for his building contract review.” – Angus Ogilvie
Uncategorized — Comments Off on Mucking in – Grey Lynn! 25 Apr 24
I have one story about this 4 unit project off Richmond road in Grey Lynn – adjoining the previous one I posted about. Amongst my development management tasks, along with design mgt I was in charge of marketing the homes – i.e. giving the agent all the tools to seal the deal in pre-sales. So, we had a hard Saturday deadline for a launch date. I had a Portacom ordered to arrive on Friday morning for the display materials and we were going to create a little landscaped enclave out in front to make it all look good – a hill, some lawn, rocks, path etc. Landscaper booked for Friday arvo. Portacom arrived, I fit it out with all the marketing collateral.
Landscaper a no show.
Friday night, I was in a panic, I did not want to miss my deadline. So the flatty’s at the dungeon on Garfield, Parnell and I, after a few, decided f the landscaper, we would deliver before open home at 12pm.
7am Saturday, a bit dusty. All four of us jumped in the Holden Kingswood station wagon and headed south. First stop the trailer hire place, then the dirt and rock place, then the ready lawn place in Drury, then some outdoor furniture thrown on top.
Fully loaded golden holden back up the motorway thru Ponsonby and we started shoveling off the back of trailer, created a mound and laid ready lawn and some river rocks like André Le Nôtre (google it!).
Job done.
Agent turned up 3 minutes later, nailed the sales, no doubt ONLY because of our manicured front entrance.
Boss dropped off boxes of Heinys, to the dungeon, later that afternoon after he heard what had happened. No doubt, there were none left Sunday morning.
Gen Z into that do you think?
Uncategorized — Comments Off on Strategic Asset Mgt Plans 25 Apr 24
Just finished a comprehensive review of housing portfolio related Strategic Asset Management Plans and Asset Mgt Plans and their frameworks. Thanks for those who sent through examples. Keep’em coming as I like to extract the best bits, especially the practical actions over the theoretical rhetoric. This is all preparation for a client workshop (to nail these plans) we are holding for a community housing provider in a couple of weeks.
Part of the Xpect Insight delivery promise: we do our homework on our own time!
This project in South Auckland was pretty much ready set go when I got involved. 73 standalone homes arranged around two pocket parks, sold out. I only had two tasks, get the house builder underway and sort out a teeny weeny swale along the main road. Well the swale turned out to be a bit of a mission as it didn’t have adequate budget once council decided what we needed to build was more onerous than our original consultants infrastructure design.
The build was anything but a mission, it was a dream. Primarily because of the onsite house to house manufacture style employed by the main contractor. And a well drilled building and design team with spectacular programming of their subbies. The rolling production line delivered one home every three days, on time, every time.
The development manager (me) and the Engineer to the Contract had nothing really to do. Good learnings about productive building though.
